Burying the Man Who Stole My Daughter

My daughter Alice had been trafficked by my foster brother Valencia. My wife Angel a decorated police officer turned him in without hesitation.

Five years. Six interrogations. Valencia walked free every single time.

After the seventh review came back empty, she dragged herself home, exhausted down to the bone.

"There's no evidence linking it to him," she said. "Let's just try for another baby."

I held her and cried through the whole night.

The next morning, I threw Valencia into a pit I'd dug myself, and went live.

I smiled into the camera.

"Angel, you have five chances. Hand over the evidence you've been hiding. Otherwise"

I tossed a shovelful of dirt straight into his face.

"You can come identify the body yourself."

Three minutes in, the viewer count was closing in on half a million.

On camera: the outskirts of town, a stretch of wasteland, a freshly dug rectangular pit.

Valencia was bound with rope, a rag stuffed in his mouth, lying at the bottom of the hole.

I stood at the edge in a black jacket, face blank, a shovel and a mound of fresh dirt at my feet.

And on the other side of that screen, the person who couldn't breathe the woman everyone called a legend was my wife. Head of the Criminal Investigation Division. Angel.

"Endrick! Stop it right now! What the hell is wrong with you?! Whatever this is, we can talk about it at home!"

She was in full uniform, screaming at the camera.

I watched her face on the big screen all that panic and let the corner of my mouth twitch.

"Home? Angel, I don't have a home anymore. Right now, all I want is the evidence."

The comment section was losing its mind:

[Holy shit! This opening is INSANE! Is he actually going to bury this guy alive?]

[Wait his wife is THE Angel? The detective who cracked like a hundred major cases?? What is he doing?? Has he lost it??]

[Setting aside everything else this guy is livestreaming the kidnapping of a cop's brother. That takes guts.]

[This is kidnapping. This is a CRIME. "Guts"?? Someone call 911!!]

The one-sided condemnation seemed to loosen something in Angel's posture.

She straightened up and switched into full professional mode.

"Endrick! Alice's case all the evidence pointed to the trafficker who died in that accident!"

"The case is closed! I don't understand what more you want!"

"Stop what you're doing right now! Release Valencia! For the sake of our marriage, I'll get you the best attorney money can buy!"

I didn't say a word. I just quietly bent down, grabbed the shovel, and scooped up a heap of wet dirt tangled with grass roots.

Then I flicked my wrist, and the clump hit Valencia square in the face.

He turned into a mud-caked mess, thrashing wildly at the bottom of the pit, letting out muffled, desperate wails.

Angel's expression froze solid.

I drove the shovel into the ground with a heavy thud. "Angel, you think this is a game to me?"

She went pale, her finger pointing at the screen, lips trembling. "You you wouldn't dare"

I pulled a small USB drive from my pocket and held it up to the camera.

"One." I raised a single finger.

"Angel, it's been five years. You handed me six 'flawless' case reports. Now you get six chances. That's fair."

"That encrypted folder on your computer the one protected by your badge number upload everything in it. No edits, no deletions. Put it online."

"Each chance comes with one hour."

"If I don't see it when that hour's up"

I scooped another shovelful of dirt and let it fall into the pit, burying Valencia's ankles.

"I'll finish filling this hole."

[??? An encrypted folder?? Her own badge number as the password?? There is SO much going on here!]

[Wait how does he even know about the folder? This is genuinely terrifying the more you think about it.]

[She's a detective. Of course she has confidential files. This guy is just looking for a fight.]

[Exactly. He's clearly always been jealous of her and her brother. He's using their daughter as an excuse to get revenge. Men can be so twisted.]

The department's official account posted an emergency notice:

[Sir, your actions are in serious violation of the law. We have located you and officers are on their way. Stand down immediately.]

Amateur hour.

I'd had a friend set up IP masking for me. The signal had bounced through eighteen layers of the dark web. Their tech team wasn't cracking that anytime soon.

The minutes ticked by. The police made zero visible progress, cycling through the same warnings on the public feed over and over.

Viewers flooded the department's official account demanding action.

