Promise Me Eternity (43 page)

Chapter 94

_______________________

At six o’clock in the morning Dr. Miner was
woken by a rattling noise. He opened his eyes in fright, wondering
what it could be. Remembering Caroline, his heart skipped a
beat.

He greeted her in the kitchen, which smelled
of grilled bacon and freshly made coffee.

“Good morning, Dr. Miner. It’s time we went
to work.”

She was dressed in her uniform. Embarrassed,
Robert Miner straightened his pajamas.

She clapped her hands together. “To the
bathroom, quick! Don’t stand there like a statue.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said as he came
to.

When he got back from the bathroom, she
inspected him. “I thought so. Men don’t know how to shave. You’ll
have to do the left side again.”

“Am I in the Army or something?” Dr. Miner
joked.

“I don’t really care. If you want, you can go
to work unshaven.”

“No, no, of course. I’ll go back to the
bathroom. Thanks for mentioning it.”

He didn’t tell her he had shaven badly
because his hand was shaking. Caroline had unsettled him. He wanted
her like he’d wanted no other woman, but at the same time she
intimidated him. He could never conquer her, he told himself; she
was so much stronger than him.

She apologized to Dr. Miner later that
afternoon when they met up. “I’m sorry about this morning. I
shouldn’t have stuck my nose into your business.”

“Oh, Caroline, it doesn’t matter. I really
had shaven badly and I’m thankful you told me. My wife used to tell
me about things like that when necessary.” He made the last bit
up.

She replied, “I need to go home and change
into some fresh clothes. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, of course not. Tell me where to take
you.”

She showed him the way as they drove along.
When they arrived, she invited him up. “I can show you my apartment
if you want.”

“Yes, of course. I
’
d love to see where you live.”

The tall building was old and gray plaster
was peeling off parts of the façade like bark off a tree. The
hallways were dirty and needed painting, the wooden staircase
creaked with every step. Following her, Dr. Miner made a face.

Caroline said, “Don’t be surprised, it’s a
mess.”

In her modestly furnished two-room apartment,
everything was in its place. It reminded him of a military room,
with plain furniture and no unnecessary clutter. It didn’t look
untidy to him.

While waiting for her to get ready, he
noticed some heavy weights on the balcony.
Going to the gym
isn’t enough, she has to work out at home too. God, I like
her.

When they went out to dinner, Dr. Miner was
astonished by the amount of food Caroline managed to put away. He
didn’t finish even half of his.

“If I want my muscle mass to increase, I need
to eat well,” she explained. “I run every day so that the fat
doesn’t start building around my stomach. That way I get to keep
the muscle and get rid of the fat.”

After dinner, he presented her with a gold
brooch he had brought from home.

She was surprised and pleased at the same
time. “You really shouldn’t have. I’m just doing my job.”

“Nothing but a little gift to show my
gratitude to you for sacrificing your free time to help me,” he
said. He was disappointed by her remark, ‘I’m just doing my job,’
hoping it wasn’t true and that she liked him at least a little.

“The dinner was wonderful,” Caroline said.
“Of course, for that kind of money, I couldn’t afford it.”

Again he told her the story about how he and
his wife often ate out. Caroline smiled at him the entire time.

Then they went to his home and, in the living
room, talked late into the night. Dr. Miner didn’t pluck up the
courage to get any closer to her. They each fell asleep in their
own bed.

Chapter 95

_______________________

The next day, Dr. Anita Carter was the first
to take the witness stand. She had put on an extremely elegant gray
outfit because she knew a lot of people would be watching the
trial. To the question of where she knew Dr. Patterson from, she
answered that they had been colleagues for quite a number of
years.

The prosecutor asked her if Dr. Patterson was
a good surgeon. She shook her head and cited the case where the
patient had almost died because he was allergic to iodine.

Dr. Patterson turned around angrily and
searched for Jerry. If he, too, testified against him, then ….
Simon couldn’t see Jerry Duncan in the crowd.

The prosecutor and Anita Carter talked for
the next twenty minutes before they achieved what they wanted. The
jury and the public got the feeling that Dr. Patterson was a
careless surgeon who should have had his license taken from him
years ago.

Then Dr. Brad Horras appeared, saying that
Dr. Patterson had asked him many times if he could change his
position.

“Dr. Patterson wanted to become a researcher.
Of course, I wasn’t able to satisfy his request because we needed
him as a neurosurgeon. Once he also said, ‘I guess I’ll have to let
someone die. Maybe that will help you change your mind.’ I know he
didn’t mean it, but I got scared anyhow.”

At that, there was a lot of muttering in the
courtroom.

The defense called on Edna Weiss, to talk in
Dr. Patterson’s favor. She introduced herself and said that she had
been cleaning his house for several years. She said Helen was a
very difficult woman, obsessed with money. Then she added that Dr.
Patterson was an extremely kind person who never raised his voice
to his wife. Finally, she said she was sure that Dr. Patterson
wasn’t a murderer and that it must have been someone else.

