The Stranger in the Mirror(23)

Julian’s mouth dropped open. No wonder his poor little girl had acted out. “I’m not condoning violence, but certainly you can see she was provoked. I hope you’re also going to speak to Emma’s parents about her bullying.” The little sociopath, he wanted to add.

“Yes, of course. We don’t condone bullying, and Emma will be dealt with. But I’m afraid, despite the circumstances, we cannot tolerate any physical violence in our school community. I’m sure you understand that the safety of students must come first.”

“Are you expelling Valentina?”

She leaned forward. “No. Normally we would, but because you’ve been such a good friend to the school and because of Valentina’s unique circumstances, we’re only suspending her for the rest of the week. We would also like her to speak with our school psychologist before she comes back.”

Julian looked at her like she’d lost her mind. There’s no way he was letting some school shrink get inside his child’s head. It was outrageous. He took a deep breath, willing himself to remain calm. “Valentina was cruelly provoked, and she’s just a child. Children are impulsive, and what she did, while wrong, was not pathological. I won’t have her made to think that something’s wrong with her. Furthermore, I know nothing about the credentials of your psychologist, but I’ve seen her, and she looks about twelve. I’d be shocked if she’s been out of school a year.”

“Well, I er, that’s . . . ,” Dr. Sommerville stammered.

Julian shook his head. “I’ll speak to Valentina, and I’ll let her pediatrician know what happened. If he feels examination by a mental health specialist is warranted, then I’ll take her to one of my choosing. In either case I’ll have him send you his recommendation. Will that be sufficient?”

“I suppose that will have to do.”

He was still fuming when he left the meeting and picked up Valentina from the nurse’s office.

“Daddy,” she said, “I’m sorry for being a bad girl.”

He scooped her up in his arms. “Who said you were a bad girl?”

She sniffled. “My teacher.”

Julian would have to follow up on this, but right now his daughter’s well-being was most important. He put her down and knelt on one knee, looking her in the eye. “Listen to me. You are not a bad girl. What you did was wrong, but it doesn’t make you bad. I’m sorry that Emma said those mean things to you. Do you want to tell me your side of the story?”

They walked hand in hand to the car, and Valentina gave him her account, which was much the same as the one the headmistress had given. “I couldn’t help it. I was so mad. I just wanted her to be quiet. She kept saying I was stupid, and that Mommy left because of me.” She started to cry again. “Is that true?”

“No, baby. Of course not. I told you. Mommy didn’t mean to leave, and I’m going to do everything I can to find her. But we need to talk about the hitting. How did it make you feel when you did that?”

She put her head down. “Emma started crying real loud, and I felt bad. I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“I’m sure you didn’t. What could you have done instead of hitting?”

She looked up, biting her lip as she thought about it. “I could have told my teacher.”

“Yes, that would have been a good thing to do. If something like this ever happens again, tell your teacher.” Though he wondered if someone who’d clearly demonstrated such bad judgment could be trusted with this.

“Okay, Daddy.”

His heart swelled with love for her, this child for whom he would lay down his life. She was suffering, and he didn’t know how much longer they could go on this way. Two years was a long time to wait. As much as he hated to admit it, maybe it was time to move on, for Valentina’s sake. If she thought her mother was dead, she wouldn’t feel abandoned. It would hurt, yes, but not as much as thinking that her mother didn’t love her. And the detective hadn’t come up with even a single lead. Julian had to admit that it was a real possibility that Cassandra was dead.

Valentina’s birthday was three weeks away. He’d wait a little while after that, maybe another week, and then he’d tell her that her mother was gone. And they’d figure out how to begin anew.





??19??

Blythe




Jim Fallow didn’t bother with any preamble. “Your girl’s a ghost,” he told her.

Blythe’s stomach sank. “You weren’t able to find anything?”

“Nothing on her background. My friend at the FBI ran the DNA through CODIS. No criminal record. No missing persons photos matching hers, nothing on any facial recognition software picked up from CCTV. Nothing.”

Blythe sighed in frustration. “So what now?”

“I’m going to go to New Jersey, since that’s where we know she was. I’ll show her photo around, talk to folks and see if I turn anything up. I’m also using a facial recognition program that works with social media to see if she had any profiles out there.” He pursed his lips. “There is one update from our surveillance. As you predicted, her life is pretty routine. Back and forth to work, to your son’s apartment, etc. But she took a long walk one day at Pennypack Park. My guy said that she started talking, and he thought she was on the phone. When he sped up to pass her, he realized she was talking to herself. She sounded quite upset, apparently.”