Chapter 5: Fit to Be Mother

"Who made the report?" I asked.

The caseworker shifted her clipboard.

"It's anonymous, Mrs. Boteler. I can only tell you what it says."

"Then tell me."

She read it in a flat voice.

The mother had attacked a pregnant relative, was mentally unstable and was a danger to the infant.

The caller asked that the baby be placed with his maternal grandmother until the situation was resolved.

I looked at the sergeant, still standing by the door.

"His maternal grandmother," I said.

"Yes."

"That's Gisela Hungerford. She has been downstairs in a police station all night."

The caseworker's pen stopped moving.

"She called this in before the shower was over?" she asked slowly.

"I'd like to know when it was filed."

She checked the top of the form.

"Three forty-six this afternoon."

That was six minutes after my sister's scream.

At that minute my mother had been on her knees in my hallway, holding my sister's head and telling everyone to stay calm.

She had not been reacting.

She had been following a plan.

I reached for the tablet on the bedside table.

Finbar had left it there, and the footage from the stairs was already cued.

"Please watch this," I said. "It's four minutes. Then tell me who's unfit."

The caseworker watched in silence.

When it ended, she watched the first minute again.

She set the clipboard on the bed.

"Mrs. Boteler, I've been doing this for eleven years," she said. "I've never been sorry to open a file before."

"Then close it."

"I'll close it," she said. "And I'll note who the caller wanted your son placed with."

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