Taking over him, Dan said, “As with a lot of criticism of juries it’s coming from quarters, mostly newspapers, who were not in court and so didn’t have all the facts in front of them. The jury did.”

“So, you object to headlines such as ‘All You Have to Say Is Sorry’ and ‘Forgive Me But What Is Our Justice System Coming To’?”

“Actually, in a way I don’t object to them, because it gets the conversation going about restorative justice. What I do have a problem with is their failure to point out how beneficial it can be for the victims of crime, even crimes of this severity. It isn’t our aim to help anyone avoid whatever punishment a court decides they deserve—in most cases we don’t get to see the offender until the trial has already happened, sentence served, and he or she is about to be released back into the community. In Marcy’s and Archie’s case we came in much earlier.”

“And we could ask,” Richie continued, “what’s wrong with leniency when it’s deserved? I think you’ll agree, the judge was lenient?”

“Not everything has to follow the absolute letter of the law,” Dan responded, “and sometimes justice and humanity are better served when it doesn’t.”

Nodding agreement with that, Richie said, “I know Marcy is reluctant to do interviews, but can you tell us how she is, and if she’s still OK with the verdict—and suspended sentence?”

With a smile, Dan said, “She’s doing very well, thank you, and she certainly hasn’t changed her views on the way things ended in court.”

“Do you ever see her now, Archie?”

“Sometimes,” he replied.

“But no more letters?”

Wryly he said, “Not so far, anyway.”

Richie laughed, turned a page in his notes, and moved them on. “So tell us what’s happening in your life now. I hear that since your release you’ve received almost as much fan mail as Dan has RJ applications?”

While Dan appeared amused by this, Archie was noticeably less so. “That’s just stuff,” he responded, shrugging it off irritably. “It doesn’t mean anything.” Claudia was aware that he genuinely disliked the letters he received from girls—and women—offering to rehabilitate him, or give him opportunities like he’d never had before, or even to marry him, if he was interested. It took all sorts, and they were beginning to find out that there were many more sorts out there than they’d realized.

“OK. So, what are you actually doing with yourself?” Richie asked chattily, as if he didn’t know.