Chapter 10
The deputy arrived at ten in the morning. I remembered the clock on the microwave said 10:03 because I stared at it while I held my bunny against my chest.
My dad had set up his laptop on the dining table where we had eaten the night before. The plates were gone. The woven placemats were still there. The woman in the cream blouse sat at the far end of the table with her hands folded. She had redone her makeup. Her hair was smooth and parted in the middle like nothing had happened.
The deputy was a woman with short gray hair and a brown uniform. She didn't smile too much. With her was a younger woman in a blue cardigan who said she was with the county family services. She crouched down to my level first.
"Hi there," she said softly. "I'm Maya. Is it okay if I sit near you while your dad shows some video? You can hold your bunny the whole time."
I nodded. I didn't let go of the bunny. Its pink nose was pressed into my palm.
My dad didn't look at the woman in the cream blouse when he opened the laptop. His jaw was tight. He had not slept. I could see the stubble on his face was heavier.
"This is from last night," he said to the deputy. His voice was low and flat. "Laundry room camera. Timestamped. Then her bedroom."
The deputy took out a small notebook. "Go ahead and play it. Don't pause. We'll watch it straight through."
My dad pressed play. The first clip was the hallway. I watched the screen from my chair. I saw the laundry room door. I saw the woman pull me by the wrist. I wasn't crying yet in the video. I was just being led. Then the door closed. The timestamp ticked in the corner. 6:42 p.m. The door stayed closed for a long time.
The room was quiet except for the faint hum from the laptop.
The woman in the cream blouse leaned forward. "I can explain," she said quickly. "She was having a tantrum. I just needed her to calm down. It was only—"
The deputy held up one hand without looking away from the screen. She didn't blink. "Ma'am, please wait until the video is finished. You'll have a chance to give a statement."
My dad let the clip run. When it finally showed the door opening again, my face in the video was red. The second clip started automatically. It was my room. The camera was in the corner near the ceiling. I saw my small bed and the same bunny on the pillow. I saw the woman take the bunny off the bed and put it on a high shelf where I couldn't reach. I saw her close the door from the outside. The timestamp said 7:15 p.m.
Maya from family services glanced at me. She didn't ask me about the video yet. She just watched my hands squeezing the bunny.
When both clips ended, my dad closed the laptop halfway. His hands were shaking a little.
The deputy wrote down both timestamps in her notebook. She read them back out loud. "Entry to laundry room 18:42, exit 19:05. Bedroom confinement 19:15 to 19:48. Is that accurate?" My dad nodded. She made him say it out loud. "Yes."
Then she turned to the woman in the cream blouse. "Now, ma'am, you said you can explain. Please go ahead."
She spoke fast, her voice thin. "It wasn't locked. She could come out. I was right outside. She was screaming and I didn't want her to ruin dinner. In her room, I just put the toy up so she would rest. I can explain, that's all it was. A time-out."
The deputy wrote that down word for word. Maya wrote too. Neither of them nodded or agreed.
Maya shifted her chair closer to me. She kept her voice gentle. "Can you tell me in your own words what happened in the laundry room? You don't have to say a lot."
I breathed in. The bunny's ear was damp where I'd been holding it. "She took me into the laundry room," I whispered. It was the same sentence I'd said at dinner. "And she left me there. It was dark and the washer was loud."
"Did the door lock?" Maya asked.
"Yes," I said.
"And in your bedroom?" she asked.
"She put Bunny up high and closed the door," I said. I held it tighter. "I couldn't get him."
Maya nodded and wrote that. The deputy looked between my words and the video timestamps and made a small check mark.
The deputy then spoke clearly, not to me but to my dad and the woman. "Based on what we've viewed and the child's statements aligning with the video, this meets criteria for a child endangerment review. Isolation of a four-year-old in a utility room and confinement in a bedroom with denial of a comfort object is not an appropriate time-out. It's a safety concern."
The woman's face went pale. "You're making this sound worse than it is. I was overwhelmed. That's not what happened—"
"Ma'am, your explanation has been recorded," the deputy said evenly. "It is inconsistent with what the video shows. The video shows a closed, unattended confinement, not an open-door calming space."
She turned to my dad. "We are filing an official report today. The evidence will be logged. We are establishing an immediate safety plan. That means this child is not to be left alone with you, ma'am, pending the investigation. Do you understand?"
The woman stared at the table. She didn't answer at first. Then she said, "Yes."
My dad exhaled. I heard his breath catch. He reached over and put his hand lightly on the back of my chair, not pulling me, just there.
May you like
The deputy gave my dad a card with a case number on it. Maya explained she would be back the next day to check the plan. The woman in the cream blouse was told to pack a bag and stay elsewhere if she lived in the home.
No one handcuffed anyone. No one said it was over. The laptop stayed on the table with the screen dark.
