Authors: Arlene James
Dale's expression sobered, and he cleared his throat. “Yes, as a matter of fact, it was. Listen, whatever happens, I want you to keep your cool in there.”
Before he could reply, the antechamber doors burst
open and Pamela stormed into the room, exclaiming, “Don't tell me to keep my voice down, damn you! I've paid you a fortune to keep this out of court, but here we are!” She stopped abruptly, glaring at Merrily and Royce, who stood with arms linked. The harried attorney bumped into her from the back. “You!” Pamela sneered, focusing on Merrily. “You better be glad you wised up and dropped those charges.”
Merrily regarded Pamela blankly, not giving away by so much as a twitch that dropping the charges had been the plan all along. Tammy and Cory, accompanied by their new nanny, entered the room then, obviously hanging back to avoid whatever scene Pamela was currently causing.
“Daddy!” Cory broke free of the nanny and ran to his father, but Tammy stepped closer to the plump, plain young woman. Visibly trembling, she seemed wary of everyone there. Merrily sent her an encouraging smile as Royce bent to hug his son. The attorney cleared his throat.
“Perhaps we should check in with the court clerk.”
“Fine,” Pamela snapped. “So check in.”
He seemed to consider the merits of trying to bully her into good behavior, then simply gave up and pushed on into the hearing room. Pamela took a swaying step closer to Merrily and threw out one hip to park her hand on it. Royce tensed, but Merrily steadied him with a squeeze of her arm. Pamela raked her contemptuous gaze from the top of Merrily's head down to her feet and back up again, settling on the faint scratches still visible on her cheek. Instinctively Merrily lifted her hand to cover them. She had been assured that they would leave no scars, but they had stood out quite visibly in the photos the police had taken. Pamela's gaze, however, went to the ring on Mer
rily's finger, and she gasped. Snatching at Merrily's hand, she screeched, “That's my ring!”
Royce shoved her hand away. “Oh, no, it's not. You didn't want it. My grandmother's ring wasn't good enough for you.”
“You're going to marry her?” Pamela bawled.
“I am,” Royce confirmed, folding both hands on the gold head of his cane, Cory wrapped around his good leg.
“We'll see about that!” Pamela declared. Her hands curled into fists, and veins stood out on her neck. Then she whirled and stalked into the hearing room.
“Whew!” Dale said, adding in a murmur, “That's pretty over the top even for Pamela. She doesn't usually make public threats.”
“Just goes to show how much we've rattled her,” Merrily murmured.
Royce bowed his head, saying nothing. With her mother safely out of earshot, Tammy quickly moved closer, but to Merrily's side, not her father's. “Are you really getting married?” she asked in a small, urgent voice.
Merrily smiled. “Yes, honey, we are.”
“You mean we get another mommy?” Cory asked, just a hint of hopefulness in his small voice.
“A stepmother,” Dale clarified.
“I like the idea of another mommy best,” Merrily said, smiling at the boy.
Tammy bit her lip, her expression worried. “Mother won't like it.”
Royce said, “I can't help that, honey. I love Merrily, and I know you will, too, once you get to really know her.”
“I already love you,” Merrily assured them.
Tammy just chewed her lip, her face contorted with
thought. The door to the hearing room opened, and a small, wiry man addressed them. “The judge is ready for you now.”
The nanny swept forward and ushered the children into the chamber. Dale followed, leaving Merrily and Royce with a moment to exchange looks before entering the larger room. Merrily's was one of encouragement, but Royce's was heavy with worry.
The hearing chamber was set up much like a courtroom but with some exceptions. Three tables had been arranged at the front of the room. The judge stood behind the long one in the center. An empty chair had been placed at one end of it. Facing the judge stood two smaller tables with three chairs each. Behind those, a single row of chairs had been provided for observers and other interested parties. Merrily moved to stand in front of one of these chairs, while Royce moved forward to take his place beside Dale at one of the small tables. Dr. Denelo had already claimed a chair a few seats down from Merrily, and the nanny herded the children into a spot at the far end of the row. No sooner had they had all filed in than a uniformed female bailiff intoned, “Judge Ann Sizer presiding. Be seated.”
