He took a chair opposite Jennifer.

"You asked to see me?"

"Yes. Even though I think only G.o.d can help me. I've done a very foolish thing."

She regarded him distastefully. "You call kidnapping a helpless little girl for ransom a 'foolish thing'?"

"I didn't kidnap Tammy for ransom."

"Oh? Why did did you kidnap her?" you kidnap her?"

There was a long silence before Jack Scanlon spoke. "My wife, Evelyn, died in childbirth. I loved her more than anything in the world. If ever there was a saint on earth, it was that woman. Evelyn wasn't a strong person. Our doctor advised her not to have a baby, but she didn't listen." He looked down at the floor in embarra.s.sment. "It-it may be hard for you to understand, but she said she wanted it anyway, because it would be like having another part of me."

How well Jennifer understood that.

Jack Scanlon had stopped speaking, his thoughts far away.

"So she had the baby?"

Jack Scanlon nodded. "They both died." It was difficult for him to go on. "For a while, I-I thought I would...I didn't want to go on living without her. I kept wondering what our child would have been like. I kept dreaming about how it would have been if they had lived. I kept trying to turn the clock back to the moment before Evelyn-" He stopped, his voice choked with pain. "I turned to the Bible and it saved my sanity. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Behold, I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut. Then, a few days ago, I saw a little girl playing on the street, and it was as though Evelyn had been reincarnated. She had her eyes, her hair. She looked up at me and smiled and I-I know it sounds crazy, but it was Evelyn smiling at me. I must have been out of my head. I thought to myself, Then, a few days ago, I saw a little girl playing on the street, and it was as though Evelyn had been reincarnated. She had her eyes, her hair. She looked up at me and smiled and I-I know it sounds crazy, but it was Evelyn smiling at me. I must have been out of my head. I thought to myself, This is the daughter Evelyn would have had. This is our child." This is the daughter Evelyn would have had. This is our child."

Jennifer could see his fingernails digging into his flesh.

"I know it was wrong, but I took her." He looked up into Jennifer's eyes. "I wouldn't have harmed that child for anything in the world."

Jennifer was studying him closely, listening for a false note. There was none. He was a man in agony.

"What about the ransom note?" Jennifer asked.

"I didn't send a ransom note. The last thing in the world I cared about was money. I just wanted little Tammy."

"Someone sent the family a ransom note." sent the family a ransom note."

"The police keep saying I sent it, but I didn't."

Jennifer sat there, trying to fit the pieces together. "Did the story of the kidnapping appear in the newspapers before or after you were picked up by the police?"

"Before. I remember wishing they'd stop writing about it. I wanted to go away with Tammy and I was afraid someone would stop us."

"So anyone could have read about the kidnapping and tried to collect a ransom?"

Jack Scanlon twisted his hands helplessly. "I don't know. All I know is I want to die."

His pain was so obvious that Jennifer found herself moved by it. If he was telling the truth-and it was naked in his face-then he did not deserve to die for what he had done. He should be punished, yes, but not executed.

Jennifer made her decision. "I'm going to try to help you."

He said quietly, "Thank you. I really don't care anymore what happens to me."

"I do."

Jack Scanlon said, "I'm afraid I-I have no money to give you."

"Don't worry about it. I want you to tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?"

"Start from the beginning. Where were you born?"

"In North Dakota, thirty-five years ago. I was born on a farm. I guess you could call it a farm. It was a poor piece of land that nothing much wanted to grow on. We were poor. I left home when I was fifteen. I loved my mother, but I hated my father. I know the Bible says it's wrong to speak evil of your parents, but he was a wicked man. He enjoyed whipping me."

Jennifer could see his body tighten as he went on.

"I mean, he really enjoyed it. If I did the smallest thing he thought was wrong, he would whip me with a leather belt that had a big bra.s.s buckle on it. Then he'd make me get down on my knees and pray to G.o.d for forgiveness. For a long time I hated G.o.d as much as I hated my father." He stopped, too filled with memories to speak.

"So you ran away from home?"

