Boy Screams Every Time He Sees Old Family Photo until Mom Looks at It Closer – Story of the Day

Little Adam cried whenever he saw an old family photo. But his parents were clueless about why it was happening until one day, the boy pointed at a detail in the picture, and his parents had to go to the cops.

After a lavish dinner of chicken casserole and zucchini bread, the Lesters moved on to wine and cheese. Linda and Jake had invited Jake's brother, Steve, and his wife, Gina, for dinner. The two women sat on the sofa, sipping wine and flipping through the family album.

"Our Adam looks like his Grampa, doesn't he? Sweetie, want to join Aunt Gina and me?" Linda asked, holding out a photo in front of Adam. Suddenly, the young boy's cheeks turned red, and his eyes teared up.

"Adam, what's wrong?" Before Linda would say another word, Adam burst into tears. She tried to calm him down, but nothing worked.

"I'll take him to his room!" Linda scooped Adam and rushed upstairs. When she came down, Steve and Jake had left for the garage. Linda headed to the kitchen and began cleaning the dishes.

"Oh, Linda, stop crying," Gina joined Linda in the kitchen. "Has there been no progress at all? It's been a year."

"Adam doesn't talk and barely smiles," Linda sniffled, letting go of the dish she was cleaning. "The doctor said the mental trauma was severe. We've tried several psychologists, and we thought he was returning to normal. He tried opening up to us once or twice, but it's been just that. I'm tired, Gina. I'm tired."

Adam was kidnapped a year ago. The alleged kidnappers demanded ransom, and Jake and Linda were on their way to get their son when they received a call from the cops. Adam was found by a truck driver in the western part of town, and while the cops tried their best, they couldn't track the kidnappers down.

"And they didn't suspect the truck driver?" Gina asked, snapping Linda out of her thoughts.

"They said he had an alibi. He was on one of those long-haul trips. You know, it's always that photo," Linda rushed back to the sofa and picked up the album. "I've shown it to Adam several times, and he just loses it every time."

Right then, the men returned from the garage. "It's getting late, Gina. Let's leave," Steve said.

"Take care. You can always come to me if something bothers you," Gina grabbed her purse, hugged Linda, and left with Steve.

Linda sank onto the couch, her face buried in her palms. She finally told Jake how Adam reacted aggressively toward the old family photo, and Jake was worried.

"Should I try talking to him?" he asked.

"No, I guess I'll try again." Linda removed the photo from the album. It was a picture of Adam's relatively young grandparents sitting at the table, enjoying a meal.

When Linda peeped into Adam's bedroom, she noticed the boy was awake. "Adam, can Mommy come in?" she asked, and the boy nodded.

Linda sat on his bed and gently stroked his hair. "I have noticed something's bothering you lately, honey. Why don't you tell Mommy and Daddy about it?"

Adam hugged his teddy bear tightly and looked very nervous. He didn't utter a word.

"I'm sorry, baby, but let's try again," Linda said. As she showed Adam the photo he dreaded, the little boy's eyes widened, and he jumped out of bed. He began screaming and crying, and he wouldn't stop. Linda had to call Jake for help, and thankfully, Adam calmed down.

"Should we play a game, Adam, because you're not sleepy?" Jake gently asked the boy, tucking him in bed. "How about you use the words and letters in your English book to tell us what scares you? You think you like the idea?" he asked, passing the book to the boy.

To Jake and Linda's surprise, Adam began flipping through the pages and pointed to three different words: "I," "was," and "here."

Linda's eyes widened. "Have you been to that place in the painting, Adam? The one on the wall behind your grandparents?"

Adam nodded, and Jake and Linda exchanged a glance.

The next day, Jake visited the police station. He wanted to meet Detective Ryle, who was in charge of Adam's case a year ago, but the detective wasn't there, and he had to talk to another officer.

"So. Sir, would this be enough to reopen my son's case," he told the officer, sliding the photo toward him and narrating how Adam confessed to being at the place in the painting.

The cop didn't even raise his head to look at him and was engrossed in his file. "Leave the picture with us, and we'll see what we can do. By the way, if you are done, you can leave. Our detectives are swamped with work."

Jake noticed the officer wasn't taking his words seriously. He was pissed off and stormed out of the station, taking the photo with him. As he approached his car, he called Steve and asked if he knew the place in the painting, but Steve was clueless too.

