Chương 5
The device was turned off.
Caroline learned this from the deputy near midnight. He did not say whether anything had been deleted.
“Can you arrest Tyler?” she asked.
“We’re speaking with the district attorney’s office.”
“You have a witness.”
“We also need Olivia’s full statement when her doctors clear it.”
“What about the old injury?”
“That will require records and interviews.”
“He admitted touching her.”
“To you?”
“He said he barely touched her.”
The deputy wrote the sentence down.
Caroline rubbed both hands over her face. “I should have recorded him.”
“Don’t start doing that now,” he said. “Preserve what you already have. Don’t create confrontations.”
She almost told him confrontations did not need help in the Harrison family. Instead she returned to Olivia’s room.
Olivia was awake, staring at the dark window.
“Did they get my phone?”
“Yes.”
“Was it on?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Dad turned it off.”
“Probably.”
“He knows the passcode too.”
“Can he delete things remotely?”
“I don’t know.”
Caroline pulled the visitor chair closer. “What’s on it?”
“Messages.”
“From Tyler?”
“Some.”
“What do they say?”
Olivia looked toward the door. “He always makes me answer calls when he’s mad. He doesn’t like typing things.”
“Are there voicemails?”
“Two, maybe.”
“About the old injury?”
“One about what I told the nurse.”
Caroline felt a small rush of hope and disliked herself for it. Olivia’s pain had become evidence, and everyone around her was learning to look at it that way.
“What did he say?”
“That if I changed my story, Dad would make sure I never went back to that school.”
“Could Robert do that?”
“He almost did.”
Olivia attended a private high school in Denver on a partial academic scholarship. Caroline knew Robert complained about tuition while telling friends he had chosen the school for its standards. She had not understood that school could be used as a leash.
“Why didn’t Tyler want you to tell the nurse?”
“Because she asked if somebody hurt me.”
“And what did you say?”
“That I slipped.”
Caroline leaned back. The chair squeaked.
Olivia watched the window again. “Mom cried until I promised.”
“Cried?”
“She said Dad would go to jail for deleting the video. She said Tyler would lose his scholarship. She said it would be my fault if we had to sell the house.”
“The house is not your responsibility.”
“That’s easy to say when it isn’t yours.”
The bitterness in Olivia’s voice surprised them both.
Caroline did not defend herself. She lived alone in a two-bedroom condo in Chicago, worked remotely as a commercial editor, and had once considered the lake house proof that Jennifer had built a stable life. Caroline visited twice a year, admired the view, and left before stability began requiring witnesses.
“You’re right,” she said.
Olivia frowned, almost disappointed not to have an argument.
The next morning, Robert arrived with an attorney.
The attorney was a silver-haired man named Paul Renner who introduced himself politely to hospital administration and requested access to Olivia as counsel for the family. Leah, the social worker, explained that Olivia had not asked for a lawyer and that Renner could not speak with her privately on behalf of people implicated in her report.
Robert’s voice carried down the corridor.
“I am her legal guardian.”
Leah’s did not.
“And there is an active safety assessment.”
Caroline stood inside Olivia’s room with the door mostly closed. Olivia’s eyes tracked every word from the hall.
“Is he going to take me home?” she asked.
“Not today.”
“How do you know?”
“Leah told me.”
“She told Mom things before too.”
Caroline sat on the edge of the visitor chair. “What things?”
“When I was thirteen, a counselor called because I said I hated being home. Mom told her we were under stress because Grandma died. Then everybody was nicer for two weeks.”
“Did a social worker come?”
“No. The counselor decided I wasn’t in danger.”
Caroline did not say that systems missed things. Olivia already knew.
A nurse brought breakfast: oatmeal, a banana, tea, and a small carton of milk. Olivia ate three bites and pushed the tray away.
“You used to like oatmeal,” Caroline said.
“I used to put brown sugar in it.”
Caroline searched the tray. “There isn’t any.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
She went to the family pantry near the elevators and returned with two brown sugar packets and a plastic spoon. By then the oatmeal was cold. Olivia mixed in the sugar anyway.
The ordinary act loosened something in Caroline’s chest. She sat without speaking while Olivia ate.
Outside, Robert continued arguing about access, liability, and parental rights. His voice became lower after the hospital administrator arrived. Robert always sounded most dangerous when he became reasonable.
Eventually Renner asked to speak with Caroline.
They met in a consultation room with Leah present. The attorney placed a leather folder on the table and opened it slowly.
“Your sister believes you are acting from longstanding family resentment,” he said.
“My sister is frightened.”
“Possibly. She also believes you have encouraged Olivia to make accusations while under medication.”
“I watched Tyler push her.”
Renner folded his hands. “Tyler says he reached toward her because she lost her balance.”
“He drove both hands into her shoulders.”
“Your perception may be colored by the result.”
Caroline looked at Leah. The social worker made no expression.
Renner continued. “There was an argument. Olivia had been drinking.”
Caroline stared at him.
“That is a lie.”
“A bottle of vodka was found in her room.”
“At the lake house?”
“In a dresser.”
“Who found it?”
“Robert.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Caroline stood so abruptly the chair legs scraped the floor.
“He went back there after the police left.”
“Sit down,” Leah said.
Caroline remained standing. “Olivia doesn’t drink.”
Renner closed the folder. “You cannot know that.”
“She’s on the school debate team. She calls sparkling water spicy.”
“That is not evidence.”
May you like
“No, but a bottle found by the father being investigated is?”
Renner’s mouth tightened.
