Taken with friends outside a café or bar, three faces smiling into the camera, arms around each other’s shoulders. I knew instantly which one was you. I’d kept tabs over the years, through Barbara. When a case affects you that much, you don’t let it go easily. Until that picture flashed up last night, though, I hadn’t recognized anything of the child from all those years ago in the photos she’d sent me. But something about that picture, a familiar look in the eyes, brought it all back.I wondered then about your life. Were you close to the two women either side of you? That would mean you were at least capable of forming friendships. Have you been happy? What had turned the person smiling at the camera into someone capable of doing what you did? Was this in some way my fault? Before our fifth session with Laurie, Ed Kowalsky and I met up with officials from the Child Welfare Department. Hurrying up the steps to the brownstone building downtown where the Welfare Department was housed, past the flagpole where the Stars and Stripes hung, noticeably faded after a relentless summer, I felt nervous.
