Stolen in the Night (12 page)

Tess struggled to control her temper. She should never have confided in him. She replied
to him in a clipped tone of voice. “I get that. Believe it or not, I do get it.”

Ben nodded. “I’m sure you do.”

Tess gazed at him. “The death penalty. That’s what this is all about for you. Your
opposition to the death penalty.”

Ben looked at her grimly. “Obviously, it’s something I feel strongly about. I mean,
I don’t blame crime victims for wanting vengeance. But to give the state the authority
to take vengeance is completely irrational. Particularly because it is meted out arbitrarily.
If you’re rich, you escape it. If you’re poor, maybe not.”

“Don’t forget the fact that it’s not proven to be a deterrent,” said Tess coldly.
“You left that out.”

Ben looked a little sheepish. “You’ve heard all this before.”

Tess shook her head. “You have no idea,” she said. “None.”

Ben Ramsey grimaced. “I’m sorry, Tess. I know it’s personal for you in a way that
I could never understand.”

“You’re right about that,” she said.

He did not flinch from the anger in her eyes. “I know my view is very…different from
the victim’s perspective.”

“Just for your information, my parents were always opposed to the death penalty. My
father was a very intelligent man—a professor at MIT. He considered capital punishment
barbaric. Until his own daughter was raped and murdered. Then it ceased to be a philosophical
question for him.”

“He changed his mind?” Ben asked.

Tess thought about her reply. “No. It wasn’t that simple. He was torn apart. He had
no peace of mind either way. I can remember hearing him and my brother having screaming
battles about it. Jake would accuse him of betraying Phoebe’s memory.”

“But that’s a puerile argument,” Ben insisted. “I mean, either you believe in a principle
or you don’t. If it applies to the killer of your own daughter, why not to the killers
of other men’s daughters? I can’t imagine an intelligent man not seeing the contradiction.”

Tess rose abruptly to her feet, trembling, and shoved the transcript under her arm.
“Well, you’re lucky, you know. There’s nothing like consistency. It’s so…reassuring.
And easy. You never had to hear your own father locked in his study weeping. I have
to go now.”

Ben looked at her sadly. “I’m sorry, Tess. I’ve had so many arguments about this over
this years. I forget sometimes that we’re talking about people’s real lives. I didn’t
mean any offense. Truly.”

Tess gazed at him coldly. “None taken,” she lied.

L
eo stood at the foot of the steps barking frantically.

“Take it easy, buddy,” said Jake. “Take it easy. Stay there. I’ll be right back.”
Jesus, he thought. What the hell happened? The mild day had vanished. The sky had
turned dark and the wind was up.

Jake ran into the house and over to Sally, who was still in the same spot on the floor,
leaning against the sofa.

“Whose dog is that barking?” Sally asked.

“It’s my mom’s dog. He was out running around with my nephew. I hope the kid’s okay.
The dog just came back by himself,” said Jake as he reached under her arms and lifted
Sally up. She was virtually weightless, but she let out a cry of pain as he pulled
her to her feet.

“Where do you want to be?” he asked, hoping she wouldn’t say upstairs or something.
He could hear Leo barking and his anxiety about Erny was mounting.

“Over there,” said Sally, pointing to a love seat that was centered under a painting
of a beautiful blonde girl in a debutante gown. Sally’s cane was leaning against the
settee. Jake guided her over to the love seat, practically lifting her off her feet
to speed the process. “There you go,” he said, setting her down.

She slowly unwound her arm from around his shoulders.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “I’m lucky you saw me.”

“You should have one of those medic alerts,” he said. “So you could call someone.”

“I probably should,” Sally said grimly.

“Are you okay now?” he asked. “I’ve got to go.”

“Go ahead,” she said. “Go. I hope everything’s okay.”

No kidding, Jake thought. Erny, what the hell happened? He was working up an angry
head of steam, not allowing himself to think that some harm might have come to the
boy. He could not picture himself telling that to Tess. Not possible. Not after…all
that had happened. Hooking a leash onto Leo’s collar, he began to lope up the steep
driveway while being tugged along by the dog. When he’d come down the driveway in
the truck, he’d scarcely noticed how long and hilly it was. Running up it was a different
story. It was uphill to the first rise and then he started down the slope on the other
side, pausing to holler out, “Erny! Answer me. Time to go.” His voice seemed to vanish
in the rising wind. Where is that damn kid, he thought? I told him not to go too far.

Leo was whining, straining at the leash. “Where is he, Leo?” Jake demanded aloud.
He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should let Leo loose and try to follow
him. The dog could move much faster than he could, but at least Leo would lead him
in the right direction. Finally, Jake unhooked the leash. “Go get Erny,” he said.

Leo bounded off, disappearing into the orchard, a honey-colored blur. Jake hurried
after him, trying to trace the dog’s path through the trees. In the distance he could
hear Leo barking.

