My wife is Diana Holt, and she is on her way here right now. I have done nothing wrong." Lily started crying the moment the handcuffs clicked onto her father's wrists and her crying was the crying of a child who didn't understand what was happening except that someone was hurting her daddy. And it was loud and immediate and raw. Simmons looked down at her.
"It's okay, sweetheart. You don't have to be scared of him anymore. You can tell the truth now." Reggie's voice came back with controlled fury. "She is crying because you just put handcuffs on her father in front of her.
That is the only reason she is crying." Lily looked up at Simmons through her tears and said exactly what she had said before. The same words with the same certainty because to her they were simply the truth and she couldn't understand why no one was listening to them. "That's my daddy." Let go of my daddy."
Simmons looked at the child and said, "She's scared. That's why she's crying. She needs to be somewhere safe." He reached for his radio to call for a child services unit and then the sound of a car pulling up at the park entrance cut through everything. Diana Holt pulled into the park entrance and the first thing she saw through her windshield was her husband standing in handcuffs next to a park bench with a police officer beside him and her daughter crying so hard her whole body was shaking.
Diana had spent 15 years as a prosecuting attorney and in those 15 years she had learned to read situations quickly and accurately. She read this one in about 3 seconds and what she read made her get out of the car before it had fully stopped moving. She walked directly towards Simmons with her daughter running to meet her halfway. Lily crashed into her mother's arms and Diana held her without slowing her pace carrying Lily on her hip as she covered the remaining distance to where Reggie was standing in handcuffs. Her voice came out low and precise.
"Why is my husband in handcuffs?" Simmons looked at Diana, took in the sight of a white woman holding the white child and tried to recalibrate quickly. "Ma'am, I found this man with your daughter and there was no way to verify—" "You found this man?" Diana's voice cut him off cleanly. "That is my husband.
His name is Reggie Holt. I am Diana Holt. This is our daughter, Lily Holt." She shifted Lily on her hip and reached into her bag with her free hand, pulling out her prosecuting attorney credentials and holding them up, so Simmons had no choice but to look directly at them. "I am also a prosecuting attorney with the district attorney's office."
Simmons looked at the credentials and the color started leaving his face. Diana wasn't finished. "Was there a missing child report that prompted this stop?" Simmons said nothing. "Was there any suspicious behavior that you observed and documented before approaching my husband?"
Simmons still said nothing. "Did my daughter tell you that man was her father?" Simmons opened his mouth. "Answer the question." He closed it again.