Chapter 2 - The Crutch Nobody Could Find
Daniel told Deputy Harris the same story he had told Claire.
Maya stumbled.
Daniel reached for her.
She struck the refrigerator.
Simple accident.
Lorraine confirmed every word.
Claire said almost nothing.
She pointed Harris toward the dent, blood, and fallen crutch, then explained what she heard during the call.
Harris photographed the kitchen and asked where Maya’s other crutch was.
Lorraine blinked.
“She probably took it.”
Claire shook her head.
“The ambulance wouldn’t let her walk with a facial injury and possible concussion.”
Daniel’s jaw flexed.
Harris noticed.
A second deputy searched the adjoining rooms.
The missing crutch was eventually found behind the mudroom door.
Its aluminum shaft was bent.
“She fell on it,” Daniel said immediately.
Claire crouched without touching it.
The rubber cuff was torn.
There was fresh drywall dust on one side.
That did not match the kitchen floor.
Harris bagged it.
Daniel stopped smiling altogether.
At the hospital, Maya’s injuries were worse than Lorraine had admitted.
Her nose was fractured. Two teeth were loose. She had a deep cut inside her lip and bruising across one cheek.
The emergency physician had also documented finger-shaped bruises along her upper arm.
Claire entered the room quietly.
Maya was twenty-six, but lying beneath the hospital blanket with dried blood along her hairline, she suddenly looked like the little girl Claire used to carry upstairs after physical therapy.
“Hey,” Claire whispered.
Maya turned her face away.
“Don’t look at me.”
Claire sat beside her.
“I’m looking.”
Maya began crying.
Not from pain.
“Mom’s going to hate me.”
“Why?”
“Because I told.”
Claire waited.
Maya eventually described Daniel shoving her into the refrigerator after an argument over money. When she tried to reach her phone, he knocked away one crutch and drove his knee into her face.
“What money?”
Maya’s eyes moved toward the doorway.
“My disability account.”
Claire frowned.
Maya received Social Security Disability Insurance and had a modest savings account from a settlement connected to a childhood medical malpractice claim. Lorraine helped her with some paperwork but was not supposed to control the money.
“What did Daniel want?”
Maya swallowed.
“He wanted me to sign something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Then she looked at Claire with genuine terror.
“But Mom already signed it.”
