Ella had only had ten minutes alone with the tablet. Ten minutes! She had been completely transfixed by the brightness and colors of its loading screen, before it had been unceremoniously yanked from her grasp. At first she thought it had been Brian. Elle was already prepared to bite him if necessary, but it hadn’t been him at all. It was Mrs. Hernandez.

“I’m sorry, Ella, but we think this might be unsafe for you.”

“No, it’s mine!” Her words sounded a lot more like “Mr. Mime!” but her reaching hands made it perfectly clear she wasn’t giving it up without a fight. It wasn’t fair! It was hers! What did they think it was going to do, blow up?

She sat in stunned disbelief as she watched Mrs. Hernandez set it into a drawer in her desk. Ella was crushed. Her mood kept cycling from anger, to sadness, before finally settling on a slim ray of hope when Kaylee suggested maybe she just couldn’t have it at school.

“Maybe it would make the other kids jealous or something. They’ll probably give it to Heather once school’s over.” Kaylee had said once Ella had filled her in. Ella’s mood lifted considerably after hearing this. It made sense. Maybe they thought Kaylee would accidentally throw it at her and that’s why they thought it was unsafe for her. She looked at the clock. Just four more hours until she got it back. She had almost been able to calm herself down and focus on her work when something completely unexpected happened.

There was a knock on the classroom door and in walked two police officers. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gaped at them. The room fell silent. Ella looked on with interest. Were they having some kind of presentation? Oh! Did they bring their dog with them? She had seen cops with dogs before.

She looked around eagerly as they talked quietly with Mrs. Hernandez by the door. She was a little disappointed when she peeked through the gap in their legs and didn’t see a dog, but any presentation was better than doing word problems in math.

“I hope they taze someone.” Kaylee whispered. “I hope it’s Brian.”

“Kaylee!” Jasmine admonished.

“What? He’ll live!” Jasmine just shook her head and got up to see what was going on. The four of them whispered amongst themselves. They now seemed to be asking Jasmine a lot of questions.

“Hey, since you don’t talk, does that mean you have, like, super hearing?” Kaylee asked. Ella raised an eyebrow and gave her a puzzled look. “What? I heard if someone loses a sense, their other ones get stronger. Like if you were blind or something…” Ella just gave her another puzzled look and shook her head. The only thing “super” being partially mute got her was super annoyed.

There was a heavy air of disappointment when Mr. Hernandez pointed down the hall and the cops turned around and left.

“Bummer.” Kaylee said. “I thought something interesting might happen.” Ella was about to agree with her, but then Mrs. Hernandez spoke.

“Ella, could you pack up your stuff and come with us? Your mom’s waiting for us in the conference room.”

Ella felt her mouth go dry. She could hear the excited chatter around her. Was she the reason the cops were here? Her fears were confirmed when Mrs. Hernandez reached into her desk and pulled out the white tablet.

Ella had a silent conversation with Kaylee that consisted of wide eyes, shoulder shrugs and shakes of the head. Once she was all packed, she gave Kaylee another fearful look before following Mrs. Hernandez and Jasmine out the door, around the corner and into a conference room. There seated at the table was Heather and the two police officers from earlier.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

By the time they let Ella leave, her hand was cramping from the amount of writing they had made her do. They had so many questions that never seemed to stop. Who was the man in the video camera? Why was he leaving her gifts? Did she know he was in town?

She wrote all her answers down as best she could on a piece of paper. Yes, she knew him from soccer, and no, she didn’t know he was in town. Why was he leaving her expensive gifts? Because it was her birthday?

Then the questions took a different turn. Had he ever touched her? Yes. Had he kissed her? Yes. Where? On the lips. Was she standing, sitting, or laying down? Laying down. Was she clothed or naked? Naked. Did he touch her other places? Yes. Did he touch her chest? Yes. Did he touch her anywhere lower? Yes. Where? He had bandaged her ankle when she had sprained it during a match. Had he touched her any other times? Yes, he had given her hugs before. Did he touch her butt when giving her hugs? No, why would he touch her butt?

The questions just kept going and going. Heather had grabbed her hand under the table and given it a squeeze.

“You’re so brave.” Heather had said. Ella didn’t feel brave. She only felt confused.

They started asking her questions about the night her mother died.

