Chapter 6 - MARGARET’S MOTIVE
Margaret Brooks refused every question until her attorney learned children had been recovered.
Then she asked for a deal.
She claimed she took Ethan to Hollow Creek because David was unfit.
The divorce had left him unstable.
His work schedule was dangerous.
He planned to move Ethan out of state.
None was true.
The deeper motive involved David’s late father.
George Brooks left a trust worth twenty-two million dollars.
David believed Margaret controlled it for life.
The trust said otherwise.
If David retained custody of Ethan until the boy’s seventh birthday, control transferred to father and son jointly.
Ethan was six years and eleven months old.
Four weeks remained.
If Ethan disappeared permanently, Margaret retained control.
If Ethan appeared under another legal identity, she could argue abandonment and incapacity.
Hollow Creek offered more than abduction.
It offered documentation.
A false psychiatric record stating Ethan displayed severe identity confusion.
A hospital admission under the name Micah Reed.
A future guardianship transfer.
Margaret planned to send Ethan to a private family in another state after the birthday window passed.
She told herself he would be comfortable.
Educated.
Safe.
The word safe appeared throughout her emails.
People used it when they wanted control to sound compassionate.
David read the trust documents in Detective Monroe’s office.
“My father knew?”
“He suspected your mother might interfere.”
“Why didn’t he tell me?”
“He left instructions with the attorney.”
The attorney was Calvin Price.
Margaret’s current lawyer.
He never informed David.
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Instead, Price helped arrange Hollow Creek.
The trust money funded the operation designed to steal the beneficiary.
