Chapter 5 - THE HANDBAG
Claire had noticed the bottle at breakfast.
A small amber-colored bottle.
Diane zipped the handbag quickly.
Claire assumed vitamins.
Now police and hospital security followed proper procedures.
Diane’s handbag was not searched casually.
With consent and later documentation, the medication was located.
Same product.
Opened.
A dosing syringe missing.
The syringe in Noah’s diaper bag fit the bottle.
That linked the exposure.
Still, frequency needed evidence.
Then a pharmacy loyalty record showed Diane purchased the same product four times in five months.
Could be for herself.
Could be for another family member.
Not proof.
Then a store receipt from two months earlier included:
the medication,
baby wipes,
infant puree,
diapers.
Again, context.
Not certainty.
Then Daniel remembered something.
His mother had once told him:
“I found the only thing that gets Noah to nap.”
Daniel thought she meant rocking.
He asked what.
She replied:
“Grandmother secret.”
Claire stared at him.
“You didn’t ask?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought she was joking.”
Maybe.
Then his face changed.
“There was another time.”
Four months earlier, during a family lunch, Diane told her sister Susan:
“Claire fights sleep. I don’t.”
Susan replied:
“You’re not giving him anything, are you?”
Diane laughed.
“A little medicine never hurt a baby.”
Daniel heard it.
He said:
“Mom, stop.”
Diane answered:
“I’m joking.”
Daniel accepted that.
Claire looked at him.
“You heard that.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t think she meant it.”
Claire said:
“You keep saying that.”
Daniel flinched.
He was not the person who medicated Noah.
But he had received warnings.
Dismissed them.
Then Susan was contacted.
She remembered the conversation.
And another.
Two weeks later Diane told her:
“The baby finally sleeps like a normal child when Claire isn’t hovering.”
Susan asked again about medicine.
Diane said:
“You worry too much too.”
Same defense.
Everyone else was anxious.
Diane was calm.
Then Susan admitted something.
She had seen Diane squeeze liquid into a bottle once.
“What liquid?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you ask?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“Vitamin drops.”
Claire did give Noah vitamin drops.
But Diane’s bottle looked different.
May you like
Susan did not challenge her.
Another missed question.
