If he had expected her eyes to fill with tears at the very sight of the boy, he was disappointed, for what she did was look at him with something akin to fear in her eyes. 'I don't know if I want this particular kid,' she whispered. 'If what you're saying is true, as I look at him, al I can see right now, is our father, his and mine. I don't know if I can handle that.'
'But you have a sister. Where's the difference?'
'Why do you think I don't see her?'
He lifted Rufus again, betting him up on to his shoulder. 'Well, I tell you this, Mags. I'm looking after this boy from now on. I'm going to bring him up and teach him my values and beliefs, and I'm going to prove that when it comes to character, heredity counts for fuck all. But I don't have to do that real y, because you're living proof yourself.
'Paula's helping me take care of him right now, until you're ready to play your part in raising him, with me or without me, however it works out.'
She shook her head. 'I don't know, Mario; I don't know.'
'No? Well I know this. If you stay huddled up in that bed then your old man's done for you right enough, because you'l have let him take away your strength, your self-belief and your pride. If you do that, you'l no longer be the woman I love, the woman I married.'
He looked at her, and suddenly he knew once more where he had always belonged, and he knew the one last thing he had to do to bury Jorge Xavier Rose. 'God damn it,' he exclaimed, 'I'm not going to let the bastard have that satisfaction.
I'm overruling O'Mal ey, right now. So do what you're told. Detective Superintendent; get your shapely arse out of that bed and come home with Rufus and me.'
For a long time, Maggie looked at him, and at her brother. Then at last, she sighed, and with an act of will greater than ever before in her life, she threw back the covers.
The confirmation hearing had been postponed; the senator and heri husband were there after al. Skinner and Sarah stood by the graveside as Ian Walker recited the words of committal… they had gone on the minister's house after leaving Brand at the church. Nothing had been said about Bob's angry departure, and in the presence of her childhoo friend, Babs had become the perfect hostess.
Now it was almost over, the journey which had brought him from th Far East to stand beside the coffins of his parents-in-law. Along the way, he had seen more than any of them knew, and had lost more too. He let his gaze pass over the congregation in the cemetery, unable to guess their numbers, noting the irony of the Secret Service presence.
He swept around the gathering, coming at last to Sarah… and as he did, his head began to swim, and he was back in that grey place, the one filled with faceless, hurrying people.
As she looked at him she saw his eyes glaze over. As he looked down at her, blankly, he was swept by that strange feeling ofdeja vu, an instant certainty that he had played the scene before. And then… in slow motion, it seemed to Sarah as she watched… Bob Skinner pitched forward, fal ing face down, stretching out ful -length on the green carpeting of the graveside, dead to his world.
