False Allegations (17 page)

A year later, the mother was arrested for trying to kidnap the kid. She was all set to flee— had fake ID for them both. They bagged her at the airport, tickets to France in her handbag.

Kite had an AV rating, the highest, from Martindale–Hubbell. He was listed in
Who’s Who in American Law
. Except for a half–dozen brief mentions in the
New York Law Journal
over the years, the newspaper search had come up empty— he wasn’t a publicity hound.

No. He was a hover–hunter; a bird of prey who didn’t need a perch to work from.

The last document was a double–spaced list of all the lawyers Kite had consulted to since he went into solo private practice. It ran four pages, went coast to coast. I recognized a couple of the names— media–slut matrimonial bombers— but most I never heard of. Wolfe had annotated the list, breaking the names down by specialty and type of case. Mostly custody and visitation, but a good many civil lawsuits and a few criminal cases.

In the matrimonials, Kite worked for whoever hired him. In all the others, he was always for the defendant.

I read it all through, then I read it again, looking for a pattern. The only one I could think of didn’t pan out: although most of his clients— or, actually, the clients of the lawyers who hired him— were male, almost a third were female. He wasn’t one of those “father’s rights” guys.

Wolfe was good, and her microscope went deep. But I didn’t see any cracks in the wall.

I
took a break. Piled Pansy into the Plymouth and drove down to one of the abandoned piers on the West Side and let her run around a bit.

When I got back, I made us both some lunch. Then I opened the file folder I’d taken from Kite.

Articles by psychologists. Briefs by lawyers. Stories by journalists. Every one about false allegations of child sexual abuse. None of them written by Kite. But then I noticed the highlighting— neon–bright see–through colors splattering almost every page, sometimes several colors on the same one. At the end of the packet, I found a neat chart marked KEY. Each color was represented by a bold slash from the highlighter. Next to each slash, some tiny, crabbed, handwriting in jet–black ink, so hyper–precise that at first I thought it was a computer font.

[Red] An “unfounded” allegation of child abuse does not mean the allegation was “false.” The “unfounded” designation also applies to cases in which the investigation could not be completed because the suspects left the jurisdiction, etc. And many “founded” cases are never made the subject of a Child Protective Petition.

[Blue] The “statistics” cited are not “statistics” at all. They are extrapolations based on estimates. No scientific validity.

[Yellow] (1) Expert witness for the defense was quoted in an interview in which he defended “pedophilia” as an “alternate lifestyle.” (2) Individual testifying here not recognized as “expert” by courts in three separate jurisdictions. (3) The term “validation” is a misnomer: “valid” means “true
this
time,” while “reliable” means “true
ove
r time.” (4) “Expert” cannot testify as to whether child is telling the truth— this invades the province of the jury.

[Orange] Unsound research (sample too small, insufficient controls, et al.).

[Green] Financial interest in outcome. Hidden agenda. Undisclosed connection to foundation named as principal in lawsuit. Settlement forced on defendant by insurance company.

[Purple] Does not meet DSM–IV criteria for “syndrome.” No data collected. Never submitted to refereed journal. Not scientific— merely the carefully packaged pronouncements of a merchant.

[Tan] Case reversed on technical application of the Confrontation Clause. Media reports as “vindication” inaccurate.

[Magenta] Statute of Limitations alert!

[Cyan] (1) “Protective Parent” label entirely self–awarded, meaningless. (2) Diagnosis of Post–Traumatic Stress Disorder is
not
axiomatic indicator of child sexual abuse. Pressure to carry a false allegation could induce could stress in a child.

[Pink] Journalists ranked on “Loyalty Index,” set up a prediction model. 100% accurate: journalist’s name a perfect predictor of the article’s “findings.”

On the next page following, still in the same tiny handwriting, more notes:

Hechler,
The
Battle and the Backlash
…

APSAC protocols…

Salter,
Treating Child Sex Offenders and Victim
s…

“Expert” cites own articles as “source material”…

NAMBLA member…

501(c)(3) criteria precludes lobbying…

And then the coda, all caps, double underlined, centered exactly at the bottom of the page:

A TRUE DEBUNKER OPERATES WITHOUT AGENDA

Kite’s religion?

I
let it simmer a couple of days, waiting to see if Heather turned up the pressure. But the phone at Mama’s stayed silent. Okay.

“I’m ready to talk,” I told her when she answered the phone.

“Thank you so much,” she whispered into the phone, an undercurrent of promise in her voice. “When can you do it?”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“I’ll have to check— no, I know it’ll be fine. Is ten all right?”

“Yes.”

I
docked the Plymouth in an outdoor lot north of the Fifty–ninth Street Bridge near the FDR and walked to Kite’s building. I was dressed the same as I was the last time. Not because I thought Heather would pull the same stunt— I just wanted to make sure her memory was refreshed.

She stood on the far side of the grille, wearing a black bustier under a transparent white blouse over black Capri pants anchored with a wide red belt. Her black–cherry hair was a lacquered helmet. Her eyes were little circles of orange glass in the dim light, bright even against the thick makeup. When she turned her back on me to lead the way, I saw she was back to spike heels. The left ankle was wrapped in tape— it must have been painful. I ignored the sway of her powerful hips, my eyes on her shoulders, but she stepped smoothly to one side to usher me into Kite’s chambers without a hint of aggression.

The butterscotch leather armchair was in place next to Kite’s fan–shaped chair. He waved me over like he was an old pal who’d been waiting for me in our regular saloon. I took my seat. He didn’t offer to shake hands. If he noticed anything different about my face, it didn’t show on his.

