Chapter 2 - THE AMBULANCE AT THE BASEBALL PARTY
Cody had no broken bones.
The paramedics immobilized his wrist and transported him to the emergency department because he reported dizziness after the fall. Imaging later showed a sprain, bruising, and no head injury.
That did not erase what I had done.
Officer Mara Cole separated Drew and me before the ambulance left the backyard.
“Tell me exactly how he fell.”
“I pulled the table.”
“Did you know he was standing on it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you intend for him to fall?”
“I intended to get him off Theo’s cake. I did not stop to consider how he would land.”
Drew stood ten yards away, filming me.
“She tried to kill him.”
Officer Cole looked toward the low folding table and the grass.
“Mrs. Howerin, stop making legal conclusions while I’m collecting statements.”
“She attacked an eleven-year-old.”
“I heard you.”
Theo sat on the patio steps wrapped in my sweater. Blackberry frosting stained one sock. He watched every adult as though his birthday had become a test he might fail again.
The remaining guests gave statements.
Three had seen Cody climb onto a chair before jumping.
One heard Drew tell him, “Wait until Theo closes his eyes.”
Another remembered Cody asking whether he would still receive the gaming console if the cake collapsed too soon.
Drew denied promising anything.
Her phone might answer that question.
Officer Cole requested that everyone preserve recordings and messages.
Drew refused to surrender her device without a warrant.
That was her right.
Her certainty was not.
At the hospital, I sat with Theo while Drew remained with Cody in another treatment bay.
A social worker asked whether Theo had been injured.
“Not physically.”
She looked at the frosting on his sleeve.
“What happened before the fall?”
Theo stared at the floor.
“Cody said my party was for babies.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He said my wish was stupid.”
“What did you wish for?”
Theo’s eyes moved toward me.
“I didn’t finish.”
The social worker did not push.
My attorney, Rachel Sloan, arrived before the police completed their interviews. I had used her after Daniel died, though most of the estate work had gone through the Barrymore family office.
“You pulled a table out from under a child?”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes briefly.
“You will not minimize that.”
“I’m not.”
“You will also not allow Drew to erase what led to it.”
I gave her my phone.
She examined the four suspended transfers.
“Why were these leaving an account named for Theo?”
“I thought it was the family support account Daniel created.”
“Who told you that?”
“Drew. And Paul Mercer at the family office.”
Rachel enlarged the transaction details.
The mortgage payment did not go directly to a lender.
It went to Howerin Residential Management.
The tuition payment went through an education consultancy rather than Cody’s school.
The consulting transfer ended at a company registered three months after Daniel’s death.
The continuity payment had no public recipient.
Rachel’s expression changed.
“Do not restart anything.”
Drew’s attorney entered the corridor carrying an emergency petition.
He was not there only because Cody had fallen.
The petition sought temporary supervision of Theo and immediate suspension of my authority over his financial accounts.
May you like
Its factual statement described me becoming violent at the birthday party.
The document had been drafted the previous day.
