Gail Bowen - The Nesting Dolls

Zack tensed. “Do the e-mails still exist?”

“My guess is that Myra printed them out and filed them. She has an archivist’s zeal to preserve every scrap of information about her husband.”

“Even his e-mails to another woman? Boy, Myra really is something else. When I left to go to the police station with Theo, she advised me not to try to separate Theo’s interests from hers. She said that she and Theo cast a single shadow and that there was no way I could destroy her without destroying my client.”

“Consider yourself warned,” I said.

My husband shuddered. “Warned and spooked,” he said. “Myra makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Fortunately, while the Brokaws may cast a single shadow, the law makes it impossible for them to share a single defence. I’ll call Debbie and tell her about the e-mails, but between thee and me, I hope the cops don’t find them. If anything in those e-mails suggests Theo was capable of remembering his relationship with Abby, it’ll be tougher to prove his capacity was diminished when he put his hands around her neck.”

“What if he thought the woman who’d come to him was Delia? You saw how time shifts for him. He and Delia were lovers, and for Theo, twenty-seven years ago and yesterday appear to be pretty much the same thing.”

Zack raised his glass to me. “Glad you’re on my side, Jo. Jesus, what a mess, eh?”

“So what’s going to happen to Theo?”

Zack sighed. “He murdered a woman and then raped her, so he won’t be sentenced to a day at the beach. If we’re lucky and he’s found not criminally responsible because of mental disorder, he’ll be held in a suitable secure facility until a review panel finds him ‘recovered.’ ”

“Which will be never.”

“Barring a miracle – and I’m not counting on one – Theo will be in a closed medical facility for the rest of his life. The court will have to determine the appropriate place. My guess is he’ll end up in the regional psych centre in Saskatoon.

“Anyway, that’s the best-case scenario. At the moment, my job is to find a psychiatrist to show insanity or diminished capacity. How it plays with the jury depends on testimony about Theo’s conduct before and mostly after the fatal encounter with Abby. Of course, the Crown will be calling its own psychiatrist.”

“What about Myra?”

“She’ll be charged as accessory unless Tyler can cut a deal with the Crown on a lesser charge – something like obstructing justice or fabricating evidence. In any case, chances are high she’ll be convicted. She may even plead guilty in return for a lighter sentence.”

“And then what?”

“If Tyler gets the Crown to agree to a lesser charge, Myra will serve nominal time, then she’ll be let out on probation. She’ll have to perform a whack of community service, but she will walk among us.”

“Do you think Tyler will be able to get the Crown to agree to a lesser charge?”

Zack raised his eyebrows. “His chances would have been better if the police hadn’t found a loaded revolver when they searched the Brokaws’ condo. Myra said that the gun was her insurance policy in case Theo grew worse.”

“She was planning on a murder-suicide?”

“That’s what the lady claims. But I’m sure the Crown will point out that more than one loaded gun has been used for a purpose other than the one for which the gun was purchased. This is not going to be a slam-dunk for Tyler, but he’s sharp and he has a good ear for what resonates with a jury. He’ll pull out all the stops. Myra was the loyal wife who subsumed herself in her husband’s career. She devoted herself to Theo, enduring his repeated infidelities with grace, and then, when he committed an act of unspeakable horror, risked everything to preserve his reputation.”

“It sounds as if Myra has the right lawyer.”

“She does,” Zack said. “And this case won’t do Tyler any harm. It’s going to be high-profile – plenty of media, plenty of focus on the principal players. By the time the case comes to trial, Theo and Myra will be legends.”

“Yet another example of being careful what you wish for,” I said.

“How so?”

“Myra was afraid people would forget her husband. Now it appears that both she and Theo are going to be remembered for a long time to come.”

That night as I made my final pass through the house, making certain that doors were locked and that everything that should be turned off was turned off, I stopped in front of the pomegranate wreath Myra had crafted. I was already in my pyjamas, but I didn’t hesitate. I found a jacket and boots in the front closet and, dressed for outdoors, came back to the living room, took down the wreath, and walked out on our deck, then across our yard to the gate that opened onto our back alley. After I put the wreath in the dumpster, the lid slammed down with a satisfying finality.

The Brokaws were not so easily disposed of. Despite his bravado, Zack was still recuperating, and another pressure sore had developed. At my urging, Henry Chan ordered Zack to conduct as much business as possible from home at least until the New Year. So from the beginning I had an insider’s view of how Zack was handling Theo Brokaw’s case.

In the late afternoon on the day after Theo and Myra were arrested, Theo’s sisters arrived on our doorstep. The Brokaw women were sturdy, handsome, and sensibly dressed for a Saskatchewan winter. They were also clearly at a loss about how to deal with this situation.

I ushered them into our office where Zack would have the cruel task of explaining how their adored baby brother had come to be arrested for rape and murder. There was one bright spot. That afternoon we had received information that made Zack’s task easier and, though they would never know it, lightened the burden the sisters would carry for the rest of their lives.

The DNA test results had come in, and as Abby’s mother and Jacob’s grandmother, Delia was told the results. Noah delivered the information to us in person. Characteristically, he was direct and matter-of-fact. “Theo is Jacob’s biological father,” he said. “But he didn’t father Abby.”

“Whoa,” Zack said. “So if it wasn’t Theo, who was it?”

Noah’s crooked smile was infinitely sad. “Me,” he said. “And there’s no doubt. When the police took the DNA sample from Delia, I asked them to take one from me. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible. Delia and I had sex when I took her home with me the day after the fight at the restaurant.”

“Why didn’t she mention this earlier?” Zack said.

“She didn’t remember,” Noah said. “I guess our love-making was of so little consequence to Dee that it just slipped her mind.”

Zack and I exchanged glances and lowered our eyes.

“I’m okay with this,” Noah said softly. “Actually, more than okay. It hurts to know that Abby died before we had a chance to meet. But I’m grateful that Delia and Jacob don’t have to carry that ugliness with them.” He stood. “I thought you should know about the DNA before Theo’s sisters arrive. No need to make the situation worse for them than it already is.”

I wasn’t present when Zack talked to Theo’s sisters. When they filed out of the office, they had obviously been crying, but they held their heads high.

The final sister to leave seemed to have been appointed spokesperson. Her words were oddly formal, as if she’d written them out and memorized them. “It wasn’t Theo who did that terrible thing,” she said. “It was the shell of the man he was. Deprived of humanity and faith, we’re all vulnerable to evil.” She raised her dark eyes, so like her brother’s, to meet mine. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”