He Laughed While I Was Hit novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: I Gave It to Her
Nobody on that road made a sound.
The older trooper lowered his cuffs.
"Ma'am," he said to Fiorella, "say that again."
"I gave Britta Solheim a phone." Fiorella's voice did not shake. "It was mine. She did not take it, and she did not take my son. He walked to her door in the night because I told him to."
"Mrs. Venturi is unwell," the lawyer said, smoothly.
"Ask me what day it is."
"Mrs. Venturi..."
"It's Monday." She shifted Elio on her hip. "Ask me what I ate for breakfast, or where my son sleeps, or why I hit this woman in the face five times last Monday."
The lawyer's hand tightened on his folder.
"I hit her because I was ordered to," Fiorella said. She said it to the troopers, and then she turned and said it to the cameras on the road. "My brother-in-law, Rocco Venturi, told me to do it. He said if I refused, my son would be on a plane to a school in Switzerland that night."
A trooper's pen began to move.
"I'll give you a full statement," Fiorella said. "On Friday, in front of his board. Today I'm telling you one thing you can check, and it's this one."
She pulled the folder's last page out with her free hand and held it up, the wobbly signature on it.
"He stood behind me with the pen when I signed this."
The older trooper took the page, looked at the downhill letters, and looked at the lawyer.
"Counselor," he said. "The complainant has just told me, on camera, that her complaint is false."
"My client's counsel will review the matter."
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