Chapter 4 - Ryan Changed His Story
Officer Morales asked Ryan to step into an empty consultation room.
Ryan refused.
"Anything I say, I can say in front of my wife."
"I'm not sure she's going to be your wife much longer," Officer Morales said.
I almost respected him for that.
The second officer, a younger woman named Patel, stayed with me.
"We already have your statement from the party," she said. "Now we have a possible history. We need to know who had access to Lily during the periods these bruises could have occurred."
I named myself.
Ryan.
School.
My mother.
And Diane.
Mostly, I said, Ryan handled pickups on Thursdays because I worked late.
Officer Patel wrote something down.
Across the hall, Ryan was speaking too loudly.
"I never saw my mother injure Lily."
I froze.
Ten minutes earlier, he had admitted seeing Diane slap her.
I walked into the consultation room.
"That's a lie."
Ryan's head snapped toward me.
Officer Morales raised one hand. "Ma'am—"
"He just told me she slapped Lily in June."
The officer's expression changed.
Ryan stood. "Megan, don't do this."
"Do what? Tell the truth?"
"You're emotional."
That word.
The oldest weapon in the world when a woman notices what everyone else wants ignored.
"Say it again," I told him.
"What?"
"Tell the officer you never saw your mother hurt Lily."
He stared at me.
He couldn't.
Officer Morales closed his notebook.
"Mr. Walker, we're going to need a formal statement."
Ryan turned to me.
"You understand what you're doing, right?"
"Protecting our daughter."
"You're blowing up our family."
"No. Your mother did that when she hurt Lily. You helped when you covered it up."
His face hardened.
"You slapped me tonight."
There it was.
I had known he would use it eventually.
"Yes," I said. "I did."
Both officers watched me.
"I slapped you after you grabbed my arm and told me to apologize to the woman who had just injured our child. I will tell that to anyone who asks."
Ryan stared at me as if honesty itself were betrayal.
Then his phone rang.
MOM.
Diane had been arrested less than an hour ago.
She should not have been calling him.
Ryan declined the call.
It rang again.
Officer Morales noticed.
"How is your mother contacting you?"
Ryan looked at the screen.
The name disappeared.
A voicemail notification appeared.
Then my own phone buzzed.
Another message from Claire.
CALL ME NOW. I FOUND THE OLD CASE FILE.
I stepped into the hallway and called.
Claire answered immediately.
"I found something from Ethan's case that I forgot existed," she said.
"What?"
"A transcript. Ryan gave a statement."
"He told me he arrived afterward."
"That's what he told investigators."
Paper rustled on her end.
"But six months later, during my divorce deposition, he slipped. He described the spoon."
I closed my eyes.
"Meaning he saw it."
"Yes."
"Send me everything."
"I will. But Megan, there's another name in the transcript."
I leaned against the wall.
"Whose?"
"Frank Walker. Ryan's father."
"What about him?"
Claire went quiet.
"He told my attorney Diane had been violent with all three children for years."
"Then why didn't anyone know?"
"Because three days later, Frank disappeared."
My skin prickled.
"Disappeared?"
"Ryan told everyone his father left the family."
Claire inhaled slowly.
"Megan, nobody has seen Frank Walker in nine years."
---
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