Chapter 9 - The Woman Who Saw Linda Carry Ryan Toward the Bathroom
Karen remembered one more person.
Nancy Bell.
David and Susan’s babysitter.
Nineteen years old at the time.
Now fifty-two.
Living in Indiana.
She agreed to speak after Ryan called.
Nancy remembered the day of the bathtub incident because it was the last day she worked for the Carters.
She had arrived early.
The front door was unlocked.
Susan was asleep upstairs after being awake most of the night with Ryan.
Linda was downstairs.
Nancy saw Linda lift baby Ryan from his crib.
“Where are you taking him?” Nancy asked.
Linda answered:
“Bath.”
Nancy thought nothing of it.
She went into the kitchen.
Minutes later Linda screamed.
David arrived shortly afterward.
Then everything became chaos.
Nancy told police at the time that she had seen Linda holding Ryan before the incident.
That detail appeared nowhere in the custody affidavits Karen possessed.
“Why?”
Nancy sounded ashamed.
“David told me I was confused.”
Ryan stared at the speakerphone.
“Did you change your statement?”
“No.”
“Then what happened?”
“His attorney said the case was a private family matter and they didn't need me.”
Then David offered Nancy severance and a positive employment reference if she stopped contacting Susan.
Not illegal hush money in a movie.
Just enough pressure for a frightened nineteen-year-old to disappear from a wealthy family’s crisis.
She did.
Years later, when Susan tried to reopen custody issues, Nancy was married, pregnant, and afraid of becoming involved.
“I told myself it wasn't my family.”
Her voice broke.
“I was wrong.”
That was the third clue.
Linda had been with the baby immediately before the old bathtub incident.
Just as the monitor showed she had been with Lily immediately before the toilet.
Ryan looked at me.
Then at Karen.
May you like
Then said:
“I need my father to tell me the truth.”