Was he there that night? Yes. Was she sure? Yes. Was he touching her that night? Yes. Is that when he kissed her and touched her chest? Yes. Was he being gentle or rough? Rough. Did she see a gun? No. Did she have guns in the house? She didn’t know. Did she hear a gunshot? No. What was the last thing she remembered her mother doing? Giving her a bath. What time was that? A little after 10 pm, she had gotten sick on herself. Was it possible he had given her something to make her sick? No, she was always sick around that time. Why? Chemo. Was he in the room with her when she was getting a bath? No. Was he there earlier that night or had he just shown up? She couldn’t remember.

There were many questions she couldn’t answer, like exact times, dates, names. They wanted information from her on an event her brain wouldn’t even let her have access to. She was the one who wanted answers about that night! They should go ask him! They informed her they were doing just that.

“Is he cooperating? Has he admitted what he did to her?” Heather asked.

“As soon as the night in question was brought up, he shut down and demanded a lawyer. Questioning will resume later this evening. This is why we need your daughter’s statement. If we can’t charge him with a crime within 48 hours we have no choice but to let him go.” One of the officers said.

“Let him go? So he can go out and assault other children!? He took advantage of a very sick
Eight year old! Not only did he follow her out here, but look at what he left her! He’s still grooming her.” Heather showed him the tablet. “I googled what this is! This isn’t some cheap knock off, this is a Wacom Cintiq! It goes for nearly $700 on Amazon! How isn’t that proof enough? Do you think soccer coaches just go around leaving $700 gifts to old teammates?”

“We’d actually like to take a log that in as evidence. If he is stalking her, there’s a chance he bought this for the purpose of spying on her. There are ways to tap into a camera on an electronic device remotely.”

They began asking more questions, things like what she did online and if she had given anyone she didn’t know her new address. Ella shook her head. She wasn’t allowed on-line. Heather and the officers continued to talk while they made Ella fill out a written statement of everything she remembered. It had felt like hours before they seemed content with what information they had collected.

Ella nursed her cramped hand while they packed all of her signed statements into a folder. She was even willing to attempt verbal communication if it meant not picking up another pencil for the rest of her life.
“I want to be there.” said Ella. It came out a garbled mess. The officers looked at each other as if to ask Did you catch that, before looking to the others for clarification.

“Absolutely not!” Heather nearly shouted. “You are not getting within ten miles of him let alone ten feet.”

Ella felt frustrated. They had put her through all that, and Heather wasn’t going to let her go. She had so many questions that needed answers!

“We don’t think that would be a very good idea.” The female officer looked at Ella and gave her a sympathetic smile. “We want to keep you safe. That’s our number one priority.” She then looked up at Heather. “We do have an idea if you want to hear it.”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Heather didn’t like this. Heather didn’t like this one bit. She walked the steps to the courthouse, fiddling with the wire as she did so. The cord for the microphone ran up the inside of her blouse and rested underneath her shirt collar. At least she wasn’t doing this alone. She looked at Rose, who seemed to have an eerily similar look of doubt plastered across her face.

As soon as Heather told Rose she had learned they had him in custody, she had grabbed her husband and they had driven non-stop through the afternoon. She had barely made it out of the car when she had been lured into their crazy plan by the police. Ella didn’t even know she was in town.

“You ready?” Heather asked.

“No.” Rose responded. “What makes them so sure he will talk to us over them? He will probably just feed us a bunch of bull shit.”

“I know, but they want to get him talking before his lawyer gets here, off the record.” Heather did air quotes around “off the record”. They were just supposed to be concerned caretakers wanting to know what happened to Ella that night. They wern’t supposed to ask anything related to sexual abuse, they were only to ask questions as if he was an innocent bystander. Pfft, innocent, Heather thought. It was a good thing Rose would be there with her, otherwise she might be tempted to rip his head off right then and there. She needed someone there to pay her bail if she hit him.

“Isn’t this illegal?” Rose asked. “I thought you needed consent to record someone or else it’s inadmissible.”

“It is, they just want to play it back to him and trick him into confessing.”

“You would have to be pretty brave, or pretty stupid to admit to molesting a girl to the girls’ family. I don’t know what they think we are going to accomplish.”

They checked in at the lobby and pinned their visitor badges to the front of their shirts. Heather’s heart was beating out of her chest. Her clothing was beginning to stick to her body from sweat. There was no way she could just act like they were having a friendly chat.

Heather and Rose followed the male officer down a hall and into a visiting area. Heather peeked into a window and saw him sitting alone in a large room of tables. He was wearing normal street clothes with a visitor badge and looking at his phone. He wasn’t even cuffed.

