Danielle was inside reading to her.
“What else?”
Price sighed.
“Her body camera activated forty-one seconds after she first touched Nia.”
“And before that?”
“Store cameras have it.”
“Audio?”
“No.”
“What did she claim?”
“That Nia was evasive and attempted to flee.”
Evelyn almost laughed.
“She was carrying two melting cones and looking for her grandmother.”
“I know what the video shows.”
“Does Officer Whitmore?”
“I’m not going to discuss her interview.”
“Fair.”
Price paused.
“There is something else.”
Evelyn waited.
“The fall.”
“She slipped.”
“Yes.”
“Video clear?”
“Very.”
“And?”
“Dana reported that you pushed her.”
Evelyn’s face hardened.
“She made that statement after seeing the videos?”
“Before.”
“That doesn’t make it acceptable.”
“No.”
“Are you asking me to feel better because she lied quickly?”
Price exhaled.
“No.”
“Good.”
The next morning, Nia woke at 4:37.
Danielle found her sitting on the bathroom floor.
Fully dressed.
Shoes on.
Backpack beside her.
“Baby?”
Nia looked up.
“I’m ready.”
“For what?”
“School.”
“It’s Sunday.”
Nia blinked.
Then looked embarrassed.
Danielle sat beside her.
“What happened?”
“I had a dream.”
“About yesterday?”
Nia nodded.
Danielle pulled her close.
“In the dream, Grandma didn’t come.”
Danielle closed her eyes.
Nia continued.
“The police lady put me in the car.”
“It was a dream.”
“I know.”
“You’re home.”
“I know.”
“Grandma came.”
“I know.”
But knowing something after fear did not always erase what fear had already taught the body.
Danielle understood that from medicine.
She had treated children after car accidents who screamed when a parent started an engine.
Patients whose wounds healed before their nervous systems understood the danger had ended.
She had never imagined applying that knowledge to her own daughter after an ice cream festival.
Nia stayed home from school Monday.
Then Tuesday.
On Wednesday, she tried.
Danielle walked her inside.
Near the office stood a school resource officer.
Nia froze.
Not dramatically.
She simply stopped walking.
Danielle felt her daughter’s hand become rigid.
“Want to go home?”
Nia nodded.
They did.
That afternoon, Danielle scheduled an appointment with a child therapist.