When Emily chided a man for not properly looking after his child, he mocked her. He called her all sorts of names and even laughed at her for simply being black. But just one hour later, this man regretted it a lot.
As Emily strolled into the park, she was met with the joyful sight of happy children. These kids were of different ages, running around and playing with each other while their parents watched them carefully. Emily smiled as she remembered her own childhood days. She always spent every weekend in this particular park with her mother.
As she continued down the park, Emily suddenly met with a sight that filled her with surprise. On a bench across from her sat a man with a little girl seated on his lap. What puzzled Emily, though, was that the little girl kept asking her dad to let her play with the other kids on the playground, but the man was paying her no attention. He was so engrossed in his phone, tapping furiously as if his life depended on it.
Emily saw how miserable and sad the little girl was. She looked eager to join her peers who were having fun. She also noticed how nonchalant and ignorant the man seemed to his daughter’s desires as he was so engrossed in whatever he was doing on his phone. Just then, his phone rang. He put his little girl on the ground and placed the phone to his ear. From the man’s sudden gestures, it was obvious to Emily that he wasn’t happy with whoever was on the other side of the call. Emily looked at the child in pity and wondered where her mother was, but there was little Emily could do for the little girl. After a while, she went past them and decided to continue her walk around the park.
Emily watched the children play at the swings, and that was when she spotted another odd thing. Suddenly, she saw a little girl heading towards the woods not far from the park. Emily’s instincts kicked in. She wondered what a child was doing in that direction, unsupervised. Emily hurried over to the woods and saw that the child was the very same girl she had seen earlier with her father. Emily approached the girl and told her not to go there; the woods were not safe for anyone, especially a little child like herself. But the innocent child just stared back at her as if Emily was not making any sense. Emily took her hand and led her back to where her father was seated.
As they approached him, the man looked up to see them and his eyes widened in surprise. His reaction told Emily that he hadn’t even noticed his daughter was gone. The man stood up abruptly. He rushed towards them, grabbed the little girl’s hand, and looked her over as if checking if she was in good shape. Once he had confirmed that she was fine, the man rose and scowled at Emily. He asked her rudely what she thought she was doing with his child.
Emily was stunned at his behavior. Normally, people thank those who helped with their kids, especially unprompted, but this man was different. As she began to tell him where she had found the child, the man cut her off. He didn’t believe her. As far as he was concerned, his daughter was well-behaved and wouldn’t have wandered towards the woods. He immediately began throwing accusations at Emily and claimed that she was trying to kidnap his daughter. “Your kind of people aren’t above that,” he remarked in disgust.
Emily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her kind of people? She was a woman, and she was black. Something told her he wasn’t talking about her gender. This was blatant discrimination. She was now very pissed and started to give him a piece of her mind. She told him that he didn’t know how to care for a child and that he was indifferent about his child’s safety.
The man fired back, telling her she had no idea what it was like to take care of a child. He told her people like her wouldn’t know the first thing about raising a child because if they did, the jails would be empty. And then he laughed at her. There was no point discussing with someone so prejudiced and stubborn. Emily knew the kind; he wouldn’t admit to his mistake. She saw that there was nothing that she could say that would change his mind, so she shook her head and left them. She couldn’t believe people even thought the way the man did.
A few minutes later, Emily had forgotten the incident. She had run into an old friend in the park, and they sat together, chatting and laughing. Emily had missed her friend so much, and she wanted to catch up on lost time. A dozen minutes passed, and soon day was beginning to come to an end. People began to leave with their kids as the sun was going down. Emily and her friend were about to leave when they heard someone calling out a name in panic. They looked to see what was happening, and to Emily’s surprise, it was the man whom she had encountered earlier in the day. She looked at him as he was calling out, “Clara! Where are you?” The man looked genuinely worried.
Emily’s friend went up to ask him what was wrong, and the man quickly explained his daughter, Clara, had suddenly disappeared. He had looked all over the park but couldn’t find her. Emily couldn’t believe her ears. This man still hadn’t paid any attention to his daughter after all her warnings. Emily’s friend told him that Emily was a police officer and that she could help. When the man turned to Emily, he was shocked to see the same woman he had insulted before.
But Emily didn’t waste any time with formalities or blame. She told them she had a hunch where his daughter Clara could have gone. They all followed her towards the same woods where Emily had found Clara earlier. As they went into the woods, the search party began calling out her name. The man’s voice was shaking as he began to think of the different things that might have happened to his child. He might be a nonchalant parent, but he was indeed worried about his child.
Emily told him it would be easier and faster if they split up to look for Clara, so each of them went different ways in the forest, calling out her name. Walking over branches, Emily came up to a path. Suddenly, she saw a small figure standing a few feet from her. It was Clara, the little girl they had all been looking for. Emily breathed out a heavy sigh of relief as she made her way towards the girl. As she got closer, she noticed Clara was crying silently.
