I dropped to my knees in the dirt, pulled off my coat, and wrapped it around his frail body. A cold, lethal rage burned through me — so hard that my shaking hands went perfectly still.

Behind us, my father stepped into the yard, hands raised. “Peyton, look — this looks bad, but you don’t understand the financial stress we’ve been under.”

I reached into my pocket, pressed the emergency speed-dial on my department phone, and lifted it to my ear.

“Captain Caldwell,” dispatch answered.

My parents and brother froze on the grass.

“Activate Major Crimes and an emergency medical team to my GPS coordinates,” I said, my voice dropping into a flat, clinical register. “Active case: unlawful imprisonment, aggravated elder abuse, document fraud, attempted homicide.