Chapter 5: In the Lobby

The deputy took my statement in the hospital lobby at one in the afternoon.

I insisted on it.

I sat in a wheelchair with a blanket over my knees.

Rhonda stood behind me with her hand on my shoulder.

The lobby was full of volunteers in red vests and two nurses on break.

A woman at the gift desk had stopped pretending not to listen.

The deputy wrote it all down.

The bolt, the cord, the phone. The window, the drift, the plow.

"I'll need to see the camera footage," he said.

"My sister has the clip of the door. The rest was deleted by the account administrator at two this morning."

"Who is that?"

"Joyce Garver."

His pen stopped.

I heard the front doors open behind me, and a gust of cold air came in.

"Hallie."

Neil stood in the lobby doorway, with Whitney a step behind him.

He had a poinsettia in his arms. Whitney held the car seat that had been in its box.

She was crying.

Her mascara had run, and she had her free hand pressed against her mouth.

"Hallie, oh my God," she said. "Neil told me what happened. I didn't know. I swear I didn't know any of it."

"Get her out of here," Rhonda said quietly.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said.

I put both hands on the arms of the chair and stood up. It hurt, and I did it anyway.

Everyone in the lobby had turned.

"Neil," I said. "Fourteen people watched you take my phone out of my hand."