Chapter 2 - THE PAYCHECK
Sophia made $19.75 an hour.
Forty hours most weeks.
Occasional overtime.
Not enough to explain Richard’s rage over a missing paycheck.
Margaret knew that immediately.
At the police substation inside the mall, Sophia finally told the truth.
For eight months, Richard had controlled:
her bank app,
her direct deposit,
her debit card,
most passwords,
and the joint household account.
He said it was temporary.
They were “getting out of debt.”
Sophia’s paycheck usually entered a checking account Friday morning.
By Friday afternoon, most of it was gone.
Richard called the transfers:
debt settlement.
Sophia did not know exactly which debts.
“He handles all of it,” she whispered.
Margaret stared.
“You don’t know what you owe?”
Sophia shook her head.
Richard sat in another room with an attorney.
Mall security and police were still searching for Emma.
Detective Grace Bennett arrived.
She asked Sophia:
“Do you have your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Do not unlock anything for Richard.”
Sophia nodded.
Grace asked:
“What happened today?”
“My paycheck was smaller.”
“Why?”
“I took two unpaid days when Emma was sick.”
“How much smaller?”
“About three hundred.”
“And Richard expected a specific amount?”
Sophia nodded.
“He said we needed every dollar because something was due today.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Margaret looked sick.
Grace said:
“We will find out.”
Then a mall security officer entered.
“We found stroller-camera footage.”
Sophia stood.
“Emma?”
The officer nodded.
“At 12:42, a woman approached the stroller while you were at the desk. She showed Emma something on her phone. Emma went with her voluntarily.”
“Who?”
The officer rotated a tablet.
A woman in a beige coat.
Dark hair.
Richard’s sister.
Claire Hale.
Sophia had met her once, five years earlier.
Claire held Emma’s hand.
No force.
No struggle.
Then walked toward the east service corridor.
Grace asked:
“Does Emma know her?”
Sophia answered:
“Barely.”
Then the officer added:
“She used an authorized family pickup code at the mall childcare desk.”
May you like
Sophia turned slowly toward Richard’s interrogation room.
“What pickup code?”
