Chapter 5: Statement
When Abigail was ready, she gave a clearer account.
They had argued at the family house. Nicholas had pushed her. When she tried to leave, Patricia and Gregory blocked the door. She was taken to the guest house, her phone confiscated, and told that any attempt to “embarrass the family” would be met with public destruction of her character. The bruises came during the restraint and the hours that followed. The torn dress was from the same sequence. She had found a way to call me only after a staff member at the main house briefly left a phone unattended.
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The detective recorded the statement without commentary. I provided my own: the call, the drive from Fort Liberty, the condition in which I found my daughter, and the conversation that had taken place in the doorway. Patricia’s claim of connections and the suggestion that my rank was irrelevant were noted as part of the context of intimidation.
I arranged for Abigail to be moved to a private room under visitor restriction. Only medical staff and I were authorized. The Fergusons were informed that further attempts to approach her inside the hospital would be treated as interference. Patricia’s expression, when she received that information, lost the last of its polished certainty.
