Officer Chen placed a hand on his arm and guided him forward.
The door closed.
Ava let out a breath that sounded like it had been held for five years.
She sat down on the kitchen floor, right where she’d been sitting the day before when she’d first told me the truth, and she covered her face with both hands and cried without making a sound.
I sat down beside her on the floor.
We stayed there for a long time.
Daniel was at the station for six hours.
His lawyer arrived within forty minutes.
Patricia called me at noon to say they were still in questioning and that Reyes had everything — the photograph, the note, Marcus’s written record, and Ava’s full formal statement, which she had given that morning before Reyes arrived.
I sat at the kitchen table and drank tea and waited.
At two in the afternoon, Patricia called again.
“He’s talking,” she said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means his lawyer advised him that the evidence is substantial and that cooperation may affect the outcome.
He’s giving a version of events.” A pause.
“His version.”
“What’s his version?”
“He admits he was driving.
He claims the crash was an accident caused by wet roads and that he panicked afterward.
He denies pushing Chloe.
He says she reached for the wheel and he tried to correct, and the car went off the road.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“He’s blaming her.”
“He’s repositioning himself.
Minimizing.
It’s what they do.” Patricia’s voice was steady.
