Marcy sighed again and her thoughts drifted to the way he’d looked when he’d left the room, young, lonely, trying to put a brave face on it all . . . He was nineteen, for heaven’s sake—a young man, but in some ways still a boy. Moreover, this was probably the only time they’d see him; there was no reason for any more letters and why would there be any further RJ meetings? As Dan had said, they’d accomplished what they’d set out to, so there was no reason for any more contact.

“I’m not sure,” she said, “what I was expecting at the end of today, but it feels like . . . there ought to be more.”

Jasmine said, “So you don’t think we’ll visit him again?”

“I think you need to give it some time,” Andee advised. “These meetings often take a while to process . . . Hang on, it’s Dan,” and clicking on to answer her phone she said, “Hi, is everything OK?”

“Fine,” he replied, his voice clearly audible over the car’s Command system.

Marcy asked, not able to help herself, “How was Archie when you left him?”

“Pretty subdued, but I’m sure he was glad he’d managed to try to make things up to you in the end.”

“While we,” Claudia said, “are feeling bad that he did.”

“Does he believe his mother’s going to be safe from the uncle?” Jasmine asked.

“He won’t be fully on board with it until there’s been an arrest.”

Marcy said, “Is that likely to be soon?”

“Over to Andee for that. She’s the one with the police contacts,” Dan pointed out.

“I still haven’t spoken to anyone,” she reminded them, “but I will as soon as I drop you guys off.”

“And what about Marcus?” Claudia asked. “Do we know what’s going to happen with him?”

“That’s more complicated, but now Archie’s saying he thinks the orders came from him it could start an investigation. What will come of it . . . Well, I guess we’ll find out.”

After a moment Marcy said, “Wasn’t today supposed to be about forgiveness?”

“If you wanted it to be,” he answered, “although Archie made a point of not asking for it.”

“I know.”

Andee glanced at her.

“I’m realizing,” Marcy said, “that it’s easy enough to say the words, but . . . I can tell you that I don’t feel any hatred toward him now, or a need for vengeance, but as for forgiveness . . .” She only had to remind herself that he could have walked away, turned the job down . . . “Maybe I need to work out what it really means before I can be sure it’s something I’m able to offer.”

Chapter Forty-Three