And let me just say, his indecision was gone. GONE.

“Look, I get maybe she has regrets. But she gave Sasha up. That is a decision she has to live with. She might take him back and then want to give him up again in a month like she did with her first kid. We know nothing about her, her life, her circumstance, her mentality. You said she was well dressed. Well, if she can afford a fur hat, she can afford a lawyer. She’s skulking around the orphanage like a criminal, making accusations against the orphanage and the staff, and they’ve been nothing but fair with us. There’s a process and she’s failed it, more than once.” I just stared at my husband, my mild-mannered man, full of fire for his son. “If she can be reassured that this is the right decision, then that’s what we need to do. But not adopting this child isn’t an option. We’ve spent all the time, all this money, and we love him. He’s part of us now, and we’re not just giving him up because she changed her mind.”

I had never heard your father talk like this before. Usually I’m the talker. I took his hand.

“This could be what’s best for her as well,” Kyle said. I wanted to believe that.

“We’ll go see the father?” I asked.

He nodded. “Before the hearing. I’ll even stand over his desk while he makes the phone call to her.”

We just had to get through the next twenty-four hours and our lives would be wonderful.

43

Excerpt of Transcript of TCSO and LPD Interview with Kyle Pollitt

(Interview continues)

Detective Ponder: And by cooperate you mean what?

Pollitt: I will confess to killing Danielle Roberts. But it was an accident, not on purpose.

Detective Ponder: OK, we’re listening. Tell us what happened.

Pollitt: We were having an affair. The phones were to stay in touch. So Mike and Iris would not know.

Detective Ponder: How long had the affair been going on?

Pollitt: Only a couple of weeks. She approached me about it. I shouldn’t have done it, but things haven’t been great between me and Iris lately. It was obviously a mistake.

Detective Ponder: Where would you meet?

(Pause)

Pollitt: Her house. When Ned was at school.

Detective Ponder: What, you’d just walk over to her house? Isn’t your wife a stay-at-home mom?

Pollitt: Yes, but she has a lot of volunteer duties. She’s gone most of the day.

Detective Ponder: OK. Did you ever go to a hotel?

(Pause)

Pollitt: No.

Detective Ponder: And how many times a week did you see each other?

Pollitt: It had only gone on since she gave me the phone. Maybe we’d seen each other twice.

Detective Ponder: Twice? You don’t know?

Pollitt: Twice.

Detective Ponder: Tell me about the night she died.