He was about to say something when the officer outside the door stepped in and said, “Ms. Kelly? You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be — thanks,” I said. “Ben, I’m going to have to ask you to wait in the other room with Frank.”
“Frank’s here?” he asked, looking around.
“Yes. Don’t worry. You’ll be able to hear everything we say,” I said, and reached behind my back.
“You’re wearing a wire?” he asked in disbelief. “I’m not sure I—”
“Please, Ben,” I said, “Frank can fill you in on everything.”
He folded his arms.
The officer’s radio crackled.
“Now or never, Mrs. Harriman,” he said.
Ben didn’t budge.
“Ben, if you trust me at all, get out of here now.”
Reluctantly, he left with the officer.
I flipped a switch, gave my name, the date, time, location and said that Nick Parrish was present.
Parrish made his “Mmmaaah” sound.
I looked outside the glass wall toward the nurses’ station. A person who was dressed exactly like a nurse but who wasn’t taking care of any patients nodded to me. In another room, the reel-to-reel was turning. In my mind, wheels that had been whirling all day kept right on spinning.
The elevator door opened.
61
WEDNESDAY, LATE AFTERNOON,
SEPTEMBER 27
Las Piernas
I wiped my palms.
She approached cautiously, tentatively. She was dressed in a business-style woman’s suit, the skirt at the most conservative length I had ever seen her wear. She carried a stylish leather handbag. I couldn’t rid myself of the notion that she looked like a child playing at being a grown-up.
There was the slightest sign of surprise on her face when she saw me, but then she came into the room. “Hello, Irene.”
“Hello, Gillian.”
“I — I’m relieved to see you here, Irene. I’m a little afraid to be in here alone with him.”
“Why come at all, then?”
“I had to.” She looked back at me. “Did they search your purse when you came in here?”
“Yes,” I said. “They’ve searched everyone.”
“Why?”
“Someone might want to harm him. At this point, they’re letting God get all the vengeance.”
“Not just God — you, too. I heard about what you did.”
I tried not to let that unnerve me.
“Maybe you’ll think I’m some kind of freak for saying this,” she went on, “but I had to see him. I had to see the man who did those things to my mother. Four years, I’ve waited.”
“But you’ve seen him before,” I said.
Her eyes widened a little.
“He was your neighbor, right?”
“Yes,” she said, creeping closer to the bed. “But that was a long time ago.” She leaned over, and looked into his eyes.
“Mmmaaah,” Parrish said. She turned white and shrank back from the bed.
“Here,” I said, putting an arm around her shoulders, “have a seat. He’s not so scary once you get used to him — although I imagine he looks very different from the last time you saw him.”
“Yes.”
“About four years ago?” I ventured.
“No — yes. I mean, no, longer than that.”
“Strange. Jason thought you saw him when he showed up to stalk your mom.”
“What?”
“You know, the night you were baby-sitting, and Parrish’s car was outside the house?”
“Jason said that? You can’t believe anything that kid says.” She shook her head. “It’s sad.”
I thought it was sad that I hadn’t believed every word Jason told me about his sister, but I said, “Oh, wait, now I remember — he said there was a car, but you went outside and couldn’t find it.”
