The couple suffered a slow and painful death, apparently at the hand of their own child. I looked at Olivia's face and could not picture her doing such a heinous act.
The ice cream truck stopped below the open window. The lively jingle every child recognized grabbed Olivia's attention
"We're almost done, Olivia. I just need you to answer a few more questions for me, okay?"
She turned an looked at me with the most innocent eyes. "After we're done, can I have a cone?"
Adorable.
I took a deep breath before continuing. "Olivia, tell me what you remember the night the bad thing happened to your mommy and daddy?"
The bad thing. It was what Olivia called it. The child sighed heavily, her round eyes still on the window.
"I told everyone already," Olivia huffed, her pouty lips a display of her frustration.
"You didn't tell me. Can you tell me now, Olivia?"
Olivia's voice almost a whisper: "It was the fairies. They don't like
to share."
I began making notes in my journal. "And what was it they didn't want to share, Olivia?"
The child looked away from the window and stared down at her hands. "Me."
I didn't want to force her to talk. I wanted her to feel comfortable. After a few seconds she continued. "They live in the air vent in my room. Mommy and daddy didn't like when I went inside there to play and told me, 'No more.' The fairies didn't like that one bit." She looked up at me, moon eyes now filled with tears. "They got real, real mad."
I nodded slowly, showing empathy.
Were these signs of delusions? Or a story she thought up because she knew her action was wrong? I didn't belive that latter was possible. Not yet anyway; primarily because of her age. No one had broken into the house, no intruders' footprints or fingerprints at the crime scene—just Olivia found standing over the tortured bodies of her parents. Her small hands covered in blood but not the pajamas she wore, which I found odd. There would be no way the child could have stabbed her parents so brutally and not have their blood on her clothing.
"Olivia, are you telling me the fairies did the bad thing to your mommy and daddy and not you?"