The Devil's Elixir

37

Tess hated waiting.

She was impatient from minute one, as her mom never failed to remind her, often adding that it was a small miracle that Tess had had the decency to stick around inside of her for the full nine months and not kicked and screamed her way out prematurely.

She was back at the hotel, with Jules and Alex. They’d gone downstairs for a light lunch, and they were now back in their rooms. Jules was on a conference call with her office while Tess was on the couch with Alex, reading Tikki Tikki Tembo with him. It was one of his favorites, one he’d asked her to bring back from the house. It was also a book she remembered reading to Kim years ago, but even with that added emotional kick, its charm and its amusing tongue-twisters still weren’t enough to drag Tess’s mind off the drawing or calm her bubbling impatience.

Then her phone rang.

She picked it up, saw a number she didn’t recognize, and her pulse vaulted. She never answered a call that fast.

It was Holly Fowden, Alex’s teacher.

Tess thanked her for getting in touch as she sprang off the bed and slipped into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She then explained who she was and what had happened. Fowden also hadn’t heard about Michelle’s death, and her voice broke as she struggled to find the right words to say. Tess helped her by moving the conversation along and told her about what had prompted her visit to the school and her chat with the principal.

“Alex’s mom did come to see me,” Fowden told her. “She showed me that drawing.”

“Why?”

“She didn’t explain much. She just said Alex seemed to be troubled by something and wanted to know how he was in class.”

“And how was he?”

“Normal. Happy. I didn’t notice anything wrong with him.”

“But she did?”

“Well . . . yes.” She sounded a bit uncomfortable discussing it with Tess, but carried on. “She said he hadn’t been sleeping well and having nightmares . . . She also said he’d been saying things she didn’t understand, things she was surprised he knew. She seemed confused by it all and wanted to know if I’d talked about them in class.”

“Like what?”

“Names of places. Cities and towns in South America. And animals like boas and piranhas, I remember her saying.”

“And you hadn’t taught them that?”

“No.”

Tess wasn’t sure why this was surprising to Michelle. He could have easily picked those things up while watching television.

“Did he say anything like that to you?”

“After she mentioned them, I noticed that some of his drawings had a different feel than what other kids would normally draw, but again, nothing too out of the ordinary. But there was one thing he did say that surprised me. I didn’t really think much of it until after his mom called.”

Tess felt a spark of anticipation. “What was it?”

“We were out in the park and I had the kids draw some of the flowers that were there. And Alex drew this white flower that was really gorgeous. But when I asked him which one he was drawing, he said it wasn’t one of the ones in the park. And then he said something else. He said, ‘They say it fixes your heart, but actually it kills people.’ ”

Tess wondered what kind of TV shows he’d been watching. “A flower that kills people?”

“I know, weird, right? But when I asked him what he meant, he didn’t want to say. It’s odd, though, ’cause lately, he’s been more articulate and seems to have a richer vocabulary than his classmates. But on that occasion, he didn’t want to say more.”

“So how did you leave it?”

“I told his mom I’d let her know if he said or did anything unusual or if he seemed at all unhappy about anything. I saw her when she dropped him off a couple of times. She said she was taking him to see a specialist but didn’t really go into detail.”

“What, like a shrink?”

“Yes. A child psychologist. Privately. She didn’t want to involve the school in it. She didn’t want Alex to be labeled in any way. You know how it is.”

Tess was familiar with that kind of pressure. “Do you know who she took him to see?”

“No.”

“Did she say anything about him?”

Fowden thought about it, then said, “No, I’m sorry. I got the feeling she was kicking herself for even mentioning it to me.”

Tess had to get more. “Was it a man or a woman?”

Fowden paused, then said, “A man. Yeah, I’m pretty sure she referred to him as ‘he.’ ”

Tess thanked her, got her number, and ended the call.

She didn’t have much. A first name that may or may not relate to a local shrink.

Tess left her room and saw that Jules had ended her call and was now playing with Alex. She hesitated to interrupt them, then picked up her iPad, went back to her room, fired up Safari, and started trawling the online listings for psychologists in the San Diego area named Dean.