Chapter 3 - EMMA’S BACKPACK
Police found Emma at our house.
She was physically unharmed.
Caleb was gone.
He left her with his sister and disappeared before officers arrived.
My daughter came to the hospital the next morning.
She ran toward the bed, then stopped when she saw my casts.
“Mommy?”
“Come here.”
She climbed carefully beside me.
I held her.
For the first time in three weeks, I felt like I could breathe.
Then Emma whispered:
“Dad said you didn't want me.”
My entire body went cold.
“What?”
“He said you were going away.”
“No.”
I held her face.
“Emma, look at me. I will never voluntarily disappear from you.”
She started crying.
“I knew he was lying.”
“How?”
She pulled something from her backpack.
A small black device.
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Daddy put it under your car.”
My heart stopped.
Emma had been drawing with sidewalk chalk the afternoon of the crash.
She saw Caleb crouching beside my SUV.
He told her he was checking a tire.
But something fell from his pocket.
Emma picked it up later.
Caleb apparently never realized.
Detective Ortiz examined it.
Her expression changed.
“Don't touch it again.”
“What is it?”
“A vehicle diagnostic adapter.”
That alone proved nothing.
But forensic examination eventually revealed something much more important.
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The device had been used to access my SUV’s electronic systems.
And Caleb’s fingerprints were on it.
