Chapter 3 - THE FIRST 911 CALLDetective Monroe requested the county emergency logs.
The official record showed Lydia’s call at 12:49 a.m.
There was no earlier report.
Thomas remembered what Cassidy had whispered.
Wade brought the needle.
He asked Monroe to search surrounding jurisdictions.
Twenty minutes later, she found a call routed through a neighboring dispatch tower at 12:11 a.m.
The caller was Cassidy.
The recording began with frightened breathing.
“My husband shoved me. I’m pregnant. Please send someone.”
The dispatcher asked whether Grant was still inside.
“No. His friend is here.”
“What friend?”
“A deputy.”
The line went silent for seven seconds.
Then Mercer’s voice entered the background.
“Cassidy, put the phone down. I’ll handle this.”
The call ended.
The report was closed four minutes later as a domestic misunderstanding resolved on scene.
Mercer had entered the closure code.
Thomas listened twice.
“He knew she was injured.”
Monroe’s face hardened.
“He also prevented an ambulance from being sent.”
Deputies were dispatched to locate Mercer, but his cruiser had been found abandoned near a fishing access road. His uniform jacket and radio remained inside.
Grant’s truck was also missing.
At Cassidy’s house, investigators found blood on the basement steps, a broken railing, and two distinct sets of muddy boot prints.
One matched Grant’s work boots.
The other matched the tread issued to county deputies.
Lydia sat inside a police interview room with Thomas and a child specialist. She explained that Grant and Cassidy had argued near the kitchen.
“Daddy wanted Mommy’s phone.”
“What happened next?” the specialist asked.
“He pushed her.”
“Then what?”
“Mommy fell near the stairs.”
“Did Daddy leave?”
Lydia nodded.
“Then the policeman came.”
“Did Mommy know him?”
“She called him Wade.”
The deputy told Lydia to sit in her bedroom. Through the half-open door, she saw him kneel beside Cassidy and remove something from a black pouch.
“Did he help Mommy?”
Lydia shook her head.
“He made her cry.”
Thomas looked at the elephant.
“Sweetheart, why was Mercer looking at your toy?”
Lydia opened the fabric flap along its back.
Inside was a child’s voice recorder Thomas had given her for bedtime messages while he traveled.
“I pressed it when Mommy screamed.”
The recorder had continued running for thirty-seven minutes.
Monroe copied the file.
Grant’s voice came first.
“Give me the password, Cassidy.”
“No.”
“You’re destroying our family.”
“You stole from the ranch.”
A struggle followed.
Cassidy screamed.
Grant shouted her name, then the front door slammed.
Several minutes later, Mercer arrived.
His voice was calm.
“You should have signed.”
Cassidy answered weakly.
“Grant told you no.”
“He lost the right to decide.”
A case opened.
Cassidy asked what he was doing.
Mercer said:
“Making sure the transfer happens before the baby changes everything.”
The recording ended with Lydia calling Thomas.
Monroe looked at him.
“What changes when the baby is born?”
Thomas felt the answer forming before he wanted to believe it.
His late wife’s trust divided Cassidy’s ranch shares equally between her children after the birth of a second child. Grant’s temporary authority would shrink.
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The land sale had to happen before the baby arrived.
👉 Mercer was not merely covering for Grant—he was trying to beat the unborn child’s legal claim to the ranch.