The cop went up to her and gently told her how everyone had been looking for her and how badly her father was worried. But Emily suddenly saw something that made her heart skip a beat. A few feet from Clara was a massive snake. It was poised right to Clara’s left and was waiting to attack. She immediately told Clara not to move and be very still. The little girl cried silently in fear. She had been standing still for almost an hour and couldn’t wait to leave the forest as soon as possible.
Emily looked around and spotted a rock. She leaned over, picked it up, and then her college archery skill suddenly became very useful. She positioned herself and aimed for her target. Once she was sure of her aim, she threw her hand back before letting the rock go. The rock hit the bullseye as it landed right on the snake’s head. The snake appeared to be wounded, so it slithered away, leaving the little girl free. Emily hurriedly grabbed Clara’s hand, and they ran out of the woods.
They emerged from the woods to find Clara’s father and Emily’s friend already waiting outside. Clara’s father rushed towards her with tears streaming down his face. He pulled her into his arms, and just like last time, he checked her body for bruises. Once he was sure she was fine, he asked her if anything had happened to her in the woods. “A snake almost bit me, Daddy, but this nice lady scared it. I couldn’t move,” Clara told her father.
Clara looked at Emily and began to thank her over and over. Her father also apologized profusely for his earlier behavior, admitting he had been very rude and unkind to her. Emily shook it off; she was only interested in how he hadn’t realized when Clara took off. Emily repeated that he was indeed irresponsible and couldn’t handle a child.
The man’s face reddened in anger, but he didn’t say anything as he led Clara away from them. Emily noticed something quite strange. Clara tugged at her father’s arm and said she missed her mom, asking when she would be back home. The man shot his daughter a glare and told her to keep quiet. This made Emily uneasy. She couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was very wrong with the man.
After Clara and her dad left, Emily decided to follow her gut. She drove over to the police department to carry out an investigation. As a police lieutenant, she gave orders to the officers to find out where the man and his daughter were living. In no time, they had located them. The cops found out that Clara’s dad was named Dave McPherson. He worked as a manager in a small corporate firm in the city center. Emily contacted child services, and an official was sent down to the police station to accompany her to the man’s house. Barely an hour had passed since the man had laughed in her face, and he would come to regret that a lot.
As Emily and the other cops drove into the neighborhood, they had no clue what awaited them inside the house that sheltered this father and his daughter.
Emily walked up to the door. After knocking for a while, the door opened, and Dave was shocked to see Emily standing on his porch along with a man whose ID was slung around his neck. Emily explained that they were there for an inspection of the residence to see if it was suitable for raising a child. The man hesitated but had no choice but to let them in. Emily and the child services worker were appalled to see the state of the house. There were waste papers scattered around, dishes piled up in the sink, and a bad smell that told Emily this environment wasn’t healthy for a child.
Emily began questioning Dave about the state of the house. As Dave answered, he looked very nervous and uneasy. He hadn’t expected child services to come knocking at his door. According to his story, his wife had died a few months back, and he had been left alone with Clara. He told them how he had been struggling to take care of the house and couldn’t afford to hire a nanny or housekeeper. Emily and the child services officer exchanged surprised glances at his story.
The officer took Dave out of the house to question him further and have him fill out a few forms while Emily looked around the house. She opened the door to see Clara on the floor playing with a toy car. Emily crouched down to ask the little girl how she was. When Clara saw her, she jumped up to hug her. She remembered the woman who had saved her from the scary snake, and she was really grateful. Emily laughed and hugged her back.
“Where’s your mother, Clara dear?” Emily asked the girl. Clara immediately began to cry. She said she missed her mother very much and hadn’t seen her since her mom promised to pick her up from school. She asked Emily if she knew where her mother was. She hoped she was okay. Emily felt uneasy about the girl’s strange reply. If her mother had died as Dave told them, Clara would have had a much different reaction. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was up in the house. Looking around, she saw a lipstick on Clara’s table. She knew a little child couldn’t wear lipstick and that it most likely belonged to her mother.
As Emily was trying to put two and two together, she suddenly heard a shout from the front door. Emily got up and rushed to see the child services officer on the ground. He yelled at her to chase Dave, who had apparently run away. Emily sprung into action immediately, drawing her pistol and sprinting out of the house towards the direction the officer pointed.
She sighted the figure of Clara’s father running away and ran towards him. Being a trained cop, she caught up with him, pinned him down, and yelled at him to stop resisting. Emily had put two and two together, so she wasted no time in slapping handcuffs on Dave’s wrists. She then guided him up and read him his Miranda rights. As she did, she was furious. This man was an embarrassment to his innocent daughter. Emily put him in the back of her car and told the child services agent to look after Clara for a few hours.
As they drove down to the police station, Emily looked through the mirror to see Dave looking extremely angry. He glared at Emily and warned her not to take Clara away from him, but she only looked at him before shaking her head in disgust. When they got to the police station, Dave was placed in the interrogation room. Emily explained the situation to the detectives. They checked his profile on the police database and saw that he had a criminal record of assault and stalking. Emily couldn’t believe a child actually lived with the man. Who knew what kind of danger she could have been in?
