Chapter 17 - Catch

I don't remember climbing the first railing.

I remember Camille's scream.

I remember Marcus grabbing Hilda's wrist.

I remember a police officer firing toward the ceiling after Marcus's gun discharged.

And I remember Camille falling.

A warehouse worker's safety net hung beneath the catwalk for maintenance crews.

She hit it hard, bounced once, and started screaming.

The best sound I had ever heard.

Officers reached her before I did.

I dropped to my knees beside the net.

"Daddy!"

"I'm here."

For once, those words were true in every sense.

Above us, Hilda fought like a trapped animal.

Marcus surrendered.

Hilda did not.

Three officers finally forced her to the floor.

She kept staring at me.

"You think she was innocent?" Hilda shouted.

I held Camille against my chest.

"Elena?"

"She knew your company was moving counterfeit medicine and waited weeks to tell you."

"She was collecting proof."

"She was protecting your reputation."

"No. She was protecting people from an accusation she couldn't prove yet."

Hilda laughed.

"You still worship her."

I looked at my daughter.

"No. I finally see all of us as human."

That seemed to anger Hilda more than hatred would have.

Detective Ortiz walked her away in handcuffs.

Marcus asked for a lawyer.

Camille was taken to the hospital with a bruised shoulder and no major injury.

Rosalyn climbed into bed beside her and refused to move.

Later that night, Ortiz came to me with the preliminary reconstruction of Elena's death.

Hilda had interfered with medication in the house.

Marcus had altered clinical records afterward.

The combination likely triggered the catastrophic event doctors mistook for a spontaneous aneurysm.

"We'll need experts and a grand jury," Ortiz said. "But we have enough to charge."

I thought I would feel victory.

I felt tired.

Then Ortiz handed me one final evidence bag.

Inside was Elena's wedding ring.

"We found it in Hilda's pocket."

My hands went cold.

Elena had been buried without it.

At the time, Hilda told me the hospital must have lost it.

I stared at the ring.

"Why keep this?"

Ortiz shook her head.

"We asked."

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"What did she say?"

"She said it was the first thing she took from Elena after she stopped breathing."