Jennifer made her decision. “I’m going to try to help you.”
He said quietly, “Thank you. I really don’t care anymore what happens to me.”
“I do.”
Jack Scanlon said, “I’m afraid I—I have no money to give you.”
“Don’t worry about it. I want you to tell me about yourself.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Start from the beginning. Where were you born?”
“In North Dakota, thirty-five years ago. I was born on a farm. I guess you could call it a farm. It was a poor piece of land that nothing much wanted to grow on. We were poor. I left home when I was fifteen. I loved my mother, but I hated my father. I know the Bible says it’s wrong to speak evil of your parents, but he was a wicked man. He enjoyed whipping me.”
Jennifer could see his body tighten as he went on.
“I mean, he really enjoyed it. If I did the smallest thing he thought was wrong, he would whip me with a leather belt that had a big brass buckle on it. Then he’d make me get down on my knees and pray to God for forgiveness. For a long time I hated God as much as I hated my father.” He stopped, too filled with memories to speak.
“So you ran away from home?”
“Yes. I hitchhiked to Chicago. I didn’t have much schooling, but at home I used to read a lot. Whenever my father caught me, that was an excuse for another whipping. In Chicago, I got a job working in a factory. That’s where I met Evelyn. I cut my hand on a milling machine and they took me to the dispensary, and there she was. She was a practical nurse.” He smiled at Jennifer. “She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It took about two weeks before my hand was healed, and I went to her for a treatment every day. After that, we just kind of started going together. We talked about getting married, but the company lost a big order and I was laid off with the rest of the people in my department. That didn’t matter to Evelyn. We got married and she took care of me. That was the only thing we ever argued about. I was brought up to believe that a man should take care of a woman. I got a job driving a truck and the money was good. The only part I hated was that we were separated, sometimes for a week at a time. Outside of that, I was awfully happy. We were both happy. And then Evelyn got pregnant.”
A shudder ran through him. His hands began to tremble.
“Evelyn and our baby girl died.” Tears were running down his cheeks. “I don’t know why God did that. He must have had a reason, but I don’t know why.” He was rocking back and forth in his chair, unaware of what he was doing, his arms clasped in front of his chest, holding in his grief. “I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you.”
Jennifer thought, This one the electric chair is not going to get!
“I’ll be back to see you tomorrow,” Jennifer promised him.
Bail had been set at two hundred thousand dollars. Jack Scanlon did not have the bond money and Jennifer had it put up for him. Scanlon was released from the Correctional Center and Jennifer found a small motel on the West Side for him to move into. She gave him a hundred dollars to tide him over.
“I don’t know how,” Jack Scanlon said, “but I’ll pay you back every cent. I’ll start looking for a job. I don’t care what it is. I’ll do anything.”
When Jennifer left him, he was searching through the want ads.
The federal prosecutor, Earl Osborne, was a large, heavyset man with a smooth round face and a deceptively bland manner. To Jennifer’s surprise, Robert Di Silva was in Osborne’s office.
“I heard you were taking on this case,” Di Silva said. “Nothing’s too dirty for you to handle, is it?”