Chapter 13 - The Confession
Detective Vance stopped writing. He looked up from his notepad, his eyes locking onto mine.
"You took his inhaler?"
"He was using it every time he got mad," I cried, tears spilling down my cheeks again.
"He was throwing fits all morning. He played behind the water heater in the dusty basement."
"When I told him to stop, he reached for the inhaler. I thought he was faking it!"
"So where did you put the inhaler, Mrs. Vance?"
"On top of the refrigerator," I confessed, my voice breaking completely.
"Far back behind coffee filters so he couldn't reach it."
"And while he was on the porch," Detective Vance pressed gently, "did he try to get your attention?"
I covered my face with my hands, sobbing so hard my shoulders shook.
"He knocked on the mail slot," I choked out through my fingers.
"He was calling for me. He was whistling... making this terrible squeaking sound."
"And what did you do?"
"I thought he was trying to break my rules!" I shrieked softly, desperate to explain the unexplainable.
"I turned up the TV! I turned the volume up so I couldn't hear him!"
The detective didn't write anything else down.
He closed his notepad with a soft, decisive snap.
He looked at me with a mix of professional detachment and profound, quiet sorrow.
"Thank you for your honesty, Mrs. Vance," he said quietly.
May you like
"A deputy will be stationed outside this room. You are not to leave the hospital campus."
He turned and walked out, leaving me alone with the rhythmic clicking of my son's artificial breath.
