Chapter 6 - What Sophie Remembered
Sophie refused her favorite pancakes when she returned home from the hospital. She hid under the dining table every time Patricia's heels sounded across the hall. Daniel noticed what he had trained himself not to notice: his daughter watched adults' hands before she watched their faces.
The social worker arranged for a child-interview specialist, Dr. Naomi Reed, to meet Sophie in a neutral playroom. Daniel wasn't allowed to lead the questions. He sat behind a one-way observation window with Tessa and a caseworker.
Naomi placed a toy stroller between them. “Tell me about your day on the hill.”
Sophie pushed a doll. “Grandma said we were going for a ride.”
“Then what happened?”
Sophie pressed the toy against a block. “She took off Bunny's blue bow. She said it looked ugly. Then she pushed.”
“Did someone catch you?”
“Emmy fell. Daddy got mad at Emmy.”
The little girl pressed her palms against her cheeks. “I told him. He didn't hear me first.”
Behind the glass, Daniel bent forward as though he'd been punched.
Naomi did not ask Sophie to repeat herself. She moved to a drawing activity, keeping the conversation gentle and short.
At the end, Sophie picked a purple marker and drew three people. One stood far up a hill. One was falling. One had very large hands.
“Who's that?” Naomi asked, pointing to the hands.
“Emily,” Sophie whispered. “She held on.”
Daniel asked for the recorded interview to be preserved. He wanted to undo the last two days. He couldn't.
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Outside the playroom, a staff member handed Tessa an envelope that had arrived by courier. Inside was an anonymous photocopy of a bank transfer: $180,000 paid from a Whitmore holding company to a private investigator.
The memo read: INCIDENT PREPARATION.
