Chapter 10 - What Linda Had Asked Him to Do
Erin watched the recording in the prosecutor’s office.
The motel office appeared empty at first.
Then Frank entered, moving quickly toward the desk. Linda followed in the blue blouse she later wore at the hospital.
A dark smear marked one sleeve.
Garage grease.
Rebecca stood behind the counter.
Frank demanded the previous night’s footage.
Rebecca asked why.
“You know why,” he said. “She recorded us.”
Linda interrupted.
“Delete anything showing Erin’s car.”
Rebecca asked where Erin was.
Frank answered, “Hospital.”
“What happened?”
He looked toward Linda.
“She wouldn’t give me the phone.”
Linda’s voice came through clearly.
“I told you to scare her until she deleted it. I did not tell you to crack her skull.”
Frank struck the counter with his palm.
“I hit her because she wouldn’t stop telling the truth.”
Erin stopped breathing.
On-screen, Rebecca stepped back.
Linda lowered her voice.
“We waited too long. If she wakes up remembering, we need one story.”
Frank said Erin would not remember.
Linda answered, “Then we make sure everyone hears ours first.”
The footage reinterpreted every clue.
Linda’s calmness in the garage had not been shock.
The forty-five-minute delay had not been panic.
The hospital story had not been Frank’s invention alone.
Linda had summoned both Erin and Frank because she intended to force her daughter to delete the motel video.
She had expected intimidation.
She had accepted violence as long as it remained controllable.
The prosecutor paused the recording.
“Your mother may argue she never intended serious injury.”
“She left me there.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
“We can seek charges against Frank for the assault and against both of them for the false report and evidence tampering. Your mother’s exact exposure depends on what we can prove about her actions before and after.”
Erin thought of Linda sleeping in Owen’s apartment, terrified of losing her home.
For years, Linda had endured Frank’s affairs because divorce threatened the business income, health insurance, retirement, and the house she had spent three decades maintaining.
She had traded her dignity for financial safety.
Then she had traded Erin’s safety to protect the bargain.
The prosecutor asked whether Erin wanted time before supporting charges against her mother.
“No.”
May you like
The answer came with grief, not satisfaction.
“Use all of it.”
