Chapter 6: Claire Fights Back
Noah slept in Lauren's arms on the sofa that night.
He had not cried when he saw her.
He had walked through the front door, stopped three feet away, looked at the cut above her eyebrow, and said, "I knew it was you." Then he had walked into her arms and stayed there.
Lauren did not sleep.
Ethan sat in the armchair across from them and watched her watching Noah and did not sleep either.
At six in the morning, Holt called.
Ethan took it in the kitchen.
"The recording is clear," Holt said.
"We've had a preliminary listen.
There's approximately eighteen minutes of conversation before the audio becomes unclear.
The content is — significant."
"Significant how?"
"Claire Morgan, in her own voice, references the estate account by name.
She references the Portugal property.
She tells your wife that if she pursues the legal route, she will make sure Lauren is described as unstable to anyone who will listen.
She uses the phrase—" Holt paused.
"She says, 'You'll spend the next two years being disbelieved, Lauren.
I know how to do that.
I've done it before.'"
Ethan sat down.
"She's done it before," he said.
"We're looking into that."
"What's she charged with now?"
"Unlawful imprisonment.
Fraud by false representation.
Obtaining property by deception.
We are also looking at the circumstances around Patricia Osei — specifically how Claire Morgan came to be her emergency contact and whether that relationship was genuine."
"Is she in custody?"
"She was released on bail at two this morning.
Her solicitor argued—"
"She's out."
"She has conditions.
She cannot contact you, your wife, or Noah.
She cannot leave the country.
Her passport has been surrendered."
Ethan looked at the kitchen table.
At the spot where the brown envelope had sat.
"She'll try something," he said.
"Mr.
Blake—"
"You don't know her.
I thought I did." He stopped.
"She'll try something."
He was right.
At ten forty-seven that morning, Lauren's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Lauren answered it on speaker with Ethan beside her.
"I need you to listen to me." Claire's voice was careful.
Composed.
"I know you're angry.
I understand that.
What I did was wrong and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.
But before this goes further, I need you to understand what you don't know yet."
"You're not supposed to contact me," Lauren said.
"I know.
I'm asking you to hear me out before you hang up."
Lauren looked at Ethan.
He nodded once.
"Talk," Lauren said.
"The account.
The money.
I took it, yes.
But I took it because Dad asked me to." A pause.
"He came to me six months before he d*ed.
He said he wanted to restructure the estate.
He said he didn't want the money going through probate.
He said he had reasons he didn't want to explain and he asked me to manage it privately.
I have documentation of that conversation.
I have a letter in his handwriting."
Lauren said nothing.
"I know how it looks," Claire said.
"I know what the recording sounds like.
But I was protecting what Dad asked me to protect.
Lauren, he had reasons.
There are things about Dad that you don't—"
"Stop," Lauren said.
"—things he never told you—"
"Claire.
Stop."
Silence.
"You locked me in a basement," Lauren said.
"You put a stranger in my coffin.
You let my son think I was d*ad.
You sat with my husband while he couldn't breathe." Her voice did not rise.
"Whatever Dad asked you to do, that's what you chose to do with it."
"I panicked," Claire said.
"I know that's not enough.
I panicked and I made choices I can't take back and I am asking you—"
"I'm hanging up now."
"Lauren, if this goes to trial, things will come out about Dad that will hurt you.
That will hurt Noah.
I'm trying to protect—"
"You're trying to protect yourself." Lauren ended the call.
The phone sat on the table between them.
Ethan called Holt.
"She called Lauren from an unknown number," he said.
"Bail condition violation."
A pause.
"We'll action that."
"She mentioned a letter.
She says their father asked her to manage the money privately.
She says she has documentation."
"We'll need to see it."
"She's going to use it," Ethan said.
"Whatever it says, she's going to use it."
"Mr.
Blake.
Whatever that letter contains, it does not authorize unlawful imprisonment.
It does not authorize fraud.
It does not authorize putting a stranger in a coffin." Holt's voice was steady.
"Let us do our job."
Ethan hung up.
Lauren was looking at the window.
"Do you think Dad asked her to?" he said.
She was quiet for a moment.
"I think," she said slowly, "that Claire is very good at making people believe they asked her to do things they never actually asked."
The front door rattled.
Both of them looked up.
It was the wind.
May you like
Just the wind.
But Lauren reached across the table and turned the deadbolt key herself, and left it there, in the lock.
