Richard was taken into custody on charges of child endangerment, assault, and illegal distribution of a controlled substance.
At the hospital, Violet was stabilized after doctors administered a reversing agent. Nora sat in the vinyl chair beside the hospital bed, her feet tucked up underneath her, staring at her right sneaker. The insole was still bent where the plastic barrel had rested during their four-block walk to the station.
Paul arrived later that evening to complete the formal child-protection handover with state social workers. He didn’t ask Nora to repeat her story in the crowded hallway. He didn’t allow a dozen different adults to question her.
Instead, a trained forensic interviewer spoke with each twin separately in a quiet room using non-leading, open-ended questions.
Nora described sitting on the kitchen counter. She described the small plastic tube. She described her father holding Violet’s chin and telling her that good girls take their medicine without making a fuss.