"Yes. I hitchhiked to Chicago. I didn't have much schooling, but at home I used to read a lot. Whenever my father caught me, that was an excuse for another whipping. In Chicago, I got a job working in a factory. That's where I met Evelyn. I cut my hand on a milling machine and they took me to the dispensary, and there she was. She was a practical nurse." He smiled at Jennifer. "She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. It took about two weeks before my hand was healed, and I went to her for a treatment every day. After that, we just kind of started going together. We talked about getting married, but the company lost a big order and I was laid off with the rest of the people in my department. That didn't matter to Evelyn. We got married and she took care of me. That was the only thing we ever argued about. I was brought up to believe that a man should take care of a woman. I got a job driving a truck and the money was good. The only part I hated was that we were separated, sometimes for a week at a time. Outside of that, I was awfully happy. We were both happy. And then Evelyn got pregnant."

A shudder ran through him. His hands began to tremble.

"Evelyn and our baby girl died." Tears were running down his cheeks. "I don't know why G.o.d did that. He must have had a reason, but I don't know why." He was rocking back and forth in his chair, unaware of what he was doing, his arms clasped in front of his chest, holding in his grief. "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you." "I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you."

Jennifer thought, This one the electric chair is not going to get! This one the electric chair is not going to get!

"I'll be back to see you tomorrow," Jennifer promised him.

Bail had been set at two hundred thousand dollars. Jack Scanlon did not have the bond money and Jennifer had it put up for him. Scanlon was released from the Correctional Center and Jennifer found a small motel on the West Side for him to move into. She gave him a hundred dollars to tide him over.

"I don't know how," Jack Scanlon said, "but I'll pay you back every cent. I'll start looking for a job. I don't care what it is. I'll do anything."

When Jennifer left him, he was searching through the want ads.

The federal prosecutor, Earl Osborne, was a large, heavyset man with a smooth round face and a deceptively bland manner. To Jennifer's surprise, Robert Di Silva was in Osborne's office.

"I heard you were taking on this case," Di Silva said. "Nothing's too dirty for you to handle, is it?"

Jennifer turned to Earl Osborne. "What's he doing here? This is a federal case."

Osborne replied, "Jack Scanlon took the girl away in her family's car."

"Auto theft, grand larceny," Di Silva said.

Jennifer wondered if Di Silva would have been there if she were not involved. She turned back to Earl Osborne.

"I'd like to make a deal," Jennifer said. "My client-"

Earl Osborne held up a hand. "Not a chance. We're going all the way on this one."

"There are circ.u.mstances-"

"You can tell us all about it at the preliminary."

Di Silva was grinning at her.

"All right," Jennifer said. "I'll see you in court."

Jack Scanlon found a job working at a service station on the West Side near his motel, and Jennifer stopped by to see him.

"The preliminary hearing is the day after tomorrow," Jennifer informed him. "I'm going to try to get the government to agree to a plea bargain and plead you guilty to a lesser charge. You'll have to serve some time, Jack, but I'll try to see that it's as short as possible."

The grat.i.tude in his face was reward enough.

At Jennifer's suggestion, Jack Scanlon had bought a respectable suit to wear at the preliminary hearing. He had had his hair cut and his beard trimmed, and Jennifer was pleased with his appearance.

They went through the court formalities. District Attorney Di Silva was present. When Earl Osborne had presented his evidence and asked for an indictment, Judge Barnard turned to Jennifer.

"Is there anything you would like to say, Miss Parker?"

"There is, Your Honor. I'd like to save the government the cost of a trial. There are mitigating circ.u.mstances here that have not been brought out. I would like to plead my client guilty to a lesser charge."

"No way," Earl Osborne said. "The government will not agree to it."

Jennifer turned to Judge Barnard. "Could we discuss this in Your Honor's chambers?"

"Very well. I'll set a date for the trial after I've heard what counsel has to say."

Jennifer turned to Jack Scanlon, who was standing there, bewildered.

"You can go back to work," Jennifer told him. "I'll drop by and let you know what happened."

