The Quiet Game

"It's one of the only things I've never understood about your life. Why Marston went after you."

He shakes his head. "I've never known why he did it. I'd done nothing wrong. Any physician could see that. The jury saw it too, thank God."

"You've never heard anything since? About why he took the case or pressed it so hard?"

"To tell you the truth, son, I always had the feeling it had something to do with you. You and Olivia."

He turns to me, his eyes not accusatory but plainly questioning. I am too shocked to speak for a moment. "That… that's impossible," I stammer. "I mean, nothing really bad ever happened between Livy and me. It was the trial that drove the last nail into our relationship."

"Maybe that was Marston's goal all along. To drive you two apart."

This thought occurred to me nineteen years ago, but I discounted it. Livy abandoned me long before her father took on that malpractice case.

Dad shrugs as if it were all meaningless now. "Who knows why people do anything?"

"I'm going to go see Presley," I tell him. "If that's what I have to do to-"

"You stay away from that son of a bitch! Any problems I have, I'll deal with my own way." He downs the remainder of his bourbon. "One way or another."

"What does that mean?"

His eyes are blurry with fatigue and alcohol, yet somehow sly beneath all that. "Don't worry about it."

I am suddenly afraid that my father is contemplating suicide. His death would nullify any leverage Presley has over him and also provide my mother with a generous life insurance settlement. To a desperate man, this might well seem like an elegant solution. "Dad-"

"Go to bed, son. Take care of your little girl. That's what being a father's all about. Sparing your kids what hell you can for as long as you can. And A

We turn to the door at the same moment, each sensing a new presence in the room. A tiny shadow stands there. A

"I woke up by myself," she says, her voice tiny and fearful. "Why did you leave, Daddy?"

I go to the door and sweep her into my arms. She feels so light sometimes that it frightens me. Hollow-boned, like a bird. "I needed to talk to Papa, punkin. Everything's fine."

"Hello, sweet pea," Dad says from his chair. "You make Daddy take you to bed."

I linger in the doorway, hoping somehow to draw out a confidence, but he gives me nothing. I leave the library with A

CHAPTER 5

My father's prediction about media attention proves prescient. Within forty-eight hours of my arrival, calls about interviews join the ceaseless ringing of patients calling my father. My mother has taken messages from the local newspaper publisher, radio talk-show hosts, even the TV station in Jackson, the state capital, two hours away. I decide to grant an interview to Caitlin Masters, the publisher of the Natchez Examiner, on two conditions: that she not ask questions about Arthur Lee Hanratty's execution, and that she print that I will be vacationing in New Orleans until after the execution has taken place. Leaving A

It was once said of American cities that you could judge their character by their tallest buildings: were they offices or churches? At a mere seven stories, the Eola Hotel is the tallest commercial structure in Natchez. Its verdigris-encrusted roof peaks well below the graceful, copper-clad spire of St. Mary Minor Basilica. Natchez's "skyline" barely rises out of a green canopy of oak leaves: the silver dome of the synagogue, the steeple of the Presbyterian church, the roofs of antebellum mansions and stately public buildings. Below the canopy, a soft and filtered sunlight gives the sense of an enormous glassed-in garden.

Biscuits and Blues is a three-story building on Main, with a large second-floor balcony overlooking the street. A young woman stands talking on a cell phone just inside the door-where Caitlin Masters promised to meet me-but I don't think she's the newspaper publisher. She looks more like a French tourist. She's wearing a tailored black suit, cream silk blouse, and black sandals, and she is clearly on the su

I acknowledge her wave and wait beside the door. I'm accustomed to young executives in book publishing, but I expected something more conventional in the newspaper business, especially in the South. Caitlin Masters stands with her head cocked slightly, her eyes focused in the middle distance, the edge of her lower lip pi

As she ends her call, she speaks three or four consecutive sentences, and a strange chill runs through me. Ivy League Boston alloyed with something softer, a Brahmin who spent her summers far away. On the telephone this morning I didn't catch it, but coupled with her face, that voice transforms my suspicion to certainty. Caitlin Masters is the woman I spoke to on the flight to Baton Rouge. Kate… Caitlin.

She holds out her hand to shake mine, and I step back. "You're the woman from the plane. Kate."

Her smile disappears, replaced by embarrassment. "I'm surprised you recognize me, dressed like I was that day."

"You lied to me. You told me you were a lawyer. Was that some kind of setup or what?"

"I didn't tell you I was a lawyer. You assumed I was. I told you I was a First Amendment specialist, and I am."

"You knew what I thought, and you let me think it. You lied, Ms. Masters. This interview is over."

As I turn to go, she takes hold of my arm. "Our meeting on that plane was a complete accident. I want an interview with you, but it wouldn't be worth that kind of trouble. I was flying from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, and I happened to be sitting across the aisle from you. End of story."

"And you happened to be reading one of my novels?"

"No. I've been trying to get your number from your parents for a couple of months. A lot of people in Mississippi are interested in you. When the Hanratty story broke, I picked up one of your books in the airport. It's that simple."

I step away from the door to let a pair of middle-aged women through. "Then why not tell me who you were?"

"Because when I was waiting to board, I was sitting by the pay phones. I heard you tell someone you didn't want to talk to reporters for any reason. I knew if I told you I was a newspaper publisher, you wouldn't talk to me."

"Well, I guess you got your inside scoop on how I killed Hanratty's brother."

She draws herself erect, offended now. "I haven't printed a word of what you told me, and I don't plan to. Despite appearances to the contrary, my journalistic ethics are beyond reproach."