Chapter 4 - Raymond Said Linda Invited Him
At the station, Raymond gave his explanation.
He wasn’t breaking in.
He wasn’t kidnapping anyone.
He was “meeting his granddaughter.”
Without permission.
While hiding beneath a deck.
The detective asked:
“Why were you under the house instead of ringing the doorbell?”
Raymond answered:
“Because Mark hates me.”
I wasn’t there for the interview, but I later read the report.
“Did Mark invite you?”
“No.”
“Did Ellie?”
“She’s four.”
“Then who did?”
Raymond waited.
Finally:
“Linda.”
Caroline’s mother.
My mother-in-law.
The woman Ellie called Nana.
The woman who babysat twice a month.
The woman who sat beside me during Caroline’s funeral and promised:
“We’ll protect her little girl together.”
Raymond claimed Linda had been speaking to him for almost eight months.
At first, only phone calls.
Then photographs of Ellie.
Then video clips.
Finally, Linda supposedly told him:
“Caroline is gone. Mark can’t keep punishing you forever.”
My hands shook when the detective told me.
Raymond also said Linda had given him the key because she wanted him to “feel close to Caroline again.”
That explanation did not explain the deck.
Or the glove.
Or why he waited until Ellie was outside without me.
May you like
There was still more.
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