Chapter 6 - WHAT GRANDMA DIANE ADMITTED
Diane arrived at the hospital that afternoon.
Hayes met her downstairs before she could reach Sarah’s floor.
She was sixty-two, silver-blonde, carefully dressed, and visibly offended that police wanted to speak to her.
“I’m her mother.”
Hayes answered, “That’s why we’re asking.”
Diane admitted telling Mason the twins had been born.
She denied giving him Sarah’s exact address.
“He already knew she was somewhere near Grand Junction.”
“How did he know that?”
Diane looked away.
Because she had mentioned the hospital system Sarah intended to use.
Because she told him Jenna had been driving west frequently.
Because she forwarded a photograph Sarah sent of Noah beside a cottonwood tree without realizing location information might be embedded in the image.
One small disclosure at a time.
None felt like betrayal while Diane was making it.
Together they created a map.
“I wanted them talking again,” Diane said. “Mason was desperate.”
Hayes asked whether desperate men were normally allowed to violate court orders.
Diane stiffened.
“Sarah exaggerated what happened in Denver.”
Jenna, hearing that later, walked out of the room rather than scream.
Sarah did not.
“Did you come to my house after I called you?”
Diane hesitated.
“Yes.”
The room changed.
“When?”
“The next morning.”
Noah looked up sharply.
“You were there?”
Diane had used the spare key.
She found Sarah feverish and confused.
The twins were crying.
Noah was asleep on the floor.
“Why didn’t you call an ambulance?” Sarah whispered.
Diane began crying.
“You told me not to.”
“I was delirious.”
“You kept saying Mason would find you.”
Diane decided to take Sarah’s phone because Mason was calling it repeatedly and she believed the calls were making Sarah panic.
She intended, she claimed, to return later after convincing Mason to leave the area.
“You took my phone?”
“I was trying to calm everything down.”
Sarah stared at her mother.
“You left a sick woman with three children and no phone because you wanted everybody calmer?”
Diane had no answer that made the decision smaller.
She also denied disconnecting the landline.
Hayes believed that part might be true.
May you like
Because traffic-camera records showed another vehicle on Sarah’s road several hours after Diane left.
Mason’s dark sedan.
