Death by Chocolate
have
her face washed a bit more often and her hair combed. She has good clothes.”
“Is she healthy?”
“Appears to be.”
Angela shrugged. “Doesn’t
sound like a legal matter, Savannah. What are your concerns?”
“Her mother may have a
substance-abuse problem, at least from time to time. I understand there’s been
several hospitalizations or stays at clinics.”
“Does the child have proper
care during those times?”
“I believe she stayed with
one of her grandparents, although that may not be an option in the future.”
“Then we’ll have to wait
until next time to deal with that.”
Savannah had a sinking
feeling. She had certainly experienced it before—this desire to help a child in
what might be considered a borderline case. Abuse had to be fairly overt for a
parent’s custody to be challenged.
“She stays outside at all
hours, even until midnight,” Savannah offered.
“Doing what?”
“Roaming around the
estate.”
Angela’s right eyebrow
notched up a bit. “Estate? Is this a privileged family?”
“Yes, in terms of money.
But her mother allows her to stay home from school anytime she likes. I suspect
she’s just too lazy to get her up and out the door. There’s no father on the
scene, and I don’t think the poor kid has any quality time with her mom. The
grandmother provided the closest thing the girl received to parental attention,
but she recently died.”
Awareness lit Angela’s
eyes. “Is this a case you’re working on now, Savannah?”
Cordele had been sitting
quietly, listening, but she chose that moment to enter the conversation. “Yes,
the grandmother is Eleanor Maxwell, the woman on TV who—
“Cordele,” Savannah said
softly, trying not to sound as irritated as she was, “I wasn’t going to mention
names just yet.”
“That’s okay.” Angela
chuckled. “I won’t say anything to anyone. I loved that woman’s television
show! Although every time I tried her recipes they never turned out.”
“I’ve heard that before,”
Savannah replied. “So, you don’t think Child Services could do anything for
this girl?” Angela gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘You know this isn’t a
situation for CPS, Savannah. I’m sorry.”
Savannah stood and reached
to shake Angela’s hand. ‘Thank you. I guess I wasted your time. I was just
hoping.” Angela’s hand closed around hers warmly. “It’s never a waste of time
to see you, Savannah. I’m glad you came by. And it was nice meeting you, too,
Cordele. If you don’t mind me asking, what sort of name is Cordele?”
“Stupid,” Cordele replied.
“Our dad’s name was Macon—you know, like the city in Georgia. So our mom
decided to name all of us after Georgia towns, all nine of us—even our little
brother, who’s Macon, Jr.”
“Oh,” Angela said. “How
creative of her.”
“Yeah, Mom was really
creative, when it came to popping out babies,” Cordele said. “She wasn’t much
on taking care of them once they arrived. She left that up to our grandmother.
We had a very troubled childhood.” Angela’s sharp eyes searched Cordele’s face.
Then she said softly, “Isn’t it wonderful that your grandmother could do that
for you. Raise nine children, I mean. She must be a remarkable woman.”
Cordele shrugged. ‘Yeah, I
guess so.”
“She is ,” Savannah
said. “Gran’s amazing. A real blessing. Thanks again, Angela. If I can ever
return the favor....”
“I’ll give you a call.
Nobody’s bashful around here.”
* * *
When Savannah and Cordele
got back into Savannah’s Mustang, Savannah turned to Cordele. “What did you
think of Angela?”
“She’s cool,” she said with
limited enthusiasm. “But I don’t want to work in a lousy little office like
that. I’m going to have a private practice in a nice modern building where
there are doctors and lawyers and other successful professionals.”
Savannah could have pointed
out that the little rural town of McGill, Georgia, didn’t have any modern
buildings, nice or otherwise, and that if the entire town came to Cordele for
therapy once a week, she’d barely squeak out a living. She’d have to take half
of her pay in the form of farm-fresh eggs and bushels of peaches and pecans.
But she decided not to say anything. No point in ruffling feathers.
So she backed the car out
of the spot and headed out of the parking lot. It was when they were pulling
into traffic that Cordele said, “At least Mom gave you and
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