Life Penalty Read Online Free PDF Page A

reasons, I guess. We were very young, very different. Mark wasn’t really ready to settle down. He had … he had other women.” Lieutenant Cole looked up from his notepad. “Women,” Gail repeated. “Not children. Believe me, his taste in women is anything but puerile.”
    “What was his attitude when you remarried?”
    Gail shrugged. “He wished me well. I’m not sure what you want me to say.” Jack’s hand gripped hers tightly.
    “How about his relationship with his daughter?”
    “He loves Jennifer. He’s a wonderful father to her.”
    “How did he feel about Jack replacing him?”
    Gail stared into her husband’s eyes. “I think he might have been a little uneasy initially,” she ‘began, “but after he saw that Jack had no intention of trying to replace him, as you say, he relaxed. Jack and Jennifer get along beautifully. She loves him and he loves her, but Mark is her father, and she knows that.”
    “How did Mark feel when you had a child with another man?”
    Gail tried to recall Mark’s reaction. “I don’t remember,” she said at last. “I don’t think he felt too much about it one way or the other.”
    “He wasn’t jealous?”
    “Not that I know of. Why would he be jealous?”
    “You don’t think that he harbored any feelings of revenge?”
    “Revenge? For what? I don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
    “Take it easy, Gail,” Jack cautioned.
    “What’s he trying to say?” Gail asked her husband as if the police lieutenant were no longer present.
    “Your ex-husband has no verifiable alibi for the time your daughter died,” Lieutenant Cole said simply.
    “He doesn’t need an alibi,” Gail protested weakly, trying to come to grips with this new information.
    Lieutenant Cole checked his notes. “He says he was photographing a woman in West Orange from two to three o’clock. His next appointment was at four, twin boys not too far from where you live.” He paused to let these facts sink in. “It doesn’t take an hour to get from West Orange to Livingston.”
    “You’re wasting your time, Lieutenant,” Gail told him, feeling her eyelids growing heavy.
    “What about Jennifer’s boyfriend?”
    “Eddie?” Gail asked, her amazement jolting her awake again.
    “Eddie Fraser,” Lieutenant Cole pronounced, reading from his notes. “Age sixteen, eleventh-grade student, straight A average.”
    “Eddie and Jennifer are in the same class,” Jack embellished. “They’ve been going steady for almost a year.”
    “Eddie didn’t do it, for God’s sake,” Gail whined, panic mounting in her chest. “You’re wasting valuable time. Eddie is a nice boy. He’s a serious student. He wants to be a doctor or a lawyer. He’s crazy about Jennifer. He’s crazy about Cindy.” She stopped abruptly.
    “Did you ever notice anything untoward in his behavior with Cindy?”
    “Untoward? What do you mean?”
    “Did you ever see him staring at her in a way that made you uneasy? If they played together or rough-housed around a bit, did you ever notice his hands brushing up against her legs? Maybe a pat on the posterior that lasted a touch too long …”
    “Stop it!” Gail cried. “This is crazy. Eddie didn’t hurt Cindy! He’s a kind, gentle boy, always polite, always helpful and sweet.” Gail looked to Jack for confirmation. “Isn’t he?” Jack nodded silently. “We like Eddie. He likes us. I mean, initially, we weren’t thrilled about the steady arrangement. We thought that Jennifer was too young to get involved with one boy, but he was so nice that we decided she could do a lot worse, and probably would in years to come, because after all, they are only sixteen. We didn’t want to encourage their … passion,” she stumbled, “by trying to deny it. We made certain conditions. No middle-of-the-week dating, home by one o’clock on Friday and Saturday nights. Eddie was very agreeable. We’ve never had any trouble with him. Don’t you see?” she asked,