He nodded and said quietly, "Thank you, Miss Parker."

Jennifer watched him turn and leave the courtroom.

Jennifer, Earl Osborne, Robert Di Silva and Judge Barnard were seated in the judge's chambers.

Osborne was saying to Jennifer, "I don't know how you could even ask me to plea-bargain. Kidnapping for ransom is a capital offense. Your client is guilty and he's going to pay for what he did."

"Don't believe everything you read in the newspapers, Earl. Jack Scanlon had nothing to do with that ransom note."

"Who you trying to kid? If it wasn't for ransom, what the h.e.l.l was was it for?" it for?"

"I'll tell you," Jennifer said.

And she told them. She told them about the farm and the beatings and about Jack Scanlon falling in love with Evelyn and marrying her, and losing his wife and daughter in childbirth.

They listened in silence, and when Jennifer was finished, Robert Di Silva said, "So Jack Scanlon kidnapped the girl because it reminded him of the kid he would have had? And Jack Scanlon's wife died in childbirth?"

"That's right." Jennifer turned to Judge Barnard. "Your Honor, I don't think that's the kind of man you execute."

Di Silva said unexpectedly, "I agree with you."

Jennifer looked at him in surprise.

Di Silva was pulling some papers out of a briefcase. "Let me ask you something," he said. "How would you feel about executing this this kind of man?" He began to read from a dossier. "Frank Jackson, age thirty-eight. Born in n.o.b Hill, San Francisco. Father was a doctor, mother a prominent socialite. At fourteen, Jackson got into drugs, ran away from home, picked up in Haight-Ashbury and returned to his parents. Three months later Jackson broke into his father's dispensary, stole all the drugs he could get his hands on and ran away. Picked up in Seattle for possession and selling, sent to a reformatory, released when he was eighteen, picked up one month later on a charge of armed robbery with intent to kill..." kind of man?" He began to read from a dossier. "Frank Jackson, age thirty-eight. Born in n.o.b Hill, San Francisco. Father was a doctor, mother a prominent socialite. At fourteen, Jackson got into drugs, ran away from home, picked up in Haight-Ashbury and returned to his parents. Three months later Jackson broke into his father's dispensary, stole all the drugs he could get his hands on and ran away. Picked up in Seattle for possession and selling, sent to a reformatory, released when he was eighteen, picked up one month later on a charge of armed robbery with intent to kill..."

Jennifer could feel her stomach tightening. "What does this have to do with Jack Scanlon?"

Earl Osborne gave her a frosty smile. "Jack Scanlon is Frank Jackson."

"I don't believe it!"

Di Silva said, "This yellow sheet came in from the FBI an hour ago. Jackson's a con artist and a psychopathic liar. Over the last ten years he's been arrested on charges ranging from pimping to arson to armed robbery. He did a stretch in Joliet. He's never held a steady job and he's never been married. Five years ago he was picked up by the FBI on a kidnapping charge. He kidnapped a three-year-old girl and sent a ransom note. The body of the little girl was found in a wooded area two months later. According to the coroner's report, the body was partially decomposed, but there were visible signs of small knife cuts all over her body. She had been raped and sodomized."

Jennifer felt suddenly ill.

"Jackson was acquitted on a technicality that some hotshot lawyer cooked up." When Di Silva spoke again his voice was filled with contempt. "That the man you want walking around the streets?"

"May I see that dossier, please?"

Silently, Di Silva handed it to Jennifer and she began reading it. It was Jack Scanlon. There was no question about it. There was a police mug shot of him stapled to the yellow sheet. He had looked younger then and he had no beard, but there was no mistaking him. Jack Scanlon-Frank Jackson-had lied to her about everything. He had made up his life story and Jennifer had believed every word. He had been so convincing that she had not even taken the trouble to have Ken Bailey check him out.

Judge Barnard said, "May I see that?"

Jennifer handed the dossier to him. The judge glanced through it and then looked at Jennifer. "Well?"

"I won't represent him."