Chapter 2 - THE OFFICERS AT THE FRONT DOORThe officers arrived without sirens.
I had asked the dispatcher to keep them quiet if possible.
Whether that request changed their approach or they would have done it anyway, I do not know.
Two officers came through the front after I unlocked the door remotely.
Officer Dana Cole, late thirties.
Officer Peter Walsh, maybe early forties.
Dana saw my face.
“Bathroom?”
I pointed upstairs.
Mark finally heard movement.
“Erin?”
Dana moved past me.
“Police. Stay where you are.”
Silence.
Then:
“What?”
The bathroom door opened.
Mark stepped into the hallway holding the brown bottle.
Dana immediately raised one hand.
“Set that down.”
“What is this?”
“Set the bottle down.”
He looked at me.
The betrayal in his face almost made me apologize.
Almost.
“Erin?”
I said:
“Put it down.”
He did.
Peter moved behind him.
Dana entered the bathroom.
I followed only after she told me I could.
Sophie saw me.
“Mommy!”
She launched off the tub edge.
I caught her.
The towel stayed wrapped around her.
She was shaking.
“Did I do bad?”
“No.”
The answer came out so violently that Dana looked at me.
“No, baby. No.”
Mark stood in the hallway.
“You called police?”
I ignored him.
Dana looked around the bathroom.
Paper cup.
Kitchen timer.
Brown bottle on the hallway floor.
Running bathwater.
No obvious injury.
No blood.
No restraints.
Nothing that explained terror.
That made everything harder.
Mark said:
“I can explain.”
Dana answered:
“You’ll have an opportunity.”
He looked at Sophie.
She buried her face in my shoulder.
That was the first moment I saw something crack in him.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“What did she tell you?”
I looked at him.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because she misunderstands things.”
Five years old.
May you like
Already being described as unreliable.
My stomach turned.
