“Without a pattern, her defense attorney will call it a single household accident.”

“What sort of pattern?” I asked.

“Dates,” Marcus said.

“Unexplained marks, sudden changes in behavior, or things said to third parties.

If we want this petition granted, we need every instance you can remember.”

He slid the yellow pad across the oak-laminate desk to me.

“How many times did your daughter come home from your mother’s house with marks, or gone suddenly quiet?”

I held the pen over the first blue line.