Chapter 61

On Wednesday morning, Pamela Castle was in her office at the Illinois Department of Human Services. She was going over a list of adoptions scheduled for the week and was checking the list against her paperwork. Pamela considered it her job to protect children from a fate worse than death: being adopted by inadequately qualified parents. Going down the list she found a new name, Kristin Elizabeth Crowley. She frowned as she read it. Pamela was not comfortable with anything new. Checking her lists she confirmed her initial suspicion: There was no file on the girl. After making inquiries at the office of the clerk of Family Court, she called the Stewart residence. The phone was answered by an answering machine so she left a detailed message for Kristin Crowley to get in touch with her as soon as possible.

When Jan, Pete, Vangie, and Kris returned to the Stewarts', Jan listened to the message tape. Kris called Pamela Castle and was asked to come down to the office as soon as possible. Jan loaned her car to Vangie who drove Kris in to Chicago. At the Human Services office, Kris was shown into an inner office while Vangie waited in the lobby. Finally at four forty-five, a somewhat overweight young woman appeared and informed her that Kris would be staying with them overnight.

Before Vangie could respond, the woman disappeared behind a locked door. Quickly, Vangie ran to a pay phone and called Jan. When Jan answered, she said, "I think we have big trouble! I'm afraid Kris may be caught up in the social-service bureaucracy. My God, Jan, what will we do?"

Jan said she would get on it right away.

As soon as she hung up the phone, Janice Stewart began to mobilize their forces. First, she called Jennifer Chapman and explained the situation in just a few sentences. As much as Jan teased her about being a useless airhead, Jennifer was a brilliant girl who was extremely clear-thinking and capable in any crisis. She said that she would call the Chapmans and Ali, while Jan should call Ed Bradley and Cindy. In a matter of just a few minutes, well before Vangie returned to the house, the wheels were turning. Ed Bradley used Dave Chapman's attorneys to prepare a habeas corpus petition for filing first thing Thursday morning. That night in bed Vangie tossed and turned in fear.

The next day, while the lawyers were beginning their work, she received a phone call from Kris. The girl sounded very angry but didn't seem to be at all worried. She told her mother that there was no time to talk, but gave her a short list of people for her to contact and to have in the courtroom on Friday morning.

Vangie knew most of the people, but there were two names she didn't recognize: Dr. Robert Parker of the Mayo Clinic, and Virginia Adams, a flight attendant with United Airlines. After Kris hung up the phone very abruptly, Vangie called Cathy at the bank. Although she wasn't in the bank, the entire unit had been alerted to the potential problem, so they reached her moments later with an emergency call to her mobile telephone. Cathy, with a lump in her throat, assured her mother that she and Ken would be in the courtroom bright and early at nine the next morning and Virginia Adams would be with them.

Vangie then called the Mayo Clinic and asked for Dr. Parker. She told the operator that it was an emergency — potentially life or death. A few minutes later, after a substantial amount of call shifting, Parker came on the line. She introduced herself and learned that he was the doctor with whom Cathy had spoken when she called from the plane while in-flight to Hawaii.

Quickly, she explained to him that she and her husband were planning to adopt Kris but the social-service bureaucracy was rearing its ugly head. She ended by telling the doctor that there would be a private jet standing by for him at the Rochester, Minnesota, airport to fly him to Chicago. It would be parked at the airport ready to roll within two hours and would be standing by in Rochester until he was ready to leave.

Parker swallowed hard and said, "Mrs. Collins, I get the idea that money is not a particular problem for you?"

"Doctor Parker, let me put it this way," Vangie replied. "The plane that will be waiting for you costs about thirty million dollars, give or take a few. If you like, I would be happy to leave it with you as a gift after it returns you to Rochester. Is that clear enough?"

He whistled softly and said it was perfectly clear. He would be ready to leave late that night. Vangie said a limousine would be meeting him at the executive air terminal at Midway Airport and would take him to the Water Tower Hyatt where a suite would be ready for him. "Of course, Doctor, it should go without saying that there will be no bills!" Then she hastily added, "Except whatever bill you would care to render for your professional services, of course."

That night, Jan sat on Vangie's bed with her back resting against the headboard just stroking the woman's neck while she inconsolably cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, the Family Court scheduled to hear the adoption request and the habeas corpus petition was packed with spectators. Vangie was panicked when she saw Kris escorted into the courtroom under guard. She sat alone at the plaintiff's table and just shook her head when the Chapman attorneys moved to join her. Vangie had no idea what the girl was doing but she trusted her judgment.

The court was called to order with Judge Robert Ferguson presiding. He looked at Kris sitting alone and then at the other table where Pamela Castle was seated along with two attorneys from the Department of Human Services. Looking back at Kris, he raised an eyebrow in question.

