Page 59 of A River Red With Blood
Berrien took the chair behind her desk, tasted her coffee, and said: “So: private schools.”
“Yes.”
“Any private school in particular?”
“Guess.”
“Spero.”
“Got it in one.”
“Color me relieved, since I believe Spero doesn’t fall under our remit beyond a requirement to supply an annual letter to our commissioner stating its intention to operate as an equivalent instruction school, which the commissioner duly acknowledges.”
“Meaning?”
“Spero has satisfied the basic requirements for an approved private school under Title 20-A, Chapter 117, of the Maine Revised Statutes.May I ask who you’re working for?”
“A lawyer named Alcock.His client is Ward Vose.Vose is Scott Theriault’s father.”
“Without wishing to sound judgmental,” said Berrien, “it’s a pity Ward Vose wasn’t more concerned about his son before he sent him to Spero.”
“Vose didn’t send Scott to Spero.He was in prison at the time.Vose happens to be in prison a lot of the time.”
“And I didn’t believe I could pity that boy more.Then you come along to up the ante.”
“Does the department have a problem with Spero?”I asked.“More to the point, do you?”
“Was it my tone?”
“Your tone, expression, and general demeanor.”
“As these places go, Spero is reasonably well run, but ‘as these places go’ is a significant qualifier.Subjectively, I’m not in favor of the model as a way of dealing with troubled or traumatized youths.My instinct is to blame the parents, not the child, but where a child is unusually difficult, consigning them to the equivalent of an old reform school isn’t the solution.It’s an abrogation of parental responsibility, hence my comment about your client, whether he was behind bars or not.That goes the same for Scott Theriault’s mother.”
“Vose didn’t have much say in the matter,” I said.“Scott’s mother and stepfather made the decision to put him in Spero, which is not to absolve Vose of responsibility for the boy.He admits he was never in the running for father of the year, but that doesn’t mean he’s not entitled to ask questions about what befell his son.”
“Is he going to sue Spero?”
That question was coming up a lot.If I set up a school, my first hire would be a good lawyer.
“The conversation hasn’t arisen,” I said.“What interests him is how and why his boy’s broken body ended up in a river.”
“Scott Theriault ran away from Spero,” said Berrien, “and had an accident.That’s death by misadventure, or whatever the legal equivalent is in this state.”
I didn’t reply, just drank my coffee.It was already almost gone and I’d barely started on it.No wonder the Nespresso people could afford to employ George Clooney as a point man.
“Which is what you’ve been hired to confirm or disprove, right?”Berrien pressed.
“In a nutshell.”
“Well, as I told you, there’s a limit to how much help we can be, given the independence of equivalent instruction schools, which I’ve mentioned.The department hasn’t had significant contact with Spero for some years.”
“But you must have had dealings with it at the start, when it was still in receipt of public funds.”
Berrien’s mouth twitched.I’d touched a pressure point, and pressure points were good.The important thing was knowing when to press, and how hard.Berrien might not be averse to sharing, but she wouldn’t care to be harried.Gently would do it.
“What should I know?”I asked.
“That if I ever write my memoirs,” she said, “I may title themAccounts and Accountability, with apologies to Jane Austen.But I doubt I’ll ever write them.No one would publish them, no one would read them, and most of all, no one would thank me for the effort.Some people might be especially ungrateful.”
