Chương 8
"Did she hit the floor?"
"No."
"You caught a toddler falling from the second floor?"
"Yes."
"And you are telling me your wrist hurts?"
"I know."
"Who dropped her?"
Elena did not answer quickly enough.
Marisol's voice changed.
"Who?"
"I can't talk about it."
"Victoria?"
Elena stared at the wall.
Marisol made a sound of disbelief.
"Oh my God."
"Don't tell anyone."
"Why would I tell anyone?"
"Because you're you."
"That is rude and also fair."
Elena almost smiled again.
The nurse returned with gauze.
Elena lowered her voice.
"I have to go."
"I'm coming there."
"No."
"That wasn't a question."
"Marisol, please."
Her sister hesitated.
"Fine."
Elena knew the tone.
It meant the opposite of fine.
"Get Mateo."
"And don't call Mama."
"Now you're asking for miracles."
The call ended.
Elena put the phone down.
Her hands had started shaking again.
The nurse noticed.
"Shock catches up late sometimes."
Elena looked at her.
"I'm not in shock."
The nurse taped gauze over one knee.
"Sure."
Twenty minutes later, Elena was sent for an X-ray of her wrist.
Nothing was broken.
The doctor called it a moderate sprain and told her to use a brace.
By the time she found Mark again, he was standing outside a pediatric treatment room with a police detective.
The detective was a woman in her forties with short dark hair and reading glasses hooked into the collar of her blouse.
Mark looked exhausted.
He saw Elena and straightened.
"Clara's scans are clear."
Elena stopped walking.
For a second she could not speak.
"Clear?"
"No fracture, no bleeding, no obvious internal injury."
His voice broke slightly on injury.
"They want to keep her for observation."
Elena pressed her lips together.
The detective watched her.
"You must be Elena Ruiz."
Elena nodded.
"Detective Shaw."
She held out a hand, then noticed the wrist brace and withdrew it.
"I'd like to speak with you when you're ready."
"Now is fine."
Mark said, "She just got treated."
Elena looked at him.
"I'm fine."
The detective's eyes moved between them.
"There's a family consultation room down the hall."
Mark started to follow.
Shaw lifted one hand.
"Separately."
He stopped.
Elena felt suddenly alone.
She followed the detective into a small room with two chairs, a table, and a box of tissues positioned too deliberately in the center.
Shaw closed the door.
"I've already spoken with the responding officers."
Elena sat.
Shaw remained standing for a moment.
"They told me Mrs. Mercer made several statements before being advised not to continue."
Elena nodded.
"She said she expected you to catch Clara."
"Yes."
"Had she ever asked you to stand below the staircase while she held the child above it?"
"No."
"Had she discussed any plan involving Clara falling?"
"No."
"Had she ever threatened Clara?"
Elena thought carefully.
"No."
"Had she hurt her before?"
Elena hesitated.
Shaw noticed.
"What?"
"I don't know if hurt is the right word."
"Tell me what happened and let me decide which word fits."
Elena looked down at the brace.
"About three weeks ago, Clara had a bruise on her upper arm."
"How large?"
"Maybe two inches."
"Did you see how she got it?"
"No."
"What explanation were you given?"
"Victoria said Clara fell against the bathtub."
"Did you believe that?"
"At the time."
"And now?"
Elena looked toward the closed door.
"I don't know what I believe now."
Shaw sat across from her.
"Anything else?"
Elena thought of small moments that had seemed unimportant.
Victoria snapping at Clara for touching her earrings.
Victoria handing the child to Elena the instant she began crying.
Victoria standing outside the nursery one night without going in.
None of those were crimes.
They felt uglier now only because of what had happened.
"I don't want to turn every bad mood into evidence."
"That's a good instinct."
Shaw opened a notebook.
"But I'm asking about patterns, not perfection."
Elena swallowed.
"Victoria got more distant after Clara's second birthday."
"How?"
"She stopped putting her to bed."
"Completely?"
"Almost."
"Why?"
"She said Clara cried too much."
Shaw wrote something down.
"Did Mr. Mercer notice?"
"I don't know."
"Did you tell him?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Elena looked at her.
"Because I work for them."
Shaw waited.
Elena understood what she meant.
"Victoria hired me."
"Go on."
"Mark was kind to me, but he wasn't the one deciding whether I stayed employed."
Shaw nodded once.
"And you were worried about losing your job."
"Yes."
"Any other reason?"
Elena hesitated.
"Victoria could be difficult."
"Meaning?"
"She didn't yell much."
"That's an interesting answer."
Elena rubbed her thumb against the edge of the brace.
"She didn't need to."
Shaw leaned back.
"Did you fear her?"
"Before today?"
"Yes."
Elena considered it.
"No."
Then she corrected herself.
"Not exactly."
"What exactly?"
"I feared becoming inconvenient to her."
The detective stopped writing.
That answer seemed to interest her.
"What happened when people became inconvenient?"
"They disappeared from the house."
"Fired?"
"Usually."
"Anyone recently?"
"The nanny before me."
"What was her name?"
"Bethany Cole."
"When did she leave?"
"About six months ago."
"Why?"
"Victoria said she stole jewelry."
"Did she?"
"I never saw proof."
Shaw wrote the name down.
"Did police come?"
"No."
"Was a report filed?"
"Not that I know."
"Did Bethany deny it?"
"She cried."
Elena looked down.
"She kept saying Victoria knew why she really wanted her gone."
Shaw's pen stopped.
"What did she mean?"
"I asked."
"And?"
"Bethany told me to stay out of it if I wanted to keep my job."
Elena lifted her eyes.
"Then she said something strange."
Shaw waited.
"She said, 'Watch what happens when Clara starts looking like him.'"
The detective did not move.
Elena felt her own skin go cold as the sentence returned with a meaning it had not carried six months earlier.
Shaw spoke quietly.
"Looking like whom?"
"She never said."
Outside the room, footsteps passed.
A cart rattled down the hall.
Shaw closed her notebook for a moment.
May you like
"When you leave here, don't contact Bethany."
Elena frowned.
