Like his war years, I think bitterly. When my dad shuts the door on something, it stays shut.

“Are you going to tell Jenny this?” Mom asks, the worry in her voice making her sound more like her old self than anything she’s said since I came in. “There’s really nothing to be gained by making her think about any of it.”

In my mind I see my sister shivering in the waiting room. I don’t know whether Mom is right or wrong, but I don’t want her to worry about it now. “I’m going to tell Jenny you slept through her calls. That you took a Lorcet Plus.”

Mom nods slowly, her eyes filled with gratitude. At least in Jenny’s eyes, she thinks, her image as a perfect mother will remain intact. “I’m sorry you had to go through this in the dark,” she says. “But you always were the strong one.”

“My mother’s son, right?”

A faint, proud smile touches her lips. She never was very quick at picking up irony. “Where are you going now?” she asks. “Are you going to see your father?”

“I don’t see that I have a choice.”

“Good.” A bell dings out in the hall. “Remember what I said. Family. It’s all that matters.”

I kiss her forehead, then leave her bedside. But at the door I turn back. “Mom, you asked me why Dad changed his plea. Now I’m asking you. Is he still trying to protect you? Because I think you’re safe now.”

She looks at me over the little hump of her sheet-covered feet. “None of us is safe so long as Snake Knox is free. But that’s not why Tom pleaded guilty.”

“Then why did he do it? Guilt over Caitlin? Walt? Henry?”

“Tom did it because he chose us over Viola. He lived up to his vows and fulfilled his duty. He did what good men do. Good fathers. But Viola paid the price for his honor. A terrible price. And . . . he couldn’t live with that anymore. That’s why he put himself in prison.”

I can’t look long at the pain now revealed in my mother’s eyes.

“I’ll be back to see you later,” I tell her. “Try to get some sleep. There’ll be a guard covering you at all times.”

“Don’t be too hard on your father, Penn.”

“I’ll see you later. Try to sleep.”

And then I go.

Chapter 73