Chapter 4: What the Hospital Found
The nurse who checked Maya in didn't say much at first.
She took Maya's temperature, her bl00d pressure, checked her arms and legs with careful hands, and wrote things down on her clipboard without looking up.
Then she looked up.
"How long has she been without regular meals?"
"I don't know exactly," I said.
"At least three days.
Maybe more."
"And the bruising on her lower back?"
My throat closed.
"I didn't know about that."
The nurse set the clipboard down on the edge of the bed.
Maya was watching both of us with the careful eyes of a child who has learned that adult conversations can change her life.
"Sweetheart," the nurse said to Maya, "can you tell me how you got those marks?"
Maya looked at me first.
I nodded.
"Julian pushed me," she said.
"When I tried to get out of the cage."
The nurse wrote something down.
Then she stepped out of the room and I heard her speaking to someone in the hallway in a low, deliberate voice.
A doctor came in twenty minutes later, followed by a woman in a gray blazer who introduced herself as a child welfare officer named Carla Simmons.
"Mr.
Reeves," she said, "I need to ask you some questions, and then I need to speak with Maya alone.
Is that all right?"
"Yes," I said.
She asked me to wait in the hallway.
I stood outside the closed door for forty minutes.
I watched orderlies push carts.
I watched a family down the hall hug each other.
I looked at my phone and saw two missed calls from Elena and one from a number I didn't recognize.
I called the unknown number back.
"Mr.
Reeves." A man's voice.
Careful, professional.
"My name is Detective Aaron Webb.
I'm with the county sheriff's office.
We received a report about a property on Sycamore Lane.
I understand you were there this afternoon."
"I was."
"We'd like to talk to you.
And we'd like to talk to your daughter when she's able."
"What about the pool?" I asked.
A pause.
"We've dispatched a unit to the property.
We'll know more once they've had a look."
"Julian is still there."
"We're aware of that, Mr.
Reeves."
The door to Maya's room opened.
Carla Simmons stepped out, and her expression was the kind that social workers practice for years — composed, careful, giving nothing away too early.
"Your daughter is very brave," she said.
"What did she tell you?"
"Enough." She folded her hands in front of her.
"Mr.
Reeves, I need you to understand that what happens next is going to move quickly.
There will be an investigation.
There will be interviews.
You should contact a family law attorney today if you don't already have one."
"What about Maya?
Can she stay with me?"
Carla looked at me for a moment.
"That is my recommendation, yes."
I put my hand on the wall to steady myself.
Inside the room, through the small window in the door, I could see Maya sitting up in the hospital bed.
A nurse had brought her a cup of juice and a packet of crackers.
Maya was eating them slowly, one at a time, like she wasn't sure they were real.
My phone buzzed.
A text from the unknown number — Detective Webb.
*Unit is at the property.
May you like
You need to prepare yourself.
We found something in the pool.*
