Chapter 7: The Forensic Interview
The forensic interviewer specialized in young children arrived mid-morning. The session was recorded under protocol, conducted in a neutral room with soft lighting and no institutional furniture that might feel like a station or a clinic. Emma went first at her own request; she refused to leave Olivia alone in the observation unit and only agreed when a trusted nurse remained visible through the doorway.
She repeated the sequence without the polish adults sometimes add. Daddy had taken Olivia into the bathroom. He had filled the oral syringe from a small bottle. He had told Olivia to swallow and not to tell. He had checked their pockets afterward. Emma had found the empty syringe on the bathroom floor when he went to get his keys, hidden it under the insole of her shoe, and waited for the first chance to leave the house. They had walked in the rain until they saw the police lights. She had chosen the station because the doors were open and the man at the counter looked like he would listen.
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Olivia’s interview was shorter. Pain and residual sedation limited her stamina. She confirmed that her father had made her swallow medicine from a syringe, that it had hurt her stomach, and that she had been told not to tell. She did not know the name of the medicine. She only knew she was not allowed to talk about it.
Both statements were consistent with the physical evidence and with each other. Neither child used language that suggested coaching. The interviewer noted the absence of adult phrasing and the presence of concrete sensory detail—bathroom light, the taste, the way the syringe felt against her teeth, the exact hiding place under the insole.
