Chapter 10 - Where Eli Hid the Card
Eli refused to say where the memory card was while Linda remained nearby.
Police removed Linda and Rachel from the ICU.
Only Natalie, the nurse, and Detective Harris stayed.
Natalie sat beside the bed.
“You’re safe now.”
Eli touched the dinosaur print on his pajama shirt.
“Grandpa said don’t let monsters take it.”
“Where is it, sweetheart?”
Eli looked toward his bandaged hand.
The nurse carefully examined the wrapping.
Inside the outer layer of gauze, she found a tiny plastic pouch.
The memory card had been taped beneath Eli’s sleeve before he entered the shed.
He protected it even while pounding on the door.
Natalie began to cry.
“You didn’t have to protect this.”
Eli looked confused.
“It was Grandpa’s.”
Harris sealed the card inside an evidence bag.
He did not play it in the room.
Natalie did not want Eli to watch anything involving his grandfather while frightened and injured.
A forensic technician copied the data.
Most files were family videos.
The final three were recorded during Thomas’s last month.
One contained his complete statement.
Another showed Linda presenting documents for him to sign while he repeatedly refused.
The third captured something no one expected.
Rachel entered the room after Linda left.
Thomas asked her for help.
Rachel promised to contact Natalie.
May you like
She never did.
Rachel had known about the theft long before Eli found the card.
