Her last clients have left, including the woman whose boy got a little carried away drawing the Terminator and scribbled red crayon on her wall. Pamela Poynter doesn’t bother cleaning it off–it makes the office look a little homier. And she’s trying to create an atmosphere that isn’t at all threatening.
Yet Poynter doesn’t want this woman to believe the order of protection will actually protect her. “It’s just a piece of paper,” she says. “If he’s bent on killing you with a gun, saying ‘No, no, don’t do that John–I’ve got an order of protection’ isn’t going to stop him.”
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Poynter’s next appointment has canceled, and she is visibly upset about it. “It just means there’s a woman out there in need of help and I can’t get to her.” The woman has already talked with Poynter on the phone. Her boyfriend has been beating her a lot more lately, and she’s afraid he’ll go too far. She got up the courage to call for an appointment, but coming into the office is another thing.
“Once they make the break, getting that order of protection is very important psychologically. It sends a message to the man that she’s not going to stand for this anymore, it’s going to stop. And it enables her to get a quick response from the police should he try anything against her.”
Her frustration coincided with a second pregnancy, and being on maternity leave gave her a chance to think about her future. She quit the bureau–and then got an offer from it to handle emergency domestic-violence cases. Having always wanted to specialize in helping battered and abused women, she accepted.
Once the child-abduction complaint is filed, the names of the children are put on a nationwide police computer system and the search begins.
