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And there was something else that Skip decided: He wasn’t going to waste any more time designing rooms and houses with the dream that someday he would get to build them. By the time he got out of prison-if he ever did get out-he would be in his sixties. It would be too late to get started again. Besides, there would be no one left to care.

That was why on Saturday morning, when Skip was told his lawyer was phoning him, he took the call with the firm intention of telling Geoff to forget about him as well. He too should get on to other things. The news that Kerry McGrath was coming down to see him as well as his mother and Beth angered him.

“What does McGrath want to do, Geoff?” he asked “Show Mom and Beth exactly why they’re wasting their time trying to get me out of here? Show them how every argument for me is an argument against me? Tell McGrath I don’t need to listen to that again. The court’s done a great job of convincing me.”

“Shut up, Skip,” Geoff’s firm voice snapped. “Kerry’s interest in you and this murder case is causing her a hell of a lot of trouble, including a threat that something could happen to her ten-year-old daughter if she doesn’t pull out.”

“A threat? Who?” Skip looked at the receiver he was holding as though it had suddenly become an alien object. It was impossible to comprehend that Kerry McGrath’s daughter had been threatened because of him.

“Not only who? but why? We’re sure Jimmy Weeks is the ‘who.’ The ‘why’ is that for some reason he’s afraid to have the investigation reopened. Now listen, Kerry wants to go over every inch of this case with you, and with your mother and Beth. She has a bunch of questions for all of you. She also has a lot to tell you about Dr. Smith. I don’t have to remind you what his testimony did to you. We’ll be there for the last visiting period, so plan to be cooperative. This is the best chance we have had of getting you out. It may also be the last.”

Skip heard the click in his ear. A guard took him back to his cell. He sat down on the bunk and buried his face in his hands. He didn’t want to let it happen, but in spite of himself, the flicker of hope that he thought he had successfully extinguished had jumped back to life and now was flaming throughout his being.

73

Geoff picked up Kerry and Robin at one o’clock. When they reached Essex Fells, Geoff brought Kerry and Robin into the house and introduced them around. At the end of the family dinner the night before, he had briefly explained to the adults the circumstances of his bringing Robin for a visit.

Immediately his mother’s instincts had zeroed in on the fact that this woman Geoff insisted on calling “Robin’s mother” might have special significance for her son.

“Of course, bring Robin over for the afternoon,” she had said. “Poor child, that anyone could even think of harming her. And Geoff, after you and her mother-Kerry, did you say her name was?-come back from Trenton, you must stay and have dinner with us.”

Geoff knew his vague “We’ll see” cut no ice. Chances are, unless something untoward happens, we will eat at my mother’s table tonight, he said to himself.

Instantly he detected the approval in his mother’s eyes as she took in Kerry’s appearance. Kerry was wearing a belted camel’s hair coat over matching slacks. A hunter green turtleneck sweater accentuated the green tones in her hazel eyes. Her hair was brushed loosely over her collar. Her only makeup other than lip blush seemed to be a touch of eye shadow.

Next he could see that his mother was pleased by Kerry’s sincere, but not effusive, gratitude for letting Robin visit. Mom had always stressed that voices should be well modulated, he thought.

Robin was delighted to hear that all nine grandchildren were somewhere in the house. “Don is taking you and the two oldest to Sports World,” Mrs. Dorso told her.

Kerry shook her head ‘and murmured, “I don’t know…”

“Don is the brother-in-law who’s the captain in the Massachusetts State Police,” Geoff told her quietly. “He’ll stick by the kids like glue.”

It was clear that Robin expected to have a good time. She watched as the two-year-old twins, chased by their four-year-old cousin, pell-melled past them. “Sort of like baby rush hour around here,” she observed happily. “See you later, Mom.”

In the car, Kerry leaned back against the seat and sighed deeply.

“You’re not worried, are you?” Geoff asked quickly.

“No, not at all. That was an expression of relief. And now let me fill you in on what I didn’t tell you before.”

“Like what?”

“Like Suzanne’s years growing up, and what she saw when she looked in the mirror in those days. Like what Dr. Smith is up to with one of the patients whom he has given Suzanne’s face. And like what I learned from Jason Arnott this morning.”

Deidre Reardon and Beth Taylor were already in the visitors’ reception room in the prison. After Geoff and Kerry registered with the clerk, they joined them, and Geoff introduced Kerry to Beth.

While they waited to be called, Kerry deliberately kept the conversation impersonal. She knew what she wanted to talk about when they were with Skip, but she wanted to save it until then. She did not want to lose the spontaneity of having the three of them trigger each other’s memories as she raised the different points. Understanding Mrs. Reardon’s restrained greeting, she concentrated on chatting with Beth Taylor, whom she liked immediately.

Promptly at three o’clock they were led to the area where family members and friends were allowed contact visits with the prisoners. It was more crowded today than it had been when Kerry visited last week. Dismayed, Kerry realized that it might have been better to have officially asked for one of the private conference rooms that were available when both prosecutor and defense attorney requested a joint visit. But that would have meant going on record as a Bergen County assistant prosecutor paying a visit to a convicted murderer, something she still was not quite ready to do.

They did manage to get a corner table, whose location filtered out some of the background noise. When Skip was escorted in, Deidre Reardon and Beth both jumped up. After the guard removed Skip’s handcuffs, Beth held back while Deidre hugged her son.

Then Kerry watched as Beth and Skip looked at each other. The expressions on their faces and the very restraint of their kiss told more of what was between them than would have the most ardent, demonstrative embraces. In that moment Kerry vividly relived the memory of that day in court when she had seen the agony on Skip Reardon’s face as he was sentenced to a minimum of thirty years’ imprisonment, and had listened to his heartrending protest that Dr. Smith was a liar. Thinking back on it, she realized that, knowing very little about the case at the time, she still had felt she heard the ring of truth in Skip Reardon’s voice that day.

She had brought a yellow pad on which she had written a series of questions, leaving room under each to make notes of their answers. Briefly she told them everything that had impelled her to make this second visit: Dolly Bowles’ story about the presence of the Mercedes the night Suzanne died; the fact that Suzanne had been extremely plain growing up; Dr. Smith’s bizarre re-creation of her face when operating on current patients;

Smith’s attraction to Barbara Tompkins; the fact that Jimmy Weeks’ name had come up in the investigation; and, finally, the threat to Robin.

Kerry felt that it was a credit to the three of them that after their initial shock over hearing the disclosures, they did not waste time reacting among themselves. Beth Taylor reached for Skip’s hand as she asked, “What can we do now?”