The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,87
she was a good mother.”
“And now?” He looked at her directly and Cathy didn’t flinch.
“I think there’s a problem. A serious one, and they may be right. It breaks my heart to say it, but it sounds more than possible, even likely.” She tried to be as honest with him as she could be. She had made her report factual, but she was fleshing it out now.
“I agree with you,” he said simply. “Have there been any accidents or injuries since the pool incident?” he asked her.
“She got bitten in the face by a German shepherd ten days later, which required suturing by a plastic surgeon. Nothing since then, other than a severe allergic reaction to a substance she’d never eaten before. I think that was entirely innocent.”
He nodded. “It won’t be if there’s a repeat, however. What was it?”
“Honey.” He made a note on a pad.
“That’s dangerous because it’s so common.”
“I know,” she said sadly.
“Where do you see this going? Where would you like to see it go, for the child?” It was the toughest question of all and she hesitated, not sure what to say.
“I honestly don’t know. Jaime loves her mother. Everyone does. My nurses think she’s the best mother in our practice.”
“That’s not unusual in Munchausen by proxy, in fact, it’s typical,” he said coolly. “Most of them look like the best parents in the world. They’re cagey and cunning and smart, and you can’t always see how they do it, but the child gets hurt or dies. We have to avoid that outcome for Jaime.”
“That’s why I reported it. I don’t know what I’d like to see for them. I’ve been told counseling isn’t effective.”
“It runs deeper than that. A lot deeper. People with MBP are very sick. Ultimately, we’ll have to protect Jaime from her, if her father and grandmother’s suspicions are correct.” Cathy nodded.
“Zoe being removed from her life would be a tremendous loss to Jaime, and could mark her forever,” Cathy said sadly.
“So would getting killed by her mother,” he said bluntly. Cathy didn’t know what to answer. “The decision may happen by itself, if she steps too far over the line. She could wind up in prison, or give up custody of her own accord in lieu of prosecution. We just don’t want it to get out of hand. That’s our goal. We’re Jaime’s advocates, and I think you are too.” Cathy nodded, desolate for them all. What he outlined was so painful and so extreme, but he saw hard cases every day and made hard decisions for the well-being of children in jeopardy. It was just tragic that Jaime was one of them. Cathy had never expected that to happen when she’d met them.
He stood up then and thanked her for her time, and she handed him her card with her cellphone number on it. “Call me anytime. I want to help if I can.”
“Thank you.” He would have liked to call her for reasons beyond their investigation, but he would never do that. She was a beautiful woman, and a nice person, and shared his love of children. He hadn’t met anyone like her in a long time. “Honorable” was the word that came to mind, and she thought the same thing about him. She had been very impressed by how dignified the investigation was, as he conducted it. It wasn’t a witch hunt, it was a search for the truth for the benefit of the child.
It was six-thirty when he left. Her nurses had already gone home by then. He said he was going to interview the father and grandmother next, to get their impressions and hear why they thought Zoe was MBP. He was going to interview Fiona, Zoe herself, and all the physicians she’d consulted for Jaime, to get their views of the situation too. And there were a number of them. Cathy knew that when he interviewed Zoe she would hit the roof. She was the director of a shelter for abused children, how could she be accused of abusing her own child? It might even cost her her job if it got out. But if their fears about her were true, it was right to question her. And if they were wrong, hopefully they would discover that too.
Before she left her office, Cathy knew what she had to do. Austin had no idea what was coming at him, that she had reported it to CPS, and she felt she owed him