Swan Dive

called directory assistance, and tried the number they gave me.
    ”Law offices of Felicia Arnold. May I help you?”
    ”Let me speak to her, please.”
    ”I’m sorry, Ms. Arnold is in conference. May I take—”
    ”Interrupt her and tell her that it’s an emergency.”
    ”May I ask what the nature—”
    ”Sure. The life of one of her clients, Roy Marsh, is at stake.”
    Hesitation. ”Is this Mr. Marsh?”
    ”No. Now please get her on the phone.”
    I waited maybe thirty seconds before Arnold ’s voice said, ”Mr. Cuddy?”
    ”Good guess.”
    ”Mr. Cuddy, Chris Christides has already—”
    ”Look, Ms. Arnold. Let’s cut the ‘proper channels’ bullshit, all right? I’m calling from an animal hospital because your boy Marsh took a skinning knife to a kitten.”
    ”I’ve already spoken to Roy, Mr. Cuddy. If you’d allow me to continue?”
    ”Go ahead.”
    ”Mr. Marsh is shocked at the incident. He was at his home in Swampscott when I reached him, and he had driven directly there after our conference here.”
    ”He have somebody backing him on that?”
    ”If you mean corroboration for what you evidently assume is an alibi, yes, yes he does.”
    ”Who?”
    ”I’m not sure that’s any of your—”
    ”Let me take a wild guess then. A certain nurse from Samaritan Hospital ?”
    ”I can neither—”
    ”You really think she’ll stand up? Credibly, I mean.”
    ”Mr. Cuddy, you strike me as the sort of man who will do what you will. I can only advise you to seek independent counsel on your potential liability before you act.”
    ”Liability for what? Malicious prosecution?”
    She said, ”Do call again when you can be a little more sociable,” and hung up.
    I handed the telephone back to the receptionist, who said, ”Try counting to ten.”
    ”There aren’t enough numbers for this.”
    Just then the door to the back area opened and the veterinarian who had taken Cottontail came out. She pushed a hank of hair that looked stringy from sweat off her forehead and back behind her ear. She motioned to me without smiling as she crossed the room to where Hanna and Vickie, who now looked up, were sitting.
    Hanna said, ”Please... tell us?”
    As I approached them, the vet hunkered down to Vickie’s eye level on the bench. ”Honey, I’m so sorry. But your kitty was just too little and lost too much
    blood.”
    Vickie responded with that Kabuki-mask slant that kids get to their eyes and mouth when they’re about to shriek. Vickie whipped her face into her mother’s breast and wailed, ”She’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead...,” as Hanna, crying freely, said, ”I’m so sorry, Vickie, I’m so sorry,” then some phrases in German that I couldn’t understand.
    The vet straightened up and used the edge of an index finger to wipe a tear from her own cheek. In a subdued voice, she said to me, ”Can I see you for a minute?”
    We moved toward the desk and well away from Hanna and Vickie.
    ”My name’s Mary Vesch.”
    ”John Cuddy.”
    ”You realize I have to report this?”
    ”Jesus, I should hope so.”
    ”The police will want to know if there are any kids in the neighborhood who might have problems.”
    ”I don’t know, but I doubt that’s it. I’m betting on her father.”
    ”Her father? The little girl’s, you mean?”
    ”Yes. He and the mother just split up, and this fits what I’ve seen of him.”
    Vesch huffed and shook her head. ”I wish I hadn’t given up smoking. I could really use a cigarette.”
    ”Doctor, what happens now?”
    ”Mary, please.” She looked past me toward Hanna and Vickie. ”Probably not much.”
    ”I’m sorry, Mary, but you’re going to have to explain that one to me.”
    ”I’ll try. I report this as an obvious case of animal abuse. If there was some kid on the block with a twisted streak, then maybe through the juvenile authorities we could do something, like therapy or at least counseling. But with..." She broke off and changed gears. ”The father, I take it nobody saw him do it?”
    ”No indication yet that anybody even saw him in the area.”
    ”And he’ll be paying support, I suppose?”
    ”With his job, he can certainly afford to.”
    She shook her head again. ”Then I can’t see much happening to him. The maximum jail term under the statute is only a year, but the last time I remember a judge sentencing someone even to that, it was overturned on appeal. And here we’ve got a father that a judge isn’t going to want