'And you had a cure,' I said.
'You ... however you make it sound,' Beth Ann said. 'Yes. I felt that if I could love him enough, I could bring him to a fully realized life.'
'Worked out good so far,' I said.
It was as if she hadn't heard me. And maybe she hadn't. She seemed deeply engaged in spinning her web.
'And in the process,' she said, 'I came to love him, as I know he loved me.'
I nodded.
'Who took the picture?' I said.
'Jared. He had one of those new digital cameras.'
'The kind you hook up to a computer?' I said.
'Yes. It had a timer attachment.'
'Did you have sex?'
'Then, when the picture was taken?'
'Then,' I said, 'later. Anytime. Were you having sex with Jared.'
'We made love,' Beth Ann said with great dignity.
'Did you get to spend time together aside from making love?' I said.
'It was difficult, as you might imagine. The prejudices of the middle class are fearful, as you may know. We took our time, and our passion, when we could.'
'And you saw no hint of functional retardation?' I said.
'No. Of course not. His grades were good. He may have seemed slow to some because he talked slowly. But he talked slowly because he thought so deeply.'
'As so many fourteen-year-olds do,' I said.
'He is unusual far beyond his chronological age,' Beth Ann said.
'Good point,' I said. 'Most kids his age are not in jail for murder.'
'You can believe what you wish,' she said, and sat back so that her breasts pushed against her sweater.
Whoops.
'Unless your degrees are fraudulent,' I said, 'you would be in a position better than mine to understand how unlikely it is that a woman like you would fall in love with a boy like Jared.'
She pointed her breasts at me. Both barrels.
'You think it's impossible?' she said.
'Few things are impossible,' I said. 'I think it is improbable.'
'So what would be your explanation?'
'I'd guess some sort of psychosexual pathology on your part,' I said.
'That's disgusting.'
'So what happened?' I said.
'Happened?'
'To the relationship.'
'Garner made me break it off,' she said.
'He refused to share?'
'That, too, is disgusting,' she said.
'But true?'
'Yes. He said I had to stop seeing Jared or he'd destroy me professionally.'
'With the picture,' I said.
'Yes.'
'Did you tell Jared?'
'I tried to be as kind as I could be,' she said. 'I told him the school knew of our relationship, and we would have to stop seeing each other for a while.'
'How'd he take it?'
'How do you think he would take it. He was devastated.'
'Do you suppose that made him go off on the school?'
'I don't know what to think,' she said.