“Erny, goddammit! Where are you?” Jake shouted. He didn’t know if Erny was the type
of kid who lost track of time or routinely disobeyed. Tess had never said anything
negative about him that he could remember, although Jake didn’t always pay that much
attention when the talk turned to children. “Erny!” he cried.

Jake came out of the orchard and loped past the gardener’s shed and toward the pond.
He veered away from the orderly rows of plants and began to climb past a rock garden
that led to the water’s edge. Jake’s heart was racing, both from anxiety and the exertion.

Leo’s barking sounded closer as Jake entered another copse of trees whose bare branches
extended out over the pond. Jake gazed around the gloomy little glen. All of a sudden,
halfway around the pond’s perimeter, he saw the dog’s golden brown coat. Leo was at
the edge of the water, barking. Jake looked closer. Lying facedown near Leo’s feet
he saw the shape of a dark-haired child, dressed in black Nike hip-hop sneaks and
a sweatshirt.

Jake felt a thud in the pit of his stomach. “Erny,” he whispered. He ran around the
pond, toward his nephew. “Shit. Erny,” he cried.

But there was no reply.

Jake stumbled to where Erny lay, his heart pounding. The boy was lying still on the
mossy bank. Beside him on the bank was a fishing pole the boy had fashioned from a
tomato plant stake and a piece of twine, with a little metal lure tied to the end.
“Goddammit,” Jake cried. “You couldn’t wait. Oh my God. What happened? Erny, wake
up.”

Tess lowered the transcript and reached for the mug of tea on the night table beside
her bed with a trembling hand. When she’d returned from Ben Ramsey’s, she’d looked
for her mother but Dawn had not been around. Tess had brewed herself a cup of tea
and took it and the trial transcript to the bed in her room, and huddled under a quilt
there, exactly as a sick child might curl up after having been sent home from school.
The wind, which had risen when she returned from Ramsey’s house, was blowing fiercely
now and the sky had darkened. She looked anxiously from the gloom outside the window
to Erny’s hastily made bed, worrying about him being caught outside in the rain. Would
Jake think to keep him dry? she wondered. She didn’t want Erny to get sick.

Trying not to fret, Tess returned to the transcript. When she had first opened it,
she had turned immediately to the record of her own testimony at the trial as if it
were a code that, once broken, would unlock a doorway back to the child she had been.
Although she still remembered sitting in that witness box, her own words proved unfamiliar.
She had no memory of the questions she was asked, nor the way she responded. Still,
reading those words so long after the fact, she had felt her heart aching for the
child that she had been, answering bravely and clearly, telling the story of her sister’s
abduction without faltering.

After she had read her own testimony, she had reread the sentencing phase of the trial.
A number of witnesses had come forward during that part to attest to the cruelty Lazarus
Abbott had suffered, both at home and from the bullying of other children. One of
his teachers from grade school, the pastor of the Abbotts’ church, and a friend of
Edith’s named Josephine Kiley had come forward to tell the same story. The psychologist
tried to put all the testimony into perspective for the jury. Of course Tess knew
how it ended. The jury had remained unmoved. They had voted unanimously for the death
penalty.

Tess sipped her tea. For the first time that she could remember, Tess began to feel
pity for Lazarus Abbott. It was clear to her from reading the testimony that while
Lazarus may have been a warped young man, he was not entirely his own creation. He
had been the butt of jokes at school. And at home, it was obvious that Nelson Abbott
had shaped his nature with his cruelty.

She sighed, set down her mug, and returned to the grim testimony.

All of a sudden, the door to the bedroom opened and Dawn stood on the threshold, her
eyes anxious, her lips pressed together.

Tess looked up at her. “Mom, you’re back. Where were you?” Before Dawn could reply,
Tess noticed the look on her mother’s face. “What’s wrong?” she said.

“Honey, that was Jake on the phone.”

“What’s the matter? What happened?”

Dawn’s expression was pained. “He’s over at the emergency room…”

Tess jumped from the bed, the transcript falling to the floor. Her heart was thudding.
“Erny?”

Before Dawn could answer, Tess knew by the expression on her face. “Oh my God,” she
said.

“Come on,” said her mother. “I’ll drive.”

When they arrived at the emergency room, Jake was pacing the waiting area, talking
on a cell phone. He snapped it shut when he saw them come in and strode toward them.

“Where is he?” Tess demanded.

“I’ll show you,” said Jake. “Follow me.”

Tess raced after her brother down the hospital corridor and through a set of double
doors. They met a doctor who was emerging from a curtained cubicle. “He’s in there,”
said Jake. “This is his doctor.”

“I’m Erny’s mother,” Tess said.

