Chapter 14: Three Days

Hannah's POV

I flew to Seaview City on a Tuesday for a form.

The children's services office wanted a witness statement in person.

They wanted it from the nurse who had put a phone in a six-year-old's hand.

I said it all to a caseworker with kind eyes and a stack of folders, and she typed as I talked.

"The burn first," she said. "When did you first see it?"

"The night he came in."

"And you reported it?"

"On the third day."

She stopped typing.

I had known she would. I had practiced the sentence on the plane, and it still came out thin.

"Do you have notes from that first night?" she asked.

"I have photographs."

I took out my phone and laid it on her desk, and she scrolled through them slowly.

There was the shoulder, the edge of the burn, a ruler laid beside it.

Every frame carried the date in the corner.

The date was three days before my report.

"These will go in the file," she said, gently. "Mr. Brandow's lawyer will read the file, and so will he."

"I know."

"He's the boy's father, Ms. Lowe. If it's going to be hard for him to read, it's better he hears it from someone."

"I know," I said again.

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