“Right. Thanks a million. I owe you one.”
Jennifer telephoned Mrs. Mackey. “I’m going to be a little late. Give Joshua his dinner and tell him to wait up for me.”
Ten minutes later, Jennifer was on her way downtown.
To Jennifer, kidnapping was the most vicious of all crimes, particularly the kidnapping of a helpless young child; but every accused person was entitled to a hearing no matter how terrible the crime. That was the foundation of the law: justice for the lowliest as well as the highest.
Jennifer identified herself to the guard at the reception desk and was taken to the Lawyers’ Visiting Room.
The guard said, “I’ll get Scanlon for you.”
A few minutes later a thin, aesthetic-looking man in his late thirties, with a blond beard and light blond hair was brought into the room. He looked almost Christlike.
He said, “Thank you for coming, Miss Parker.” His voice was soft and gentle. “Thank you for caring.”
“Sit down.”
He took a chair opposite Jennifer.
“You asked to see me?”
“Yes. Even though I think only God can help me. I’ve done a very foolish thing.”
She regarded him distastefully. “You call kidnapping a helpless little girl for ransom a ‘foolish thing’?”
“I didn’t kidnap Tammy for ransom.”
“Oh? Why did you kidnap her?”
There was a long silence before Jack Scanlon spoke. “My wife, Evelyn, died in childbirth. I loved her more than anything in the world. If ever there was a saint on earth, it was that woman. Evelyn wasn’t a strong person. Our doctor advised her not to have a baby, but she didn’t listen.” He looked down at the floor in embarrassment. “It—it may be hard for you to understand, but she said she wanted it anyway, because it would be like having another part of me.”
How well Jennifer understood that.
Jack Scanlon had stopped speaking, his thoughts far away.
“So she had the baby?”
Jack Scanlon nodded. “They both died.” It was difficult for him to go on. “For a while, I—I thought I would…I didn’t want to go on living without her. I kept wondering what our child would have been like. I kept dreaming about how it would have been if they had lived. I kept trying to turn the clock back to the moment before Evelyn—” He stopped, his voice choked with pain. “I turned to the Bible and it saved my sanity. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Then, a few days ago, I saw a little girl playing on the street, and it was as though Evelyn had been reincarnated. She had her eyes, her hair. She looked up at me and smiled and I—I know it sounds crazy, but it was Evelyn smiling at me. I must have been out of my head. I thought to myself, This is the daughter Evelyn would have had. This is our child.”
Jennifer could see his fingernails digging into his flesh.
“I know it was wrong, but I took her.” He looked up into Jennifer’s eyes. “I wouldn’t have harmed that child for anything in the world.”
Jennifer was studying him closely, listening for a false note. There was none. He was a man in agony.
“What about the ransom note?” Jennifer asked.
“I didn’t send a ransom note. The last thing in the world I cared about was money. I just wanted little Tammy.”
“Someone sent the family a ransom note.”
“The police keep saying I sent it, but I didn’t.”
Jennifer sat there, trying to fit the pieces together. “Did the story of the kidnapping appear in the newspapers before or after you were picked up by the police?”
“Before. I remember wishing they’d stop writing about it. I wanted to go away with Tammy and I was afraid someone would stop us.”
“So anyone could have read about the kidnapping and tried to collect a ransom?”
Jack Scanlon twisted his hands helplessly. “I don’t know. All I know is I want to die.”
His pain was so obvious that Jennifer found herself moved by it. If he was telling the truth—and it was naked in his face—then he did not deserve to die for what he had done. He should be punished, yes, but not executed.