Keeping Faith Read online

  "Thanks," Joan says, and then sits down before Millie has a chance to say anything else.

  Metz eyes Millie Epstein with calculation. He knows damn well why Joan wrapped up so quickly--the old bat's loopy. Like Joan, he plans to steer clear of questions involving reincarnation and second leases on life, questions that would only make him the butt of jokes in the legal community. He smiles, catching Millie off guard. From what Joan's told her, he's sure that he's been built up as a piranha. "Mrs. Epstein, you really love Mariah, don't you?"

  Millie's face softens. "Oh, yes."

  "She grew up very close to you, I bet."

  "Yes."

  Metz leans against the witness stand. "You watched her graduate from high school?"

  "Class valedictorian," Millie says proudly.

  "And college? Magna cum laude?"

  "Summa."

  "That's amazing. I barely made it through Freshman English," Metz jokes. "And you, of course, were there when she got married."

  Millie's mouth turns down at the corners. "Yes."

  "I bet you taught her everything she knows about being a good mother."

  "Well," Millie says, flushing modestly, "you never know."

  "I bet you taught her how to help Faith through these difficult times. Am I right?"

  Millie's chin comes up. "I told her over and over: When you're a mother, you stick up for your child. And that's that."

  "Is that what Mariah's been doing all along for Faith?"

  "Yes!"

  Metz pins her with his gaze. "And is that what you're doing now for Mariah?"

  Millie glances at the judge. "So? Is that it?"

  Judge Rothbottam taps his fingers on the desk. "You know, Mrs. Epstein, actually I have a couple of questions." He glances at each of the attorneys in turn. "Apparently our esteemed counsel is running a bit shy."

  Millie preens under his regard. "Go right ahead, Your Honor."

  "I've, um, read in some of the papers that you were...resurrected?"

  "Oh, yes. In fact," Millie rummages in her large purse, "I've got my death certificate somewhere in here."

  "I don't need to see it." He smiles at her. "Can you tell me about it, though?"

  "The death certificate?"

  "Well, no. The resurrection. For example, how long were you clinically dead?"

  Millie shrugs. "About an hour. Signed, sealed, and delivered."

  "What happened?"

  "I got into a shouting match with Ian Fletcher. The next thing I know, I'm lying on the floor and I can't breathe. After that, I don't remember." Pausing dramatically, she leans toward the bench. "Then I'm all of a sudden in a hospital room with Faith leaning over me."

  The judge shakes his head, amazed. "Any medical explanations for what happened?"

  "As far as I know, Judge, the doctors can't explain it."

  "Mrs. Epstein, what do you think happened?"

  She looks at him seriously. "I think my granddaughter brought me back to life."

  "What do you make of Faith's visions?"

  "I believe her. Goodness, if I didn't believe her now, I'd be an idiot, wouldn't I?" She smiles. "Or worse--I'd be dead."

  "Thank you, Mrs. Epstein. Mr. Metz, do you have any more questions?" The attorney shakes his head. "Well," Rothbottam says. "I think I need a recess."

  Mariah watches her daughter leave the courtroom with Kenzie. She's still not allowed to go near Faith, and to her surprise it's harder to keep her distance now, knowing that Faith is no longer ill. She cranes her neck, watching Faith disappear into the hallway.

  She hopes Kenzie is taking care of her.

  From the corner of her eye she sees Ian. Immediately she turns away.

  "Mariah." Joan draws her attention. "You're on after Dr. Fitzgerald."

  "That soon?"

  "Yeah. Are you going to be all right?"

  She presses a fist to her stomach. "I don't know. It's not you I'm worried about; it's Metz."

  "Listen to me," Joan answers. "When you're up there, no matter what he says to you, you look right here." She points behind her, to the row where Faith has been sitting. "She's going to get you through this."

  Dr. Alvin Fitzgerald has no sooner taken the stand than Metz stands up. "Approach!" The attorneys walk up to the bench. "I want to know if this guy interviewed Faith."

  Joan barely spares him a glance. "No, because I knew you'd complain if he did. If there needs to be an interview at a later date, both of our experts can have a chance. However, I can show what I need to show without Dr. Fitzgerald interviewing Faith."

  At this, some of the wind goes out of Metz's sails. "All right," he says tightly.

  "Dr. Fitzgerald," Joan begins, "can you state your credentials for the record?"

  "I graduated from the University of Chicago's medical school, did a residency and fellowship in child psychology at UCSF, and I was the principal investigator on a large grant studying CFS and somatoform disorders."

  "We've heard an awful lot about Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. Can you tell us if this particular case fits the criteria for that disorder?"

  The psychiatrist shrugs. "Well, there's a lot that matches the basic DSM-Four criteria."

  Joan watches Metz's mouth drop open in surprise as the psychiatrist repeats the highlights of Dr. Birch's testimony. Then she asks, "Are there elements in this case that don't seem to fit MSP?"

  "Yes. For one, Faith's symptoms are real, and bizarre. It's a lot easier to fake nausea than to fake stigmata. As for the hallucinations, I disagree with Dr. Birch. Just because Mariah White was at an institution with psychotics doesn't mean she could make Faith convincingly fake a hallucination--that's like saying that riding on the Bulls' team bus will make you play like Michael Jordan." He grins. "Another discrepancy is that Munchausen by Proxy is chronic. These parents go from emergency room to emergency room so that doctors don't pick up on what they're doing. Yet Mrs. White has taken Faith to the same health-care provider, Dr. Blumberg, repeatedly. She's gone so far as to request him to examine Faith numerous times."

  "Is that all, Doctor?"

  "Oh, I'm just getting warmed up. The perpetrators of Munchausen by Proxy traditionally have an emotionally distant childhood, which Mariah White did not have. But the biggest problem I have with a diagnosis of MSP is simply that there are alternative diagnoses that explain this case equally as well."

  Joan acts surprised. "Really? Like what?"

  "Somatoform disorder, for one. Basically, it's when a patient experiences emotional distress in a physical way. Imagine a child who develops severe stomach cramps every time she has to take a test, because she's so anxious about school. She's truly hurting, but she can't articulate why. Remember Freud's hysterical patients? They were the great-grandmas of today's somatoform-disorder patients."

  He holds up his hands, demonstrating a sort of scale. "It's helpful to consider these disorders by imagining a range," the psychiatrist says. "On one end is malingering, which we've all done: You pretend you have the flu to get out of jury duty, for example--symptoms are intentionally faked to achieve an intended goal. On the other end is somatoform disorder, where a patient unintentionally produces a symptom that looks and feels like the real thing--and doesn't know that she's doing it, much less why. Somewhere in between these is Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, where symptoms can be intentionally feigned...but for unintentional reasons."

  "So the difference, Doctor, is in the intent."

  "Exactly. Otherwise, these two disorders look similar. Just as in Munchausen by Proxy, a doctor will examine a child with somatoform disorder and not be able to find any organic etiology for the symptom. She may undergo CT scans and MRIs and dozens of tests, to no avail, because the presenting problem doesn't fit with the physiology. However, in a somatoform disorder, the symptom is set off by stress. In MSP, the symptom is set off by Mom. In somatoform disorders, the symptom is real. In MSP, it's faked. Often deciding which is which comes down to a judgment call requiring the knowledge of the con