Chris stared.
“She used the D word?” he asked. “Elizabeth‘I have an infinite well of patience’Blackhawk said the word divorce and aimed it at us?”
He nodded.
“Oh, boy. She takes our marriages very seriously. She’d never throw that out unless she was about ready to go nuclear.”
Blackhawk was honest, since it was them talking about what had gone down.
“I didn’t like it,” Ethan stated. “I don’t like any of this!”
Yeah, well, join the club.
Because, again, he knew her best, Chris went there.
“She’s protecting everyone. Don’t take it personally. She’d never do it. She’s been on the receiving end of that.”
Ethan knew who that was for, and it was a well-landed barb, whether it was meant to be or not.
“Touché, Doctor.”
Chris let it go.
They were all fraying at the seams, and the last thing they needed was Ethan pissy over this. A fight between them would only make this a bigger clusterfuck.
Instead, he focused on Elizabeth, and what she would want him to do.
“I’ll handle her,” he said. “She’ll let me into the office when I tell her I have ID on the bones.”
Truthfully, they all knew he was probably the best person to do this. Chris had a way of soothing the savage beast—like Gene did with Ethan.
As the men headed out, Chrissy was to the point.
“Uh, are you guys going to be okay, too? That was…tense. You’d have to be dead to not feel the tension.”
They were all tired.
This was the proof.
“We’re good,” he said. “Couples have tense moments all of the time. We’re all struggling with how to help Elizabeth and keep her safe.”
If he said so.
Putting Charlie’s skull on a tray, he put a cover over it, and focused on the people in the room.
“Kill the research and delete the work you’ve done so far. We’re not leaving a paper trail,” he said again. “While we know what happened, no one else will. Tony, get the paperwork to a federal judge, and sign my name. I need Catherine and Charlie’s graves opened…”
But then he paused.
“On second thought, hold on with that. He might be watching the graves. That might give him a clue that we know. I’ll see what she wants to do. For all we know, he might want us to put them with us, and let the world think they are still in their graves—you know, in case another piece of shit tries this in the future.”
That was likely for the best.
So, Tony could do that.
Honestly, Tony wanted to mourn a little. He’d been there with Elizabeth the day Charlie had been buried. That had been a hellish day for both of them.
“Okay, Chris. I never thought you’d tell us to delete evidence,” he said. “This is a first.”
