Chapter 2 - What Richard Wanted
Robert got Emma out of house.
Richard was detained after police arrived.
Emma was examined.
Her baby was stable.
She had bruising and exhaustion but no fracture or serious internal injury.
What happened upstairs was not minimized.
Richard had restrained her, frightened her, and forced her toward basement.
Whatever secret existed, it did not excuse him.
Emma refused to return to house.
Her husband, Daniel Vale, was in Seattle for work.
When Robert called, Daniel sounded stunned.
“My dad did what?”
Then Robert mentioned bracelet.
Silence.
“Daniel?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Did your father ever mention Emma’s birth?”
“No.”
Robert believed him.
At least for moment.
Police recovered basement objects.
The shoe and bracelet had been hidden inside wall cavity for decades.
Forensic examination showed dark mark on shoe was old blood.
Too degraded for immediate DNA result.
The bracelet was genuine St. Catherine Memorial Hospital issue from 2000.
That was where Emma had been born.
Robert remembered every detail of that night.
His late wife, Laura, went into labor early.
Complications followed.
Emma was born small but healthy enough.
Laura hemorrhaged badly.
Robert stayed with her while newborn was taken briefly for observation.
Three hours later a nurse returned Emma.
Robert never questioned identity.
There had been no reason.
Now a hospital bracelet somehow spent twenty-six years inside Richard Vale’s basement wall.
Why?
Emma finally explained what Richard had been demanding.
Three weeks earlier she received an envelope with no return address.
Inside:
a small brass key.
And a note:
YOUR MOTHER DID NOT DIE WITHOUT LEAVING YOU THE TRUTH.
Laura Carter died eight years earlier from cancer.
Nothing mysterious.
Before dying she told Emma almost nothing about St. Catherine.
Emma assumed note was cruel prank.
Then Richard saw key in her hand.
His face changed.
He demanded where it came from.
Emma refused.
He spent weeks trying to convince her it belonged to Vale family archive.
Earlier that evening he entered her bedroom searching.
Emma confronted him.
She hid key somewhere else.
Richard lost control.
“Where did you hide it?!”
That was what he wanted.
Not bracelet.
Not shoe.
A key.
Robert asked Emma:
“Where is it?”
She looked at him.
“I hid it in Dad’s old toolbox.”
Robert frowned.
“My toolbox?”
“In your garage.”
Richard could never have reached it.
That should have made Emma safe.
Instead, someone had broken into Robert’s garage thirty minutes before police arrived.
May you like
The toolbox was open.
The brass key was gone.
