Chapter 5
The police arrived twenty-three minutes later.
Two patrol cars.
Then an unmarked vehicle.
Then a detective.
By ten-thirty, my mother’s birthday dinner had become a crime scene interview.
Detective Elena Ruiz sat at our dining table with Lauren’s phone sealed in an evidence bag.
She spoke calmly.
Too calmly.
The kind of calm that made everything feel more serious.
“Mr. Bennett, I need to separate what we know from what we suspect.”
I nodded.
Sophie sat upstairs with my mother.
Daniel had taken Jason into the den.
Lauren sat at the other end of the table with a patrol officer beside her.
She had asked three times whether she needed a lawyer.
Detective Ruiz had given the same answer every time.
“That’s your choice.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“Your first wife’s death was ruled accidental in 2022.”
“Yes.”
“Were you aware of any threats against her?”
“No.”
“Did she ever mention being followed?”
I thought back.
Four years was a long time.
And suddenly every forgotten detail felt dangerous.
“She complained once about a dark SUV.”
Ruiz’s pen stopped.
“When?”
“A few weeks before she died.”
“What did she say?”
I closed my eyes.
We had been brushing our teeth.
Rachel had laughed about someone driving behind her for several turns.
She thought she was being paranoid.
I had joked that every gray SUV in Seattle looked the same.
My stomach twisted.
“She said she thought the same car had followed her home twice.”
Ruiz wrote it down.
“Did you report that after her death?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I forgot.”
The shame came immediately.
“I forgot.”
Ruiz looked up.
“You were grieving.”
“It could have mattered.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
But I did know one thing.
Rachel had told me she was frightened.
And I had forgotten.
Ruiz turned toward Lauren.
“Mrs. Bennett, I’m going to ask you again. Do you have access to the video David allegedly sent?”
Lauren shook her head.
“It was through a disappearing-message app.”
“Do you know his current address?”
“No.”
“Phone number?”
“It changes.”
“Vehicle?”
“Black Ford Explorer.”
My chest tightened.
Rachel had described a dark SUV.
Ruiz saw my face.
“Mr. Bennett?”
I told her.
She wrote again.
Lauren started crying.
“I didn’t know.”
Ruiz turned toward her.
“You’ve said that repeatedly.”
“Because it’s true.”
“You also made multiple payments to a man you believed may have been involved in a homicide.”
“I believed he might be lying.”
“Yet you paid him.”
“He threatened me.”
“With releasing intimate images?”
“Yes.”
Ruiz’s expression didn’t change.
“And anything else?”
Lauren hesitated.
The detective noticed.
“So there was something else.”
Lauren looked at me.
Then away.
“He said he would tell Mark how we met.”
I frowned.
Ruiz asked, “How did you meet?”
“At a grief support fundraiser.”
I stared at Lauren.
That was what she had always told me.
A charity event for families who had lost spouses.
She had approached me near the coffee table.
Said she recognized my name from community work.
We talked for twenty minutes.
She called two weeks later.
Except now I knew she had known who I was years earlier.
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Mrs. Bennett, did you deliberately arrange to meet Mr. Bennett?”
Lauren remained silent.
“Lauren,” I said.
Her shoulders sagged.
“Yes.”
The word hurt more than I expected.
Maybe because part of our marriage had survived the jewelry.
Even the lies.
Some stupid part of me had still been holding onto our beginning.
The accidental meeting.
The coffee.
The gentle conversations.
The first time she made me laugh without guilt after Rachel’s death.
Gone.
“You targeted me.”
“No.”
“You just said you arranged it.”
“I wanted to meet you.”
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Rachel had died.”
“Yes.”
“You knew your ex had stalked us.”
“I didn’t know he caused the crash!”
Ruiz lifted a hand.
“Let him finish.”
I looked at Lauren.
“When did you decide you wanted to meet me?”
“After Rachel died.”
“How long after?”
She whispered, “About ten months.”
I stood and walked away from the table.
I couldn’t sit near her.
Ruiz waited.
I turned back.
