Chapter 15 - Arrested
They arrested Grace in front of Noah.
That was the part I could not forgive.
He came running from the kitchen as the detective handcuffed her.
“No! Don’t take her!”
Grace dropped to her knees despite the officer holding her arm.
“Noah, look at me.”
He was crying too hard to answer.
“You are safe. Your dad is here.”
“Did you do something bad?”
Grace closed her eyes.
“I made mistakes. But I never hurt your mom.”
The detective pulled her up.
Noah screamed until the front door closed.
I held him for almost an hour.
After he finally fell asleep, Melissa and I drove to the police station.
Grace refused a public defender. Melissa arranged counsel.
The fingerprint evidence was real, but Grace had already admitted touching the repaired brake line with Emily. That explained the wrench only if the same tool had been used for the repair.
Grace said it had.
“The wrench disappeared afterward,” she told us through the glass. “Emily thought she left it in her car.”
“Eric had it,” I said.
“Then somebody planted it with him or he took it.”
I studied her face.
“Why didn’t you tell me everything on day one?”
“Because I came to your house to investigate your family. If I told you that before you trusted me, you would have fired me.”
“You’re right.”
“I know.”
She looked exhausted.
“But Noah changed everything. I stopped caring about the evidence more than I cared about him.”
Before I could respond, Melissa’s phone buzzed.
She read the message and stood abruptly.
“What?”
“Eric woke up.”
We reached the hospital forty minutes later.
Eric looked gray against the sheets.
I put the evidence bag photo in front of him.
“Why was the wrench in your storage unit?”
He stared at it.
Then he began to cry.
“I kept it because Dad told me to destroy it.”
“Did you cut Rebecca’s brakes?”
“No.”
“Victoria says she saw you.”
“She saw me holding the wrench.”
“Why?”
“Because I caught the person who cut the line the second time.”
My heart slammed.
“Who?”
May you like
Eric looked toward the door.
“Rebecca herself.”
