Claire refused to let Ethan confront anyone.

"That's how you destroy evidence."

They sat around the conference table in her office.

Maggie was beside him.

Detective Reed sat across from them.

Linda had been asked to come too.

Ethan hadn't told her why.

Claire placed copies of the Hale Property Solutions documents on the table.

"Douglas Hale approached Thomas Carter nine years ago."

Linda looked at Maggie.

"I remember that."

Ethan turned sharply.

"You do?"

Maggie frowned.

"I told Linda about the offer."

"Anything else?"

Linda shook her head.

"No."

Reed watched her.

"Did you ever meet Douglas Hale?"

"No."

"Richard Hale?"

"Obviously."

"Before he began dating Mrs. Carter?"

Linda hesitated.

Ethan saw it.

"Linda."

"I don't think so."

"That's not an answer."

"I may have seen him once."

"Where?"

"A fundraiser."

"What fundraiser?"

"The Riverton Historical Society."

Maggie looked confused.

"You never told me that."

"Because it didn't matter."

"When?"

"Years ago."

"Before Thomas died?"

Linda looked at the table.

"Yes."

Ethan stood.

"You knew Richard before Mom met him."

"I didn't know him."

"You recognized him."

"I wasn't sure."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because seeing a man at a fundraiser once isn't knowing him."

Reed intervened.

"Mr. Carter, sit down."

Ethan did.

Barely.

Claire redirected the conversation.

They had contacted Carol Meyers.

Carol agreed to speak by phone.

Her story changed the room.

She had met Richard eight years earlier.

He was charming.

Patient.

Helpful.

After six months, he began handling repairs around her home.

Then finances.

Then paperwork.

Carol eventually sold the house.

She insisted Richard had not forced her.

But when Claire asked whether Carol received the full proceeds, the woman began crying.

"I don't want to talk about this."

Claire softened her voice.

"Carol, did Richard take money from the sale?"

"I said I don't want to talk about it."

The call ended.

Susan Bell was harder to find.

Reed eventually located her living with her sister in Kentucky.

Susan refused to speak with police.

Two women.

Two homes.

Two relationships with Richard.

Neither willing to accuse him directly.

Maggie sat very still.

"I understand them."

Everyone looked at her.

She rubbed the faded bruises on her wrist.

"You keep thinking that if you explain it out loud, people will ask why you stayed."

Ethan's expression changed.

Maggie continued.

"So you don't explain."

Reed nodded.

"No one here is asking you why you stayed."

Maggie gave a tired smile.

"Maybe not out loud."

The meeting ended without enough evidence for the conclusion Ethan wanted.

But Reed had enough to keep investigating.

Vanessa was supposed to meet Claire at four.

She never arrived.

At four-fifteen, Claire called her.

No answer.

At four-thirty, Ethan tried.

Nothing.

At five, he received a text.

LAKEVIEW MOTOR LODGE. ROOM 18. COME ALONE.

Rachel read it over his shoulder.

"Absolutely not."

"I didn't ask."

"That's exactly why you're not going alone."

"It's Vanessa."

"Or Richard using her phone."

Ethan forwarded the message to Reed.

Reed told him to wait.

Ethan waited twelve minutes.

Then drove to Lakeview.

Rachel followed him in her own car.

Room 18 was unlocked.

Ethan pushed the door open.

"Vanessa?"

Empty.

The bedspread had been pulled halfway onto the floor.

A lamp lay on its side.

Rachel entered behind him.

"Don't touch anything."

"I know."

"You say that a lot right before touching something."

Ethan noticed a phone beneath the desk.

The screen was cracked.

Vanessa's.

He left it where it was and called Reed.

Police arrived twenty minutes later.

No blood.

No sign of a serious struggle.

Vanessa's car was gone.

Reed took the phone.

By midnight, technicians had recovered several recent audio files.

One had been created less than an hour before Ethan received the motel message.

Reed played it for Maggie, Ethan and Claire the following morning.

Richard's voice came first.

"Once Maggie signs, the Carter house is ours."

A woman's voice responded.

"She isn't going to sign."

"Then she'll be convinced."

"You're pushing too hard."

"You said you could handle her."

Ethan leaned closer to the speaker.

Something about the woman's voice bothered him.

Richard spoke again.

"You've had years."

The woman answered.

"I've done everything you asked."

Maggie's face changed.

Ethan looked at her.

"Mom?"

She shook her head.

Richard's voice continued.

"You got Thomas to trust you."

Ethan stopped breathing.

Then the woman said one final sentence.

"I never agreed to hurt Maggie."

Ethan knew that voice.

He had heard it at birthdays.

Christmas dinners.

His father's funeral.

He slowly turned.

Linda was standing in the doorway.

Her face had gone white.

The recording ended.

Nobody spoke.

Ethan stared at the woman his mother had called her best friend for twenty years.

"Linda?"

She began crying.