A thick-waisted, middle-aged woman with short, thick, salt-and-pepper hair and stout ankles, the judge wore her formal robes open over an austere business suit, a detail which did nothing to diminish her aura of authority. After taking her seat, she nodded, and the bailiff retreated to a chair in the corner. The judge performed the legal niceties herself, calling the court to order, reading the names of the plaintiff and defendant into the record and administering the oath for truthfulness to both. She then invited the attorneys to make their cases.
Dale was on his feet first, but the proceedings were
surprisingly informal from that point on, with one attorney often interrupting the other to make a point or refute an accusation and the judge asking questions as she saw fit of both Pamela and Royce. When Dale laid the former nanny's statement before her, she waved it away, saying that she had already read it. Then she looked sternly at Pamela and demanded, “What about that, Mrs. Lawler? Did you strike your daughter?”
Pamela bowed her head and gently admitted, “Yes, your honor. I had to. She was hysterical.”
The judge lifted an eyebrow. “And what brought on this hysteria?”
“Well, from what I've gathered, Tammy really liked her friend's father, and I guess she was upset when she realized that her own would never measure up.”
“I heard nothing to support that when I spoke with the parents of Tammy's friend, your honor,” Dale interjected.
The judge looked at Tammy then and beckoned her forward. Reluctantly Tammy slid off her chair. But only after the nanny urged her forward with a whisper and a little push did she walk to the judge's table. The judge directed her to the chair at the end of the table and folded her arms on the tabletop.
“Now then, young lady, do you know what it means to tell the truth?”
“Yes,” Tammy whispered. Then at the judge's behest, she repeated herself a little louder. “Yes.”
The judge nodded and folded her hands together, asking sternly, “Do you promise to tell the truth here today?” Tammy bit her lip, then shrugged. The judge said impatiently, “If you won't tell the truth, we can't get to the bottom of this and make a good decision here today. I might have no other choice than to send you and your brother into foster care until I can question your friend
and her parents myself. Now, do you swear to tell the truth?”
Tammy took a deep breath, her bottom lip quivering, and said in a tiny voice, “I swear.”
Merrily glanced at Royce and found him gripping the edge of the table. Pamela simply folded her arms and crossed her legs, kicking one foot rhythmically.
“Do you remember the night your mother slapped you?”
“Yes.”
“Was that the first time she slapped you?”
Royce leaned over and whispered something to Dale, who clamped a hand down onto his shoulder. The judge repeated her question, to which Tammy mumbled, “I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“I can't remember.”
The judge grimaced and ordered impatiently, “Tell the truth, young lady.”
Tammy began to cry silently. “I don't know.”
Royce grabbed Dale's coat sleeve and whispered urgently into his ear. Frowning, Dale rose and said, “We have another witness who can attest to Mrs. Lawler's vicious temper, your honor, and frankly my client would prefer that his daughter not be forced to testify against either parent.”
The judge sighed, but she waved Tammy back to her chair, saying, “All right, Mr. Boyd, but this had better be to point.”
He beckoned to Merrily, who rose and smoothed the straight skirt that she wore with a pale-gold twin set. Pamela sat up straight and whispered angrily into her attorney's ear. He made a soothing motion and tried to calm her, until finally she fell back into her chair, pouting. Mer
rily, meanwhile, took the oath and sat down at the end of the judge's table. At Dale's urging, she described her encounter with Pamela, often over the objections of Pamela's attorney and Pamela's own rebuttal. Dale admitted bluntly that they had dropped the assault charges so Merrily could testify. The judge was scowling at everyone after that. It was impossible to tell what she might be thinking.
Dale then led Merrily on a careful recounting of the first visit the children had made to their father's home after his “unfortunate fall,” and together they detailed Tammy's behavior that day. During this, Tammy bowed her head and hunched her shoulders, seeming to grow smaller the longer Merrily talked. The upshot of it all was that the judge once more called Tammy up to the table.
“When you tore up your room, Tammy, were you angry with your father?” the judge wanted to know.
Tammy shrugged and kept her head down. “No.”
“Were you angry with your mother, then?”
“No.”
“Then why did you do it?”
Another shrug, followed by, “I don't know.”
