It took me three days to find mother and daughter. Another three to convince the mother to see me. We met in my living room. I’d had the apartment swept earlier that morning and all the bugs removed. Then I’d had it swept again. Marie Perry sat in a hard chair facing the street. She spoke without ever having been asked a question.
“The story I told you about me when I was seventeen.”
“The abortion?”
“That was true. Afterward, the doctor insisted I could never have children. When I told Ray, it ruined him. Until, of course, I got pregnant.”
“He wanted the child?”
“He lived for it. Then we got the diagnosis of spina bifida, and Ray wasn’t so sure anymore. My father was adamant I have an abortion. He never knew about the first one—not that it would have mattered—but my father knew Ray. And he knew Ray wouldn’t have the heart for politics once the child was born. Eventually, Ray came around to my father’s way of thinking. He told me an abortion was ‘the best thing for both of us.’ ”
“And what did you say?”
“I told him I’d rather die than give up our child. So I had the baby and killed our marriage instead.” Marie closed her eyes and turned her face a degree toward the sun streaming through an open window. It seemed like a long time before she spoke again. “What do you know about spina bifida?”
“Amanda gave me the basics.”
“It’s interesting. You meet with the doctor every few weeks during your pregnancy. You look at the ultrasounds of your child and listen while they take things away. First, it’s her ability to walk normally. Then it’s her ability to walk at all. She’ll likely be brain damaged, emotionally impaired, and live her life tethered to a colostomy bag. The defect is growing. The defect has stabilized. We just won’t know until she’s born, but it won’t be good. It’s never good. And all the while, people look at you like you’re carrying an alien inside you and whisper in your ear about things like ‘quality of life’ and the ‘right thing for the baby.’ And then the child no one wants but you is born. And the knives come out for real.”
“Was Ray involved with Emma after she was born?”
“You mean did he hire someone to kill his own daughter?” Marie shook her head. “Ray and I both thought Emma had died of natural causes. The whole thing was swept under the rug and never talked about again. My father had a campaign to run and a governor’s mansion to win. Emma wasn’t going to get in the way.”
I thought about Iphigenia and the bleached sails of the Greeks as an army set sail for Troy. “Money, glory, and power.”
Her smile sparked a million tiny bits of pain. “Seems like Euripides had it just about right.”
“That’s why he’s Euripides.”
“I guess.”
“Tell me about Beacon Limited.”
“What’s to tell? My father is Beacon. Always has been. He brought Ray in once we got to Springfield.”
“Why did Ray disappear with Beacon’s money?”
“He didn’t want to go to jail. And he was greedy. I helped because I didn’t want him in my life anymore, even from a prison cell.”
“Did Ray think you’d eventually join him?”
“Ray thought a lot of things, most of it dictated by his ego. That was Ray, for better or worse. Once I found out Emma was still alive, she became my only priority. And Ray became a possible way out. Or so I’d hoped.”
“When did Ray discover his daughter was alive?”
“He saw a picture before he died. That was all he deserved.” Outside the sun dipped behind some cloud cover, burying her face in deep shadow. “Ray used people, Mr. Kelly. He used me to further his career, then to help him get out of the courthouse. Andrew Wallace did a hundred things for Ray, including stealing sixty million dollars from Beacon. You were Ray’s final stalking horse—someone who would smoke out any threats planted in our midst.”
“You mean Karen Simone?”
“I wouldn’t have guessed her, but, yes, Karen Simone. That was your job. And you were well paid for it. Now that she’s dead, maybe there’s a window. A chance to get away. If so, I intend to use it.”
“Your father will hunt you down, Marie. The man wants his money. And you’re his only lead.”
“I have a plan.”
“You mean the church?”
The question hung like a dagger between us. Marie reached for it. “What do you know about that?”
“I know you met your father there. I’m guessing it had something to do with the money you drove out to Clarendon Hills and Hinsdale.”
“I gave him sworn statements from two families. Both will testify that Beacon Limited killed their loved ones.”
“More blackmail?”
“I want my father focused on me. Believing I’m a viable threat to him and his pals.”
“Meanwhile, Amanda gets your daughter out of town, and Wallace arranges it so the cash follows.”
“The original plan was for both of us to go, but that might not happen. The important thing is that my father never know Emma’s alive. I’ll stay here and distract him by threatening to take the lid off Beacon.”
“Your plaintiffs will be paid off, Marie. Count on it.”
“I don’t think so.”
“They took your money to speak up. They’ll take more from Beacon to keep quiet. Your father understands that. In some ways, that’s his greatest strength. And biggest weakness.”
“Money?”
“Greed. All you have to do is exploit it. Tell him the truth. You have the cash Ray stole. And you’re willing to bargain for your freedom.”
“Why should I trust him?”
“Wallace and I have worked it out so you don’t have to.”
She didn’t know Wallace and I had been talking. It threw her for a minute. “How?”
“We set aside ten million for you and Emma. Another ten gets split between the families. The rest is funneled back to Beacon over a period of years. Gives you time to disappear and lets the wounds heal.”
“The wounds will never heal.”
“Maybe not. But if you go ahead with your plan, they’ll blow it out of the water, and then they’ll kill you. When they find out Emma is alive, they’ll kill her as well. Or maybe Bones takes custody and raises her as his own.”
A horn beeped somewhere, and a car door slammed. The sun peeked out again from its cloud cover, throwing shards of light across the room. Marie walked to the windows and studied the street below. “I made the decision to have an abortion when I was seventeen. Then I fought to save my baby when I was thirty-eight. At the time I felt each decision was the right one. Now I feel like I’ve only created a culture of death.”
“That’s one way to think about it.”
Marie turned from the window. “You have another?”
“There probably would have been suffering however you chose. It’s what you do afterward that counts. What lives you protect. How well you persevere.”
She crossed her arms and leaned up against the windowsill. “Will I have to tell him about Emma?”
“It’s the only way.”
“Why?”
Marie listened as I laid out the deal I hoped to strike with her father.
“Is that all of it?”
“That’s all you need to know.”
“And I trust you for the rest?”
“Your little girl will be safe. I can promise you that.”
“And it will be over?”
“It should be, yes.”
“I hope you’re right, Mr. Kelly.” She turned away from me again. “Go ahead and make the call.”