Let Me Call You Sweetheart

85 Tuesday, November 7th

On Tuesday morning, Deidre Reardon and Beth Taylor were already in the reception room of Geoff Dorso’s law office when he arrived at nine o’clock.

Beth apologized for both of them. “Geoff, I’m so sorry to come without calling first,” she said, “but Deidre has to go into the hospital for the angioplasty tomorrow morning. I know it will rest her mind if she has a chance to talk to you for a few minutes and give you that picture of Suzanne we talked about the other day.”

Deidre Reardon was looking at him anxiously. “Oh, come on, Deidre,” Geoff said heartily, “you know you don’t have to make excuses for seeing me. Aren’t you the mother of my star client?”

“Sure. It’s all those billing hours you’re logging,” Deidre Reardon murmured with a relieved smile, as Geoff took her hands in his. “It’s just that I’m so embarrassed at the way I barged into that lovely Kerry McGrath’s office last week and treated her like dirt. And then to realize her own child has been threatened because Kerry’s trying to help my son.”

“Kerry absolutely understood how you felt that day. Come back to my office. I’m sure the coffeepot’s on.”

“We will only stay five minutes,” Beth promised as Geoff placed a coffee mug in front of her. “And we won’t waste your time saying it’s been a glimpse of heaven to think that finally there’s real, genuine hope for Skip. You know how we feel, and you know how grateful we are for everything you are doing.”

“Kerry saw Dr. Smith late yesterday afternoon,” Geoff said. “She thinks she got to him. But there are other developments as well.” He told them about Barney Haskell’s records. “We may at last have a chance to track the source of the jewelry we think Weeks gave Suzanne.”

“That’s one of the reasons we’re here,” Deidre Reardon told him. “Remember I said I had a picture that showed Suzanne wearing the missing set of antique diamond pins? As soon as I got home from the prison Saturday night I went to get it out of the file and couldn’t find it. I spent all Sunday and yesterday ransacking the apartment, looking for it. Of course it wasn’t there. Stupidly, I had forgotten that at some point I’d covered it with one of those plastic protectors and put it with my own personal papers. Anyway, I finally found it. With all the talk about the jewelry the other day, I felt it important for you to have it.”

She handed him a legal-size manila envelope. From it, he extracted a folded page from Palisades Community Life, a tabloid-sized weekly paper. As he opened it Geoff noticed the date, April 24th, nearly eleven years ago and barely a month before Suzanne Reardon died.

The group picture from the Palisades Country Club took up the space of four columns of print. Geoff recognized Suzanne Reardon immediately. Her outstanding beauty leaped from the page. She was standing at a slight angle, and the camera had clearly caught the sparkling diamonds on the lapel of her jacket.

“This is the double pin that disappeared,” Deidre explained, pointing to it. “But Skip doesn’t know when he last saw it on Suzanne.”

“I’m glad to have this,” Geoff said. “When we can get a copy of some of those records Haskell kept, we may be able to trace the pin.”

It almost hurt to see the eager hope on both their faces. Don’t let me fail them, he prayed as he walked them back to the reception room. At the door he hugged Deidre. “Now remember, you get this angioplasty over and start feeling better. We can’t have you sick when they unlock the door for Skip.”

“Geoff, I haven’t walked barefoot through hell this long to check out now.”

After having taken care of a number of client calls and queries, Geoff decided to call Kerry. Maybe she would want to have a fax of the picture Deidre had brought in. Or maybe I just want to talk to her, he admitted to himself.

When her secretary put her through, Kerry’s frightened voice sent chills through Geoff. “I just opened a Federal Express package that Dr. Smith sent me. Inside was a note and Suzanne’s jewelry case and the card that must have come with the sweetheart roses. Geoff, he admits he lied about Skip and the jewelry. He told me that by the time I read this he’ll have committed suicide.”

“My God, Kerry, did-“

“No, it’s not that. You see, he didn’t. Geoff, Mrs. Carpenter from his office just called me. When Dr. Smith didn’t come in for an early appointment, and didn’t answer the phone, she went to his house. His door was open a crack and she went in. She found his body lying in the foyer. He’d been shot, and the house ransacked. Geoff, was it because someone didn’t want Dr. Smith to change his testimony and was looking for the jewelry? Geoff, who is doing this? Will Robin be next?”