Free The Price of Justice by Marti Green Page B

people who were at the dance that night. Pore over the police records.” She stopped, then smiled. “They want corroboration? Let’s find it for them.”
    Now, Tommy’s frown disappeared. They were about to embark on what Dani knew Tommy loved most about his job. “When do we leave?”
    Dani leafed through her appointment calendar. “Two days. Clear up what you can tomorrow, then we’ll head to Florida.”

    “How long do you expect you’ll be away?” Doug asked.
    It was “honeymoon hour,” and Dani had filled Doug in on the denial of her motion for a new trial. As always, she was snuggled next to him on their worn-down couch. The nights were starting to get cooler, but not cold enough yet to turn on the heat. A throw blanket covered her up to her chin. “Don’t know. Could be just a few days if we can’t find anyone. It’s been seven years since the murder. Or it could be a week or two.”
    “But you’ll be back on Saturday, right?”
    “Maybe. I just don’t know yet.”
    Doug pushed Dani off his chest and sat upright. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten?”
    Dani looked at him blankly, and then it hit her. “Oh, no! Jonah’s symphony!”
    The Westchester Philharmonic was performing his symphony on Saturday evening. Dani’d had the date marked in her calendar for many months. How could she have forgotten it? Once again, an onslaught of guilt washed over her, a feeling that she’d often had to push away since she’d returned to work six years ago.
    “No matter what, I’ll be here for it. Even if I just come home for the concert, then go back again.”
    Doug nodded. “Good. It’s important to Jonah.”
    Dani looked over at Doug. How easy it is for you. Maybe for most men. You go off to work and leave your child with someone else, and never give a thought to whether you should be home. Dani could feel her resentment build, then stopped. Doug was as shackled by society’s expectation that men earn a living as she was by women’s prescribed role as the one responsible for child care. Both expectations were unfair. She leaned back down into Doug’s chest, and he wrapped his arms around her.
    Dani thought back to her own childhood. Both her parents had worked. She came home from school each day to Jenny, her nanny from the time she was a toddler. Even though her mother didn’t greet her when she stepped off the school bus, Dani returned each day from school happy to be enveloped in Jenny’s warm embrace. She never harbored any doubts that her mother loved her dearly, never felt that her mother cared more about her job than her daughter. Yet, despite her own happy remembrances of childhood, she couldn’t shake the feeling when she returned to work that she’d be shortchanging Jonah. Fortunately, as the years passed and he grew older, that feeling had mostly disappeared, only returning occasionally. Forgetting about Jonah’s upcoming symphony once more triggered her self-recriminations.
    “You’re feeling guilty again, aren’t you?” Doug said, always seemingly able to read her mind.
    Dani nodded.
    “I don’t suppose anything I say will ease your mind.”
    She shook her head. He had reassured her over and over, and her intellect said he was right. If only her emotions followed suit.

    It was close to midnight when Dani stepped out of her home office and headed to bed. Doug had long since turned in, but she needed to wrap up some work before she flew to Florida the next morning. She poked her head into Jonah’s room and saw that he was sleeping soundly. When he slept, curled up with his blanket wrapped around him, he almost looked like any other child. But his pixie-like facial features marked him as a Williams-syndrome child. She marveled at how big he’d grown. The time seemed to have flown by, as though he’d been caught in a whirlwind that sped up his growth from infant to toddler to adolescent. She’d worried so much when he was little. Worried about the medical problems he might