Eventually, the department posted another update claiming their technical team was working at full capacity, and warning me not to get comfortable.

I checked my watch. Then I jumped down into the pit, pinned his hand under my boot, and raised the shovel over his palm.

"Mmmph!" Valencia's eyes went wide with terror. He shook his head frantically.

I brought it down without expression.

Crack.

A clean, sharp sound the snap of bone came through the mic and spread across every screen in the feed.

I took a slow breath and raised the shovel again, this time over Valencia's face.

Just before it came down

"Stop!"

Angel's voice cracked. The veins along her temples were standing out.

"I'll give it to you! I'll give it to you! Don't touch him!"

A document appeared on the livestream a moment later.

The title read: Analysis Report on Alice's Psychological Profile and Assessment of Runaway Risk.

I skimmed it. Just as I suspected something I'd never seen before.

The report had been issued by a well-known psychiatric institute. Dozens of pages, dense and official-looking.

It described Alice as a child with severe Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and "scientifically" concluded that there was a 90% probability she had run away on her own.

I read one line, and brought the shovel down on Valencia's face.

CRACK.

The sharp edge connected hard. Valencia's scream tore through the wasteland.

Blood poured from his nose and the corner of his mouth. A few teeth came loose, dropping into the dirt mixed with red.

"Endrick!"

Angel slammed her fist on the table so hard the camera shook.

"I gave you what you asked for! What the hell do you want now?!"

I zoomed in on the report and held it up so everyone watching could read it clearly.

"You think every person watching this is an idiot?"

"Alice scored top of her class on every single test. And now you're telling me she had a psychological disorder?"

I cut the display and stared cold into the camera.

"Angel, don't insult me with garbage like this. It won't work."

Angel went another shade paler.

The comment section erupted:

[I mean, isn't the report scientifically valid? Mental health issues and academic performance aren't related. Plenty of gifted kids have behavioral disorders.]

[Detective Angel's professional record is nationally recognized! What do YOU know about psychology?]

[Let him go! Just let him go! This guy has completely lost it. He's being completely unreasonable.]

I smiled and glanced at my watch. "Sweetheart. You have four hours left."

Angel pressed both hands flat on the table, eyes locked on mine.

"That report is what the case is. What exactly do you think I'm hiding?"

"You know what." I held her gaze just as hard.

"If you actually care about Valencia as much as you say you do, stop wasting his time."

Angel's jaw tightened.

"If I really wanted to deceive you, did I need to spend five years on this myself?! I could've closed the case on any excuse I wanted!"

I tilted my chin up slightly.

"Which only tells me that what you wanted wasn't just a closed case."

The hate online was torrential. Comment after comment calling me ungrateful, saying I was throwing away a devoted and dutiful wife.

The department's negotiators started rotating through different accounts, sending me private messages, gentle and persistent, trying to talk me down.

I ignored all of it. I sat at the edge of the pit, tapping the ground with the shovel, over and over.

"Time's up." I stood.

Valencia stared up at me, eyes stretched wide with terror.

"Endrick!" A voice elderly, sharp, commanding cut through the feed.

I spun around. There, in front of the camera, was a woman in a dress. Older, but sharp-eyed and upright.

"Meredith?"

My mother-in-law. Angel's mother.

"Meredith. What are you doing here?"

My mother-in-law stood in front of the camera, leaning on her cane, her face a portrait of disappointment.

"Child, how can you be so thoughtless?"

"Angel has barely been home these past five years because of Alice's case. Can't you just make things a little easier for her?"

I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"So you're saying I'm the one being unreasonable?"

She sighed and struck the floor with her cane.

"There are bigger things at stake here. Think about appearances! The way you're carrying on how is Angel supposed to hold her head up at work after this?"

"No you're the ones who are completely unreasonable!" I pointed at the camera, my composure starting to crack.

"That was my daughter! She wasn't a tool for your family to cash in on for status and career advancement!"

"A living person is gone, and you're here talking to me about the bigger picture?"

"When Angel was pregnant, it was YOU who said a girl was a waste, who told her she had to have a son!"

