Chapter 5
By eight the next morning, we were at the police station.
Lily stayed with my sister, Jennifer.
For the first time in years, I checked the lock on our front door three times before leaving.
Linda was in custody.
I knew that.
But fear wasn’t logical anymore.
Fear looked like every familiar room suddenly hiding something.
Officer Daniels met us in a small interview room.
A detective sat beside him.
Detective Maria Alvarez.
She was in her forties, calm, direct, and careful with every word.
“We spoke with Emily early this morning,” she said.
Ryan nodded.
His face looked gray.
“She told you about the basement?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Detective Alvarez folded her hands.
“We obtained authorization to continue searching.”
I leaned forward.
“What did you find?”
She looked at Ryan first.
Then me.
“A locked cabinet.”
Ryan swallowed.
“Inside?”
“Video tapes.”
My skin went cold.
“What kind of video tapes?”
“Old home recordings.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed.
“Of what?”
“We’re reviewing them.”
“No. You already saw something.”
The detective remained still.
“Ryan—”
“You wouldn’t have called us here if you found vacation videos.”
He was right.
Detective Alvarez exhaled.
“We found recordings that appear to document punishments.”
My stomach turned.
“Punishments of children?”
“Yes.”
Ryan stood.
I grabbed his wrist.
He didn’t seem to notice.
“Which children?”
“We’re identifying them.”
“Was Emily in them?”
“Yes.”
Ryan pulled away and walked to the corner.
He pressed his forehead against the wall.
I watched his shoulders shake.
“Was Lily?” I asked.
Detective Alvarez didn’t answer quickly enough.
I stopped breathing.
“Was my daughter on one of those tapes?”
“There are newer digital recordings as well.”
My chair scraped backward.
“What?”
Officer Daniels raised his hand gently.
“Mrs. Carter—”
“She recorded Lily?”
“Yes.”
The room spun.
I sat again.
“What happened in the recording?”
“We are not going to show it to you.”
“Tell me.”
“It may be better—”
“Tell me.”
Detective Alvarez looked directly at me.
“Linda placed Lily in a small utility closet for approximately nineteen minutes.”
Nineteen.
Not two.
Not five.
Nineteen minutes.
“What did Lily do?”
“Mostly cried.”
I covered my mouth.
Ryan turned away from the wall.
“Did Mom talk to her?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
The detective hesitated.
Ryan’s voice cracked.
“What did she say to my daughter?”
“She told Lily crying was manipulation.”
I shut my eyes.
“She told her good girls didn’t embarrass adults.”
My jaw tightened.
“And?”
“She repeatedly told Lily that if she talked about the punishment, you and Ryan would fight because Sarah would blame Ryan.”
I felt sick.
“She planned that.”
Detective Alvarez nodded.
“It appears deliberate.”
Ryan sat heavily.
“Why record it?”
“We don’t know.”
But I saw something in the detective’s face.
There was more.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
She glanced at Officer Daniels.
Then back at me.
“There are several recordings.”
“How many?”
“Of Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Six.”
My eyes burned.
“Six?”
Ryan whispered,
“When?”
“Over the past year.”
I stood.
I couldn’t sit anymore.
“What did she do?”
“Sarah,” Ryan said weakly.
“No. I need to know.”
Detective Alvarez spoke carefully.
“Nothing we have reviewed indicates severe physical injury. The behavior is primarily coercive confinement, intimidation, forced exposure to cold water, and threats.”
Forced exposure.
The pool.
The bathtub.
Lily had told us Grandma put her head underwater.
I gripped the back of the chair.
“Why didn’t she tell us?”
Detective Alvarez’s voice softened.
“Because adults who frighten children often work very hard to convince them that telling will make things worse.”
I looked down.
I remembered Lily asking if Ryan and I were mad at each other.
Linda had built the perfect prison.
Not with locks.
With guilt.
Ryan suddenly asked,
“Who are the other three girls?”
The detective opened a folder.
“One is Emily.”
He closed his eyes.
“One appears to be a girl named Rachel.”
Ryan looked up.
“Rachel?”
“You recognize the name?”
“My cousin.”
“How old is she now?”
“Thirty-nine.”
“Do you know where she lives?”
“Arizona, I think.”
Detective Alvarez made a note.
“And the fourth name?”
Ryan asked.
The detective paused.
“Anna.”
Ryan frowned.
“I don’t know an Anna.”
I did.
Not personally.
But I had heard the name.
“Wasn’t Anna the neighbor’s daughter?”
Ryan looked at me.
“What?”
“Linda told me a story once. A girl who lived next door when you were young. She said Anna was always at your house.”
Ryan stared into space.
Then recognition hit him.
“Anna Becker.”
Detective Alvarez wrote it down.
“You remember her?”
“Barely. She was Emily’s friend.”
“What happened to her?”
“I don’t know.”
His brow furrowed.
“She moved.”
“When?”
“I was maybe seventeen.”
The detective asked,
“Do you know where?”
“No.”
I remembered something else.
“Linda hated her.”
Ryan turned.
“She did?”
“She mentioned her once. Years ago. She said Anna was a liar.”
Detective Alvarez’s pen stopped.
