“Aaron,” she said, “tell them what you did.”

He stared at her.

“Go home.”

“No.”

Helen walked into the room and placed the envelope before Mara.

Inside were printed patrol logs, bank records, and a flash drive.

“I found these in our safe,” she said.

“Aaron’s patrol car was near the cabin before the crash and at the recovery scene two hours before he reported arriving.”

Aaron stood.

“You stole private records.”

“I copied records you planned to burn.”

Doyle moved toward her, but Mara’s officers blocked him.

Helen looked at me.

“Aaron came home that night with mud on his uniform.

He said Ben had made him choose between his family and yours.”

My legs weakened.

Lucy caught my hand.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“Because he said Doyle would take our home and send him away.

I was a coward.”

Aaron struck the table with his fist.

“I kept you safe!”

“You kept me frightened,” Helen replied.

He turned to me.

“Ben could have walked away.

I begged him.”

“You loosened the brake line.”

“Doyle ordered it.”

Doyle laughed once.

“Listen to him.

He’ll blame anyone now.”

Helen removed a tiny recorder from her coat.

“You blamed Doyle last night too,” she said.

“You said he ordered you to destroy the box and threaten Lucy.”

Aaron lunged for the recorder.

An officer caught his arm and forced him back against the wall.

“You recorded me in my own house?” he shouted.

“I finally listened to what you sounded like.”

Mara took the recorder.

“Chief Doyle, surrender your badge.”

Doyle reached toward his belt, then stopped as both state officers stepped closer.

He removed the badge and placed it on the table.

“This proves nothing,” he said.

“Aaron acted alone.”

Aaron looked at him.

“You promised you’d protect me.”

“I promised nothing.”

The door opened, and Grace hurried inside.

Her face was pale.

“Mom, there’s something you need to know.”

“What happened?”

“Emma called me.

Aaron contacted her the night Dad d!ed.”

Aaron shut his eyes.

Lucy tightened her grip on my hand.

“Why would he call Emma?”

Chapter 7: The Call Emma Could Not Answer

Emma sat in Mara’s office with her coat still buttoned.

At twenty, she was our second-oldest daughter; five years earlier, she had been fifteen.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

Her eyes dropped to the floor.

“Because Aaron told me Dad was confused.”

Aaron sat behind the glass partition in the adjoining interview room.

Two state officers stood beside him.

“What exactly did Aaron say?”

Emma twisted a tissue between her fingers.

“He said Dad might call and say frightening things.

He told me not to answer because officers were handling it.”

Grace crouched beside her.

“But Dad did call.”

Emma nodded.

“Three times.”

The sound that came out of me did not feel like my own.

Lucy put both arms around my waist.

“You let me believe there was nothing else.”

“I was scared, Mom.”

“Your father was trying to reach us.”

Emma started crying.

“I know.

I’ve heard his voicemail every night for five years.”

She unlocked her phone and opened an old audio file.

Ben’s breath came through the speaker.

“Emma, sweetheart, call your mother.

The car won’t stop properly.

Aaron was at the cabin, and I think he did something.

The boys are with me.

Tell your mother I love her.”

The message ended with Ben telling our sons to fasten their seat belts.

My knees folded.

Grace and Lucy lowered me into a chair.

“He knew,” I said.

“Ben knew, and I wasn’t there.”

Emma knelt in front of me.

“Please don’t hate me.”

I held her face between my hands.

“You were fifteen.

Aaron wore a badge, and you believed him.”

“I deleted the call from my phone after the memorial.”

“Then how do you still have it?” Mara asked.

“Aaron came to our house and checked my phone.

Before he arrived, I emailed the message to myself because Dad told me to call Mom.

I couldn’t erase his voice.”

I pulled Emma against me.

She cried into my shoulder while Lucy wrapped her arms around both of us.

“I should have protected you,” I whispered.

Emma shook her head.

“No, Mom.

He used me because I was a child.”

Mara entered the adjoining room carrying a speaker.

I followed her, leaving my daughters with Grace.

Aaron looked up.

“You shouldn’t be in here.”

“I want you to hear what Emma saved.”

Mara played Ben’s message.

Aaron’s shoulders dropped when his own name came through the speaker.

“You told a frightened girl not to answer her father.”

“I thought Ben was bluffing.”

“You knew my sons were in that car.”

“I tried to reach him.”

“You reached Emma instead.”

Aaron leaned toward me.

“Doyle said he would destroy my family if I refused.”