Secret Hour

Chapter 1 The kitchen was quiet. The kids were trying so hard to help. Sitting at the breakfast table, his back to the cove, John O'Rourke tried to concentrate on the legal brief he'd stayed up last night finishing. Maggie buttered a piece of toast and slid it across the table. He accepted it, nodding thanks. Teddy hunched over the sports section, scowling at the scores, as if all his teams had lost. Brainer, the dog, lay under the table, growling happily as he gnawed an old tennis ball. "Dad," Maggie said. "What?" "Are you finished reading yet?" "Not quite, Mags." "Is it about Merrill?" John didn't respond at first, but his stomach twisted in a knot. He thought about his eleven-year-old daughter knowing about Greg Merrill, his all-time most time-consuming client, the Breakwater Killer, the star of Connecticut's death row and, as such, the talk of barrooms and courtrooms everywhere. John wanted people talking; it was part of his strategy. But he didn't want his daughter knowing. "It is, honey," he said, lowering the brief. "Are they going to kill him, Dad?" "I don't know, Maggie. I'm trying to make it so they don't." "But he deserves it," Teddy said. "For killing those girls." "Everyone's innocent till proven guilty," Maggie intoned. "He admits he's guilty," Teddy said, lowering the sports section. "He confessed." At fourteen, he was tall and strong. His eyes were too serious, his smile a shadow of the grin he used to flash before his mother's death. Sitting across the wide oak table, John reflected that Teddy would make a fine prosecutor. "He did," John said. "Because he did those things--murdered girls, ruined families. He deserves what's coming to him. Everyone says he does, Dad." Outside, the wind blew, and a shower of autumn leaves fell from the trees. John stared at his brief. He thought about the confession, the sentencing--to death by lethal injection--the months Greg Merrill had already spent on death row; and he thought of his current strategy--to argue before the Connecticut State Supreme Court that Merrill deserved a new sentencing hearing. "Ruined families?" Maggie asked. "Yes," Teddy said, glancing at his sister. "But don't worry, Maggie. He's in jail now. He can't hurt anyone anymore. People want to make sure it stays that way, which is why our phone rang ten times in the middle of the night--even though we have an unlisted number. You should hear what people say when we go by. They want you to stop what you're doing, Dad." "Okay, Teddy," John said softly. "But it's his job," Maggie said, her eyes filling. "Why is it his fault, our fault, that he's just doing his job?" "It's not your fault, Mags," John said, staring into her deep eyes. "Everyone in this country has rights." She didn't reply, but nodded. John took a slow breath in and out. This was his hometown, yet he felt the outrage of his friends and neighbors and strangers alike. Most of all he hated that his children were being made to suffer. The critical issue in Merrill's case had always been his mental condition at the time of the crimes; John intended to argue that Greg Merrill suffered from a mental illness that made him physically unable to control his actions. His first act upon becoming Merrill's attorney was to engage a top psychiatrist--to examine his client and aid in his defense. John's unpopular work would, he hoped, result in Merrill's being resentenced to multiple life sentences without the possibility of release. Teddy stared at his father, green eyes dark with gravity and sorrow. Maggie blinked, her blue eyes--the same shade, exRice, Luanne is the author of 'Secret Hour' with ISBN 9780553802245 and ISBN 0553802240.