Defeated, Jake returned home and told Linda everything. That's when an idea struck them. "Should we look for this place together?" They both chorused and laughed, looking at each other.

"Yeah, let's try that," Jake agreed.

So the next day, they left Adam in the care of a neighbor and drove to the western part of town where Adam was found. The painting that made Adam cry showed a freshly built barn and a pond, and they began looking for water bodies in their vicinity.

But even after eight hours of a long search, Jake and Linda only met disappointment. "Maybe Adam confused it with something else," Jake sighed as they arrived at another pond and realized it wasn't the one in the painting either. There was a farm beside it but no barn. "Let's leave," he said.

"No, Jake! Wait! Follow me!" Linda took Jake behind the farm, and they found the barn. It was right there! Behind the farm cottage!

As Linda and Jake stepped inside, a pungent odor of decaying matter met their nostrils. They found dead rats and old farming tools in a corner under a table. It looked like nobody had visited the place in ages.

"Jake! Look what I found!" Jake spun around to see Linda holding a cap. It was Adam's, and he was wearing it the day he was kidnapped. It was another piece of evidence that could help reopen Adam's case, so Jake called 911.

While they waited for the cops to arrive, Jake and Linda began rummaging through the barn for more clues. And Jake found a painting behind thick stacks of hay. When he wiped the dust off it, he realized it was the same painting depicted in their old family photo.

But now it showed two figures who weren't visible earlier: an old woman holding a young girl's hand. As he flipped the photo frame, Jake noticed an inscription: "Dorothy M. & Lesley Marie Richard M."

"Oh my god…How is this possible?" Jake couldn't believe it, but he recognized the barn. It belonged to his great-grandmother. She had sold it off to someone when his brother, Steve, was 10, and she often told Jake stories about how she visited it with Steve. Jake wasn't even born when the barn was sold. But Steve knew the barn too well, and he had lied.

The blaring of the sirens snapped Jake out of his thoughts. When he and Linda exited the barn, they noticed the cops and Detective Ryle had arrived.

"You found this here? Well, I think we'll need to search the entire facility," the detective said, stuffing the cap Jake and Linda had found in an evidence bag.

''Did you look at the painting, detective?" Jake asked.

"Yes, I did, Mr. Lester. May I ask who else in your family knows about it or this place?"

''Only my brother and his wife. To be honest, they are our only close relatives, and they know about the painting. I'm not sure if Gina knows about this place, but…Steve does."

Detective Ryle raised a brow. "Be precise, Mr. Lester. Are you trying to indicate that your brother was involved in all of this?"

"Jake, are you serious?" Linda gasped, looking at her husband.

Noticing Jake's pale face, Detective Ryle realized what the matter was. "Well, let's set a little trap for your loved ones, should we? I don't think your brother is the only one I'm suspicious of right now, Mr. Lester!"

Detective Ryle asked Jake to call Steve.

"Hey, hi, Steve. I just got an update on Adam's case. The cops identified the location in the painting using satellite photography. They've called Linda and me, and we're heading to the location together tomorrow. Hey, can you and Gina please look after Adam tomorrow?"

"Well, uh, that's amazing, Jake," Steve said. "Yeah, sure, we love Adam. No problem. Good luck! There's a real chance we'll catch those scoundrels now!"

''And now we patiently watch," Detective Ryle said as Jake ended the call. "I've dispersed my team throughout the area, and they're very alert. If your brother, his wife, or both of them had to do something, they would come here to take care of it."

Jake and Linda sat in Detective Ryle's car, watching the property from afar. There was no substantial movement for the first 30 minutes. But soon after, a car stopped right outside the barn.

Linda's hands went to her mouth in shock when she saw Steve get down and retrieve gasoline cans from the trunk. He was ready to set the barn on fire, but two cops quietly approached him from behind, knocked him to the ground, and cuffed him.

"What are you doing? Get off of me!" he cried, trying to shove the officers away. But it was pointless.

"You are under arrest for planning and carrying out the abduction of your nephew, Steve!" Detective Ryle's voice boomed.

Steve's face turned pale when he saw Jake and Linda beside the detective.

"Why did you do it, Steve?" Jake asked him desperately. But Steve didn't show one ounce of regret.

"You think Grandpa divided his inheritance fairly?" he hissed as he was carried to the police cruiser.

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