I heard the tap of her spike heels behind me. She leaned over with a glass of water, but she kept her head high, her nose almost in my hair. I heard a faint sniff, probably because I was listening for it. She was checking for cigarette smoke, her ankle reminding her not to relax her guard around me, but between the strong shampoo and the heavy gel, she didn’t have a chance. I’d washed my hands in rubbing alcohol too, just in case.

“I won’t insult you by asking if you read the material I gave you,” Kite said by way of opening. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.”

“Okay,” I said, staying inside myself. Thinking of that Zen rock, polished by years under the waterfall until it was as seamless as the water itself. Like Kite’s rap. Prison is full of raps. Glassily ceramic, keeping your focus on the surface so you never looked inside. The cons who call themselves Aryans say blacks are mud people and whites are sun people. And the cons who call themselves Africans say blacks are earth people and whites are ice people. Two sides of the same smooth stone. And not a speck of truth under the sleek surface.

“Do you have any reaction?” he asked, white eyebrows raised behind the pink glasses.

“Liars lie,” I said indifferently. “Guy rapes a woman in Dallas, he says it was consent, okay? Another guy rapes another woman in Chicago, he says it was consent too. That doesn’t make it a national conspiracy. But some whore psychologist writes an article about some bullshit mental disorder that makes women who actually consented to sex scream ‘Rape!’ and all of a sudden, it’s a fucking ‘syndrome,’ and defense attorneys have a field day.”

“It cuts the other way too,” Kite said, leaning forward. “A gang of pedophiles sexually assault a child in Sweden. On the videotape, they’re all wearing black. The same videotape shows up in the house of a collector in the United States. He’s got a black shirt in his closet. So the police tell the newspapers they’ve cracked an international ring of child molesters.”

“Like I said: liars lie. So?”

“So idiot therapists who do their incompetent ‘validations’ of child sexual abuse start adding ‘Did he have a black shirt?’ to their stupid checklists. And when they get an affirmative answer, as they inevitably will in some cases, there’s their ‘proof.’ The first thing any charlatan needs is nomenclature. A special language. Trappings. That’s the true genesis of psychobabble terms such as ‘disclosure’ and ‘in denial.’ Every good con man needs plausibility…”

“People see what they want to see,” I said. “Whatever pays their bills or races their motors. You pointed it out yourself, in the stuff you gave me.”

“And so what’s missing?” he asked, making a temple of his fingertips, gazing out at me between them. “I’ll tell you, Mr. Burke: objective, damn–the–consequences
investigation
. The entire problem with the so–called system is lack of objectivity. Prosecutors want to prove their cases, not find the truth. And defense attorneys…obviously, most of the time, it’s their job to
avoid
the truth.”

“What about caseworkers?,” I asked, knowing the answer. “Like for Child Protective Services?”

“
Please
,” he sneered. “Search as you might throughout this country, you will not find more undertrained, undersupervised, understaffed, and underpaid individuals. They operate entirely without protocols, without standards. Tell me this: Why should a case of suspected child abuse not be investigated the precise same way in Detroit as it is in Denver? In some jurisdictions, they use actual social workers. MSWs. In others, any college degree will suffice. Do you know what the Star Chamber was, Mr. Burke?”

“England, right? Three, four hundred years ago? A little room where they dragged you in and told you you were guilty.”

“Close enough,” he acknowledged. “For the child, for the putatively
abused
child, every single little caseworker is a personal Star Chamber. If that caseworker decides there is probable cause to proceed, so be it. But if he or she does not, then what? Nothing. Nothing at all. If the caseworker is a bigot, or a moron, or an overzealous do–gooder,
that
determines the result, not the facts. The true investigator is, first and foremost, a skeptic. He does not operate under superstition or myth. But if you have a caseworker who doesn’t ‘believe’ incest occurs, any investigation that individual performs will be fatally flawed…and the poor child won’t have a chance.”

“And if they see incest under every bed…”

“Yes! Then the poor parents won’t have a chance either. In America, the predominant factor in the outcome of
any
child abuse case isn’t the truth itself. No, it’s the quality of advocacy on either side. An incompetent prosecutor, or even a lazy one, will result in more acquittals than even the most brilliant defense could provide.”

“Yeah, and— “

“Of course”— he cut me off— “a sufficiently skilled defense can shred even the truest case. It happens all the time.” He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “Mr. Burke, I live in the crossfire between two armed camps: the ‘Believe the Children!’ lunatics and the ‘False Allegations!’ fanatics. My only weapon is the truth. And if my syndrome is to achieve
genuine
professional acceptance, I must avoid the personal stigma of being associated with either group. My credentials as a debunker are impeccable when it comes to child sexual abuse. I have exposed case after case of incompetent, shoddy, or outright fabricated allegations of child sexual abuse. But I have never taken the position that such things do not, in fact, occur…and I personally find every single such occurrence abominable. Most cases, if you work them diligently enough, are susceptible to actual proof. And if the law were brought into the twentieth century, that proof would be much more widely available.”

He took a short breath. When I didn’t say anything, he rolled on like there had been no pause. “For example, the law should be that every single abortion performed on a minor must include the preservation of fetal tissue for DNA analysis. You could not ask for better, stronger proof of incest, if it actually caused the pregnancy. But the anti–abortion crowd, those so–called ‘pro–family’ people, they are bitterly opposed. And they have enough clout in Congress to keep such a law off the books.”