Riven - Jerry B. Jenkins [187]
Rav looked away, and Thomas got the impression he was getting to her. “How deeply does he feel about this?” she said.
“Even with his immersion in spiritual things, this consumes him. I wish you’d talk to him.”
“I’d have to talk with Jackie first.”
“You’d actually consider it?”
“For you? Sure.”
“Now these rumors . . . ?”
“Yeah, well, we’re hearing that someone inside is leaking stuff to the press about Darby.”
“Such as?”
“Would you believe none of what you’ve told me has been a surprise? Even down to him listening to hymns in private meetings with the chaplain?”
“Oh no.”
“Who knows all this, Dad?”
“One too many, apparently. Why hasn’t anyone run with it? I haven’t seen anything on the news.”
“It won’t be long,” she said. “I think the source is shopping what he’s got. Or what she’s got. Some think it’s actually coming from someone on the warden’s staff.”
Thomas shook his head. “Heads would roll so fast in here if anyone was even suspected. I can’t imagine it.”
Ravinia shrugged. “You know best. Listen, get me something in writing saying Darby wants a meeting, and I’ll clear it with Kent.”
Even before the meeting between Rav and Brady could be arranged, Thomas suffered two setbacks that—combined with Grace’s regression—made him wonder if this new season of encouragement was over.
First Ravinia broke the news to him that the return to normalcy by having Dirk move back home had ended in chaos and set them back further than they had been before. They had apparently engaged in heated arguments, including one overheard by Summer, and Dirk was already living by himself again.
Ravinia tried to convince her father that, ironically, even after all that, neither believed the marriage was over. Yet.
“We’re going to try to cool down, reassure Summer, keep sharing custody, and take another run at this when we both feel up to it.”
So Grace had been right. It had been too soon, and they had really not had anything solid to build on.
The second trauma was that Ravinia had been right too. The Adamsville Tribune had apparently won the bidding war for inside information from one Rudy Harrington, who made enough from the sale that he was able to quit his job before being fired by Frank LeRoy.
The papers had been on the street for less than an hour before every other news agency in town and around the state, and soon the country, was running with the story. While Harrington had most of the details right, the pundits decided what it all meant, and by that evening the story hit all the tabloid news shows on TV.
Everybody from paid commentators to the man on the street had opinions about the Heiress Murderer and his finding that old-time religion.
Most called it an obvious attempt to sway the appellate court to stay his execution.
Hardly anyone believed it was sincere.
Many people of faith said they hoped it was real and that people should take a wait-and-see attitude.
It was the topic of radio and TV programs for days, though Frank LeRoy had taken action immediately. He announced that the state would file suit against former corrections officer Harrington for violating his sworn duty. He further stated that any leak traced to any current employee would result in immediate termination. And he decreed that no one within the state penitentiary besides himself and the chaplain would be available for comment on Brady Darby.
The warden’s comment:
“It does not fall to me to judge the veracity of a man’s personal beliefs. My job is to ensure that convicted criminals serve their sentences. Mr. Darby has been sentenced to death in this facility in less than two and a half years. Unless I hear otherwise from the legal system, our plan is to carry out that sentence.”
Thomas’s comment:
“No one knows the genuineness of a man’s heart except God and that man himself. I do know, however, that despite Mr. Darby’s profession of faith in Christ for salvation, he remains adamant that he will not seek any reduction, mitigation, or stay of his sentence. He insists, as he has all along, that he is guilty