Chương 12
“What does Lily want?”
“I haven’t shown her these.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I don’t know.”
“Then ask her without wearing your case face.”
“My what?”
“The face where you already know the answer and wait for someone to surrender to it.”
“I don’t have that face.”
Reyes raised an eyebrow.
At the safe apartment, Lily sat at the table building a bridge from wooden craft sticks. The concussion restrictions had eased, but she still became tired after reading.
Victoria placed the printed messages in a folder and left it closed.
“I need to ask you something,” she said.
Lily pressed glue along a joint.
“Is this about court?”
“Maybe.”
“Then yes.”
“Yes what?”
“You want me to talk.”
“I want to know what you want.”
“That’s not how you ask questions.”
Victoria pulled out the chair across from her.
“How should I ask?”
Lily considered the bridge.
“Say what happens if I say no.”
Victoria looked at the closed folder.
“If you say no to speaking with prosecutors, they may still use the video and other records. They may have a harder time proving what Ethan did and why he took the phone. Mr. Cole may receive less punishment for involving Ethan.”
“And if I say yes?”
“You may be interviewed more. His attorneys may question your memory. They may ask personal things. A judge can limit some of it, but not all.”
“Will Ethan be there?”
“Not during the first interview.”
“Later?”
“Possibly.”
“Will he go to jail?”
“He is eleven. The juvenile system has different options.”
“Like what?”
“Counseling, supervision, placement with family, restrictions, sometimes detention. I don’t know what will happen in his case.”
“Will his dad hit him again?”
“Not if the court keeps them apart.”
“Does the court know?”
“Yes.”
Lily adjusted one of the bridge supports.
“What do you want me to do?”
Victoria had prepared an answer in the hallway. It had sounded respectful and balanced.
Now it felt like a tool.
“I want you safe,” she said.
“That’s not an answer.”
“No.”
Victoria looked at her daughter’s hands, careful with the glue, one thumbnail painted with a fading yellow star.
“I want you to talk because I spent a long time trying to prove what Richard did. I want the truth on record. I want people to stop pretending you fell. And part of me wants to use every fact we have against him because I am angry.”
Lily stared at her.
Victoria continued.
“But I don’t want to make you responsible for finishing my case.”
The apartment remained quiet except for traffic below.
“Would you be mad if I say no?” Lily asked.
“Yes.”
The child’s face tightened.
Victoria leaned forward.
“Not at you. I would be angry at the situation. I might feel disappointed. That is mine to handle. You do not owe me testimony because I am your mother.”
Lily looked down at the bridge.
“Dad said you would say the right thing.”
“I almost didn’t.”
“I know.”
After a minute, Lily asked to see the messages.
Victoria opened the folder.
Lily read slowly. When she reached Get the phone. Do not make a scene, she stopped.
“He made a scene,” she said.
“Yes.”
“He always does the opposite when adults tell him.”
Victoria waited.
Lily closed the folder.
“I’ll talk one time.”
“You can change your mind.”
“One time,” Lily repeated. “And they can’t call me brave.”
Victoria nodded.
“I’ll put that in the agreement.”
Lily looked suspicious. “Can you?”
“I can ask.”
The interview took place in a room with soft chairs and no government seals. A child forensic interviewer spoke with Lily while Victoria and Mark watched through one-way glass.
Lily described the science project, Ethan taking her phone, following him to the stairwell, and asking for it back.
“He held it over the railing,” she said.
“What did you do?”
“I told him his dad was in the video.”
“What did Ethan say?”
“He said his dad could delete anything.”
“Then what happened?”
“I tried to take the phone.”
“Did you touch Ethan?”
“His sleeve.”
“What did he do?”
“He pushed my shoulder.”
“Once?”
“Twice.”
“What happened after the second push?”
“I missed the step.”
Lily’s voice changed. It became smaller, careful.
“I grabbed the railing, but my hand slipped. I hit the wall and went down to the landing.”
“What did Ethan do?”
“He looked scared.”
“Did he help you?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘You better be hurt enough to forget.’”
Behind the glass, Mark closed his eyes.
Victoria kept looking.
The interviewer asked about the phone.
“He threw it down after me. It bounced under the bottom door.”
“Did you see anyone pick it up?”
“A man came through the door.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you describe him?”
“Black jacket. Gray hair. He told Ethan to go back to class.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“He said, ‘You fell. Understand?’”
Victoria turned toward Reyes, who stood near the door.
“Owen Pike has gray hair,” she whispered.
“So do many men.”
“Did the school show her photographs?”
“No.”
“Good.”
The interviewer asked Lily whether she had seen the man before.
“At the parking garage,” Lily said.
Victoria’s pulse quickened.
“When?”
“That morning. He was with Ethan’s dad.”
“What were they doing?”
“Arguing.”
“Could you hear them?”
“Some.”
“What did they say?”
“The gray-haired man said, ‘I’m done cleaning up after you.’ Mr. Cole said, ‘You’re done when I say.’ Then Ethan came.”
“Is that when Mr. Cole hit Ethan?”
Lily nodded.
The interviewer did not praise her.
When the interview ended, Lily walked out and asked for noodles.
Not pasta bowls. Noodles.
Mark found a restaurant nearby. They sat in a corner booth while rain moved against the windows. Lily ate half her meal and asked whether fish got concussions.
Mark searched his phone.
May you like
Victoria watched them.
For twenty minutes, no one discussed Richard, Ethan, federal charges, missing evidence, or testimony. A server dropped a tray near the kitchen. Lily jumped at the metallic crash, then pretended she had not.
