Chapter 5 - Emily’s first statement
Emily spoke with a child-forensic interviewer the following morning.
I waited in another room.
Laura was still missing.
That made waiting almost impossible.
Emily said Warren had been “mad about Mom’s papers.”
What papers?
“Money stuff.”
Had she seen them?
Some.
What happened?
Mom and Warren argued in the kitchen.
Warren took Mom’s laptop.
Mom tried to take it back.
Emily told Warren:
“Give it to her.”
He told Emily to go outside.
She refused.
Then Warren carried black bags from the garage.
What was in them?
Emily did not know.
“He said trash.”
Mom said:
“You’re destroying evidence.”
That phrase.
Emily remembered it because she asked what evidence meant.
Warren told her:
“Nothing you need to know.”
Then Mom told Emily:
“Go to Mrs. Harris.”
Emily ran toward the side gate.
Warren caught her wrist.
Put her into the old dog enclosure.
Locked it.
Why?
Emily said:
“He said I needed to stay where he could see me.”
Did Warren hurt her?
“He squeezed.”
Anything else?
“No.”
Did he give her food or water?
There was already a bottle in the enclosure from garden work.
He did not deliberately deprive her for hours.
This was under an hour.
Still confinement.
Then:
Mom tried to open the gate.
Warren blocked her.
Mom shoved him.
He shoved back.
Mom hit the table.
Emily screamed.
Mom stood again.
Warren took her phone.
Then she saw him throw bags into the pool.
What happened next?
Warren made Mom go with him.
How?
Emily answered:
“He said he’d leave me locked if she didn’t.”
There.
Not a gun.
Not a knife.
May you like
A child in a cage used as leverage.
The phrase punched all the air from my lungs when I read it later.
