Custody of the State (39 page)

Joe tried again.

“What else did I say to you…”

“I believe that you were muttering something about a government conspiracy—and then you asked me something. You asked me—and this is a quote—‘Why did you come to my farm in an automobile—don't you usually ride on a broomstick'?”

Will cringed and jotted two minus signs on his notes. Several reporters in the audience broke into laughter.

Judge Trainer gaveled the courtroom into silence and admonished the reporters.

Putnam was grinning. He paused for a minute—wondering whether to let things end there, or whether he should try to put the icing on the cake.

“Just a few more questions—on redirect,” Putnam announced.

“Ms. Luden, you said that Mrs. Fellows had fled from the farm and that Mr. Fellows said he was glad about it, and then angrily accused you of being part of a government conspiracy—do I have that correct?”

“Exactly,” Luden answered.

“Had you announced your arrival? In other words, had you warned the Fellowses why you were coming that day—or indeed,
that
you would be coming?”

“No—we didn't want to take the chance. We arrived without notice.”

“So,” Putnam asked, “can you explain then what caused Mrs. Fellows to run away so fast—and drag little Joshua along with her—if she couldn't have known why you were there?”

Will objected, but the judge overruled him.

“Yes, I have an explanation.”

“Please share that with us.”

“She fled from the farm because she knew she was guilty of child abuse—and Joshua was the proof of that, so she had to take him along.”

“Thank you,” Putnam said, and sat down with a flourish and a grin.

“Re-cross?” Will inquired.

The judge nodded.

“No notice to Mr. or Mrs. Fellows?” Will asked.

“That is correct. The sheriff's deputies and I arrived at the Fellows farm without prior notice.”

“But let me see if I understand—Mary Sue had been cooperative previous to that in giving you access, at your request, to Joshua's medical records?”

“Yes.”

“And she had permitted you to interview her and her family physician, Dr. Wilson?”

“That's right.”

“And she had articulated some reasons why she had lost confidence in Dr. Wilson and was seeking a second opinion?”

“Correct.”

“And you knew that money was tight for the family and that it would take some time to raise the money for a second opinion that wasn't covered by insurance. Right?”

“That was our assumption.”

“So when you felt enough time had gone by and Mrs. Fellows hadn't secured a second opinion, that's when you and two squad cars came swooping down?”

“Hardly—by that time, we had also received the anonymous phone call and secured the lab results from Dr. Parker, the pathologist,” Luden responded. And then she added, “You make it sound sinister, Mr. Chambers. It was an emergency situation—we had to act immediately to rescue Joshua.”

“An emergency?”

“Absolutely.”

“To rescue Joshua?”

“Yes, that is what I said.”

Will pulled out his copy of the Social Services file, and glanced at it.

“That's interesting,” he commented, “because the anonymous call came in a full four days before you swept down onto the Fellows farm—correct?”

Luden looked at her file, then answered curtly, “Yes. Correct.”

“And Dr. Parker's report was given to you a full three days before you decided to bring the sheriff's deputies over to the farm in an attempt to grab Joshua and place the parents under arrest?”

“‘Grab' is not the right word. But yes, your timetable is correct.”

“During those full three days you had left, you could have called Mary Sue and asked to interview her—and get her side of things first?”

“Anything is possible,” Luden snapped.

“You could have done that?” Will demanded, his voice ringing.

“Yes.”

“But you chose not to?”

“We chose not to.”

“And then, when your county vehicle and the two squad cars approached the house, was it slowly—or did you arrive at high speed?”

“We were making good time.”

“The three vehicles drove down the driveway so fast, in fact, that they were spinning tires, spitting gravel, and sending clouds of dust up in the air?”

“Probably.”

“And then after you had seen that Mary Sue was gone and Joe Fellows had been arrested, there was a court appearance?”

“Yes.”

“An ex parte hearing—without notice to me as Mary Sue's attorney?”

“There were reasons for that…”

“And you knew, and the district attorney's office knew by then, that my office was representing Mary Sue—yet you met behind closed doors with Judge Mason—you, and Mr. Putnam, and Ms. Bender here—
without notice to or participation by me as Mary Sue's attorney?”

“That is why it is called an ex parte hearing, yes.”

“And you actually wonder—and Mr. Putnam here wonders—why Mary Sue, a mother whose whole life is her family, panicked after being treated like that, and took flight with her little boy?”

Putnam and Bender leaped up, but Will cut them off.

“Your Honor, that was admittedly a rhetorical question—I withdraw it.”

Liz Luden was excused, and as she whisked past Will's spot at counsel table, he could feel the polar winds blowing.

Joe gave Will a hopeful, searching look. But it was too early—the attorney had no definite feelings about the case yet.

He took his legal pad and jotted down a plus sign.

And then he followed that with something else—an even larger note on his legal pad.

It was a question mark.

55

T
HE SECOND WITNESS
called by the county was Dr. Wilson, the physician for the Fellows family.

He was a general practitioner in the Delphi area and had been for fourteen years, he testified. He had treated Joe Fellows, Mary Sue Fellows, and of course Joshua.

