Read Online Life Penalty by Joy Fielding - Free Book Online Page B

knowing in that instant that the same thing had been taken from her. When she looked at Jack, it was like looking in the mirror. Did he feel as dead inside as she did?
    Jack’s other hand moved restlessly from his knee to Gail’s lap. Occasionally, they had clasped hands tightly. Now both her arms were around Jennifer who sat staring at the floor, her white skirt dotted with the tears that kept falling into her lap. Her shoulder-length straight brown hair fell against her cheeks, virtually blocking out her face. Her hands twisted in her lap, tearing at a tissue and banging at her legs. To Jennifer’s right sat Sheila Walton, Jack’s mother, who had only just flown in the night before from wherever it was that Jack had been able to reach her in the Caribbean. She had that otherworldly look of a person suffering from jet lag, Gail thought, then decided that the look was one they all shared.
    Behind her sat Mark and Julie, Laura and Mike, and several other of their friends. Gail looked around for Lieutenant Cole but couldn’t find him.
    Beyond the first few rows, the faces grew indistinct, and though Gail tried to find a face that didn’t belong, it was impossible. They all belonged. None of them belonged.
    “That man over there,” she said to Lieutenant Cole as he appeared out of nowhere to take her arm and escort her up the aisle when the service was completed. Gail indicated a dark-haired man with a forward thrust of her chin. Lieutenant Cole whispered something to the manbeside him. “And I don’t recognize that man in the blue and white suit.” Gail watched the fair-haired young man with slightly slumped shoulders disappear through the church doors. She remembered that the suspect had been described as having dirty-blond hair. “And that man,” she said, pointing quickly with her hand before realizing what she was doing and dropping it to her side.
    Lieutenant Cole’s lips creased into a narrow smile. “That’s one of our men,” he told her.
    Gail’s face registered surprise. “He’s a policeman?”
    “Undercover.”
    Undercover. Gail repeated the word silently as they continued their walk to the front of the church.
    As they filed out the door, Gail noticed Eddie Fraser flanked by his parents. Gail tried to smile in his direction but her lips only twitched grotesquely and she abandoned the attempt. Jack walked with his arms tightly around Jennifer. In the past week Jack and Jennifer had pulled closer together than ever, while Gail had felt herself pulling farther away. Had anybody noticed?
    Gail watched the burial service, the small coffin being lowered into the ground, hearing the sobs of those around her, without any movement of her own. Her eyes were dry; her body was still. To a casual observer, to the man behind the camera and to those who would watch the events later on television, she appeared, as one newscaster would comment, a pillar of strength, a remarkably controlled woman. One commentator went so far as to wonder publicly what she had been thinking, and would have been undoubtedly disappointed to learn that she was thinking nothing at all. Her mind was a complete blank. A stranger lurking in the bushes had wiped it clean.
    They knew as soon as they pulled the car into the driveway that something was wrong, that the house was notthe way they had left it. They saw glass strewn across the front entrance as they approached.
    “My God,” Gail whispered.
    “What’s happened?” Jennifer cried.
    “Call the police,” Jack said, his voice calm.
    The police were right behind them, and within minutes had surrounded the house and searched inside it thoroughly dusting the house for fingerprints.
    “I doubt we’ll find anything,” Lieutenant Cole told them later as the extended family sat in stunned silence in the middle of their ransacked living room. The stereo was missing, and the color TV, as well as any money that had been left lying around, and some jewelry. “Whoever did this probably