Chapter 2 - THE PHONE UNDER THE COUCH
That sentence changed everything.
I put Emily in the passenger seat and locked the doors.
Michael walked toward us. “Arthur, you are kidnapping my wife.” Emily shouted from inside, “I’m leaving!” He ignored her. Her choice did not count.
Emily lowered the window two inches.
“I am not unstable.”
He smiled at her.
“Sweetheart, you’re confused.”
She recoiled at the word sweetheart.
I had heard men use tenderness as a weapon before.
Michael turned to me.
“She stopped her medication. She’s paranoid. She’s been making accusations.”
Emily stared at him.
“I don’t take psychiatric medication.”
Then Chief Brooks came through the front door.
“Arthur,” he said carefully. “Let’s not make this worse.”
I looked at him.
“Did you see her face?”
He glanced toward Emily.
“It’s a domestic matter.”
“No. A bruised woman is an injured person.”
Brooks lowered his voice.
“Take your daughter somewhere quiet. We can talk tomorrow.”
Michael smiled again.
There it was.
Delay.
Distance.
Time for powerful people to clean the room.
I held up Emily’s phone.
“This was recording.”
For the first time, Brooks looked worried.
Michael moved toward me.
“Give me that.”
“No.”
“It contains private conversations from my home.”
“It belongs to Emily.”
“Arthur.”
Brooks watched.
He knew the procedure.
Then Emily tapped on the truck window.
“Dad.”
I leaned closer.
She whispered, “There’s another copy.”
“Of the recording?”
“Of everything.”
“Where?”
Her eyes moved toward the mansion.
“In Michael’s office.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“What is everything?”
Emily looked at her husband standing twenty feet away.
“Proof he’s been planning to have me declared incompetent.”
May you like
Then she said:
“And proof Chief Brooks helped him.”
