Part 16 (1/2)
She wondered what his personal life was like.
The wedding ring was her only clue.
And it wasn't any of her business.
”Based on their investigation the court will issue a summons for Arthur, you and Robert to appear at a preliminary hearing to establish probable cause. If they find probable cause ...”
”If?”
He smiled. ”Sorry. Legalspeak. They will, don't worry. That's what the psychologist and proctologist are all about. I think we've got that part well covered. Anyhow, the statute says that the preliminary hearing has to be held within seven days of the summons. So this will all be happening pretty fast.”
”And what about visitation rights? I mean in the meantime. My understanding is that I'm in violation of the terms of the divorce if I don't let Arthur see him at least one more time this week. My G.o.d. Is that true? Can he really expect that?”
”He can demand to see Robert, sure, if he wants to. But our complaint will limit visitation until the case is adjudicated. He'll only be able to see him under supervision.”
”I don't want him to see him at all for G.o.d sakes!”
”Sorry. No can do.”
”Why not?”
”Lydia, until we prove the case against him he retains his parental rights.”
”Jesus. s.h.i.+t!”
”I know exactly what you mean.”
The man looked haggard. He hadn't slept much last night, she was sure of that. She wondered why. Something was bothering him. And she doubted that his losing sleep had much to do with her situation-he was a lawyer after all. No, this was something else. Had to be. Something personal.
And again-none of her business.
”Okay. Go on.”
”All right. Within thirty days of the preliminary we go to an adjudicatory hearing before a judge in Superior Court. Unfortunately, it won't be Clarke, the judge who granted your divorce-she's out indefinitely with some kind of heart situation. In any case, we'll be looking for exclusive custody. At the adjudicatory we can present our evidence and call our witnesses. The doctors, you, Ralph Duggan on the beating, your friend Cindy I think, maybe his teacher-and hopefully by then, Robert himself. I've pet.i.tioned the court clerk to appoint a guardian ad litem for Robert-an attorney-for purposes of the litigation and to a.s.sess his situation and advocate his best interests as he or she sees them. That's who you'll be seeing tonight.”
”Robert has an attorney?”
”Yes. Hopefully somebody we can work with, someone who'll be squarely on our side.”
”And if not?”
”If Robert won't talk then our case is circ.u.mstantial. But it's still pretty compelling. You could argue that he could have done this to himself somehow-used some object or something. But it clearly isn't likely. You could argue that someone other than Arthur did it without Arthur's knowledge. In that case they'd have to come up with a likely suspect. Someone with opportunity.”
”Like me.”
”You?” He laughed.
”Bromberg told me he'd considered it.”
Sansom thought about that a moment, drumming his desk with a pencil.
”Maybe that'll change once he sees Robert. If not, I guess we're going to have to have a talk with him. a.s.sess his level of cooperation. Possibly get another opinion. But our best bet is to get your boy to say what happened, hard as it may be for him. You have to really work on that.”
She would, but not now. Robert still had Bromberg to see. And then, tonight, the attorney.
What a day for him, she thought.
What a b.i.t.c.h of a day it must be.
She glanced at Robert now, gazing out the frost-melted window beside her, strapped tightly into his seat, hurtling powerless through the wintry streets.
He turned to her, his face unexpectedly alight.
”Mom? Do you think tomorrow night we could maybe just go to a movie?”
She smiled. ”Sure.”
”Yeah!”
”You got it,” she said and reached over and patted his hand.
”And we'll leave real early so we'll be the first ones there so we'll definitely get seats this time, okay?”
”Okay.”
”Great. Neat,” he said and turned to the window again.
She thought that either he was blocking all this out very successfully or her son had a kind of courage. The former was troubling. The latter, she thought, might be necessary through all the days ahead of them.
She could have her hopes.
He sat on the floor with his back to the television set his mother had turned off before she left the room and listened to Miss Stone. Miss Stone was probably younger than his mother and she was pretty, he thought. Though he thought his mother was prettier. Miss Stone had nice, soft-looking, s.h.i.+ny blonde hair, though, just like Chrissy at school. Her hair was long and straight and that was like Chrissy too.
Chrissy was nice but the one he really liked was Laura.
He found it hard to concentrate on what Miss Stone was saying. More questions. All day long everybody kept asking him stuff. He kept wis.h.i.+ng it was bedtime.
And that was pretty weird right there.
Then she started on the really bad questions.
”Is there somebody who does things to you, Robert? Who touches you where you don't want to be touched?”
He couldn't help it. He started squirming on the rug. Like the question hit a Nintendo b.u.t.ton and from there it was automatic.
How much could he tell her?
He knew he had to say something, that he had to help them somehow. He knew they were doing this just for him, to get his dad to make it stop. He wanted his dad to stop more than he wanted practically anything-but he didn't want his dad to hurt his mom and he would. He knew his dad better than anybody did. He'd hurt her bad.
And it was up to him to protect her.