Chapter 5 - THE TAPE EVERYONE WANTED
Dr. Samuel Price was found at Portland International Airport using a false passport.
The black briefcase was not with him.
He refused to speak.
Helen was detained for evidence tampering.
Emily watched officers escort her mother away from the hospital.
Helen looked back once.
Emily did not wave.
The next morning, Robert was formally charged with assaulting Emily in the trauma room.
The larger investigation continued.
His attorney, Charles Dane, appeared on television and called the charges “a coordinated attack on a respected child advocate.”
Former patients began contacting police.
Some defended Robert.
Others described years of abuse.
A woman named Lisa Kerr said she spent three days strapped to a bed at Whitaker House when she was thirteen.
A man named Owen Price said Robert forced him to write false confessions.
A mother admitted paying Robert to make her son “compliant.”
The public story cracked.
But Robert still held power.
Board members at Whitaker House destroyed emails.
A judge ordered certain records sealed.
Two officers were accused of warning Robert about warrants.
Detective Nolan told Emily the truth.
“This case may get uglier before it gets better.”
Emily looked at her scans.
“It already did.”
Dr. Grant became Emily’s temporary medical advocate.
A hospital social worker arranged protective placement with Emily’s aunt, Nora Whitaker, Robert’s younger sister.
Emily barely knew her.
Nora had been cut off from the family years earlier.
She arrived at the hospital wearing jeans, no makeup, and an expression of restrained fury.
“I should have come sooner,” she said.
Emily studied her.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Your father made sure I couldn’t.”
Nora explained that she had reported Robert twenty years earlier after witnessing him restrain a patient at Whitaker House.
The complaint disappeared.
Robert obtained a restraining order claiming Nora was unstable.
Their parents sided with him.
“I stopped fighting,” Nora said. “That is the part I regret.”
Emily appreciated the honesty.
No excuses.
No claim of helplessness.
Just regret.
Brittany refused Nora’s offer to stay with them.
She went to a supervised crisis center.
Emily understood.
Brittany was not ready to be anyone’s sister.
That afternoon, Nolan brought news.
Rachel Moore’s body had not been found.
But DNA from the bloodstained shirt matched her.
Evelyn Hart agreed to talk.
She claimed Rachel survived the night she disappeared.
According to Evelyn, Robert transferred her to an unlicensed facility in Idaho.
“Is she alive?” Emily asked.
“We do not know.”
“What facility?”
“Evelyn says she never knew the name.”
Nora snorted.
“She knew.”
Nolan agreed.
Evelyn wanted immunity.
The prosecutor refused.
Then Evelyn offered something else.
The location of the E-16 tape.
She said Dr. Price never received it.
Helen gave the briefcase to someone else.
“Who?” Emily asked.
“Brittany.”
Emily stared.
Brittany had lied again.
Nolan searched the crisis center.
Brittany was gone.
Her room window was open.
A note lay on the bed.
I have to finish what Rachel started.
Security footage showed Brittany leaving with a black briefcase.
She boarded a bus headed east.
Nolan traced her phone to a small Oregon town near the Idaho border.
Then the signal vanished.
Emily insisted on leaving the hospital.
Dr. Grant refused.
“You have a skull injury.”
“My sister has evidence.”
“Police are looking for her.”
“She does not trust police.”
“She trusts you?”
Emily thought about it.
“She wants to.”
Nora stepped in.
“I can take her if you medically clear her.”
Dr. Grant looked between them.
“This is not a movie. She cannot chase a bus with a concussion.”
Emily said, “Then bring Brittany to me.”
Nolan’s team found the bus abandoned at a rest stop.
No passengers.
The driver was unconscious.
The black briefcase was on the floor.
Empty.
A security camera captured Brittany being forced into a gray SUV.
The driver’s face was not visible.
But the passenger was.
Dr. Samuel Price.
He had been released on bail three hours earlier.
Then Nolan received a message from Brittany’s phone.
A video opened.
Brittany sat tied to a chair.
Dr. Price stood behind her.
He held the E-16 tape.
“Robert wants his daughter to understand something,” he said.
He inserted the tape into a player.
A child’s scream filled the video.
Emily recognized her own voice.
Then another voice spoke.
May you like
Helen’s.
“Again,” her mother said.
