Chapter 6 - What Katie Saw Before She FellKatie's first detailed account came four days after the accident, when her doctor agreed that she was well enough to speak briefly with a specially trained child interviewer.
I waited in a nearby room while Detective Reynolds and a hospital specialist spoke with her. They recorded the session, asked open questions, and gave her breaks whenever she became tired.
I wanted to be beside her, but Reynolds had explained that she might feel pressure to protect me if I sat in the room.
So I waited.
I watched the clock.
I drank two cups of coffee without tasting either.
When the door finally opened, Reynolds came out alone.
“She remembers being in the car with Andrew,” he said.
I gripped the back of a chair.
“What happened?”
“He drove her away from the route she usually takes to gymnastics. He told her he wanted to show her something.”
“What?”
“A house listing, apparently. He had a printed photograph of your property and a document in a folder.”
My throat tightened.
“Why would he show that to a child?”
“We don't know. Katie recalls him asking whether you had mentioned moving.”
I sat down.
I remembered Andrew asking Katie about her bedroom a few weeks earlier. He had wanted to know whether she would be comfortable sharing a room with another child if we moved somewhere smaller.
I had assumed he was making conversation.
Now I wondered whether he had been testing how much Katie knew.
Reynolds continued.
“According to her account, Andrew received a phone call during the drive. He became angry. He argued with someone about Friday and told Katie to get out of the vehicle when they stopped near the road.”
“Why would he do that?”
“She says she refused at first because she was afraid. He told her he would take her back to you once she explained something she had seen.”
“What had she seen?”
Reynolds hesitated.
“A signature on one of the documents. She believes it was yours, but she remembered you telling her never to sign something without understanding it. She knew you hadn't agreed to sell the house.”
I shut my eyes.
Katie had recognized the wrongness of a document that I had barely understood myself.
“What happened next?”
“She got out. They argued. Katie says Andrew grabbed her arm when she tried to walk away. She pulled free and moved toward the edge of the road.”
“Did he push her?”
“She says he shoved her hard enough that she stumbled into the road. She remembers headlights and then nothing until she woke up here.”
I covered my mouth.
For a moment, the hospital disappeared. I could see only my little girl standing beside a road, frightened by the man who was supposed to keep her safe.
“Did Andrew know a car was coming?”
“We can't establish that yet. What we do know is that he left the scene without rendering assistance, and his vehicle appears to have been involved in the collision.”
“Why didn't he call an ambulance?”
“That is one of the questions we're trying to answer.”
I was crying now, but I barely noticed.
Reynolds handed me a tissue and waited.
Finally, I asked the question I had been afraid to say aloud.
“Does Katie think her father tried to kill her?”
He answered carefully.
“She's too young to determine his intentions, and we won't ask her to make that judgment. She can describe what happened. We will establish the rest through evidence.”
I nodded.
When I returned to Katie's room, she was awake and watching the rain crawl down the window.
I pulled my chair beside her bed.
“Did you see Daddy?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Is he angry with me?”
I gently held her hand.
“You haven't done anything wrong.”
She looked at me with the troubled seriousness of a child trying to solve an adult problem.
“He told me you would lose everything if I talked.”
I felt something inside me harden.
“Your job is to get better. You don't have to protect me from anyone.”
Katie's chin trembled.
“He said Grandma had already arranged everything. He said once the house was sold, we would have to go wherever he told us.”
I kissed her forehead.
“Not anymore.”
She was quiet for a long time.
Then she turned her face toward me.
“Mommy, I think Grandma was there.”
I sat very still.
“What makes you think that?”
“Before Daddy made me get out, I saw Grandma's car behind us. She was talking to him through the window.”
My stomach dropped.
“Are you sure?”
Katie nodded weakly.
“She was holding the blue folder.”
I stepped into the corridor and called Reynolds.
When I told him what Katie remembered, he asked a single question.
“Has Barbara admitted being anywhere near the accident site?”
“No.”
“Then we have another person whose movements we need to examine.”
He ended the call, promising to investigate.
I returned to my daughter's bedside and looked at her small, bandaged hand.
For days, I had believed my mother-in-law was an arrogant woman whose cruelty had finally gone too far.
Now I had to consider the possibility that she had been present when my daughter was put in danger.
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And if Barbara had been there, she had not arrived by accident.
She had come to make sure something happened.
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