Part 5 (1/2)

Jake stood up and helped his sister to her feet. Tess felt as if she couldn't breathe, as if the room were spinning around her. A number of reporters swung cameras and microphones in their direction.

”Move,” said Jake. ”Get out of my way. Give my sister some air.”

A wall of reporters blocked their way. Chan Morris saw them getting up to go and leaned over to whisper in the ear of the governor. Governor Putnam rose to his feet again and indicated to Ben Ramsey that he wanted the mike.

”Excuse me, Mr. Ramsey. For just a moment. Folks, before you go...I want to say to the family of Phoebe DeGraff that we haven't forgotten their sister. Her death was a tragic loss...”

Jake, who was attempting to lead Tess toward the door, elbowing reporters out of the way, stopped and turned. He looked daggers at the governor and the people a.s.sembled at the front. ”You hack. Keep your fake sympathy and go to h.e.l.l...”

”Jake, don't,” Tess whispered, clinging to his arm. ”Let's just go.”

Reporters shoved their microphones at them, but Jake batted them away like greenhead flies. ”Get away from me,” he growled, ”I swear to G.o.d...” Jake pulled his sister's arm through his own and lifted his shoulder, ready to batter his way through the crowd if necessary.

”Let those people alone,” the governor insisted, his voice booming in the mike. ”All of you. Just get out of their way.”

Reluctantly, the newspeople began to part to make a pathway and let them pa.s.s. As Jake pushed open the plate-gla.s.s door of the newspaper office, Tess extricated her arm from his and rushed out, gulping in the fresh air.

”There,” said Jake. ”Now you'll feel better.”

But Tess shook her head. Clutching her jacket closed, she ran toward the car. When she reached it, Tess was gasping. She steadied herself with one hand on the car's front fender and willed the spasms in her stomach to stop. It was no use. With a horrible gagging cry, she bent over and threw up her breakfast into the brown gra.s.s bordering the parking lot.

Dawn was watching at the front window of the inn's library when Jake pulled up and a white-faced Tess climbed out of the car on wobbly legs. Dawn rushed to the front door and held her arms out. Tess entered her embrace like a small child.

”Come inside. Come in,” said Dawn.

Tess stiffened. ”I can't sit out here. It's too...public.”

”No, I know. We'll go to my rooms. Erny's back there right now.”

The three of them hurried past the s.p.a.cious common rooms of the inn and Dawn ushered them through the curtained French doors that led to the tidy little innkeeper's suite. Erny was lying on a braided rug, gaping at the television. Dawn walked up to the TV and lowered the volume.

”Hey!” Erny sat up in protest. Then he saw Tess. ”Ma, we were looking for you on TV but we didn't see you.”

Jake collapsed into a corner of the sofa, rubbing his face with one large, weathered hand. ”Go on outside, Erny,” Jake said.

Erny was peering at Tess. ”What's the matter?” he said.

Tess sat down at the other end of the sofa. She shook her head. ”Nothing,” said Tess. ”It's all right.”

”They said on TV that guy didn't do it,” said Erny. ”I thought you said he did-”

”Not now, honey,” said Dawn. ”Your mom isn't feeling too well.”

”Can we talk about it later?” Tess asked, her face haggard.

Erny hesitated, his own face reflecting her distress.

”Everything's okay, Erny. Really. I just need to...um...rest for a while.”

Erny accepted her rea.s.surance skeptically. Then he had an idea. ”Can I ride Sean's bike now?” he asked.

”Yeah, go take a ride,” said Jake.

”Far as I want?”

”Don't go to the mountain. Don't...talk to anyone you don't know,” Tess warned him. ”You hear me? If anyone tries to talk to you...”

”I'll ride away,” Erny promised.

”Take your jacket,” said Dawn.

The boy grabbed his heavy, hooded sweats.h.i.+rt and disappeared. Dawn pulled up a cherrywood rocker to the end of the sofa where Tess was sitting and took Tess's hand, limp on the armrest, into her own, rubbing it solicitously. ”It's just unbelievable,” said Dawn. ”I don't understand. How could it be?”

”Lazarus Abbott was a crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d with a s.e.x crime record and his own stepfather believed he was guilty,” said Jake. ”He did it.”

Tess stared ahead, unseeing. ”It was him,” she said. ”I saw him.”

Dawn pressed Tess's unresponsive hand to her own cheek. ”Oh Tess,” Dawn crooned. ”You were a little girl. Completely traumatized. If...this is true...”

Tess looked at her mother, her eyes wide. ”Mom, I know it was him. I recognized him immediately that night when they brought him into the police station. I saw him in that courtroom. I've seen his picture millions of times. I know that Lazarus Abbott was the one who came into the tent that night.”

”Honey,” said Dawn gently, ”I'm afraid we have to face the possibility that you...that there was some mistake. You said it yourself. The science would settle it-put the matter to rest. Now, as it turns out, it didn't put it to rest the way we expected...”

”You always believed me. Now you think that I was lying?” Tess angrily pulled her hand away from her mother's grasp.

Dawn raised her hands in a placating gesture. ”Not lying. Of course not. But you were so little-and vulnerable. And the police were sure it was him. You had all these grown-ups pointing to Lazarus Abbott. They may have influenced you. You were just a child. And you had endured the worst experience...”

Tess stared at her mother. ”No, I couldn't have been wrong. That would mean...I implicated an innocent man. I brought about his death.”

Dawn shook her head. ”Your father was right. He was always against the idea of Lazarus Abbott being executed. This is the problem with the death penalty...”

”Oh, for G.o.d's sake, Mother,” said Jake, leaning forward. ”Are you really going to get all teary-eyed about Lazarus Abbott? He was a psycho and I am not going to lose a minute's sleep over this. And neither should you, Tess. And don't be so quick to second-guess yourself. If you still think that he was the one who took Phoebe, I still believe you.”

”Jake,” Dawn chided him. ”That's no help. No matter how we'd like to wish it away, we can't just pretend these tests didn't happen.”

Jake shouted at his mother. ”I'm not saying it didn't happen.”

”Jake, don't yell at me,” his mother bristled.

Jake lowered his voice. ”I'm saying, Mother, that I believe Tess knew what she was talking about. She was a smart little kid. n.o.body conned her into anything.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. ”Jake, we're all upset by this but your att.i.tude isn't helpful. How could Tess be right when the evidence proves that it wasn't Lazarus Abbott who killed Phoebe?”

”Test results...” Jake scoffed. ”Everybody acts like G.o.d himself ran the tests. Let me tell you something. I've got a guy on my crew-Sal Fuscaldo-you know Sal, Mom...”

Dawn nodded wearily.