The doctor listed the symptoms for Joshua—some developmental delays, listlessness, low-grade fever, problems eating, nausea, loss of appetite. He admitted that such symptoms were not entirely uncommon—the point was to diagnose and treat them, he emphasized.

“Are those symptoms consistent with certain kinds of poisoning?” Putnam asked.

“All except the developmental delays—that symptom not so much, unless the poisoning was done incrementally, over a long period of time.”

“Did you prescribe a series of tests?”

“Yes.”

“Blood tests?”

“Yes. At one point we had Joshua admitted to the Delphi hospital as an outpatient to do some tests. Blood tests.”

“Did you recommend to Mary Sue Fellows some other tests?”

“Yes. I wanted to do a moderately invasive gastrointestinal procedure to rule out some differential diagnoses…”

“Did you have a specialist who was going to do that?”

“Yes,” Dr. Wilson replied, “but it did not happen.”

“Why not?”

“Mary Sue refused to permit it.”

“Did you consider talking to her husband to convince him—or even seeking a court order?”

“At the time, no. In retrospect, I wish I had come to you people sooner.”

“What reason did Mary Sue give for her refusal?”

“She said she didn't think I knew what I was doing. She was fearful of complications for Joshua, and the painfulness of the procedure. And she didn't think it was gastrointestinal.”

“Did she say anything else?”

“Yes—something that really bothered me.”

“What was that?”

“She said—and I recall this very well—Mary Sue said she was ‘giving Joshua to God.' That's exactly what she said.”

“Do you know what she meant by that?”

“Objection—speculation!” Will rapped out.

The judge overruled the objection.

“I was afraid that she might have made a decision—a very frightening decision—that somehow Joshua would be better off in heaven with God.”

“Is that when you called the Department of Social Services?”

“That's what I did, yes.”

Putnam concluded his direct examination and sat down with a satisfied smile.

As Will began his examination, he walked to the lectern and opened a large notebook of medical records in front of him.

“The symptoms you noted for Joshua—you mentioned them for Mr. Putnam. Do you recall them?”

“Yes, I do,” the doctor responded.

“All of them—taken together as one constellation of physical symptoms—would be consistent with a medical condition known as methylmalonic acidemia, is that correct?”

“Actually, I've never treated any child with that condition. It's rather rare.”

“Exactly. You were not looking for that condition, right?”

“It was not the first thing on my radar screen, diagnostically, that's right.”

“But you must have read the medical literature about that condition? Let's call it by its first letters for short—MA.”

“I had read—once, I believe—something about methylmalonic acidemia. But remember, Mr. Chambers, I am board-certified in
family
medicine—not in the more esoteric diseases. That is for the specialists.”

“So—do you agree that Joshua's symptoms were consistent with MA?”

After a moment, Dr. Wilson nodded in agreement.

“Yes, to the extent I understand that particular medical condition.”

“Now. Mary Sue's comment about God—did you take it literally?”

“I'm not sure I understand…”

“Well, a few seconds ago you used the phrase ‘on my radar screen,' did you not?”

“Yes. A figure of speech.”

“Right. Exactly,” Will said. “But you really don't have a radar screen in your office, do you?”

“Of course not,” Dr. Wilson said, turning to the bench for some relief from what he considered an absurd line of questioning, but finding none.

Judge Trainer continued sitting expressionless.

“So why,” Will continued, “didn't you simply interpret Mary Sue's comments about ‘giving Joshua to God' in the same way? In other words, that she was committing Joshua's medical problems to God through prayer, in addition to the medical care she was seeking? Why, instead, did you insist on believing she might kill her own son? Did you really think she would put him on a stone altar and sacrifice him to God?”

Bender jumped up first this time, with Putnam coming in second.

“Argumentative! Compound question also! We object to this—”

Judge Trainer motioned for them to sit down.

“The question does have some problems, Mr. Chambers. But I see where you're heading. Doctor—why did you take Mary Sue so literally?”

“You really had to be there, Your Honor. This woman had refused the GI procedure I wanted to have done, she was hostile toward me, and the look in her eyes when she said it all—it really sent chills down my spine.”

The judge nodded for Will to continue.

“The look in her eyes?
You invoked the police power of the County of Juda upon the life and domestic tranquility of this family because of
the look in her eyes?”

“It was not just that…”

“But it included that. You just said that.”

“Yes, her look, her presentation of herself, everything.”

“But there was something else, wasn't there?” Will followed quietly.

“I don't know what you mean.”

“There was another reason you called Social Services down on this family, is that not correct?”

“I'm still baffled, sir, by your question,” the doctor responded, now shifting a little in the witness chair, but being careful to hold himself upright, shoulders back.

“Is it a fact that you called Social Services because you did not want to be sued for medical malpractice—again—for another child-abuse case?”

“Absolutely not! And I deeply resent that insinuation. I was not sued for malpractice for a child-abuse case.”

“Oh, is that true?”

“Yes. I was not sued.”