Chapter 3 - What Junie RememberedThe child advocacy center had painted clouds on the ceiling.
Junie disliked them.
“They don’t move,” she told Adrian.
“Clouds usually move?”
“They’re supposed to.”
“Fair point.”
He was trying to sound normal.
He had forgotten what normal sounded like.
The forensic interviewer was a woman named Paige Morrison who wore sneakers with tiny green dinosaurs on them.
Junie approved of the shoes immediately.
Adrian watched through one-way glass with Ortiz.
Corinne was not permitted in the observation room.
She had hired an attorney that morning.
That fact hurt Adrian more than he expected.
Not because hiring counsel meant guilt.
He was a businessman. He understood lawyers.
It hurt because Corinne had not called him first.
She had called someone to protect herself.
Paige sat on the floor.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
Junie nodded.
“Because I almost fell in the water.”
“Tell me about that.”
Junie picked at the hem of her yellow replacement shirt.
“Corinne was mad.”
“How did you know?”
“Her face.”
“What was her face doing?”
Junie scrunched her nose.
“She did this.”
Ortiz glanced at Adrian.
He remembered Corinne wiping her cheek after he disappeared.
He had not seen it.
Junie had.
“What happened before Corinne got mad?” Paige asked.
“Daddy kissed her.”
“And then?”
“Daddy went inside.”
“What happened next?”
“She rubbed it off.”
Adrian felt something drop inside his chest.
Paige remained neutral.
“Rubbed what off?”
“Daddy’s kiss.”
Junie demonstrated on her own cheek.
“She said yuck.”
“Did she say the word ‘yuck’?”
Junie thought carefully.
“No.”
“What did she say?”
“Disgusting.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Ortiz said nothing.
Paige continued.
“Then what happened?”
“She said a bad word.”
“What word?”
Junie whispered it.
Paige did not react.
“And then?”
“She said I was like Daddy.”
“Is that good or bad?”
Junie looked confused.
“I like Daddy.”
Adrian looked away from the glass.
His throat hurt.
“Then what happened?”
Junie pushed both hands forward.
“She did this.”
“Where were her hands?”
“Here.”
Junie touched her upper chest.
“Then what did your body do?”
“I went back.”
“Did you trip?”
Junie shook her head.
“Did you jump?”
Another shake.
“Did anybody tell you to say Corinne pushed you?”
“No.”
“Did Daddy?”
“No.”
“Did the police lady?”
“No.”
“Did Corinne?”
Junie frowned.
“She told me I slipped.”
The room behind the glass went silent.
Ortiz looked at Adrian.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Paige asked the same question.
Junie’s answer came easily.
“In the bathroom.”
Adrian’s blood went cold.
“What bathroom?” Paige asked.
“At the hospital.”
Adrian remembered.
Corinne had taken Junie to wash dried blood from her elbow while he spoke to a doctor.
Maybe three minutes.
Four at most.
“What did Corinne say?”
Junie lowered her voice.
“She said Daddy would be sad if I made up bad things.”
Adrian moved toward the door.
Ortiz blocked him.
“Don’t.”
“She threatened her.”
“Let Paige finish.”
“That woman threatened my four-year-old daughter in a hospital bathroom.”
“Adrian.”
He stared at Ortiz.
“You go through that door right now, Corinne’s lawyer gets to argue you influenced everything Junie says after this moment.”
That stopped him.
Barely.
He returned to the glass.
Paige asked, “Were you making it up?”
Junie’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“I believe that you’re telling me what you remember.”
“I don’t want Daddy sad.”
Adrian pressed his fist to his mouth.
Junie continued softly.
“I tried to hold really hard.”
Paige moved the dinosaur sneaker against the carpet.
“You did.”
“My hands hurt.”
“I bet they do.”
“I thought Daddy went away.”
That broke him.
Adrian stepped away from the glass.
Ortiz gave him a few seconds.
Then she followed.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
He laughed once despite himself.
It sounded awful.
Ortiz leaned against the wall.
“Your wife attempted to influence a potential witness.”
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
“My daughter.”
Adrian wiped his eyes.
“What happens now?”
“I’m going to obtain hospital hallway footage to establish whether Mrs. Brooks entered that bathroom with Junie. I’m also requesting a deeper forensic image of your yacht’s video system.”
“And Corinne?”
“Do not confront her.”
“You really think I’m going home with her?”
“I think you should stay somewhere else.”
Adrian looked through the glass.
Junie was showing Paige how clouds were supposed to move.
“She stays with me.”
Ortiz nodded.
“I would strongly recommend that.”
Adrian’s phone vibrated.
MARCUS BELL.
His closest friend.
Board chairman of Brooks Marine Technologies.
Adrian answered.
“Marcus.”
“Jesus, man. I just heard.”
“How?”
“Corinne called me.”
Adrian went still.
Marcus continued.
“She’s a wreck. Says the police are treating her like some kind of monster.”
Adrian looked at Ortiz.
“When did she call you?”
“I don’t know. An hour ago?”
“No.”
“What?”
Adrian checked the time.
Corinne had been inside the hospital bathroom with Junie an hour ago.
Before Adrian had even called Marcus himself.
“Why would my wife call you before she called her own lawyer?”
Silence.
Only half a second.
Still enough.
Marcus laughed weakly.
“Because I’m your friend?”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
On the other side of the glass, Junie pushed a toy cloud across the table.
Adrian remembered eighty-one missing seconds.
Then he remembered something else.
Marcus had personally arranged the yacht’s technology retrofit six months earlier.
And suddenly the missing footage did not feel like a technical problem anymore.
May you like
It felt like a door.
One Adrian had just realized was already open.
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