Уильям Макгиверн - Summitt

He felt a pressure against his hand, put Shana s note in his inner pocket. Jennifer, surprisingly, had tightened her grip, like the appeal of a child being left alone, scared of the dark.

“Harry...?”

“Yes, I’m here, Jennifer...”

“I heard, I’m sorry.” Her voice became momentarily stronger. Her eyes opened, clearing for what would be the last time. “A master print... it’s still at Summitt. Correll, Thomson, they knew Earl got a copy. It’s what he’s got over them... I’m not lying now, I promise you... I only really lied about the sailboats...”

She had turned her head toward the windows, and she had stopped breathing when Dr. Kohl and the senator came in.

As the doctor made his final check and a nurse began to detach the IV tubes from Jennifer’s arms, Selby and the senator waited outside in the corridor. A uniformed police sergeant had joined the patrolman at the door to Jennifer’s room.

“Patient’s in pretty bad shape, I hear.” The sergeant nodded respectfully to Senator Lester and raised his hand in an awkward salute. “Kiley, Senator. Central district.”

The young patrolman said, “Beautiful young girl, you’d think everything to live for...”

The senator took Selby’s arm and led him into a small office adjoining the nurse’s station. Closing the door, he listened to Selby for a moment, trying to take in what Jennifer had said in her last moments.

“Well, dammit, Selby, I can’t send in the Marines on the basis of that. She could have been hallucinating. There’s no justification for search warrants or any other legal action because a dying girl mutters something about a murder. If I acted on what she told you the State Department could and would nail my ass to the floor... but then, you don’t much give a good goddamn about such matters—”

“No,” Selby said, “and I’m not interested in epoxies and phony stock deals and the icebergs your committee s running into. If Earl Thomson goes free, my daughter is marked for life as an hysterical, perverted liar.”

“Give me credit for understanding that,” Senator Lester said. “I sympathize with you, Selby, but the problem’s got to be handled realistically—”

“I’m going to act on what the Easton girl told me. There’s a master print at Summitt. She said that and I believe it. She knew she was dying, she told me the truth,” Selby said. “And, if it matters, I don’t think she was murdered... she seemed to be sick of her life, of the lies—”

“Then you’re going to Summitt City, is that what you’re telling me?”

“I’m telling you I don’t have any options. If the judge instructs that jury to return a directed verdict of not guilty the rest of it’s academic. Earl Thomson is home free for life. I’m not going to let them do that to my daughter. And this is my last chance to stop it.”

Lester rubbed his chin. “All right, dammit, you’re not even a constituent and I’m going out on a limb for you... we can’t justify it officially, but I guess we can at least be silent partners. Our man down there is Lee Crowley...”

Selby remembered Crowley, a square-faced Irisher, first at the baseball diamond with the black youngsters and Stoltzer, then discussing local fishing conditions that same day at the commissary.

They were still talking when a light tap sounded on the door and Victoria Kim looked in. “Senator, I’ve got two wire services on hold. They know Miss Easton was admitted here. They want to know if her accident has anything to do with your presence here, and your investigation.”

“Just tell them...” The senator opened the door and walked into the corridor, where the patrolman and sergeant were still on hand. Dr. Kohl and two orderlies were in the late Jennifer Easton’s room. “Tell them, Vicki, that we don’t have any statement to make. The condition of the patient will have to come from hospital authorities. And after that book Mr. Selby on the next available flight to Memphis, and send a coded message to our Summitt contact to expect him. Like I told you, Selby, I can’t send in the Marines, but I’ll back you up as best as I can.”

Victoria Kim glanced at Selby. “I’ll make your reservations immediately. The senator’s car will be waiting for you downstairs at the lobby entrance in five minutes.”

“Thanks,” Selby said. “I’ve got just one call to make first.”

From a pay phone in the corridor Selby dialed his home and through the smudged glass door of the booth saw the patrolman step aside, watched the orderlies wheeling a stretcher from the room Jennifer had occupied. A question surfaced, and nagged at him. What had made Jennifer, even in her confused state, think he had tried to call her at Mount Olivet? Jerry Goldbirn had made that call. Jerry had told Selby that when he called him at the farm from Vegas. Who else could have known about it? Only someone who had overheard the conversation...

A click sounded and Mrs. Cranston answered. Selby told her he had a message for Shana.

“All right, I’ll get a pencil, I don’t trust my memory anymore—”

“Never mind, tell her I’ll call her later, okay?”

“Sure, Mr. Selby.”

Selby waited a moment, then dialed his home again. He heard it clearly this time as the phone began to ring — a tiny metallic click, barely audible but rhythmic and steady.

“Yes?”

“Sorry to bother you again, Mrs. Cranston, but I’d like to leave a message after all. Just tell Shana I’m all right and that I love her.”

Selby put the receiver back on the hook. There was a tap on his line, he was sure of it now, someone was monitoring the calls. And he suspected it wouldn’t be smart to trust Brett’s phone either. Now he couldn’t tell Shana or Brett where he was going or what he intended to do.

He took an elevator down to the lobby of the hospital. Senator Lester’s limousine, as promised, was parked waiting for him in the circular driveway...

The sunlight in Judge Flood’s courtroom was thin and pale. Its reflections bronzed the pine floors and bleached color from the mural of the Indians and Quakers on the shores of the Brandywine.

Counselor Davic stood in front of the witness, pinching the bridge of his nose as he collected and ordered his thoughts, Shana sat facing him. Her eyes were shadowed with fatigue but her shoulders were straight and square, and she made a conscious effort to breathe slowly.

Davic broke the expectant silence. “Miss Selby, in trying to get at the truth in the issues in this trial, you and I are forced into an adversary relationship. There’s nothing personal in this, it’s a system that provides the best possible guarantee of a fair trial. It protects the rights of everyone. It is the best way we know to arrive at the truth.”

He looked at Shana thoughtfully. “Now, you have heard the testimony of Captain Taggart and Reverend Oliver Jessup, correct?”

“Yes, I was sitting right there at that table. But I didn’t know he was a reverend until you called him that.”

Davic ignored that. “Captain Taggart, an officer in the United States Army, explained that he and Earl Thomson had been at Vinegar Hill several weeks before your unfortunate experience. You understood the implications of that testimony, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I guess so.”

“Well, put simply, it means that Mr. Thomson’s fingerprints were in the garage for very normal reasons. Is that clear?”

“I understand what you’re saying, Mr. Davic.”

“And you heard the Reverend Jessup describe the middle-aged, gray-haired man he saw wave a friendly goodbye to you in front of his church?”

“Yes, I heard that but—”