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But Dolly had felt she had to. She had known Skip Reardon and liked him and just felt she had to try to help him. Besides, she really had seen that car, as had Michael, the five-year-old little boy with all the learning problems she had been minding that night. He had seen the car too, but Skip’s lawyer had told her not to discuss it.
“That would only hurt our case,” Mr. Farrell had said. “All we want you to do is to tell what you saw, that a dark sedan was parked in front of the Reardon house at nine and drove away a few minutes later.”
She was sure she had made out one of the numbers and one of the letters, a 3 and an L. But then the prosecutor had held up a license plate at the back of the courtroom and she hadn’t been able to read it. And he had gotten her to admit that she was very fond of Skip Reardon because he had dug out her car one night when she got stuck in a snowdrift.
Dolly knew that just because Skip had been nice to her didn’t mean that he couldn’t be a murderer, but in her heart she felt that he was i
Dolly could not know that at the same time on that Sunday evening that she sat looking out the window at what used to be the Reardon house, some ten miles away, at Villa Cesare in Hillsdale, Geoff Dorso and Kerry McGrath were talking about her.
29
By tacit agreement, Kerry and Geoff refrained from any discussion of the Reardon case until coffee was served. During the earlier part of the meal, Geoff talked about spending his youngest years in New York. “I thought of my New Jersey cousins as living in the sticks,” he said. “Then after we moved out ourselves and I grew up here, I decided to stay.”
He told Kerry that he had four younger sisters.
“I envy you,” she said. “I’m an only child, and I used to love to visit my friends’ houses where there was a big family. I always thought it would be nice to have some siblings floating around. My father died when I was nineteen and my mother remarried when I was twenty-one and moved to Colorado. I see her twice a year.”
Geoff’s eyes softened. “That doesn’t give you much family support,” he said.
“No, I guess not, but Jonathan and Grace Hoover have helped to fill the gap. They’ve been wonderful to me, almost like parents.”
They talked about law school, agreeing that the first year was a horror they would hate to have to endure again. “What made you decide to be a defense lawyer?” Kerry asked.
“I think it went back to when I was a kid. A woman in our apartment building, A
“That didn’t make you become a defense lawyer.” Kerry smiled.
“No. But three months later when her husband walked out on her, she followed him to his new girlfriend’s apartment and shot him. I honestly believe it was temporary insanity, which was the defense her lawyer tried, but she went to prison for twenty years anyway. I guess the key phrase is ‘mitigating circumstances.’ When I believe those are present, or when I believe the defendant is i
“The victim and the family of the victim,” she said simply. “Based on your theory I could have shot Bob Kinellen and pled mitigating circumstances.”
Dorso’s eyes flashed with mild irritation, then became amused.
“Somehow I don’t see you shooting anybody, Kerry.”
“I don’t either, unless…” Kerry hesitated, then continued, “Unless Robin were in danger. Then I’d do whatever it took to save her. I’m sure of that.”
Over di
“And your mother remarried two years later?” Geoff asked softly.
“Yes, right before I graduated from college. Sam was a widower and a friend of Dad’s. He’d been about to retire to Vail when Dad died. He has a lovely place there. It’s been good for both of them.”
“What would your father have thought of Bob Kinellen?”
Kerry laughed. “You’re very perceptive, Geoff Dorso. I think he would have been underwhelmed.”
Over coffee they finally discussed the Reardon case. Kerry began by saying frankly, “I sat in on the sentencing ten years ago, and the look on his face and what he said were imprinted in my memory. I’ve heard a lot of guilty people swear they were i
“Because he was telling the truth.”
Kerry looked directly at him. “I warn you, Geoff, I intend to play devil’s advocate, and while reading that transcript raises a lot of questions for me, it certainly doesn’t convince me that Reardon is an i
“Kerry, Skip Reardon was a self-made man. He pulled himself out of poverty and had become very successful. Suza
They talked about the sweetheart roses. “I absolutely believe Skip neither brought nor sent them,” Geoff said as he sipped espresso. “So if we accept that, we then have the factor of another person.”
As Geoff was paying the bill, they both agreed that Dr. Smith’s testimony was the linchpin that had convicted Skip Reardon. “Ask yourself this,” Geoff urged. “Dr. Smith claimed that Suza
“If Skip was telling the truth, but we don’t know that for an absolute fact, do we?” Kerry said.
“Well, I for one do believe him,” Geoff said with passion. “Besides, no one testified in corroboration of Dr. Smith’s testimony. The Reardons were a popular couple. Surely if he were abusive to her, someone would have come forward to say so.”
“Perhaps so,” Kerry conceded, “but then why were there no defense fact witnesses to say that he wasn’t insanely jealous? Why were there only two character witnesses called to help counter Dr. Smith’s testimony? No, Geoff, I’m afraid that based on the information the jury was given, they had no reason not to trust Dr. Smith and believe him. Besides, aren’t we in general conditioned to trust a physician?”