Chapter 5 - Thirty-Seven Videos
The hospital room was too bright.
Emily hated that first.
Then she hated herself for caring about something so small.
A nurse brought water. Another staff member asked questions in a voice so calm it made everything feel more real.
Sarah sat beside the bed.
Ellie sat closest to the door with her green hoodie pulled over her hands.
Officer Ruiz arrived forty minutes later.
She did not open a notebook immediately.
She looked at Ellie.
“Your aunt told me you said there are more recordings.”
Ellie nodded.
“Where?”
“On the old phone.”
“Did anyone tell you to record?”
“No.”
“Why did you start?”
Ellie looked at Emily.
Her mother’s eyes filled.
“Because people kept saying Mom was clumsy.”
Nobody spoke.
Ellie unlocked the phone.
The cracked screen spidered across the top corner.
She opened a hidden folder with no name.
Thirty-seven video files.
Some were only seconds long.
Some had no picture, just audio from inside a pocket.
One showed Grant standing in the kitchen doorway, blocking Emily from leaving during an argument.
Another recorded Linda saying, “A wife who embarrasses her husband embarrasses herself.”
Another captured Grant demanding Emily transfer money from her savings.
Officer Ruiz stopped playback.
“How long have you been collecting these?”
“Since March.”
It was October.
Emily covered her face with one hand.
“I didn’t know,” she whispered.
Ellie’s voice trembled. “You always deleted stuff from your phone because he checked it.”
Sarah’s head snapped toward Emily.
“He checked your phone?”
Emily lowered her hand.
“Every night.”
“What else did he check?”
Emily didn’t answer.
That answer was enough.
Ruiz leaned forward.
“Emily, I need to ask about finances. Ellie’s video mentions money.”
Emily stared at the hospital blanket.
“I had fifty thousand dollars.”
Sarah frowned. “Had?”
Emily swallowed.
“It was in an account he didn’t know about.”
“Was?” Ruiz asked.
Emily looked up.
“Yesterday morning, I checked it. The balance was six dollars and fourteen cents.”
Sarah stood so fast her chair scraped the floor.
“What?”
Emily nodded toward Ellie’s phone.
“That’s why he put me in the shed. He thought I had moved it first.”
Officer Ruiz’s expression hardened.
“If you didn’t move it,” she said, “who did?”
Emily looked toward the door.
May you like
Because the answer had just walked into the hospital hallway.
Linda.
