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“I believe in psychic abilities. And crystals. And astrology.” She speaks defiantly, obviously expecting me to scoff.
“Okay.” I keep a straight face.
She frowns. “Aren’t you going to crack a joke about the moon being in Uranus or something?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
She bites her lip. “I shouldn’t be telling you all this. I want you to think I’m serious about this trial.”
“I told you, I wouldn’t remove a child from the trial just because I thought his mother was…”
“Mad? Crazy mad? Crazy bonkers mad?”
“Unusual,” I choose.
“I have many layers,” she protests.
“Like an onion?”
“More like a lasagna.”
“Unfortunately, I’m allergic to bechamel sauce.”
She looks startled. “Really?”
“No, Missie. I’m not lactose intolerant. It was supposed to be a joke.”
She presses a hand to her forehead. “You’re doing my head in. I can’t tell when you’re being serious and when you’re teasing.”
“I can’t be both?”
She stops walking and looks at me. I bear her scrutiny patiently, finishing off my coffee.
Eventually, she mumbles, “I’m going to put my cup in the bin. Want me to take yours?”
“Sure.”
I watch her pass a general rubbish bin and walk a few hundred yards to a recycling bin, toss her cup in, then come back to me.
“What?” she says. “Don’t you care about the environment?”
“I don’tnotcare.”
She clears her throat. “Maybe we should get back to Finn.”
“Of course.”
“You want me to tell you about the accident?”
“I’d like to hear it in your own words.” We turn left into Hagley Park, taking the path that follows the Avon in the direction of the Botanic Gardens.
She’s quiet for a while. I let her think about what she wants to say. A coxed four goes past us, the guys pulling effortlessly at the oars.
“The accident happened just before Christmas,” she says slowly. “We lived in Dunedin. Lee, my late husband, was a real-estate agent. He was taking a client to see a property, but he’d just picked Finn up from school, and Finn was in the backseat—Lee often did that, if he had a late appointment. Finn would do his homework or play a game on his phone until Lee had finished. The police think Lee was distracted by something, because he ran a red light and drove straight into a lorry. He and the client were killed outright. Finn suffered a spinal column injury, and he’s been unable to walk since.”
She speaks calmly, showing no sign of the emotion she exhibited in my office.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” I tell her.