The bald-headed physician smiled and patted her hand reassuringly. “Take it easy,”
he said. “He’s gonna be all right. He was knocked out by the fall. He’s conscious
now, although he’s going to have a little headache. He’s bruised up but otherwise
he seems to be okay. We’re still waiting for some of the X-rays.”

“Oh thank God. Is he awake? Can I see him?” Tess asked.

“Sure, go on in,” said the doctor.

Tess pushed back the curtain and walked into the cubicle. Erny was lying on the bed
under a white sheet. His face, normally a nutty brown, looked unnaturally pale.

She leaned over the bed and carefully enfolded him in her arms. “Honey, what happened?
Are you okay?” she asked.

“Ouch, that hurts, Ma,” he complained.

Tess released him gently. “I’m sorry. Are you in a lot of pain?”

Erny shrugged. “Not too much,” he said.

“The doctor said you’re kind of bruised up but you’re going to be fine. How did this
happen, Erny?” Tess asked.

“Well, I wanted to try and go fishing. So I found this long stick and some string
and I made a fishing pole. I even found a lure for it. And then I climbed up this
tree and shinnied out on the branch. I figured that would be a good place to fish
from.” Erny shrugged as if the result was self-explanatory.

“Did it break off? The branch?”

Erny shook his head. “The wind started blowing all of a sudden and the branch was
creaking and…I don’t know. I tried to climb back down from it and I fell.”

“It must have been scary,” said Tess.

“It didn’t scare me,” Erny said.

“Well, it scared me,” said Tess. “When I heard you were knocked out it scared me half
to death.”

Erny looked at her with wide eyes. “I didn’t get hurt that bad,” he said.

Tess brushed a curly lock of black hair off his skinned forehead. “Thank God.”

“Did Uncle Jake get my fishing pole? I made it myself.”

“I think he was a little bit too busy getting you to the emergency room.”

“Maybe he got it,” said Erny.

“Maybe,” said Tess.

“Can I go home now?” he asked.

“Soon,” said Tess. “They need to get a few more X-rays and then we’ll take you home.
You just rest. Can I get you anything?”

“A Sprite?” he said.

Tess smiled at him, feeling absurdly relieved by his simple request. “I’ll see what
I can do. I’ll be back.”

The boy nodded. “Thanks, Ma.”

“You rest.” She backed out of the curtained cubicle and then walked down the hall
and through the double doors to the waiting room.

Jake, who was sitting beside Dawn, looked up when she walked in. He and Dawn both
rose to their feet and approached her.

“How’s he doing?” Dawn asked.

“He’s going to be all right.”

“Thank God,” said Dawn with a sigh.

“Yeah, he’s asking for a Sprite. And his fishing pole.”

“I saw a soda machine down the hall,” said Dawn. “Let me get him one.”

“Would you, Mom?” Tess asked. “Thank you.”

“Sure.” Dawn hurried off.

Jake chuckled. “He couldn’t wait. He had to go fishing. Made his own pole. That’s
what I would’ve done at his age.”

Tess turned on her brother. “Where were you when this happened?”

Jake raised his hands helplessly. “I was just finishing my work. He and the dog were
out playing. I told them not to go too far. The dog came back by himself. So I went
looking for him.”

Tess looked at him balefully.

Jake scratched his head. “It was one of those things, Tess. The kid just wanted to
try something…”

“He could have been seriously hurt!” she said, her voice louder. “Or killed.”

“Well, he could have been, but he wasn’t,” Jake said.

“No big deal, right?” said Tess.

“Hey, he’s gonna be fine. And I’m sorry, okay? But it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know
he was gonna do something crazy. Fishing from a tree branch,” Jake said, shaking his
head but with a slight smile. “I better go back and get that pole or I’m going to
lose my most-favored-uncle status.”

Tess was in no mood to be distracted by jokes. “So the fact that he fell is his own
fault,” she said sarcastically.

“Ahhh…boys are like that. It’s…the way they are. They do crazy things.”

“Yes, but you’re the adult. You were supposed to be watching him!”

“What? He never hurt himself before? You gotta let the kid take his lumps. You’ll
turn him into a sissy. He’s all right. That’s what matters.”

“No matter what happens, you’ve got an excuse,” Tess said disgustedly.

“I’m not making excuses, Tess. It was an accident. The kid will live.”

“I should have known better than to trust you,” she fumed.

Jake looked at her through narrowed eyes. “Oh. So now I can’t be trusted?”

“Could you ever?” Tess snapped.

Jake’s gaze was venomous. “What do you mean by that?”

Tess opened her arms indicating the hospital waiting room. “Look where we end up!”
Tess’s heart was hammering in her chest, knowing she would regret reopening old wounds
but she couldn’t help herself. “Why am I the only one who feels guilty, Jake? It’s
never your fault. How do you skate away with no guilt at all? It must be nice.”