The Missing Woman
Chapter 09 - The Missing Woman
I called the police commissioner personally.
For once, my title mattered.
Within hours, Caroline Harper was officially listed as a missing person.
Richard's attorneys immediately issued a statement accusing me of using public resources for a private family dispute.
By noon, television trucks were outside my home.
By three o'clock, my face was everywhere.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S HUSBAND CLAIMS FAMILY CONSPIRACY.
I had spent my career controlling courtrooms.
Now I couldn't control my own front lawn.
Lucy watched through the curtains.
"Is this my fault?"
I knelt beside her.
"No."
"They weren't here before me."
"Lucy."
I waited until she looked at me.
"None of this is your fault."
She started crying.
"I should've waited for Mom."
My heart cracked.
"You waited three days."
"I thought she'd come back."
"So did I."
That night, my office placed me on voluntary administrative leave because Richard was becoming the subject of a criminal inquiry.
It was the correct decision.
It still hurt.
Richard had now taken my sister, my mother's company, and possibly my career.
But he wasn't getting Lucy.
The next morning, a woman called from a county detention center ninety miles away.
She identified herself as a public defender.
"We have a woman here named Caroline Hale."
I stood so fast my chair fell backward.
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
My knees nearly gave out.
"Why is she there?"
"She was arrested four days ago."
"For what?"
The attorney hesitated.
"An outstanding warrant for felony embezzlement."
I closed my eyes.
"There is no warrant."
"There is now."
Someone had reopened a nine-year-old case.
And the paperwork had been filed forty-eight hours before Caroline planned to go to the police.
Richard hadn't made my sister disappear.
May you like
He had done something smarter.
He had used the system I believed in to make sure no one believed her.
