Chapter 12 - Emily Was Worth More to Linda Than James KnewThe payments totaled almost $2,400 a month.
Some came from legitimate sources.
A military family support allotment James had arranged.
A small survivor-related benefit connected to Sarah.
Money specifically intended for Emily’s food, clothing, school needs, activities, transportation, and general care.
James had assumed it was being used for exactly that.
Instead, Emily slept on a basement mattress.
She wore old clothes.
She stopped attending school.
And she stole bread because she was hungry.
James sat at Thomas’s conference table studying the ledger.
“Where did the money go?”
The investigator pointed to several entries.
“Some transferred into a personal account controlled by Linda.”
“Some?”
“Some went to household purchases. Vehicle payments. Credit cards.”
James laughed without humor.
“So my daughter financed the people abusing her.”
Nobody answered.
Then the investigator showed him something else.
Cash deposits.
Regular.
Unexplained.
Five hundred.
A thousand.
Sometimes two thousand.
“Who gave her this?”
“We’re checking.”
James studied the dates.
Several aligned with parties Emily had mentioned.
The events where she was hidden downstairs.
“What kind of parties was Linda hosting?”
Thomas frowned.
“Could be unrelated.”
James remembered men carrying paperwork.
Bank representatives.
People asking who Emily was.
“She was meeting people about the house.”
The investigator nodded.
“Possibly.”
James’s phone rang.
Caleb.
James stared at the screen.
Then answered.
“What?”
Caleb sounded nervous.
“I need to talk.”
“Talk.”
“Not on the phone.”
“You don’t get to set terms.”
“Then Linda’s going to destroy everything.”
James went still.
“What everything?”
“The storage unit.”
James stood.
“Where is it?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Promise me something.”
“No.”
“I wasn’t the one who put Emily in that cage.”
“You stood there.”
“I know.”
“You laughed.”
Silence.
James remembered Caleb holding the hose.
Actually, Caleb had been the one spraying it.
His expression hardened.
“You sprayed water into the kennel.”
“My dad told me to.”
“You’re thirty-one years old.”
“I know.”
“You could have stopped.”
“I know!”
Caleb’s voice cracked.
James went quiet.
Caleb continued.
“I messed up. I know what I did. But you don’t understand my mother.”
“I understand enough.”
“No. You don’t.”
“Then explain.”
Caleb lowered his voice.
“She has files on everyone.”
James frowned.
“What kind?”
“Things she can use.”
“Against family?”
“Against anybody.”
James thought about Plan B.
“She prepared one for me.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Months.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew you’d come after her once you saw the accounts.”
James’s jaw tightened.
“So Emily was part of Plan B?”
Caleb didn’t answer.
“Caleb.”
“Yes.”
James closed his eyes.
“What was the plan?”
“If you came home and got angry, we were supposed to say you frightened Emily.”
James felt cold.
“What?”
“Mom wanted videos.”
“Videos of what?”
“You yelling.”
James gripped the table.
“And if I didn’t yell?”
“She said she’d make you.”
Thomas was watching him carefully.
James put the phone on speaker.
Caleb continued.
“She wanted to claim you came back mentally unstable. That Emily was afraid of you. Then she’d ask for emergency guardianship.”
James stared at the phone.
“And the kennel?”
“I swear that wasn’t part of it.”
“Then what was it?”
Caleb began crying.
“My dad started doing it when she disobeyed. Mom let him.”
James’s hand tightened.
“How long?”
“I don’t know. Months.”
“You lived there.”
“I stayed away.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I was scared of her too.”
James almost snapped back.
Then Caleb said something unexpected.
“She took money from me.”
James frowned.
“What?”
“My business failed last year. She offered to help. Then she put everything in her name.”
James stared.
“She controls you financially.”
“Yes.”
James understood Linda’s structure.
Money first.
Dependence second.
Fear third.
Then obedience.
It did not excuse Caleb.
But it explained the machinery.
“Storage address.”
Caleb gave it.
“Unit 218.”
“Combination?”
“Sarah.”
James froze.
“What?”
“The lock code is the year Sarah died.”
James felt disgust crawl through him.
Caleb’s voice dropped.
“You need to get there before Mom does.”
“Why?”
“She knows you found out.”
“How?”
“I told her.”
James stood.
“Why would you do that?”
“Because she said if the police take those boxes, we all go down.”
James heard a car engine through the phone.
“Where are you?”
“At the storage place.”
“Is Linda there?”
“No.”
Then Caleb stopped.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
A second engine.
A car door.
Caleb whispered:
May you like
“She just pulled in.”
The line went dead.
Related Stories
