Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(42)

“Of course not,” Violet said.

Josie squatted down and peered inside the small space. There was a pencil case, some glue, a stack of notebooks and folders and some plastic, toy butterflies. Next to them was a small cylindrical object that appeared to be made of green construction paper.

“It’s a cocoon,” Violet told her. “Well, Lucy would say a chrysalis. I assume you know about the butterfly obsession.”

Josie couldn’t help but laugh with delight at the secret stash in Lucy’s desk. “Yes, I’m well aware. Tell me, what kind of student is Lucy?”

Violet folded her hands together at her waist. “Oh, she’s very bright, and very sweet. She gets distracted easily though. She can be very… single-minded.” At this, she laughed and gestured toward the fake butterfly habitat Lucy had built inside her desk. “It’s a battle to keep her on-task sometimes. Then again, she is only seven.”

Josie stood and walked over to one of the walls where pages of student artwork hung. “How is she socially? Does she make friends easily?”

“Oh yes. She’s very sociable. The other kids love her. Though, sometimes I think—” Violet broke off, a frown on her face.

“Sometimes you think what?” Josie coaxed.

“I really shouldn’t say. It’s not relevant.”

“It doesn’t have to go beyond this room,” Josie promised her. “I’m very interested in your observations.”

Violet looked away again. Her hands waved in the air as she spoke. “Sometimes I think that because Mr. Ross is away all the time and Mrs. Ross seems so… distracted… that Lucy feels—subconsciously—that she has to do things to make people happy in order to get attention and love. It’s almost like on some level she feels invisible except when she does something nice for someone or does what some other kid tells her to do. Like she doesn’t believe people will just like her for herself.”

It was a lot to unpack but Josie started at the beginning. “You think Mrs. Ross is distracted?”

“The times I’ve met her, yes. She just seems like her mind is always elsewhere. I don’t doubt she loves Lucy, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“I know,” Josie said.

“It’s just that sometimes—like at school events or on trips—Lucy will be talking away, and Mrs. Ross will be staring into space. At some point, Lucy realizes that her mom hasn’t heard a word she’s said, and she just stops talking. I mean, not always. A lot of the time, Mrs. Ross seems very engaged, but you can tell by the way Lucy sighs and rolls her eyes when she isn’t paying attention that it’s not a one-time thing.”

Sadness tugged at Josie’s heartstrings. Lots of parents paid little attention to their children though. That didn’t mean that Amy was capable of staging her own daughter’s kidnapping. “I did speak with some of the other mothers who implied that Mrs. Ross is a bit… overprotective.”

Violet laughed. “Yes, that’s accurate. But there’s a difference between being physically present and mentally present. I would say that Mrs. Ross is more physically present than any parent I’ve ever met—almost to the detriment of Lucy’s friendships with other children—but like I said, you can tell that much of the time, her mind is elsewhere.”

Josie brought up one of the other points that Violet had made. “When you say Lucy is pleasing, can you give me any examples that you have observed here at school?”

Violet took a moment to think about it. “Well, there’s another little girl in class who will only give Lucy the time of day if Lucy gives her the cookies from her lunch every day. Lucy does it, even though sometimes you can tell that she really wants those cookies for herself. But then at recess the little girl will tease her or ignore her. I’ve talked to Lucy—and of course, to the other girl—several times about the dynamic and about how to be a good friend, but Lucy still gives in to her a lot.”

“Lucy sounds like she has a good heart though,” Josie said.

“Oh yes,” Violet said. “Without question.”

Josie motioned toward the drawings on the wall. “Which of these are hers?”

Violet walked with Josie along the wall, pointing out each series of drawings. “This assignment was to draw somewhere they had gone on vacation. Here’s Lucy’s—the beach. She loves the beach. These were from an assignment where they had to draw a self-portrait and then underneath their portraits, they had to draw three things that they enjoy or love.” Lucy’s three items, unsurprisingly, included a butterfly as well as a book and two stick figures holding hands—one with short hair and one with long hair. “Those are her parents,” Violet said.

Again, Josie felt a deep ache in her chest for Lucy. All the other children had drawn their favorite toys or an object from their favorite sport, a mythical animal or a cartoon character. Clearly, Lucy’s world was narrower than that of her classmates. There was something to the other mothers’ assertions that Lucy was isolated.

“Here,” Violet said. “These were from a class trip we took to a nearby orchard and pumpkin patch. The kids had to draw their favorite thing about it. As you can see, almost everyone chose the hayride or the small petting zoo. And this display was from a trip we took to the college campus. The drama department was putting on a production of Charlotte’s Web. The kids had to draw their favorite character.”