Saving Emma

Boady Sanden, a law professor and former criminal defense attorney in St. Paul, Minnesota, frames his story as an urgent attempt to record ten strange days before memory distorts them. A self-described agnostic who long ago traded Catholic faith for logic, he admits these events defy rational explanation.

The narrative begins when Ruth Matthews, a quiet woman wearing a crude steel crucifix engraved with the word FAITH, arrives at Boady's law school office seeking help from the Innocence Project, a legal organization that investigates wrongful convictions. Her brother, Elijah Matthews, was found not guilty by reason of insanity for murdering Jalen Bale, pastor of a wealthy megachurch, and has been confined to the Minnesota Security Hospital for four years. Ruth insists Elijah is a genuine prophet. The evidence against him appears strong: his DNA was on the murder weapon, a stone, and the dying victim wrote Elijah's name in blood. Yet Ruth presents proof Elijah was at a library event at the time of the murder, an alibi never presented at trial.

That attorney was Ben Pruitt, Boady's former law partner and best friend, now dead. Ben's wife, Jennavieve, was murdered, and Ben was charged with the crime. He left his daughter, Emma, with Boady and his wife, Dee, for safekeeping. When Boady discovered Ben had lied about his alibi, Ben came to Boady's study with a gun and deliberately provoked a police officer into shooting him.

Four years later, Emma, now fourteen, is Boady and Dee's ward. Dee, a Black woman Boady has loved since their teens in rural Missouri, has devoted herself to mothering Emma, a role carrying special weight after the couple lost three pregnancies, including a stillborn daughter they named Julia. Emma once called Boady Poppy, but recently she has grown cold and distant. Boady and Dee suspect the change traces to Emma's visits with her Aunt Anna Adler, Jennavieve's wealthy sister.

When Anna fails to return Emma from a shopping trip, Boady drives to Anna's mansion and is served legal papers: Anna has obtained an emergency court order placing Emma in her custody, alleging emotional harm from raising Emma in the house where her father died. Emma's own signed affidavit states she feels no bond with Boady and believes he caused Ben's death.

These two storylines drive the novel in tandem. Boady hires Erica Dennis, a confident young attorney and former student, to handle the guardianship case. Erica identifies a possible ulterior motive: Emma inherited her mother's controlling share of Adler Industries, and if Anna becomes guardian, she can replace Emma's conservator, Gordy Baker, who has blocked Anna's proposals for years. Boady investigates and secretly records a theater director named Louis DeChamp revealing that Anna promised to fund a vanity project once the conservator was removed.

Meanwhile, Boady's murder investigation leads him into the Church of the New Hope. He learns Bale built his ministry from a humble homeless shelter before Lilith Cain, wife of imprisoned financier Ed Cain, bankrolled its expansion into a megachurch. At the Security Hospital, Elijah, a frail, white-haired man who speaks in biblical quotations, confirms he deliberately hid his alibi, believing God intended him to be there. Dr. Rebecca Cohen, a psychiatrist on his treatment team, reveals Elijah faces a Jarvis hearing, a legal proceeding to authorize electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), in ten days. She warns that if Elijah is innocent, ECT could erase years of memory and destroy who he is.

Boady uncovers layers of concealed relationships. Lawrence, the church's head janitor, reveals Bale and Lilith had a long affair and produces a paternity test showing Bale was not the father of Lilith's daughter, Jessica Cain. Lucas Mammon, the associate pastor who inherited Bale's position, confirms Bale ended the affair one week before the murder. Boady also visits Ray Gideon, a retired detective who came to Minnesota after matching his missing daughter, Christina, to a young woman in the shelter's old promotional materials.

The guardianship crisis intensifies. At their first visitation, Emma confronts Boady about Ben's death. He tells her the complete truth: that Ben killed Jennavieve and provoked the officer into shooting him. Emma rejects his account and runs. That evening, Boady and Dee return home to find Emma's dog, Rufus, shot and Boady's briefcase containing the key recording stolen. Rufus survives surgery, but Anna files an amended petition accusing Boady of staging the break-in.

The breakthrough comes when Boady rewatches raw footage from the shelter's promotional file. A young woman glances sideways at the camera and her left eye does not track, the same condition, Duane syndrome, that Jessica Cain has. The woman says she is pregnant. Boady recognizes her as Christina Gideon. He realizes Lilith took Christina's baby and raised the child as Jessica to secure a family inheritance. A DNA test hidden in Bale's Bible confirms Ray Gideon is Jessica's grandfather. Bale discovered this and was killed because his knowledge threatened to expose Jessica's parentage. The word Elijah written in Bale's blood was not naming his killer but pointing to the Book of Malachi, whose final passage describes the prophet Elijah's mission to reunite fathers and children.

Boady assembles the key players at the church and presents the evidence. He maneuvers Jessica into denying she ever touched the murder stone, establishing that the unidentified third DNA profile on the weapon is hers. Jessica partially confesses. Detective Griffin MacDonald, the original investigator, arrests her. Lilith bursts in and retreats without asking what her daughter is charged with, confirming her complicity.

Boady races to stop Elijah's Jarvis hearing, which has been moved up. Wearing the crude steel necklace Elijah's sister Ruth made for him, he announces the true killer's arrest. MacDonald confirms the confession by phone and reports finding Boady's stolen briefcase in Lilith's home, revealing the burglary was Lilith's doing. The judge halts ECT proceedings.

That afternoon, Lilith, now a fugitive, appears at Boady's scheduled visitation with Emma and opens fire. Boady shields Emma with his body. The bullet strikes the steel necklace beneath his shirt, saving his life. Deputies shoot Lilith. Surveillance cameras capture Anna fleeing the scene while Dee stands firm.

At the hospital, Boady tells Emma he is sorry for failing as a father and affirms she is his daughter. Emma forgives him, calling him Poppy again, and takes his hand as they walk out to meet Dee.

In the aftermath, Lilith is charged with Christina's murder after cadaver dogs find remains on the Cain family's old property. Jessica awaits trial in juvenile court. Anna's guardianship case collapses under the surveillance footage, the recovered recording, and Emma's new affidavit expressing love for Boady and Dee. The judge rules in the Sandens' favor. Boady, Dee, and Emma move to a new house in Lake Elmo, and Elijah is released to live with Ruth. When Boady calls Dr. Cohen, she tells him something unsettling: Elijah said the last person he needed to help before leaving the hospital was not another patient but Boady himself. In the final scene, Boady watches Dee and Emma playing baseball in the backyard, the steel necklace sealed in a glass case on his desk, and begins to write his account of those ten days.