Children in the Morning Read Online Free PDF Page A

it was good news, at least for us. Delaney was released, with a number of strict conditions, including a curfew, no unsupervised contact with his children, no alcohol or drugs or firearms. I had never pictured Beau as a gun-totin’ boozer or a crackhead, so I didn’t think he’d have any trouble on that score. His law firm put up the $100,000 bail money. We had a bit of a public relations coup in that Beau’s brother-in-law invited him to stay at his place for the duration. This was not quite as good as it might have been; this was not Peggy’s own brother, but the husband of her sister, and the couple had separated. Still, we had a relative on Peggy’s side of the family who obviously believed in Beau’s innocence and was not afraid to have him in the house.
    The release gave Beau the opportunity to grandstand in the plaza in front of the courthouse. He declared his innocence, expressed his faith in our criminal justice system, which he had observed close-up 13

    ChildrenintheMorning_final_Layout 1 2/1/10 1:37 PM Page 14
    for twenty-five years, and said he was confident that he would be acquitted of the charge of murdering his beloved wife, Peggy.
    I drove my client to his new residence in central Halifax. On Brunswick Street there is a row of brick townhouses known locally as the Twelve Apostles. They were built as barracks for British soldiers in the year 1900. Each house has a little gabled roof and front porch with a side-facing door. Delaney’s brother-in-law, Angus MacPherson, met us out front. Angus was a piper who played in a local pipe band and also performed at one of the hotels downtown, greeting guests and piping them in. He was in full Scottish regalia, white-and-black Dress-MacPherson tartan kilt, with his sporran or purse on the front and the knife called a sgian dhu stuck in his right sock. The bagpipes were slung over his shoulder. None of this turned any heads among the locals here in Halifax. Men in kilts were a regular feature in New Scotland.
    “If I’d known you were coming right now, I’d have piped you in.
    Next time!”
    “Thanks anyway, Angus, but I’m keeping a low profile. I’ll expect a massed pipe band in front of my own house the day I get acquitted.”
    “You’ll have it. I’m off. Make yourself at home. Here’s your key.
    See you later.”
    “Thanks, Angus.”
    “Ciad mile failte!”
    (Normie)
    I wasn’t scared when I knew Mr. Delaney was coming to the school to see Jenny and Laurence. They really did join Four-Four Time, our after-school music program, when I invited them, and they asked their aunt, who was taking care of them, if they could come. She said okay. The program is for all kids, from any school, and it’s free. I planned right from the beginning to go to it myself most days after school and help out. Jenny and Laurence were shy at first, but they were nice. The reason I wasn’t scared of Mr. Delaney was that I knew he didn’t really kill their mum. He was an innocent man arrested by 14

    ChildrenintheMorning_final_Layout 1 2/1/10 1:37 PM Page 15
    mistake. Even though that was true, Daddy said there were some rules Mr. Delaney had to follow. One of them was that he was not allowed to see his own kids unless another grown-up was there. They made a plan that, since the kids were coming to Four-Four Time and Father Burke nearly always came in to hear the music, that was the place where Jenny and Laurence could see their dad. I guess their sisters and brothers saw him someplace else. Anyway, when he walked in, the other kids in the music program were whispering and pointing. “Is that him?” they all asked.
    “That’s him,” I told them, because I recognized him from the newspaper and, besides, I had seen him before somewhere. He is really, really big and has a lot of brown and white wavy hair. He has old-fashioned glasses with thick black frames. My own glasses you can hardly see because the frames are thin and metal. Some people don’t even notice them.