Chapter 10 - The Deputy With the Form
The knock came just after lunch on my second day, when the nurse had finally let me sit up with the monitors still taped to my belly. A woman in navy scrubs I hadn't seen before stepped in first and held up a plastic badge.
"I'm Dana, patient advocate," she said. "A deputy from the county sheriff's office is here to take your statement. You can say no, or you can have me stay. It's your call."
I kept my hand on the strip of paper coming out of the monitor. The baby's heartbeat was ticking in the background, fast and thin. I nodded before I could talk myself out of it.
The deputy was younger than I expected, late twenties, his hat off and his radio turned low. He pulled the visitor chair close to the bed, not too close, and set a small recorder on the tray table.
"Elena Morales?" he said. "I'm Deputy Ross. I'm here because the hospital flagged a possible assault involving a pregnant woman. I wasn't at the house. I'm just here to get your version on record. Okay?"
I said okay. My mouth was dry.
He read me a short warning that nothing I said would decide charges by itself, then asked me to start at the staircase. I told him the time as best as I remembered it, a little after two in the afternoon, before the ceremony. The hallway at the base of that big marble staircase. The white tile cold through my uniform. Julian in his tuxedo at the bottom. Vanessa in her dress and veil up a few steps.
He wrote without looking up much. "And then what happened?"
That was the part I'd played over and over. "She came down fast behind me," I said. "I felt hands on my back. I went forward. I hit the floor on my side and then my stomach."
He stopped writing. "Did you say anything right after you fell? Try to remember your exact words."
I looked at Dana, then back at him. "I said, 'She pushed me. My baby isn't moving.'"
He repeated it back as he wrote it, word for word. He didn't flinch. Dana put her hand lightly on the bed rail.
"What did the other people say?" he asked.
"Julian said, 'Look at what she did. What happened here?'" I said. "And Vanessa said, 'She's lying. She slipped.'"
Deputy Ross nodded and made a note. "And was anything said about video?"
"Julian said, 'Check the security cameras,'" I said. "To everyone standing there."
He wrote that down too. Then he asked if anyone else had been standing close enough to see the push. I told him the truth. No. Just the three of us in that exact second. People came running after.
He turned a page on his notepad. "Has Mrs. Hale — I mean the bride — contacted you since?"
"No," I said. "Her planner called yesterday about my shift."
Dana frowned. "What did they say?"
"That if I didn't finish the weekend I'd lose the weekend pay," I said. My face got hot. "I need that money."
The deputy didn't promise anything about my job. He said retaliation for reporting was separate from the assault question, and Dana could give me a number for legal aid. Then he pulled a folded paper from his pocket.
"Here's what I can do today," he said. "I'm sending a preservation letter to the property. It tells them not to delete, record over, or mess with the security footage from that hallway. It doesn't mean I get to watch it today. It just locks it in place while we sort out who owns the system."
He read the short letter out loud so I could follow it. It listed the address, the date, the time window around two fourteen, and the cameras covering the staircase and hallway. My stomach tightened hearing it made official.
"Do you want me to send this?" he asked.
I thought about rent. About Vanessa's family owning the agency that placed me. About Julian signing the checks. My hand shook over the pen Dana offered.
"If I sign, will they know it was me?" I asked.
Deputy Ross was honest. "They'll know a report was made. They won't get this whole statement unless the case moves forward."
I signed my name anyway. Elena Morales, with the date underneath. The pen skipped on the hospital blanket and Dana smoothed the paper for me.
May you like
He put the paper back in his folder and stood. He said someone would follow up once the letter was delivered, and no arrest would be made today. He left his card on the tray table next to the water pitcher.
After he left, Dana stayed a minute longer. The monitor kept printing its thin line. I kept staring at my signature, already scared of what it would cost me.
