Chapter 9 - UNCLE ROBERT
Police arrived at Robert’s home at dawn.
He was gone.
His bedroom looked untouched.
His suitcase remained in the closet.
But his medication, passport, and laptop were missing.
Detective Hale officially treated him as a person of interest.
Sarah felt as though every branch of Mark’s family tree was becoming dangerous.
Mark was devastated in a different way.
“Uncle Robert practically raised us after Mom died.”
Sarah looked at him.
“That may be exactly why Brenda trusted him.”
Mark shook his head.
“He taught me to drive.”
“He came to every graduation.”
“He held Noah at the hospital the day he was born.”
Sarah’s voice softened.
“I know.”
Mark closed his eyes.
“What kind of person smiles while holding a baby whose money he is planning to steal?”
Sarah thought of Brenda shaking Noah’s bottle.
“Apparently the same kind who believes money matters more than blood.”
Investigators traced Robert’s rental car to a gas station seventy miles north.
Security footage showed him meeting someone in a baseball cap.
That person’s face was hidden.
But Robert handed over a brown envelope.
Another camera captured the person’s vehicle.
It belonged to Thomas Avery.
The missing private investigator.
The discovery stunned everyone.
“If Avery is working with Robert, then William may have been betrayed from the beginning,” Mark said.
Detective Hale was not convinced.
“Or Avery is being forced.”
They traced the vehicle to a motel.
Police arrived.
The car was there.
The room was empty.
Inside, officers found bloodstained bandages.
A broken pair of glasses.
And Avery’s identification.
The motel clerk remembered a man matching Robert’s description.
He had checked into the room using cash.
A second person remained inside the vehicle.
The clerk believed that person was injured.
Sarah’s stomach twisted.
“Thomas Avery may still be alive.”
Hale nodded.
“And Robert may be moving him.”
“Why keep him alive?”
“Because Avery may know where the evidence is.”
That afternoon, Sarah received another anonymous message.
YOU SHOULD HAVE SIGNED THE PAPERS.
Attached was a photograph.
It showed Sarah standing inside the secure house.
Her location had been compromised.
They moved immediately.
While packing Noah’s clothes, Elena found something attached beneath the stroller.
A tiny tracking device.
Sarah stared at it.
“How long has that been there?”
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Mark’s expression darkened.
“Who has had access to the stroller?”
Sarah began listing people.
Elena.
Mark.
Sarah.
Brenda.
Robert.
Then Sarah remembered something else.
During William’s memorial gathering, Robert had carried the stroller outside.
He said Noah needed fresh air.
Sarah had thanked him.
Now she felt sick.
The tracking device was sent for examination.
Its purchase led to an electronics store.
Security video showed Robert buying three identical units.
Only one had been found.
“Where are the other two?” Sarah asked.
No one knew.
That night, Mark searched their belongings.
Nothing.
Elena searched hers.
Nothing.
Sarah checked Noah’s car seat.
Nothing.
Then Mark suddenly stopped.
“My father’s watch.”
Sarah frowned.
“What?”
“Robert gave me Dad’s watch after the funeral.”
Mark removed it from his wrist.
Detective Hale’s technician opened the back casing.
Inside was another tracker.
Mark stared at it in disbelief.
Robert had known where he was almost every hour since William’s funeral.
Then Sarah asked the obvious question.
“If Robert was tracking Mark and Noah, what was the third tracker attached to?”
Nobody answered.
The following morning, police found out.
The signal activated forty miles away.
May you like
It was moving.
And according to the device registration records, Robert had named it AVERY.
