Chapter 2 - The Key Their Mother Left BehindNora went so still that Paul initially thought she hadn't understood the question.
Then her hand slipped out of his.
She backed away from Richard until her shoulders struck the wall.
"I don't have it."
Richard took one step toward her.
"Don't lie to me."
"Sir." Paul moved between them. "You're finished questioning the children."
Richard laughed once, sharply. "Questioning? They're my daughters. I asked a simple question."
"And they answered."
"No, they didn't."
The paramedics had placed Violet on a stretcher. Megan attached a pulse oximeter to the little girl's finger, watched the reading, and exchanged a quick look with her partner.
"Her oxygen saturation is dropping," she announced. "We need to move."
Everything happened at once.
The stretcher wheels clicked across the threshold. Equipment rustled. Megan called out Violet's readings while her partner connected oxygen. Paul walked beside them, keeping Richard several feet behind.
Richard followed anyway.
"You need to tell the receiving doctor that she's had this reaction before," he insisted. "And make sure they know I prescribed the medicine."
Megan didn't look at him.
"Give us the medication name and the prescription details. The receiving team will review them."
"They'll waste valuable time if they repeat tests I've already done."
"Then providing the records should help them work faster."
The ambulance doors opened.
Richard reached for the handle.
Paul caught his wrist.
"You're not entering until we've sorted out a few things."
Richard looked down at Paul's hand.
"You should be very careful."
"I've been careful all afternoon."
"Do you know who I am?"
"Your driver's license says Richard Hayes. Your prescription says Dr. Richard Hayes. Your daughters call you Daddy." Paul released him. "That's everything I know so far."
Richard's mouth flattened.
From inside the ambulance, Violet began crying.
"Daddy, please don't."
Her father turned instantly toward the sound.
"Sweetheart, I'm coming with you."
"Please don't make me sleep."
Megan stepped between him and the open doors.
"What did you tell her the medication would do?"
Richard's answer came too quickly.
"Help her rest."
Nora suddenly shouted, "He said she'd forget!"
The paramedics stopped.
Richard's face turned white.
Paul looked at Nora. "Forget what?"
Nora shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"I don't know. He said it last night. He said after today she'd sleep, and when she woke up, she wouldn't remember anything."
Richard's composure cracked.
"You've been listening outside doors again."
The sentence sounded less like a father's concern than an accusation against a witness.
Paul turned to him.
"You're going to step away from the ambulance."
Richard refused.
"I am her legal guardian."
"That doesn't give you the right to interfere with emergency treatment."
"I'm a physician!"
"And if you say it one more time, I'll have to consider whether you're interfering deliberately."
For a second, Richard appeared ready to strike him.
Instead, he stepped back and straightened his coat.
"Do what you want, Officer. When this is over, I'll make certain your supervisors understand exactly what you've done."
The ambulance doors closed.
As the vehicle pulled away, Nora watched through the rear window until the flashing lights disappeared into the rain.
Then her legs gave out.
Paul caught her beneath the arms and lowered her onto a chair.
"Easy. You're all right."
"No, I'm not."
Her voice was so quiet that he almost missed it.
Paul crouched in front of her.
"Tell me what you mean."
Nora looked toward the windows. Richard was standing in the parking lot, speaking rapidly into his phone.
"Mommy said if anything happened to her, I had to find Aunt Claire."
"Who's Aunt Claire?"
"Mommy's sister."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know. Daddy said she moved away."
Nora wiped her nose on her sleeve.
"But Mommy gave me something before she died."
Paul kept his expression neutral.
"What did she give you?"
"A little metal key."
Richard suddenly stopped talking outside.
He looked through the glass.
Nora noticed him looking.
The girl slid down in her chair and whispered, "He knows."
Paul moved her into the interview room and shut the door, leaving the blinds partly open. He called his sergeant and requested a child-protection response. He also asked dispatch to document Richard's presence and preserve the station's security recordings.
When he returned, Nora was staring at the floor.
"Where's the key now?" he asked.
"I hid it."
"Somewhere safe?"
She nodded.
"Can you tell me where?"
"In the church."
Paul waited.
"The little wooden box under the broken angel," she explained. "Mommy said nobody would look there because people only look at things they think are important."
Paul wrote the answer down without promising to retrieve it. He wanted a child-protection specialist present before asking more questions.
His desk phone rang.
The hospital.
He answered immediately.
A physician named Dr. Evelyn Sloane spoke from the emergency department. Her tone was calm, but there was an unmistakable urgency beneath it.
"Officer Hayes, Violet is conscious, but we've identified a serious medication concern. I need to ask you about the prescription your station located."
Paul looked through the interview-room window.
Richard remained outside, standing motionless beneath the station awning.
"What kind of concern?"
"The dose doesn't match the information we received from the paramedics. And our preliminary findings suggest this wasn't a routine administration."
Paul lowered his voice.
"Could the medication explain her symptoms?"
"It could explain some of them. We're investigating other possibilities, and we won't know the full picture until further testing is completed."
"Has her father contacted the hospital?"
There was a pause.
"He's already here."
Paul's grip tightened around the phone.
"How?"
"He arrived before the ambulance."
Paul looked toward the parking lot again.
Richard had disappeared.
"Doctor, listen carefully. Do not release either child to him without consulting the appropriate child-protection authorities."
"We're aware of the concern."
"That's not all. He asked Nora about a key their mother supposedly left behind. Whatever is happening, I don't think the medication is the only issue."
Another pause.
Then Dr. Sloane said something that made Paul's stomach turn.
"Officer, Richard Hayes isn't the only name on this prescription."
Paul stared at the printed pharmacy record on his desk.
"Whose name is the other one?"
"The prescribing physician is Richard Hayes. But the patient identifier belongs to a child who died nine months ago."
Outside, thunder rolled over the station.
Paul looked through the glass once more.
May you like
Richard's SUV was gone.
And somewhere across town, a seven-year-old girl was lying in a hospital bed while her father tried to get ahead of the truth.
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