Chapter 3 - WHAT EMILY REMEMBERED
Emily woke late on Christmas morning to the rhythm of machines.
For several seconds she believed she was still inside the garage. The room was cold in her memory, and every breath seemed trapped behind the metal door. Then she saw Michael asleep in a chair beside the bed, his head tilted against the wall.
She tried to speak.
The effort woke him.
He stood so quickly the chair scraped the floor. "Hey. Don't move. You're safe."
Emily looked toward the oxygen line. Her eyes filled.
"He took it."
"I know."
"No. Before that. He changed it."
Michael took her hand carefully, avoiding the splinted fingers.
Emily explained that her symptoms worsened in October. She became dizzy even while sitting. Her clinic tested the concentrator and said its output was normal, but the machine they tested looked newer than the one in her bedroom. When she confronted Richard, he accused her of confusion caused by medication.
She began photographing serial numbers.
One night, she saw him carrying a concentrator into the garage. He told her it was a backup. Days later, her prescribed machine disappeared.
"Why didn't you call me?" Michael asked.
"I did. He answered your calls before I could. Then he told me you were tired of hearing about my illness."
Michael closed his eyes.
Richard had done the same in reverse. He told Michael that Emily rejected help, that she was becoming paranoid, and that frequent visits made her dependent. Michael believed enough of it to stay away.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Emily did not rush to comfort him. "You should be."
The honesty hurt, but he nodded.
Detective Bennett interviewed Emily after her doctor approved a short conversation. Emily described discovering a key taped beneath Richard's desk. It opened Northgate Storage. Inside, she found her phone, the surveillance system, and files from Alan Kessler.
She took photographs and copied documents onto a small memory card.
"Where is the card?" Bennett asked.
Emily looked toward Michael. "Inside Mom's Christmas angel."
Every year, Margaret's porcelain angel stood at the top of the tree. Richard claimed he hated the decoration but kept it because the children expected it.
Police returned to the house. The angel was gone.
The tree remained, but an empty wire hook hung at its top.
Richard had been in custody since the rescue. Someone else had removed it.
Security footage showed a woman entering through the back door at 2:13 a.m., using a valid access code. She wore a hood, but the camera captured part of her face.
Michael recognized her as Susan Vale, Emily's home-care nurse.
Susan had worked with Emily for six months. She adjusted medication, checked oxygen saturation, and often reassured the family that Richard was doing an admirable job.
Bennett located her vehicle at Boston Logan Airport. Susan had purchased a one-way ticket to Toronto under another name.
Airport police detained her before boarding.
The porcelain angel was in her carry-on bag.
The memory card was not.
Susan denied knowing about it. She claimed Richard asked her to retrieve the angel because it contained sentimental jewelry. When Bennett showed her the insurance policy and recalled concentrator records, Susan requested a lawyer.
Her silence did not last.
Faced with charges, she admitted receiving money from Richard to falsify home-care notes. She reported oxygen levels as stable even when Emily was struggling. She also switched the concentrators twice.
"Did he tell you why?" Bennett asked.
"He said she was exaggerating and he needed proof."
"Did you believe him?"
Susan cried. "At first."
"And later?"
"Later I needed the money."
The missing memory card had been removed before Susan reached the house. She found the angel already open, its felt base cut.
Someone else knew where Emily hid the evidence.
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Only three people had heard Emily mention the angel during the weeks before Christmas: Richard, Susan, and Dr. Paul Mercer, the family physician who had treated the Whitakers for twenty years.
Mercer was also the doctor who signed the medical approval for Emily's three-million-dollar life insurance policy.
