Part 256 (1/2)

one thing he could have done differently. It was always timing, he

thought wearily. If he had broken in the door five minutes earlier it

might have changed everything.

He stood again when he saw them come in. Marianne's eyes were red, but

he didn't think she would fall apart. She took the chair Michael

vacated. ”I shouldn't have left her here by herseIL”

”It's not your fault,” Johnno told her.

”No, it's not my fault. But I shouldn't have left her alone.”

Ignoring the signs, Johnno pulled out a cigarette. Once it was lighted,

he handed it to Marianne. ”Marianne filled me in on what's been going

on during the flight over. I a.s.sume you're aware that Latimer's been

abusing Emma for more than a year.”

Michael crushed the empty Styrofoam cup with his fingers. ”I don't know

the details. I'll take Emma's statement as soon as she's up to it.”

”Statement.” Marianne looked up. ”Why does she have to make a

statement?”

”It's procedure.” He glanced back toward Emma's door. ”Just routine.”

”But you'll do it,” Johnno put in. ”I wouldn't want her to have to talk

to a stranger.”

”I'll take the statement.”

With the ash growing long on her cigarette, Marianne studied him. He'd

more than lived up to the promise in the newspaper picture of ten years

before. At the moment, he looked tense and exhausted, dark shadows

under his eyes, lines of strain beside them. Despite them, she judged

him as a man to be depended upon. Whatever Emma had said to the

contrary, Michael Kesseiring looked precisely like Marianne's image of a