Lisa Scottoline's "Damaged": Chapter Two

This is the second of three excerpts from Lisa Scottoline's new novel, "Damaged," now in stores.

'Good morning, I'm Mary DiNunzio." Mary closed the door as O'Brien tucked his napkin in the pocket of his worn khakis, which he had on with a boxy navy sports jacket that hung on his long, bony frame. His blue-striped tie lay against his chest, and Mary noticed as she approached him that his oxford shirt had a fraying collar. Edward's hooded eyes were an aged hazel green behind wire-rimmed glasses, with visible bifocal windows. His face was long and lined, and his crow's-feet deep. Folds bracketed his mouth, and age spots dotted his temples and forehead. His complexion was ruddy, though Mary could smell the minty tang of a fresh shave.

"Edward O'Brien," O'Brien said, walking over, his bald head tilting partway down. He was probably six-foot-two, but he hunched over in a way that made him seem like a much older man than he was, which was probably in his 70s.

"Please accept my apologies for being late." Mary shook his slim hand.

"Not at all. And call me Edward."

"Great. Please, sit down." Mary sat down with her laptop and gestured him into the seat, catty-corner to her left.

"Thanks." Edward sank into the fabric swivel seat, bending his long legs slowly at the knee.

"So how can I help you, Edward?"

"This is a free consultation, correct? That's what it said on the website." Edward frowned, his forehead lined deeply.

"Yes, completely free." Mary opened her laptop and hit the RECORD button discreetly, so he wouldn't be self-conscious. "I hope you don't mind if I record the session."

"It's fine. I'm here because of my grandson, Patrick. I'll begin at the beginning."

"Please do." Mary liked his reserved, gentlemanly manner. His teeth were even but tea-stained, which she found oddly charming.

"Patrick is 10, and he's in the fifth grade at Grayson Elementary School in the city. We live in Juniata." Edward pursed his lips, which turned down at the corners. "He's got special needs. He's dyslexic, and I think I need a lawyer to help with his school. I should have dealt with it before."

"OK, understood." Mary got her bearings, now that she knew this was a special-education case. Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law, students with learning disabilities were entitled to an education that met their needs at no cost. She'd been developing an expertise in special-ed cases and had represented many children with dyslexia, a language-based learning disability. There were differences in symptoms and degrees of dyslexia along the spectrum, but most dyslexic children couldn't decode, or put a sound to the symbol on the page, and therefore couldn't phonetically figure out the word because the symbols on the page had no meaning.

"He can't read at all. He thinks I don't know, but I do."

"Not at all, even at 10?" Mary didn't hide the dismay in her tone.

Sadly, it wasn't unheard of in Philly's public schools.

"No, and his spelling and letters are terrible."

Mary nodded, knowing that most dyslexic children had spelling problems as well as handwriting problems, or dysgraphia, since handwriting skills came from the same area of the brain as language acquisition.

"I read to him sometimes, and he likes that, and I guess I kind of gave up trying to teach him to read. I thought he'd pick it up at school."

"Have they identified his learning disability at school?"

"Yes. In second grade."

"Does he have an IEP?" Mary asked, because under the law, schools were required to evaluate a child and formulate an individualized education program, or an IEP, to set forth the services and support he was supposed to receive and to help him achieve in his areas of need.

"Yes, but it isn't helping. I have it with me." Edward patted a battered mailing envelope in front of him, but Mary needed some background.

"Before we get too far, where are Patrick's parents?"

"They passed. Patrick is my daughter Suzanne's only child, and she passed away four years ago in December. On the 12th, right before Christmas." Edward's face darkened. "I have no other children, and my wife, Patty, passed away a decade ago."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you. My daughter Suzanne was killed by a drunk driver."

Edward puckered his lower lip, wrinkling deeply around his mouth.

"I retired when that happened. I'm raising Patrick. I was an accountant, self-employed."

"Again, I'm so sorry, and Patrick is lucky to have you." Mary admired him. "How old was Patrick when his mother passed?"

"Six, a few months into first grade at Grayson Elementary. He took it very hard."

"I'm sure." Mary felt for him and Patrick. Special-education cases could be emotional because they involved an entire family, and nothing was more important to a family than its children. Mary felt that special-ed practice was the intersection of love and law, so it was tailor-made for her. This work had made her both the happiest, and the saddest, she'd ever been as a lawyer.

"Finally, he's doing great at home. It's school that's the problem. The kids know he can't read and they tease him. It's been that way for a long time but this year, it's getting worse."

Mary had seen it before, though dyslexia could be treated with intensive interventions, the earlier the better. "How's his self-esteem?"

"Not good, he thinks he's stupid." Edward frowned. "I tell him he's not but he doesn't believe me."

"That's not uncommon with dyslexic children. The first thing anyone learns at school is reading, so when a child can't do something that seems so easy for the other kids, they feel dumb, inferior, broken. It goes right to the core. I've had an expert tell me that reading isn't just about reading, it's the single most important thing that creates or destroys a child's psyche." Mary made a mental note to go back to the subject. "Are you Patrick's legal guardian?"

"It's not like I went to court to get a judge to say so, but we're blood. That makes him mine, in my book."

"That's not the case legally, but we can deal with that another time. What about Patrick's father? How did he die?"

lisa@scottoline.com

Coming Thursday in Magazine: Chapter Two continues.

Friday

Noon: Center City

Barnes & Noble, 1805 Walnut St.

7 p.m.: Exton

Barnes & Noble, 301 Main St.

Saturday

5 p.m.: Citizens Bank Park

Ladies' Night at the Phillies

Sunday

Noon: King of Prussia

Costco, 201 Allendale Rd.

4 p.m.: Willow Grove

Barnes & Noble, 102 Park Ave.

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