“We’re still determining that.”
“Her phone?”
“Recovered.”
“Where?”
He looked down at his clipboard.
I stepped closer.
“Where?”
“In a drainage ditch near the walkway.”
Something cold moved through me.
Lily never went anywhere without her phone in her hand or in the front pocket of her hoodie. If it ended up in a ditch, someone threw it there.
“Is it damaged?”
“Yes.”
“By rain?”
He didn’t answer.
I nodded slowly. “You don’t have it, do you?”
Briggs looked up.
I almost smiled. Almost.
“Hospital staff said evidence bag on the chair contained only her hoodie. No purse. No phone. No backpack.”
His face changed, just enough.
There it was.
The first crack.
“Who took her phone, Officer?”
He lowered his voice. “Mr. Mercer, this is an active investigation.”
“No. This is my daughter.”
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
Then Lily’s fingers tightened weakly around mine.
I turned toward her.
Her eye was open.
She was looking at Briggs.
Not at me.
At him.
The officer noticed too.
“Lily?” I said gently. “Do you know this man?”
Her breathing changed. Faster. Shallow.
A monitor beside the bed began to chirp.
Briggs took a step backward. “I should let her rest.”
“Stay,” I said.
He stopped.
Lily’s fingers trembled in mine. Her swollen eye filled with panic.
I leaned close. “Blink once for yes. Twice for no.”
A tear slid toward the bandage at her jaw.
“Did Officer Briggs hurt you?”
She blinked twice.
No.
Briggs exhaled.
I didn’t.
“Did he see who did?”
The monitor chirped again.
Lily closed her eye.
“Sweetheart,” I whispered. “Did he see who did this?”
Slowly, painfully, Lily opened her eye.