“I don’t understand. I thought he had been arrested.” Heather said. Rose agreed. She had been under that impression too.

“No, ma’m, he is here voluntarily. He was only asked to come in for an interview today. He can leave whenever he wants.”

Heather and Rose exchanged worried looks.

“What about all that about holding him for 48 hours?”

The officer looked confused. “I don’t know anything about that. He was only asked to come give a statement.”

So they had either lied to her, or didn’t know what was going on. Neither thought was very comforting. The last thing Heather wanted to think about was incompetent police, but the thought that they had lied to Ella filled her with rage.

When they had been led into the waiting room, with its faux wooden tables and vending machines that reminded her of a break room, the man briefly looked up.

“Are either of you my lawyer?” He asked, looking hopeful.

They had this all planned out, but the moment she locked eyes with him, her speech seemed to fail her. She hadn’t expected him to look so…so…ordinary. It wasn’t like she was expecting him to scream, “child predator” but he looked like your run of the mill dad you’d see at a park pushing his kid in a swing, or a dad getting stuck playing chaperone on a school field trip to a group of hyper-active girls.

The blurry footage on the security camera with its finger print smeared lens, had made him look downright sinister, but as he sat there with his long black hair pulled tight in a neat bun and a maroon, buttoned down, long sleeved shirt tucked into black slacks, he looked genuinely out of place in a prison. It made Heather all the more angry. How many parents had he fooled? How many innocent kids had he lured in?

“No, sorry, we’re just waiting for someone.” Rose said.

He let out a disappointed sigh. “I just want to get this over with.” He mumbled to himself as he tapped anxiously against the table. He seemed to take in Rose for a moment as if just noticing her. “You look familiar.”

“I was about to say the same thing about you.” she replied.

Heather was impressed. How Rose managed to keep her composure and sound friendly was beyond Heather, when Heather herself was fighting every impulse to tackle him to the ground and gouge out his eyes with her thumbs.

“Where do I know you from?” His brow creased in confusion. “Do you have any kids? Do they play sports? I’ve coached several youth leagues over the years.”

Heather had to resist the urge to ask if along with coaching several leagues, had he also molested several children as well? She decided that it might be better to let Rose do the talking. She walked over to the vending machines, feigning indifference to the conversation. The first hurdle was over, they had made contact and he seemed willing to chat.

“None of my own, but i’ve treated my fair share of sports injuries, sprained ankles and broken bones mostly, but every once in a while I’d see a bad case of heat exhaustion in the summer. I hope you remind those kids of yours to drink plenty of water.”

He smiled weakly and nodded his head. “I try my best to keep them from drinking those sports drinks and sodas, but you know kids, they think they’re invincible. Common sense seems to go in one ear and out the other.”

“I once treated a kid, who after seeing spider-man, decided to pick up a black widow with his bare hands in order to get superpowers.” Rose said. They both cringed.

“Are you a doctor?”

“Pediatric nurse, I worked the emergency room for 15 years, but the last handful have been spent in long-term care. Those are the kids with blood diseases, severe birth defects, and…cancer.” His eyes suddenly flashed in recognition.

“Do you happen to work out of Loma Linda?”

“I did, did you-” she paused and squinted her eyes for show. “You said you coached kids soccer right? I do vaguely remember an entire team, jerseys and all, piled into a single room.”

“Guilty.” he said with a slight smile. “So sad.” He muttered more to himself.

“Was it cancer? Or…?”

“Yeah, leukemia.” he said, wringing his hands together. “Such a sweet girl. She didn’t deserve that, no one does.”

Heather glared at the assortment of snacks trying to hide her anger and thought, she certainly didn’t deserve you.

“Do you remember her? I mean, I’m sure you’ve dealt with so many kids it must be hard to remember a particular one, but her name is Isabella.”

“Can i join you?” Rose asked motioning to the empty seat at his table.

“Please,” he said. “I could use the company; I’m a little nervous. By the way, I’m Stanley, but you can call me Stan.” He extended his hand and Rose shook it.

“Rose, and yes, I remember Ella. She was someone very special to me.”

“She was special to me as well.” Both women clenched their fists. “I should have taken responsibility for my actions when I had the chance.” Heather felt a wave of satisfaction as she watched him choke back a sob. The guilt was eating him alive. Maybe they could get a confession out of him after all. Heather had expected Rose to push the issue further, but her response surprised her.