“Did you watch me?”
“No.”
“Follow me?”
“No.”
“Search me online?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Mark…”
“How much?”
Her face crumpled.
“Everything.”
My stomach turned.
My workplace.
My daughter.
My wife’s obituary.
Our charity.
Our friends.
Our life.
She had researched grief like an entrance exam.
Ruiz asked, “Did Mr. Knox know you eventually married Mr. Bennett?”
Lauren nodded.
“When did he find out?”
“Seven months ago.”
“And that’s when the blackmail began?”
“Yes.”
Ruiz stared at her for a long moment.
“Convenient.”
Lauren straightened.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means your story places responsibility for almost everything on a man we cannot currently locate.”
“That doesn’t make it false.”
“No.”
Ruiz looked at me.
“We’re going to attempt to recover deleted data. We’ll also request the original collision file, traffic-camera archives if any were retained, and financial records.”
“Can you reopen Rachel’s case?”
“I can’t promise that tonight.”
“But if the video exists?”
“If it exists and authenticates, that changes things.”
A knock came from the doorway.
Another officer stepped inside.
“Detective?”
He handed Ruiz a printed page.
She read it.
Her eyes shifted toward Lauren.
“What?”
Ruiz set the paper down.
“Officers checked the location associated with the phone number that contacted you tonight.”
Lauren leaned forward.
“And?”
“It’s a prepaid phone.”
“I told you.”
“But the last cell tower hit places it less than two miles from this residence.”
Every hair on my arms lifted.
I looked toward the dark windows.
Ruiz stood immediately.
“Keep everyone inside.”
Two officers moved toward the front door.
I thought of the message.
Bring the rest or I come to the house.
“Could he be outside?”
“We don’t know.”
Sophie.
I ran toward the stairs.
Ruiz called my name, but I was already moving.
I reached Sophie’s room.
Empty.
“Mom?”
My mother came out of the guest room.
“What?”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“She was in her room.”
She wasn’t.
The bathroom was empty.
The upstairs office was empty.
I shouted her name.
No answer.
Then I saw her bedroom window.
Open.
Rain blew through the screen.
My heart stopped.
I rushed over.
The roof outside the window was empty.
“SOPHIE!”
My mother screamed downstairs for the police.
I turned toward the bed.
Sophie’s phone was gone.
Her sneakers were gone.
On her desk was a piece of paper.
Four words.
I went to fix it.
I grabbed the note.
“No.”
I ran downstairs.
“Her phone!”
Ruiz was already pulling out equipment.
“Do you track it?”
“Yes.”
My hands were shaking so hard I entered the wrong password twice.
Finally, the family-location app opened.
A blue dot appeared.
Half a mile away.
Moving.
“She’s moving.”
Ruiz spoke into her radio.
I stared at the map.
The dot traveled down the road toward the old elementary school.
Then stopped.
Daniel ran in.
“What happened?”
“Sophie left.”
“Why?”
I showed him the note.
Jason stepped from the den.
His face changed.
“She heard us talking.”
I looked at him.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“What did you say?”
Jason swallowed.
“I mentioned David’s meeting place.”
My blood froze.
“Where?”
“An abandoned gas station near the interstate.”
Ruiz turned.
“Address.”
Jason gave it.
The location was less than three miles away.
Sophie’s blue dot started moving again.
Toward it.
I headed for the front door.
Ruiz stopped me.
“You are not going alone.”
“That’s my daughter.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Mr. Bennett, if David Knox is there and he believes he’s cornered, you running in could get your daughter hurt.”
I hated her for being right.
Then Lauren suddenly stood.
“He won’t hurt Sophie.”
Every face turned toward her.
I stared.
“How do you know?”
She realized the mistake instantly.
Ruiz took one step closer.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
Lauren’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Ruiz’s voice became cold.
“How do you know David Knox will not hurt Sophie?”
Lauren started shaking.
“Because…”
“Because what?”
Lauren looked at me.
May you like
And whispered,
“Because Sophie is the reason he did all of this.”