“Miss Lawler, I'm losing patience with you,” the judge scolded. It was then that Dr. Denelo rose to her feet.
“Your honor, if I may,” she interjected. “Perhaps you'd allow me to question Tammy. As you know, I am her therapist, and I think together she and I might be able to arrive at some satisfactory answers for you.”
Royce looked sharply at Dale, who leaned close and said something that clearly made Royce angry. “I object to this, your honor!” he stated firmly.
At the same moment Pamela came to her feet and laid her fist against the tabletop, exclaiming, “You can't do
this!” As the judge sat back with a wry smile, Pamela's attorney pulled her back down into her chair.
The judge parted a sly look between Pamela and Royce. “We seem to have agreement on one issue, at least, and this leaves me to believe Dr. Denelo is on to something. You may proceed, Doctor.”
Royce put his head in his hands, but Pamela simply glared at their daughter. Dr. Denelo pulled a chair close to Tammy's and sat down. In a low, gentle voice, she began to speak to the girl.
“Tammy, you remember what we talked about the other day, how sometimes when you love someone very much you'll do whatever they want, even if you don't really want to?” Tammy nodded and wiped tears from her face. “Do you remember what I told you, honey, that the truth can make a bad thing better?”
Tammy sobbed, but she nodded again. Royce leaned his forearms on the table and looked at the judge. “Please don't do this. She's just a little girl.”
Her face stony, the judge instructed Dale to keep his client quiet and nodded at the doctor, who took Tammy's hand in hers. “Tammy,” Dr. Denelo asked gently, “does your mother hit you? The truth now, honey.”
“S-sometimes,” Tammy warbled.
“Every day?” the doctor pressed.
Cory crawled up into the nanny's lap, and Pamela drilled a hole in Tammy's face with her glare. Tammy bowed her head and whispered, “Most days.”
“That's a lie!” Pamela said loudly.
The judge pointed a finger at her. “Silence!” She waved a hand at Dr. Denelo.
“Tammy, I'm going to ask you the most difficult question of all now, so the judge can understand. Don't be afraid.”
“Oh, God,” Royce said, bowing his head and curling his hands into fists.
“Tammy,” the doctor went on, “what happened the night your father fell down the stairs?”
“No!” Royce said, coming to his feet. “Leave her alone!”
“What are you trying to pull?” Pamela screamed.
For a moment all was pandemonium, with the judge shouting for order, both lawyers trying to talk their clients into behaving and Tammy sobbing loudly. Cory jumped down from the nanny's lap and ran to Merrily. She gathered him up, comforting him in a quiet voice while trying to keep an eye on everything else that was going on. Finally the judge rose and shouted everyone down, restoring order. Tugging on the bottom of her suit coat, she plopped down into her chair once more and glared at Tammy, instructing sternly, “Answer the question.”
Tammy trembled from head to toe. Dr. Denelo took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye, saying, “Tammy, why did you push your father down the stairs?”
Merrily gasped. Royce covered his head with both arms. At the same moment, Tammy wailed, “Mommy sa-a-id!”
Pamela lurched to the edge of her chair and began screaming, “You lying little bitch!”
Suddenly Royce jumped up and headed for Tammy, shaking off Dale, who tried to stop him. “It's okay, baby,” he cried, falling to one knee and holding out his arms. “It's okay.” Tammy slid off her chair and threw herself at his chest. “I know you didn't really want to hurt me,” he said, gathering her close as she sobbed. “You saved me. You got help. You stayed with me, covered me up. You did everything just right.
“Oh, my God,” Merrily whispered, covering Cory's
ears with her arms and rocking him. “Oh, my God.” To think what lengths Royce had gone to in order to protect his daughter! Merrily's heart swelled with pride even as Pamela screamed.
“It was her idea! She wanted the money! She even said he deserved to die for everything he's done to us, to me!”
The judge was on her feet again and speaking to Pamela. “Sit down and shut up or I'll have the bailiff arrest you now!”
Dr. Denelo knelt on the floor beside Tammy and her father. Royce glared at her, but she wisely ignored him. “Tammy,” she asked clearly, “how did your mother convince you to push your father down those stairs?”