The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,86
only real news was about asparagus and eggplant. But he had confirmed how lethal honey and bees could be to Jaime. Cathy’s heart sank when she heard it, remembering what Paul had said about the honey allergy being so severe it was a loaded gun in Zoe’s hands, if she really was MBP. She could always claim afterward that she didn’t know there was honey in something Jaime ate, and it would be believable because so many commercial products had honey in them, even in small amounts. It posed a major threat to Jaime, especially in her mother’s hands. Austin realized it too.
* * *
—
When Dan Knoll came to Cathy’s office, he looked like a bull in a china shop as he sat perched on a couch next to the little chairs for children in her waiting room, and the low table with toys on it. The nurse led him to her office, after he heard a baby scream and a mother leave with a crying infant. The MMR shot, he assumed.
She stood up at her desk when he walked in, and extended a hand to shake his. She was startled by his size, he dwarfed her office the moment he walked in. He had a pleasant face and kind eyes, and there was nothing ominous about him. But he looked like he could take care of himself on a dark night, which was accurate. He was a black belt in karate, which his mentor thought would be good discipline for him. He still went to classes twice a week, to teach now, and sometimes he took some of the boys whose cases he handled with him. They were duly impressed. He was fast despite his size, and even more powerful than he looked. He let them try but none of them could get him to the ground. He always told them that you had to be smart and patient, not just strong, to get somewhere in life.
“Thank you for reporting the case, Doctor. Why did you wait until now? Did you ever suspect there might be child abuse involved here, in a classic sense?”
“Never,” she said honestly. “I know the parents. They are the most devoted parents in my practice, attentive, loving, responsible. Everybody loves them. I never thought of child abuse, and still don’t in the ‘classic sense.’ ”
“You don’t think the child’s protecting her parents?”
“Not at all. And I thought the accidents she’s sustained were just that, unlucky mishaps that could happen to any one-, two-, or three-year-old. Toddlers can get in a real mess sometimes and get badly injured.”
“It didn’t strike you as odd that she got injured so often?” There was accusation in his eyes, and Cathy looked regretful and shook her head.
“I don’t think I realized how long the list was on a day-to-day basis. I do triage. I deal with situations every day. I find solutions and fix them, and move on to the next one. I don’t keep a tally in my head. I realize now that I should have.”
“You’re not alone in that, Doctor. I was just asking.” He seemed to be gentle, and forgiving of her, but not Jaime’s parents. “When did you begin to suspect Munchausen by proxy?”
“I didn’t. There was an incident in Florida when they were on vacation, and Jaime was running on the wet surface next to the pool at their hotel. She slipped, fell into the deep end and nearly drowned, and cut her chin badly on the way into the pool. Her mother wasn’t watching her, and was talking to people with her back to the pool. Jaime’s father arrived on the scene in the nick of time, jumped in, and saved her.”
“No lifeguard?” He looked surprised.
“Apparently he was helping an elderly person and wasn’t watching either. That’s how tragedies happen. When they got back from Florida, Jaime’s father came to see me. His mother is a psychologist and had suspected MBP for some time but not told him until after the pool incident. He agrees with her, and wanted to know what I thought. It hadn’t occurred to me until then. I’ve never encountered it in my practice. I consulted a psychiatrist I know, and he concurred with the father and grandmother. He convinced me to report it to CPS. I felt disloyal doing it, but I felt I had to.”
“Disloyal to whom? Not the child.”
“No, I reported it to protect the child. I’m very fond of her mother. I always thought