“Well, Zoey is now the victim. Her mother attacked her.”
“How do we know she attacked her? What if Zoey attacked Ms. Peterson? Organized this whole event to punish her mother or get her out of the house?”
“Della, I’m your friend.” She bows her head and shakes it. “But I must tell you, I think you’re reaching here. I can’t just start a campaign against Zoey Peterson based on a hunch!”
“I’m just saying, how do we know she’s the victim here?”
“Because Zoey is the child.” She shakes her head again. “You say Ms. Peterson seemed scared of Zoey. But what else did you see? Was she sober? Can you think of any reason why Zoey would want to attack her own mother?”
I remember the ripe smell of liquor on Ms. Peterson’s breath when she stumbled to stand. But I can’t tell Pam that, not when she is already convinced Ms. Peterson was at fault. “She knew I had suspicions about her daughter. And instead of telling me to screw off like a normal parent would, she warned me. She knew exactly what I was talking about. She did not seem like the type of person who would attack her daughter.”
“You don’t know how someone acts when they drink.”
I open my mouth, then stop. Pam excels at her job because of her objectivity, but now I see her opinion about Zoey’s mom is personal, much like my opinion of Zoey. She knows what it’s like to live with a drunk, and now that’s all she sees. Zoey’s situation as a representation of her pain. I don’t know how Ms. Peterson reacts when she’s drunk, but I know Zoey is manipulative. She found a way to use her mother’s condition to her advantage.
“But it’s the timing of everything,” I start again slowly, calmly. “They just moved here and were left a beautiful farmhouse. Ms. Peterson wouldn’t have a reason to snap now. But if she and Zoey were fighting about something else—”
“Do you know what they might have been fighting about?” Pam interrupts.
I sigh and look down. “Before I left, I told her to ask Zoey about the Spring Fling after-party.”
“Della, what were you thinking?” She plops her elbows on her desk and sighs. “You can’t talk to a parent about something like that.”
“I was careful. I didn’t mention Darcy’s name or the attack or anything. I only told her to ask Zoey about the party. Which, by the way, she did attend.”
“Teenagers lie sometimes, Della.”
“Exactly,” I say. We lock eyes, and I see a hint of worry on Pam’s face. Concern. For me. “I don’t have proof Zoey Peterson hurt her mom. Or Darcy. But I do believe she’s capable of both.”
“Well, if you want to hold an underage girl responsible for violent crimes, you’re going to need more than a gut feeling,” she says. “And you shouldn’t be investigating on your own. Nothing can be done until a formal complaint is made against Zoey, and that hasn’t happened yet. Considering Darcy can’t remember the attack, I doubt it ever will.”
“Where’s Ms. Peterson? Maybe now that she’s sober, she can tell police what happened.”
“She hasn’t said anything about Zoey harming her. She’s currently sitting in jail.” She clasps her hands and looks at me. “Look, as your friend and your colleague, you need to back away. Let this Zoey Peterson thing go.”
“Where is she staying now?” I ask, wishing Zoey had never walked into my classroom.
“She’s in CPS custody. They’ll find her a temporary home.”
“Will she even come here anymore?”
“Yes, they typically try to find a place within the same school district. We don’t need to disrupt even more of her life.”
“All right, I guess I’ll have her back in class,” I say, standing.
“Yes, you will.” She stands, too. Placing her hands in front of her body. “But, please. There are only two weeks left before summer. Let it go.”
I nod and exit Pam’s office. As I walk through the hallway, I tell myself I’m not crazy. I’m more than just hormonal. Zoey Peterson is a threat, and eventually I’ll make others understand that. One… two… three.
Twenty-Four
Now
I can’t get Ms. Peterson out of my head. I certainly wouldn’t nominate her for mother of the year, but if my suspicions about Zoey are right, which I’m convinced now more than ever they are, who could blame the woman for wanting to check out mentally? She’s raising a potential psychopath.
People always return to this debate: nature vs. nurture. Did horrible parenting make the kid do this monstrous thing, or was that evil inside the kid all along? I read about the topic extensively in the years after Brian’s arrest, back when I was consumed by answering the question: Why? Why did Brian become who he became? Could something have stopped him?
I discovered the most notorious offenders typically come from chaotic homes. Some childhoods are so horrendous, it’s no wonder the individual grew up to hate; he or she had spent their entire lives being hated. I imagined how that person might have adjusted if they didn’t have such terrible parents and traumatic experiences. Would they have still grown up to hurt?
But that’s where Brian stumps me. He’s in that small percentage of people that grew up to commit heinous crimes despite having been raised in ‘normal’ homes. Whatever the hell normal means. My parents weren’t perfect. Mom was checked out, but in a different way from Ms. Peterson. Instead of booze and cigarettes, Mom used her social life as a distraction. She was more interested in looking like the perfect parent than being one. An involved mother would have recognized there was something wrong with her son, like Ms. Peterson clearly has with Zoey. A better mother would do something about it, something neither of the women tossing around in my head did.
And Dad… he was just Dad. He saw what was inside