"And now that Alice is gone, this is how you treat me?"

Meredith's face went red. Then the fury hit.

"You you're talking nonsense! This is completely outrageous!"

I laughed.

I reached down and yanked the rag out of Valencia's mouth.

"Hel"

He barely got a sound out before I picked up a bag of quicklime sitting nearby, tore a slit in it, and held it over his battered, blood-soaked face.

"Valencia," I said, my voice quiet and cold. "Do you remember three days before Alice disappeared, five years ago why you went with Angel to the clinic for that procedure?"

Valencia's crying stopped instantly. His pupils contracted to pinpoints.

Meredith leaned in close to the camera. Her voice was unsteady.

"You you're making wild accusations! When did Valencia and Angel ever go to a clinic like that?!"

Valencia caught up a second later and started screaming.

"You're lying! I never did that! Mom, he's lying!"

I stared into the screen. "So you're vouching for him too?"

She flinched, then quickly rebuilt her righteous expression.

"Endrick! Baseless accusations like this will only add to your charges!"

I let out a cold laugh and checked the time. "You've burned through two chances."

"Third chance. One hour. Clock starts now."

I sat back down and traced slow circles in the dirt with the shovel.

Angel paced in front of the camera, going back and forth, whispering urgently with Meredith.

With ten minutes left, I started counting down out loud.

"Five hundred and forty five hundred and thirty-nine"

"There is nothing to find! What do you want from me?!" Angel was coming apart.

The comments raged alongside her:

[She would've handed it over already if it existed! He's trying to force her to fabricate evidence so he can destroy her career!]

[Exactly! What kind of father is this? How does he deserve a child?]

[Absolutely vile. This broke my whole view of people.]

"Ten nine"

"Endrick!!"

"Eight seven"

"Endrick, snap out of it!"

"Six"

"Daddy!"

A small, childlike voice drove itself into my chest like a blade.

My whole body locked up. I shot to my feet.

A little girl, five or six years old, appeared on screen, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

"Alice"

"Daddy!"

On camera, a little girl who looked just like my daughter, crying like her heart was breaking.

"Alice, how are you here? You were taken you were gone."

My mind went blank. This couldn't be real.

"Daddy! I left on my own! It wasn't Mom's fault! It wasn't Valencia's fault!"

My vision sharpened instantly.

The comment section detonated:

[Oh my GOD. The twist!! The kid ran away herself this whole time?!]

[I knew it. This guy looked unstable from the start. The control issues, the obsession of course the kid couldn't handle it. Of course she ran.]

[What kind of failure as a father does it take to push your own daughter away like this? And now he's doing this?? Unreal.]

I gripped the shovel tighter.

"Alice, don't be scared. Talk to me. Tell me what really happened. Where have you been?"

"Did someone tell you to say this?"

The girl cried harder.

"No! I hate you! You made me study this and practice that every single day. I had no freedom at all. I hate you!"

Angel pulled the girl into her arms and looked at me through the screen, her eyes full of bitter fury.

"Endrick! You heard her! It was you! Your suffocating, relentless love drove Alice away!"

I let out a sudden, easy laugh. "Angel. Where'd you find this little actress?"

[Seriously?? That's your DAUGHTER and you still won't believe her?!]

[Now I know where all those oblivious male leads in bad novels come from. Life really does imitate fiction.]

[Does he have some kind of cognitive issue? He literally can't recognize his own kid?]

"Endrick! She's your child and you won't even take her word for it?! Do you have any humanity left?!" Angel was shaking with outrage.

I just grabbed Valencia by the hair and turned his ruined face toward the camera.

I lifted the bag of quicklime, tilted it slowly over his head. White powder sifted down in a thin stream.

I smiled. "Angel. These past five years did you really think the light in your study at midnight was for work?"

Angel's eyes went wide.

"Third chance gone."

I raised the bag high, aiming directly for Valencia's eyes.

"Daddy!!"

The girl suddenly held up a small voice recorder.

"This is what Alice recorded for you!"