Kris said, "Your Honor, my name is Kristin Elizabeth Crowley. There is a petition in front of you requesting that you approve my adoption by Edgar Warren Bradley and Evangeline Pierce Collins." When his eyebrow rose again, she added with a warm smile, "Your Honor, my parents — my proposed adoptive parents — are scheduled to be married tomorrow morning. I'm asking your permission to represent myself and them in these proceedings. I believe I have the greatest interest in the outcome, after all."

He agreed and ordered the hearing to proceed. Kris called Pamela Castle as her first witness. Pamela looked startled at being called and then even more startled when Kris insisted that she be sworn.

"But, Your Honor," the woman protested, "I am an officer of the state, and these hearings are informal. The suggestion that I might not tell the truth is ... is—"

"Then there's no problem with your testifying under oath, is there?" Kris interrupted. The woman was nonplused but there was nothing she could say. After taking the oath she took her seat in the witness box.

Kris began her questioning immediately. "Please state your name, age, and occupation."

"I must protest, Your Honor," Castle said, "at being questioned by this ... this child! Why—"

"You do know the answers to my questions, don't you, Miss Castle?" Kris interjected. "They are really quite straightforward and should be easy to answer, even for a bureaucrat."

Judge Ferguson covered his mouth with his hand to mask his grin. The girl was obviously very smart and mentally very quick. He looked at her and then looked at the notes on his bench. It stated her age as fourteen and yet she had the apparent maturity of a person far older. Looking again, he saw a young woman wearing a very expensive silk suit which, while hand-tailored to her figure, was now quite wrinkled and showing some stains. She was tanned and incredibly beautiful with the most fascinating purple eyes he had ever seen. He ordered the witness to answer the question.

"My name is Pamela Jane Castle. I am twenty-five years old and am a staff social worker in the Illinois Department of Human Services," she said, glaring at Kris.

The girl merely nodded. "When did we first meet, Miss Castle, and for what purpose?"

She testified that they had met two days earlier to review the adoption papers.

"And what were you looking for?" Kris asked innocently.

"Well! That's perfectly obvious. To ensure that you would be adopted into an appropriate home."

"What happens if the home is not appropriate? What's the adoption rate among orphaned teenagers?"

The woman sputtered and said everything must be in order or the Department stopped the adoption. She didn't answer the second question.

Kris insisted. "Miss Castle, the adoption rate among teenagers? That is all children aged thirteen to nineteen. I'm waiting."

"Your Honor, this is utterly ridiculous! My department is not on trial here. Information of that nature is highly confidential!"

"Miss Castle, I disagree," Kris replied. "Your department is on trial ... and should be. Why did you inject yourself into this matter? What are your special qualifications for playing God? Why should the percentage of adoptions be confidential unless the numbers are so bad you want to hide the truth from the taxpayers?"

Judge Ferguson ordered her to answer the question in spite of additional objections from Departmental counsel.

"Low," the woman murmured in reply.

Kris asked the judge to order the witness to speak up. She repeated the answer and Kris insisted on knowing how low was low. Castle admitted it was under 10 percent.

"So, Miss Castle, if you don't approve my adoption by the Bradleys, the odds are less than one in ten that anyone else would ever adopt me. Where would I be living? Where was I staying for the last two nights?"

"In a comfortable location," she replied primly. "For the last two nights you were kept in special facilities for children such as yourself."

"Your Honor," Kris announced, "for your information the 'special facilities' to which she refers are cells in the Cook County Jail. You're welcome to smell my clothing. It stinks of urine, human excrement, and vomit. Yesterday evening, when I was going to eat, I was the victim of an attempted homosexual rape! This was for my protection? Those were more attractive and healthful surrounding than my aunt's mansion in Deerfield?"

The judge motioned for her to come forward and she extended her arm. He sniffed at her sleeve and made a face. "Miss Castle, do you have an answer for this ... this... idiocy?"

"Of course, Your Honor. My office has not been out to Miss Crowley's place of residence in Deerfield. How could we know without seeing it in what conditions she might be living? I mean ... really!"

The judge just shook his head and motioned Kris to continue.

"Did you administer certain tests to me over the last two days?" Kris asked.

The woman nodded.

"What were the results of those tests?"

"That's highly confidential information!" the woman exclaimed. "It cannot be released."

"Oh?" Kris responded, looking meaningfully at Judge Ferguson.

"Miss Castle," the judge asked, "under what circumstances can it be released and from whom is it to be kept secret?"

The woman just sputtered and finally said, "Why ... Well, it's available only to competent authority and kept from all unauthorized individuals."

"Miss Castle, it may have escaped your notice, but this is a courtroom," Ferguson declared scathingly. "You are testifying under oath. This court is competent authority! The question Miss Crowley asked is quite reasonable and you are ordered to answer it in full! I trust I will not need to remind you again!"

Vangie was sitting beside Ed who had his arm around her. She turned to him and whispered, "Darling, why is it that I think that woman is overmatched? And Kris is only fourteen!"

He kissed her softly and replied in a whisper, "Because she is overmatched. And when she answers the question, I think you'll learn why."