Dana reached for her wrist.
Not violently.
But firmly.
Nia screamed.
Both cones fell.
One struck the sidewalk upside down.
The other hit Dana’s black uniform pants and smeared vanilla across her thigh before dropping.
The crowd reacted instantly.
“Oh!”
“What happened?”
“Hey!”
Nia tried to pull away.
“Let go!”
Dana tightened her grip.
“Stop pulling.”
“You hurt me!”
“I’m not hurting you.”
“Yes, you are!”
Tears filled Nia’s eyes.
The man with the phone stepped closer.
“She’s a kid.”
Dana turned sharply.
“Back up.”
“Let her go.”
“Sir, back up now.”
Nia twisted.
Her beads clicked against one another.
“Grandma!”
This time Evelyn heard her.
She had been thirty yards away near a bench, talking to an old friend she unexpectedly met at the festival.
The first shout sounded like every child calling for an adult in a crowd.
The second did not.
Evelyn knew Nia’s frightened voice.
She had heard it at the hospital the night Marcus died.
She had heard it during nightmares afterward.
Her body recognized the sound before her mind did.
Evelyn turned.
The crowd had formed a loose circle near Harbor Creamery.
In the center stood a police officer.
And Nia.
Evelyn began moving.
At seventy-two, she no longer ran gracefully.
She did not care.
“Excuse me.”
People stepped aside.
“Nia!”
The girl looked up.
“Grandma!”
Evelyn saw Dana holding her wrist.
She also saw both ice creams on the ground.
One crushed.
One melting beside the officer’s shoe.
Evelyn’s face changed.
She walked directly toward them.
“Take your hand off my granddaughter.”
Dana looked at her.
“Ma’am, step back.”
“I said take your hand off her.”
“I need you to step back.”
Nia was crying openly now.
“Grandma, I paid.”
“I know, baby.”
“She said I stole.”
“I heard you.”
Dana spoke.
“No one said she stole anything.”
Nia immediately shouted, “You did!”
Dana looked down.
“I said we were investigating a report.”
Evelyn stopped less than four feet away.
“Then investigate without holding a nine-year-old child by the wrist.”
“She was attempting to walk away.”
“She was attempting to find me.”
“I need you to calm down.”
Evelyn’s eyes sharpened.
“I am calm.”
Her voice was steady.
That made the words land harder.
Dana released Nia’s wrist.
Nia ran immediately to Evelyn.
Evelyn caught her with both arms.
The child buried her face against the floral blouse.
“I paid.”