Chapter 4: What Luke Had Promised Her
The officer left to make calls.
Camille stayed.
Eli hadn't moved from the edge of my bed.
I kept one hand on his back because I didn't know what else to do with the information he had just handed me.
Luke had spoken to Renata the week before my due date.
He had told her it was all arranged.
That everything was going to go the way she wanted.
He had helped design the hospital's newborn security system.
He had known exactly where the cameras had gaps.
Exactly which stairwell wasn't on the main rotation.
Exactly how to open a tampered ID clasp without triggering the alarm immediately.
He had packed the blue bag two days before I went into labor.
I pressed my hand harder against my incision and breathed through it.
A detective arrived twenty minutes later.
Her name was Solis.
She was compact and unhurried and she pulled a chair directly to my bedside without asking permission.
"I want to go through the timeline with you," she said.
"Not what happened today.
Before today.
How long have you known Luke?"
"Three years.
Married fourteen months ago."
"And his relationship with Renata Voss ended before you met him?"
"He said it ended two years before we got together.
She had a problem with dr*gs.
He said the courts terminated her rights because she failed three consecutive evaluations."
Solis wrote something down.
"Mrs.
Hartley, Renata Voss completed a residential treatment program eleven months ago.
She has been clean since.
She filed a petition to have her parental rights reinstated four months ago."
I stared at her.
"Luke never told me that."
"No.
He didn't." Solis set her pen down.
"We pulled his phone records from the last six months.
He and Renata have been in contact since her petition was filed.
Forty-one calls.
Sixty-three text messages."
"What did the messages say?"
"Most of them are about Eli.
About the petition.
About her chances." Solis paused.
"But there are eleven messages in the last three weeks that are about the baby.
About your daughter."
My throat tightened.
"What did they say about June?"
Solis looked at me steadily.
"Renata told Luke that if she couldn't get Eli back through the courts, she wanted something else.
She wanted a child she could raise without a legal fight.
She said she deserved a second chance." Solis picked up her pen again.
"Luke's response, in his own words, was: 'I'll make sure you get one.'"
The sound I made wasn't a word.
Camille put her hand on my arm.
"He was going to give her June," I said.
Not a question.
Just the sentence landing where it had to land.
"That's what the evidence suggests."
"And Renata — she was going to take her?
Knowing what he was doing to get her?"
"We don't yet know the full extent of what Renata knew or planned.
What we know is that she made that call to your phone.
Which means she knew the handoff had failed.
And she was trying to stop you from talking."
I looked at the door.
"Where is Luke right now?"
"In custody.
He's not going anywhere."
"And Renata?"
Solis's expression shifted.
Just slightly.
May you like
"We have a unit at her last known address.
She's not there."
