Chapter 2
I took Maisie upstairs before asking another question.
Not to interrogate her.
To let her breathe.
She sat on my bed while the family physician cleaned the small cut above her eyebrow. No fracture. No serious damage.
Enough.
Too much.
I held her hand.
“What happened after you found the red thing?”
She looked toward the door.
“Grandma mad.”
“What did she say?”
Maisie thought carefully.
“Give it Gavin.”
“Did you?”
She shook her head.
“Grandpa picture gave me.”
Child logic.
The object came from Grandpa’s portrait, so Grandpa had given it to her.
Fair.
“What happened next?”
She touched her swollen eye.
“Gavin grabbed.”
My jaw tightened.
“Your arm?”
She nodded.
“I fall.”
There.
Not an accident.
A consequence of an adult trying to take something from a child.
“Where did you fall?”
“Stair thing.”
The banister.
That explained the brow.
Then:
“Grandma said don’t cry.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
“What happened to the red case?”
“Grandma took.”
I stood.
The physician quietly said:
“Roman.”
I looked at him.
“She needs calm more than answers.”
I knew.
That stopped me from asking more.
I kissed Maisie’s forehead.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
She looked surprised.
That hurt.
“Even Grandpa picture?”
“Even Grandpa’s picture.”
Downstairs, Lorraine and Gavin were waiting under guard.
Adrian was reviewing his camera.
When I entered, he showed me another image.
Taken moments before he was sent away.
Gavin’s hand was around Maisie’s upper arm.
Not enough to show the fall.
Enough to destroy the “little accident” story.
I placed the camera on the table.
“Where is the red case?”
Lorraine said:
“There was no case.”
Adrian turned the screen toward her.
She stopped.
Gavin spoke.
“It contained old family photographs.”
“Then why grab it from a four-year-old?”
“Because children damage things.”
I almost smiled.
“You damaged her.”
Silence.
Then I noticed something beneath the overturned camera cart.
A torn strip of red plastic.
The case had broken.
May you like
Whatever had been inside it might still be somewhere in the portrait hall.
Unless Lorraine had already taken it.
