Chapter 21 - EMILY’S ACCOUNTEmily’s interview happened over several sessions.
Not one bedside interrogation.
She described the first night.
Financial papers.
Argument.
She told Richard she was taking Noah to me and seeing an attorney.
Richard blocked the kitchen door.
She tried to leave through the garage.
He grabbed her wrist.
She slapped him.
He shoved her.
She hit the wall.
Then he said:
“You’re not taking my son.”
Noah was upstairs.
Richard took her phone.
She screamed.
Margaret arrived twenty minutes later.
Richard told his mother Emily was having a breakdown.
Emily said:
“Call Claire.”
Margaret did not.
Richard took Emily downstairs.
The hidden room already had a cot.
Why?
Patrick had been there for two nights weeks earlier before Richard moved him to H-17.
Emily realized that only when she saw scratches and a missing-person flyer torn in half behind the cot.
Richard locked the door.
He told her:
“Tomorrow you sign a statement saying the loan signatures were authorized and Patrick left after stealing from the company.”
She refused.
That was what he wanted.
Not money from her.
A cover story.
He held her because she knew too much.
When she still refused after three days, the fake death plan began.
Richard told her:
“No one is looking for a dead woman.”
Emily answered:
“Claire will.”
He said:
“Claire believes paperwork.”
May you like
That sentence hurt.
Because for a few days, I had.
Related Stories