“What exactly did she say?”
I thought back.
It had been during Christmas.
Linda was complaining about children who made false accusations against adults.
She mentioned “that Becker girl.”
“I think she said Anna tried to ruin a family.”
The detective and Officer Daniels exchanged a look.
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
Detective Alvarez answered.
“We found several recordings involving Anna.”
Ryan’s face went white.
“What did Mom do?”
“We’re still reviewing them.”
“Was she hurt?”
The detective paused.
“Yes.”
Ryan’s hand closed into a fist.
“How badly?”
“She appears to have been physically restrained on multiple occasions.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
“We don’t know.”
Ryan whispered,
“Where is she now?”
“We’re trying to locate her.”
He nodded.
Then his phone rang.
Emily.
He looked at the detective.
“Can I?”
“Please.”
Ryan answered.
“Hey.”
Emily didn’t say hello.
“Did they find the tapes?”
Ryan shut his eyes.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“They found yours.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
“Did you know she still had them?”
“No.”
Ryan swallowed.
“They found recordings of Lily.”
Emily started crying.
I could hear it from across the table.
Ryan said,
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The detective looked down.
This was not a police question anymore.
This was a brother begging his sister.
Emily answered after a long time.
“Because when I tried, nobody believed me.”
Ryan froze.
“Who did you tell?”
“Dad.”
Ryan’s face changed.
Their father, Thomas, had died seven years earlier.
“What?”
“I told Dad.”
“When?”
“I was ten.”
“And what did he do?”
“He asked Mom.”
Ryan laughed once, bitterly.
“That’s it?”
“She told him I was angry because she punished me for stealing.”
“Did you steal?”
“No.”
“Then why didn’t Dad believe you?”
Emily’s voice became small.
“Because believing me would have required him to do something.”
The sentence filled the room.
Ryan looked destroyed.
“He knew?”
“He knew enough.”
My husband stared at nothing.
For years he had worshiped his father.
Thomas was the calm parent.
The nice parent.
The one who bought baseball gloves and made pancakes.
But calm could also be cowardice.
Nice could also mean looking away.
Emily continued.
“I tried to tell Aunt Carol too.”
“Mom’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She told me every mother loses her temper.”
Ryan rubbed his face.
“Jesus.”
“After that I stopped telling.”
Detective Alvarez quietly asked,
“Emily, may I ask you something?”
Ryan put the phone on speaker.
Emily agreed.
“Did Anna Becker ever tell you Linda hurt her?”
Silence.
Then,
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said my mother locked her in the basement.”
Ryan looked sick.
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened after she told someone?”
Emily’s breathing changed.
“She disappeared.”
The room became perfectly still.
Detective Alvarez leaned forward.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“Her family moved.”
“Do you know why?”
“No.”
“Did you speak with Anna before she left?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Emily hesitated.
“She came to school crying.”
My mouth went dry.
“She said she had told her mother everything.”
“And?”
“She said her mother believed her.”
Detective Alvarez nodded.
“That’s good.”
“No.”
Emily’s voice shook.
“It wasn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Anna said her mother was going to confront Linda.”
Ryan stared at the phone.
“When?”
“The night before they moved.”
The detective’s face sharpened.
“What happened that night?”
“I don’t know. My mother wouldn’t let me leave the house.”
“Did you hear anything?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
Emily began crying again.
“Someone screaming in the backyard.”
Ryan whispered,
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was it Anna?”
“I don’t know.”
“Her mother?”
“I don’t know!”
Emily sobbed.
“I was nine years old!”
Ryan flinched.
“I’m sorry.”
Then Emily said something that silenced everyone.
“The next morning, Anna’s house was empty.”
Detective Alvarez stared at her notes.
“Did Linda ever mention the Beckers again?”
“Once.”
“What did she say?”
Emily’s answer came slowly.
“She said some families know when it’s time to leave.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Officer Daniels’ radio sounded outside the room.
He stepped out.
A minute later, he returned with a strange expression.
Detective Alvarez looked at him.
“What?”
He walked over and whispered something in her ear.
Her face changed.
I hated that look.
I was beginning to recognize it.
It meant another piece of our family history had just become darker.
“What happened?” I asked.
Detective Alvarez closed the folder.
“Officers located property records for the Becker family.”
“And?”
“They did move.”
Ryan nodded.
“So Emily remembered correctly.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
The detective looked at him.
“Three days after Anna allegedly told her mother.”
I felt a cold pressure in my chest.
“Where did they go?”
“That’s the problem.”
“What problem?”
“No forwarding address.”
Ryan frowned.
“So?”
“So the father later surfaced in Nevada.”
“And Anna?”
“No confirmed records.”
I gripped the chair.
“Her mother?”
Detective Alvarez shook her head.
“No confirmed records for her either.”
Ryan stared.
“You’re saying Anna and her mother disappeared?”
“We’re saying we don’t know what happened to them.”
Then Officer Daniels added quietly,
“But we found something else in Linda’s basement.”
My pulse jumped.
“What?”
“A suitcase.”
Ryan looked confused.
“Whose?”
May you like
Officer Daniels swallowed.
“The initials on it are A.B.”