“I regret my actions too.” Rose admitted. “I’ve regretted them everyday.” Now it was Rose’s eyes that were watering.

“What happened?” he asked after realizing Rose was not going to further explain.

“She’s gone through so much, first the cancer, and then her mother’s death. My husband and I were planning on taking her in if this other family fell through. I didn’t realize how much I regretted giving her up, until I saw her walk out the door holding someone else’s hand.”

“You were?” Heather asked, turning around. “Why didn’t you?”

“I honestly thought you’d flake like all the others.”

“How do you know Ella?” He asked, looking from Heather to Rose. “Are you a nurse as well?”
“I’m her foster mother.” Heather said through gritted teeth. He seemed to perk up at this.

“You are? How is she? Did she get my gift? I couldn’t get in, so I had to leave it out front.”

“Yes,” Heather said, venom dripping from her words. “The police have it now.”

“Why would the police have it?” He cocked his head to the side in confusion.

“Why did you give her that? That’s an awfully expensive gift to be giving a former team member.”

“Well, the thing is, she’s not just a team member to me, I just really wanted to make it up to her. I know It can’t make up for the past, but…”

“Damn straight it can’t make up for the past, you sick pervert!” Heather said, no longer able to control her outrage. “You think you can just buy her a toy and she’ll just forgive you for molesting her? She’s traumatized because of you?”

“Wait, what?” He looked horrified. “What are you talking about? I would never! Why would you even think that? Did she say she was molested by someone? Hasn’t she gone through enough already? Please, tell me she wasn’t assaulted like that!”

“Both of you, calm down!” Rose said. “There’s obviously been some kind of miscommunication.”

“Why would you say that?” Stan asked Heather.

“You were the one who was going on about how you were ashamed of your actions!”

“Yeah, but I was referring to something else! I would never touch her! I would never do something like that… to any of the kids! Especially not my own daughter!”

They stared at him in shock. Did he just say…?

“You’re Ella’s father?” Rose asked. “Where have you been? Does she know?”

“No, I only figured it out not that long ago. I had a one night stand with a stranger in another state about 12 years ago, never saw her again, but then who should show up one day? Mystery woman dropping her daughter off for practice, and damn did she look a lot like my other daughter, Gracie. Did the math and yeah…”

“If you didn’t assault her, then why does Ella remember you kissing her?”

“What? I never kissed her!” He said scrunching up his face.
“She says she remembers you on top of her, kissing her and touching her chest.” Rose explained.

His face fell and his eyes filled with a deep sadness.

“I guess to a kid it would seem that way.”

Rose stared at him for a moment before her eyes opened wide. “It was you! I had assumed it was the paramedics.”

“Maybe it was them, they would have done a better job anyway. I’ve only practiced on dolls before. I was too scared of hurting her more than she already was.”

“Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?” Heather asked.

“What Ella remembers isn’t what we thought it was.” Rose said. “He wasn’t kissing her, he was giving her mouth to mouth.”

“And you believe him?” Heather asked, still sounding skeptical.

“There was bruising on her sternum and ribs consistent with CPR injuries. I had assumed it was the work of first responders, but if it had been them, bones would have been broken. There’s a saying in the medical field, ‘If you’re not breaking bones-”

“‘You’re not doing it right.’” He finished.

“Was she in the bathtub?”

“Yes.”

“I thought so, she must have fallen asleep and gone under and-” Rose began, but the coach cut her off.

He looked up, his eyes now shining with fresh tears that spilled down his face. “No, that’s not what happened! It’s worse than that! It’s so much worse! It’s all my fault!” He was bawling now, head down in his arms. “I had to stop her! She was going to…and then she… there was so much blood and I panicked!”

They listened quietly, horror struck by what they were hearing as he told them what happened that night. He was right. It was so much worse than they had dared to imagine.

Now Heather and Rose stood alone in the dark empty parking lot leaning against their cars.

“What do I do? What do I tell her?” Heather asked. She hadn’t smoked in fifteen years, but now she was craving a cigarette.

Rose shook her head. “We can’t tell her.” she said, barely over a whisper. “The truth will destroy her.”

“We’ll say she fell asleep in the bath. Her couch found her while he was visiting her mom, pulled her out and gave her CPR. That’s why she remembers him kissing her.”

“And her mom’s death?”

“When CPR failed, she thought Ella was dead. She was so distraught she took her own life.”

“Do you think she’ll believe it?”

“She’ll have to. There’s no way we can tell her the truth.”