“Quite a presentation you made,” said Lundeen.
“We made,” said Sonya. “You’re weren’t exactly sitting on your hands at the sidelines.”
Lundeen walked beside them with a lighter step. “It hasn’t been boring.”
Brad grinned. “That’s a masterful understatement. When did you pull all this together?”
“I didn’t. It was a community effort. A group effort. Hoffmeister wrote a rough draft detailing the legal charges and got them to Doc McGinnis, who contacted a lawyer friend who finalized the writ. McGinnis ‘manned up’ and also contacted the State AG’s office, told them about an inmate at the Pen who had ‘the goods’ on Fredericks. The AG is launching an investigation, which is also involving the FBI. Just to make sure the job got done right, Molinari got in touch with his high school drinking buddy, FBI Agent Cunningham, who is helping to facilitate the investigative process. Rich Reardon spun his mesmerizing logic with Barrett and goaded me to talk with him too. When Tammy Fulton came on the scene, I figured we had our chance. Then when she stumbled in her resolve, Frankie softened her up over coffee with some ‘all men are bastards and they shouldn’t get away with it’ talk. And if all that failed, Hanson was prepared with his castration cutlery and hangman’s noose.”
Lundeen stopped for a moment and looked into Sonya’s eyes. “Mopsy started working on ‘Polly’ as soon as he suspected that Fredericks was zeroing in on you.” Putting his arm around her, he said, “We . . . ah, I wasn’t going to let you get hurt, my dear. You’re too much like a daughter.” Lundeen’s eyes began to moisten, then he grumbled, “And that’s the name of that tune.”
Sonya began crying as she hugged him back. “Lumpy, you —” and then the tears flowed freely. This time, happy tears.
“So, Lumps,” said Brad. “What’s going to happen to you?”
“Oh, probably go back to school. Three weeks at Harvard, a couple weeks at Yale, a professorship at Oxford. Who knows? The world has a lot of possibilities for a precocious three-year-old. As they say, three’s a charm.”
Sonya and Brad exchanged surprised glances.
“Don’t look so shocked. I’m just kidding. After all, you of all people should know, appearances can be quite deceiving.”
T H E E N D