Page 57 of Back To Our Beginning

“Oh yeah. I had an associate go to get her statement. You’re right, she is in rehab, and can barely string two sentences together. When she did manage to, she insisted that Bruce never laid a hand on her, or her son. The good news is, she’s in no shape for Bruce’s public defender to put her up on the stand.”

“You’re kidding me,” I squawked.

“Nope. And what’s worse, our perp is saying that he never touched the kid. He’s saying that it was the mom.”

“Dammit!”

“Yeah, that’s what I say.”

“Any priors?”

“Only for beating up girlfriends, nothing for child abuse,” the A.D.A. explained.

“Did those other women have kids?”

“None that were in the reports.”

Shit, nothing was going my way.

“Thanks, Oliver. Do you have a court date for this creep?”

“Next month, on the twenty-fourth. You’ll get an official summons.”

“Okay. Again, thanks for the heads-up. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can get something from Eli.”

“That would be much appreciated. Gotta go.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone.

This meant that visiting Eli tomorrow would not be as fun as I’d hoped. Dammit.

I called Evie. It would be nice to hear an uplifting voice. Who would also say some nasty things about assholes.

The phone only rang once when I dialed her number.

“I hope you’re going to tell me all about Beau,” she answered.

“Nope. Right now, I want to bitch about my job,” I whispered. I didn’t want Richard, the nosy bastard in the cubicle next to me, to hear my conversation.

“Go for it,” Evie responded.

“An abuser, who I’m positive was beating up a six-year-old boy, just got out on bail. He’s blaming it on his girlfriend, who is the mom. She’s a junkie and refuses to lay blame on the boyfriend. He did try to come at me with a frying pan, so I’ll have to testify. Hopefully, I can get him put away, but it isn’t likely since he didn’t hurt me.”

“Maddie, I’m really sorry. Will he go after the kid?”

“I don’t think so. Unless I can get the little boy to talk, he’s going to go scott-free is my take, and his lawyer probably told him.”

“Do you think you can get the kid to talk?”

“It’s a crap shoot.”

“I’m sorry, Mads. I always hate it when you have to deal with stuff like this. I know you’re making a difference, but I just hate it when it gets you down. Truly, I don’t know how you manage to do your job. I couldn’t. The first week, I’d be up on assault charges.”

I giggled. It was true. Evie would have taken the bat to Bruce before Beau had had a chance to get into the house.

“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” I asked my sister.

“Not since our last telephone conversation,” she said with a smile in her voice.