Read Online A Mother's Trial by Nancy Wright - Free Book Online Page B

be able to remember how she arrived home that Saturday afternoon. She did notice that the camper was not there, so Steve and the boys had not returned yet. This was a good thing, for she did not want to be distracted now. She had to telephone Annie Jameson and warn her that Carte was going to call.
    Annie Jameson was the head of the Child Protective Services in Marin County, a branch of Health and Human Services, and Priscilla knew her quite well. They had worked together on and off for the past ten years. Annie had been Priscilla’s manager when Priscilla had returned to work on a month-to-month basis in January 1975, and she had supervised Priscilla’s work as an on-call social worker in the Child Protective Services program when it started up in the fall of that same year. Annie’s grandniece was the same age as Erik, so that gave them something to talk about, and Annie had met Steve and the boys, but Priscilla considered the short, dumpy, sixtyish woman a professional rather than a social friend.
    Annie’s line was busy, but after repeated attempts, Priscilla finally got through.
    “You’re not going to believe this, Annie,” she began.
    “I already know. The doctor just called; I’m on my way to meet him now. It will take a while. I understand he’s already called the police—you know that’s the procedure.”
    “I know, Annie. Oh, Annie—I can’t believe this is happening to me. It’s totally unreal!” She broke into tears.
    “Priscilla, I’m sure it’s a misunderstanding. We’ll straighten it all out in no time, I’m sure. The policeman and I will come over after we meet the doctor at Kaiser. Now don’t be upset—”
    “Oh, Annie, I’ve been crying all day! I don’t know if I can bear it!”
    “Priscilla, please don’t worry. Take some aspirin. Try to calm down. I’ve got to go now. But I’ll see you soon.”
    “Yes, all right.” Priscilla hung up the phone, found some aspirin, and waited for Steve to come home.
    He was furious.
    “Why the hell did you go up there, Pris!”
    “Because I had to know. And you were right. They think I did it. Carte said it was something you could buy in the drugstore, and he implied I did it. I don’t even know what he’s talking about. I gave him Annie Jameson’s number, and she’s meeting them over there—Carte and the police.”
    “I’m going to call that sonovabitch right now and get a list of the employees out of him,” Steve exploded. “There’s gotta be somebody we know working over there. Somebody with a grudge, Pris.”
    Priscilla heard Steve’s end of the phone conversation. She watched his face redden. Finally he hung up.
    “Well?” she asked.
    “He doesn’t think it’s necessary,” Steve minced in apparent imitation of the doctor. “Well, I’ll get it out of him, or some damn administrator up there, you can bet on that!”
    Somehow they got the boys to bed. Mechanically, Priscilla tidied the house, picking up clothes and toys, polishing the kitchen counters, waiting for the doorbell.
    The visit was worse than Priscilla expected; she spent most of it in tears. From the beginning it was obvious that both Annie and the young, officious police officer she had brought with her, believed that a finger was being pointed straight at Priscilla. And not just because of Mindy.
    “I understand you had another child who died,” the officer said. “We’re going to have to investigate that, too.”
    For a while, Priscilla sat wordless, the tears streaming in fine runnels down her face. Steve was yelling about their enemies and a list of Kaiser employees and kept saying that the boys were fine, that they’d be sick if Priscilla was going around poisoning the children. That she was the best mother anyone could have. That she had worked against child abuse for years, that they both had fine reputations in the community. He was shouting.
    “But what about Mindy? What will happen to Mindy?” Priscilla finally broke in over Steve.
    “I