Chapter 3 - The Search
The dining room table, usually reserved for festive plates and laughter, became a forensic staging area.
Officer Garrity’s partner, a younger female officer named Reyes, put on a pair of black nitrile gloves. She picked up Eleanor’s pristine, designer leather handbag and unzipped it.
My mother stood by the wall, her breathing shallow. Derek was muttering under his breath, looking at me as if I had committed treason.
"This is going to ruin our co-parenting, Clara," he whispered. "You're having some kind of breakdown. I’m going to call my lawyer."
"Look at the bag, Derek," I said, not even looking at him. "Just watch."
Officer Reyes reached into the bag. She pulled out a wallet, a compact mirror, a pack of tissues, and then—wrapped in a silk scarf—a twin pack of bright yellow EpiPens.
She held them up. "Are these your daughter's?"
"Check the prescription label on the side of the plastic case," I said. "It has Lucy’s name on it. And my name as the primary guardian."
Officer Reyes turned the cylinder. "Prescription for Lucy Carter. Prescribed yesterday." She looked at Eleanor. "Ma'am, why is this prescription, made out to this child, hidden in your purse wrapped in a scarf?"
"I... I was just keeping it safe!" Eleanor cried out, her voice rising in pitch. "Clara is so irresponsible. She leaves things lying around. I didn't want the child to play with it!"
"It was inside my zipped purse, in my bedroom," I said clearly. "Lucy told me she watched you take it out."
Officer Garrity walked into the kitchen. He returned a moment later carrying the pink unicorn plate with the single cookie, alongside the blue-labeled jar. He held the jar up to the light.
"This is a standard peanut butter spread," Garrity noted, reading the warning label. "The kitchen pantry has three jars of sunflower-seed butter. This jar is not from this house."
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"I brought it by mistake!" Eleanor insisted, her hands shaking. "The labels look identical! It was an accident!"
"If it was an accident, Mom," I asked, taking a step toward her, "then why did you hide the only thing that could keep her alive when she ate it?"