The detectives went into the interrogation room to question him. The cops were not smiling, and they told him to give up. “Tell us where she is, Dave,” they thundered. But Dave only looked at them mockingly. He didn’t seem ready to talk. Emily saw the cold look in his eyes, realizing that extracting honesty from him wouldn’t be easy. He looked determined not to say a word to them.
“Where is she?” the cops repeated. They knew his wife was not dead, and they wanted to know where she was. But no matter how many times they asked her what he did to his wife, they got no response. After trying and failing for hours, the detectives eventually gave up and left the room. They came up to Emily and asked her if she knew anything they could use to get him to talk. Emily suddenly knew what to do but felt bad about it.
They went back to the interrogation room, but this time with Emily with them. The detective sat across from him while Emily stood in the corner. No one said a word, and the room was in silence. Then Emily began. She walked up to Dave and began to ask him if he loved his daughter. She said she knew he was nonchalant, but she saw the fear in his eyes when she had gone missing.
Dave looked up at her in confusion, but Emily knew what she was doing. She told him that if he didn’t tell the detectives where his wife was, Clara was going to have a very rough life. Growing up without a parent wasn’t easy, especially if the parent abandoned their child. Such children usually grew up despising their parents. Emily looked down at Dave and asked him if that was what he wanted for his daughter.
As Dave looked back at her, Emily could see he was beginning to break, so she continued with her tactic. She played out different scenarios of how Clara could end up as an adult, and all of them were very bleak. She told him how the loss of a parent would take a toll on the mental health of a child, causing her to develop issues like insomnia or anxiety. Dave had had enough. He cut her short with a shout and told her to just stop. Then the truth came rolling out.
Dave claimed he didn’t mean for any of it to happen. He was just angry and frustrated. He and his wife got divorced a few months ago, but the court gave her full custody of Clara. Dave wasn’t happy the court could hand over his child to her, so one day he went over to her new house. They had a heated argument, and so Dave shoved her into the basement and locked her in. After that, he picked Clara up from school and took her to live with him.
The detectives were startled to hear this. This was nothing like what they expected. They asked him if she was still alive in the basement, and that was when Dave dropped the bombshell. His wife was alive, not dead. He went to feed her once a week so she couldn’t gain the strength to run away. He offered to show them the basement but only if they promised they were going to let him go and be with his daughter. The detectives told him they could work something out as long as the woman was alive.
Emily and the detectives made arrangements to head down to the house, and Dave was bundled into the car to his ex-wife’s house. When they arrived at the house, Emily saw that it was one of the houses she passed every morning on her way to work. She couldn’t believe someone was locked up in there. The detectives pried the basement door open and burst into the room. They were shocked to see a woman sprawled on the floor. She looked so thin, as though she was a skeleton with cellotape wrapping instead of flesh. The woman looked dehydrated and malnourished just because her selfish husband couldn’t accept his fate. The cops immediately called an ambulance while Emily administered first aid treatment. The ambulance arrived, and the woman was whisked to the hospital.
A few days later, the woman started to recover. She told them how she had been preparing to pick Clara up from school when her ex-husband came to the house and began to argue with her. He had knocked her unconscious, taken her to the basement, and locked her in. She told Emily in tears how frightened she had been for her daughter. Emily calmed her down and assured her that Dave couldn’t hurt her or Clara anymore. After they had found and rescued her from the basement, they immediately charged Dave with kidnapping and assault. He was currently in a maximum-security jail awaiting trial.
The woman was relieved. Now that she looked a bit better, she asked to see her daughter. Her wish was granted, and Clara was brought into the hospital room. As soon as the little girl saw her mom, she ran towards her mother and hugged her. “Mommy, where did you go? Daddy was mean to me and didn’t let me see you. I missed you very much, Mommy,” Clara cried. The woman took Clara in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. She was really sorry, even though it was not her fault. “Mommy’s here now. Don’t worry. You’ll stay with Mommy from now on, okay? I’m so sorry, my precious baby girl,” she wept.
Emily watched this reunion between mother and daughter with tears in her eyes. She felt bad that they had to endure all that because of the selfish and controlling behavior of Dave. A few weeks later, Dave was sentenced to 11 years in prison with hard labor. At the courthouse, Dave screamed at his wife not to take his daughter away from him. He yelled out threats and told her he was going to come back for Clara. But she walked up to him and told him he would rot in his cell. Everyone stared in surprise as she warned him with a dangerous look in her eyes not to come near her daughter as long as he lived. Dave was stunned by his wife’s sudden confidence. He could only gape at her as the police dragged him away in handcuffs.
Clara and her mother approached Emily to thank her for everything. They had heard how Emily paid enough attention to Clara and Dave to notice something was wrong in time. They commended Emily for her skills and good judgment because it was what practically saved her from that basement. Clara and her mother stayed in touch with Emily, and as Clara grew up, they became close friends and family.
