Chapter 2 - The Girl beneath the Green Water
The paramedics took Emily and Rachel to separate ambulances.
I rode with my daughter.
Police remained at the house with Mrs. Harris while divers entered the pool and officers searched every room.
Emily sat on the stretcher beneath a clean blanket. A medic examined the bruises around her wrists and ankles.
“Did someone tie you?”
She looked at me before answering.
“Jason used plastic straps when I kicked the cage.”
“How long were you inside?”
“I do not know.”
“Was it more than one night?”
She nodded.
“Did anyone give you water?”
“Mom did once.”
My chest tightened.
“Where is Mom now?”
Emily stared at the ambulance ceiling.
“I do not know.”
The medic asked whether she felt dizzy.
Emily said no.
Then she whispered:
“I lied.”
“What about?”
“I am dizzy.”
The medic adjusted the blood pressure cuff and began an intravenous line.
My daughter had learned to hide symptoms because showing weakness gave Jason more information.
At the hospital, doctors treated dehydration, bruising, a split lip, and an infection beginning beneath one wrist. No bones were broken.
That should have relieved me.
It did not.
A child can survive without fractures and still carry injuries no scan can measure.
Detective Mara Ellis arrived after midnight.
She had removed her jacket and rolled up her sleeves. Pool water had stained one side of her trousers.
I stood outside Emily’s room while a child advocate sat beside her.
“What did you find?”
Detective Ellis chose her words carefully.
“Rachel Moss is alive. She was sedated and submerged less than an hour before you arrived.”
“The other bag?”
“The remains are believed to be Lily Clark.”
Believed.
The word allowed for identification procedures.
It did not soften the truth.
“What were the other bags?”
“Clothing, phones, paper files sealed inside plastic containers, surveillance equipment, and chemical supplies.”
“Where is Sarah?”
“Not in the pool.”
“That was not my question.”
“We have not located her.”
The house contained signs of a struggle in the kitchen and main bedroom. Blood on the stair railing belonged to an adult woman. A bathroom cabinet held several empty medication bottles prescribed to Sarah.
Her car remained in the garage.
Her phone lay beneath a mattress.
The device had been smashed.
“Could she have left on foot?”
“Possibly.”
“Could Jason have taken her?”
“Possibly.”
“Could she have helped him?”
Detective Ellis did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
I leaned against the wall.
Sarah had accused me for months.
Jealous.
Controlling.
Unable to accept her marriage.
I had watched Emily become quieter and still allowed the court schedule to continue because I feared appearing vindictive.
Sarah might have been manipulated.
She also ignored our daughter’s fear.
Both facts could exist.
“What did Rachel say?”
“Very little. She lost consciousness again after reaching the emergency department.”
“Why did she go to the house?”
“She scheduled a welfare visit after Emily missed school. The school administrator says Rachel left Friday afternoon and never returned.”
“Why did nobody report her missing?”
“Her supervisor received an email saying she had a family emergency.”
“Was it sent by Rachel?”
“We do not know.”
Detective Ellis showed me a photograph from the backyard.
A small camera had been mounted inside the dog cage.
The lens faced the blanket.
“They recorded Emily?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“We are reviewing storage devices.”
“What was Jason trying to prove?”
“That depends on what the videos contain.”
I already knew enough to fear the answer.
For months, Sarah said Emily became aggressive whenever Jason enforced rules.
She claimed Emily screamed, threatened to run away, broke household objects, and accused adults of things that never happened.
I never saw that behavior at my house.
Sarah said children often showed different sides with different parents.
Now Jason had a camera inside the cage.
He could create fear and record the reaction.
“Was there a court filing?” I asked.
Detective Ellis studied me.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because Sarah told me last month that she was considering reducing my custody time.”
“There is an emergency petition.”
“When?”
“Filed Friday evening.”
The same day Emily stopped attending school.
The petition accused me of attempting to abduct Emily from school and of coaching her to make false statements about Jason.
It requested full temporary custody for Sarah and gave Jason authority to transport Emily to a residential assessment program.
My signature appeared on a document agreeing to the assessment.
I had never signed it.
“Which program?”
“Haven Ridge Youth Recovery.”
I knew the name.
Lily Clark disappeared after leaving Haven Ridge.
Her mother, Dana Clark, had spent two years insisting the program falsified records.
News reports described Dana as unstable because she interrupted hearings, accused judges, and refused psychiatric evaluations.
The same reports said Lily ran away voluntarily.
Now Lily had been found in Jason’s pool.
“Who represented Sarah?”
“Attorney Melissa Crane.”
“She represented Haven Ridge in the Clark case.”
Detective Ellis nodded.
“That is under review.”
A nurse approached and said Emily was asking for me.
Before entering, I asked one more question.
“Did you find the hidden recording Mrs. Harris mentioned?”
“What recording?”
“She said she heard Jason arguing with someone for weeks.”
“Mrs. Harris gave us a doorbell camera archive and several phone recordings.”
“Does Sarah appear?”
“Yes.”
“Doing what?”
“One video shows her trying to unlock the dog cage.”
Hope entered too quickly.
Then Detective Ellis continued.
“Another shows her helping Jason carry it behind the shed.”
The hope stopped.
Inside the room, Emily sat beneath white sheets holding a cup of water with both hands.
“Did they find Mom?”
“Not yet.”
“She tried to let me out.”
“I heard.”
“Then Jason came.”
“What happened?”
Emily looked toward the advocate.
“She can answer when she is ready,” the woman said.
Emily swallowed.
“Mom said she was sorry.”
“For what?”
“For signing the papers.”
“What papers?”
“The ones that said I wanted to leave with Jason.”
My chest tightened.
“Did you sign anything?”
“He held my hand.”
“Who?”
“Jason.”
“Where was Mom?”
“Watching.”
The advocate leaned closer.
“Did your mother say anything?”
Emily nodded.
“She said if I stopped fighting, Jason would not hurt anyone else.”
“Who else?”
“Rachel.”
Emily looked toward the wall.
May you like
“And the boy in the basement.”
Continue to the next part: Emily reveals that another child was hidden beneath the house before police arrived, but the basement is now empty.
