"I spend a great deal of time in that room with my grandson."
"And the camera in the master bedroom?"
"I don't know anything about that."
"Your fingerprints are on that mount as well."
Evelyn said nothing.
"Mrs.
Hartley, I also want to ask you about Noah's emergency inhaler.
His medical record shows a prescription for a Salbutamol rescue inhaler due to his reactive airway condition.
His pediatrician flagged it as critical — meaning it should be accessible at all times." Detective Simms tilted her head slightly.
"When the paramedics arrived tonight, the inhaler was not in its designated location.
It was found in your coat pocket."
The hallway was completely silent.
"I was keeping it safe," Evelyn said.
"From whom?"
"From Maya.
She's careless.
She loses things."
"Noah's oxygen saturation when the paramedics arrived was eighty-one percent." Detective Simms's voice didn't change.
"That is a medical emergency.
For a three-year-old child, that level of oxygen deprivation can cause permanent damage within minutes."
Evelyn's jaw tightened.
"He was fine."
"He was not fine, Mrs.
Hartley." The detective leaned forward very slightly.
"And you were in that house when it started.
You were the only other adult present."
"Maya was there."
"Maya was unconscious on the floor."
A pause.
"How did Maya end up on the floor, Mrs.
Hartley?"
Evelyn looked at her handbag.
"She fell."
"She fell."
"She was hysterical.
She lost her balance."
Detective Simms wrote something in her notebook.
"The injury above her eye is consistent with contact with the corner of a hard surface.
The nursery doorframe, specifically.
Our forensics team found trace evidence." She looked up.
"Were you present when that happened?"
Evelyn said nothing.
"Mrs.
Hartley.
I'm going to ask you to come with me."
"Am I being charged with something?"
"You're being detained for questioning." Detective Simms stood.
"You have the right to have an attorney present.
I'd strongly recommend you use it."
Evelyn stood slowly.
She smoothed her jacket.
She picked up her handbag.
She looked down the hallway toward the nursery one last time.
Then she said, very quietly, almost to herself: "I only ever wanted what was best for this family."
Detective Simms held the front door open.
"That," she said, "is going to be very hard to prove."
---
Noah was discharged two days later.
Ryan carried him out of the hospital.