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Jennifer didn’t notice she was crying until the tears dripped off her chin. She got up, almost fell down. Tess steadied her.
“Is it true?” Jennifer asked Ava, searching her eyes. “Is he dying?”
Ava nodded. “I spoke with Miriam Endicott earlier. He provided her with a copy of his medical records. They could have been falsified I suppose, but looking at him, I think they’re accurate. He has pancreatic cancer and treatment has been unsuccessful. He has three to six months to live.”
Jennifer had been terrified that her father would find a way to bring her home, to put her under his thumb. But she hadn’t expected this.
“Are you ready?” Ava said.
Jennifer could only nod. She let Ava escort her down the hall and into the conference room and she stood there and stared at her brother, her father. She couldn’t contain her flood of conflicting emotions, and on a sob said, “Daddy, is it true?”
He slowly stood, nodded. Took a step toward her, his face in pain. Emotional and physical pain. He was dying.
She ran to him and hugged him. Tommy, who towered over both of them, wrapped his long arms around both of them.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m sorry. I just... I hurt. I couldn’t live like that anymore. I felt...broken and lost and...” Her voice cracked.
“No apologies,” her dad said. “You owe me nothing. I’m sorry that you were in so much pain, that you suffered because of my actions. I didn’t think. I just...didn’t realize how much you knew, what you saw, how you felt.” He stepped back and looked at them. “I gave up the business, all of it, because Thomas asked me to. I can’t promise you it won’t be dangerous to stay with me now, I still have enemies, but because I’ve disengaged, they have no reason to come after me. I love you so much, Virginia. In the time I have left, I will do anything to make it up to you and Thomas.”
Fifty-Six
Margo Angelhart
We left Jennifer alone in the conference room with her father and brother. My mom had tears in her eyes and went to her office, closed the door. I stood awkwardly with Jack and Tess.
“Well,” I said. What else was there to say?
“You believe him?” Jack asked with a nod toward the closed door.
“You don’t?”
“I believe that he believes what he’s saying now, but old dogs, new tricks?” He shook his head. “Let’s just say I’m skeptical.”
Tess said, “Mom believes him. She’s been on the phone all day with lawyers and doctors, and she says he’s really dying.”
“What about the US attorney she reached out to?” I asked. “Jennifer was going to talk to him, tell him everything.”
“Divine intervention,” Tess said. “He’s in court all day, said he’d call back tonight. Mom can avoid his call for a day or two.”
“But the guy is still a criminal. He had people killed,” Jack said. “I don’t know about just letting him walk away.”
I had mixed feelings, too, but I said, “How long would it take the federal government to build a case against him? Against his associates? Years. Especially if there isn’t an FBI investigation already open. He’ll be dead, and Jennifer and her brother can’t speak to the facts, only hearsay. What would be the point? I don’t think he should get away with murder, but he’s going to be dead before any trial.” I shrugged. “I don’t have the answers. Really, it’s up to Jennifer at this point.”
The system sometimes worked...and sometimes it didn’t. Bonetti should pay for his crimes, but he wouldn’t because he was dying. I didn’t know what I would do in the same situation.
“It’s about justice,” Jack said. “This isn’t justice.”
I couldn’t argue with him.
“He’s dying,” Tess said. “Like Margo said, by the time the government puts a case against him, he’ll be gone. Thomas and Jennifer will be dragged through the public eye and asked questions they can’t answer. Their lives would be, essentially, over.”
The children of a killer. We all knew how that felt.
“Maybe,” I said, “we push him a little. Get him on record, solve some cold cases.”
“What would that accomplish?” Tess asked.
“Closure for families who might not know why their loved ones are dead or who killed them. Maybe he knows where bodies are buried. It doesn’t hurt to ask him to do the right thing.”
