Chapter 8: What He Did While We Were Meeting
Carol's attorney called back at two in the afternoon.
Her voice was different this time.
Tighter.
"Ruth Gabler's house was broken into this morning," she said.
"Between seven and nine a.m.
Her laptop is gone.
Two filing boxes from her home office are gone."
I was standing in the corridor outside Nora's room.
I put my hand against the wall.
"The USB drive," I said.
"Ruth gave me the drive four months ago.
What was taken this morning was a second copy she kept at home — she told me about it last week.
Whoever went in knew exactly where to look.
They didn't take her television.
They didn't take her jewelry.
They took the files."
"Is Ruth all right?"
"She wasn't home.
She's shaken but physically fine." A pause.
"Ellen, this changes the risk profile.
Hale is not going to wait for a legal process to play out.
He is actively trying to destroy the evidence."
"But you have the drive."
"We have the drive.
And the DA's office has a copy — I submitted it digitally when I filed the referral.
He can't erase what's already in their hands." Her voice steadied.
"But this tells us he's willing to go further than we thought.
I need all of you to be careful.
Nora especially."
I went back into the room.
Christopher was there.
Carol was there.
Nora was sitting up in the bed with Daisy against her chest, and she read my face before I said a word.
"What happened?" she said.
I told them.
Christopher stood up immediately.
"I'm calling our sons."
"Sit down," I said.
"Let me think."
"Ellen—"
"Sit down, Christopher.
Please."
He sat.
I turned to Carol.
"Can the DA's office move faster now?
The break-in — does that change anything?"
"I've already texted my attorney.
She's calling them now.
Tampering with evidence and intimidating a witness are separate charges.
This may actually accelerate things."
"Or it may take three more weeks," I said.
"Yes.
It may."
I looked at Nora.
She was watching me with that careful expression again — the one I was starting to understand meant she was frightened but had decided not to show it.
"You're not going home," I said to her.
"Not until this moves."
"I have an apartment—"
"You have a three-day-old baby and a man who just sent someone to steal files at seven in the morning.
You're not going home."
Nora was quiet for a moment.
"I don't want to impose on—"
"You're not imposing." I heard how certain my voice was and I let it stay that way.
"You're my daughter.
Both of you are coming home with us."
Christopher looked up.
Something in his face shifted — relief, I thought, and something older than relief.
Nora looked down at Daisy.
Her throat moved.
"Okay," she said softly.
Carol's phone buzzed.
She read the screen and looked up.
"The DA's office is issuing a preservation order for Hale's records," she said.
"And they want to speak with Nora and Ellen directly.
Tomorrow morning if possible."
"We'll be there," I said.
That evening, after Nora had been discharged and Daisy had been bundled into the car seat Christopher had driven home to retrieve, after Carol had followed us back to the house and sat at our kitchen table drinking tea while our youngest son Marcus drove in from two hours away to meet his — to meet Nora — after all of that, I stood at the kitchen sink and looked out at the backyard in the dark.
Christopher came and stood beside me.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I know I keep saying it."
"You do."
"I thought I was protecting you.
I know that's not an excuse."
"It's not an excuse," I said.
"But I understand it." I turned to look at him.
"Don't do it again.
Whatever comes next — don't decide for me."
"I won't," he said.
In the living room, I could hear our son's voice, low and warm, asking Nora questions.
I could hear her laughing once, surprised, at something he said.
I turned back to the window.
Hale still had his attorney and his resources and whatever else he was planning.
The investigation was real but it was slow.
Nothing was finished.
But Daisy was asleep in the portable crib in the guest room.
May you like
And Nora was laughing in my living room.
And for tonight, that was enough.
