The Sleeping Beauty Killer

74

At two o’clock the next day Laurie stood on the stoop outside General James Raleigh’s townhouse and rang the bell. She was surprised when the General himself answered the door immediately.

He led her up to the library. She sat in the same chair she had used when she interviewed Andrew two and a half weeks earlier.

“Ms. Moran, as you can imagine, I’m stunned. The woman who my son loved so dearly spent fifteen years in prison for a murder she did not commit. I turned a deaf ear to all her protestations of innocence. After she was convicted, I introduced Jason Gardner to my publisher. I wanted him to write a book that would further destroy her.

“I made a promise to appear on your television show, and then broke that promise.

“I have been wrong from the very beginning. I tried to convince my son to break his engagement to Casey Carter. Then after she served all those years in prison, I was pleased to see that even after she was released, her torment would continue.

“Now, if you will have me, I would like to appear on your program and offer my profound apology to her on national television.

“I want to tie off a loose end you were interested in. Hunter was concerned that my assistant, Mary Jane, had been fired from her previous position. Here’s what happened. She was the executive assistant to the husband of her best friend. When she inadvertently stumbled across his travel plans with his mistress, he fired her. He told her he would make her life miserable and ruin her own reputation if she breathed a word of it. In these twenty years with me, she has been a superb employee and confidante.”

“General, all this has been so terrible for you. Please know that I understand that.”

“I phoned Casey this morning.” He choked back a sob. “I told her that I was sorry I hadn’t welcomed her into our family with open arms. She was remarkably forgiving. I understand now what my son saw in her.”

A few minutes later General Raleigh walked Laurie to the front door. “I want to thank you again for everything your program has done. Nothing can bring back Hunter. But it has made me think. In the years I have remaining, I am going to try to be a better father to Andrew.”

Laurie kissed his cheek and wordlessly went down the steps. She stepped into the waiting car and gave Alex’s address.