Simon looked at her with tears in his eyes
and was glad that at least one person didn’t testify against him.
Where are all my friends?
he asked himself.
Why isn’t
there anyone and why am I all alone? Where are all those people
that I have saved? Why doesn’t someone come and say how grateful
they are?

When, after two days, they called Simon
Patterson to the witness stand, he looked very unwell. Because of
the sleepless nights he had bags under his eyes, his face was
strained, and touches of gray had appeared on his temples. Of
course he denied all the charges. He told the truth: that he had
not killed his wife, that he loved her, and didn’t know how he
would live without her. In spite of the tears that ran down his
face, he knew that no one in the courtroom believed him. He poured
out his heart anyway. He also mentioned the argument at the
neighbors’.

“It’s true that my wife and I had an argument
every once in a while. And it’s also true that I said I’d like to
cut her throat back then, but I didn’t mean it.” Then he talked
about his work, mentioning he did his job with the greatest amount
of commitment.

“I confess that I didn’t check whether that
patient was allergic to iodine. It was a mistake for which I’m
deeply sorry. But that was the only case in which I endangered a
patient’s life.”

Finally, he repeated that he didn’t kill his
wife and believed that the murderer was still out there somewhere.
As he was leaving the stand, the courtroom became quiet. He didn’t
dare look left or right because he felt sick and was scared he
wouldn’t even make it to his chair.

A week later, the courtroom was full to
overflowing. A few million people were in front of their TV sets at
home, waiting to hear the court’s verdict. Ever since Helen’s
murder, Simon Patterson had been the main topic of debate in many
bars, homes, and elsewhere. Everyone was horrified by the fact that
such a highly educated and well-mannered man could murder his wife
in such a terrible way. It was worse than if the crime had been
committed by an uneducated alcoholic.

Some thought he should get the death
sentence, some had already sentenced him to life imprisonment,
while others maintained that he wouldn’t get more than ten years in
jail. Now the day had finally come and Judge Josepha Alford would
read the verdict.

“The jury has made its decision,” she stated.
“Dr. Simon Patterson is found guilty of second degree murder. The
Medford District Court thus sentences him to twenty years’
imprisonment. An appeal can be lodged …”

He felt like a sharp blade had sliced him in
half.
Twenty years in prison
, he repeated to himself. He
turned to his lawyer, who was already tidying away his papers.
Returning his look, the lawyer shrugged his shoulders.

Then Dr. Patterson turned toward the public
benches, where people were looking at him in disgust and some of
them were shouting loudly. Most were disappointed with the verdict
and they showed it. They’d expected a harsher punishment. One of
them even dragged his finger across his throat and pointed at
Simon, indicating what sentence would be suitable for him. Luckily,
two policemen came to take Dr. Patterson away. His eyes searched
the crowd one last time, thinking that Christine could be sitting
there, but she wasn’t.
Let her go to hell!

Chapter 96

_______________________

The prison cell was no bigger than six by
eight feet. This was the third cell they had moved him to. They
kept transferring prisoners as if they didn’t want any
relationships to form between them. Simon Patterson had the
privilege of not sharing his cell with anyone. All those charged
with murder were in smaller cells, but alone. There were three or
four men squashed into some of the other cells.

Nine months had passed since they had locked
him up and taken away his freedom. At first it was terrible. He
couldn’t accept that it had actually happened. The more he thought
about it, the more depressed he got. The prison doctor prescribed
antidepressants and tranquilizers.

He needed some months to start adjusting to
life in prison. He stopped taking the pills and started to live
from day to day, scared and shocked by his fate.

The fact that some of the other prisoners
bullied him made his life even harder. They’d noticed that he was
quiet and withdrawn, and that’s why he got on their nerves. Some
cursed loudly when he passed, others whistled, some were mean
enough to bump into him and then pretend it was an accident. But it
wasn’t; they were only trying to provoke him to show his killer
side. Of course, they never succeeded.

Nine months later, there was an accident.
While they were working in the laundry, two of the prisoners got
into a fight and one of them got hit on the head with an iron. The
guards quickly called the doctor, but he wasn’t in yet because he’d
had a bad night.

Simon went up to the victim and checked him
out. “He has a fractured skull,” Simon called out, “he needs
immediate medical attention.”

The guards looked at each other, not knowing
what to do. “It’s better that he helps him rather than no one at
all. The prison doctor is obviously not going to be here quickly,”
one of them said, and Simon went to work.

Thanks to his intervention, the victim
survived. From that day on, Simon was left alone. They stopped
bullying him and even started to show him some respect.

One prisoner had a heart attack and again
Simon was the one to give him first aid. The prison doctor arrived
after twenty minutes, at the end of his break.

Since Simon was so polite and always prepared
to help, he gained a good reputation among the guards. None of them
treated him with disrespect or rudeness. Even though they all knew
he was in for murder, they thought that his wife must have deserved
it and were sure that he wasn’t that dangerous. This was very
important, as the guards were the ones that decided who did what
work. The troublesome prisoners had to clean toilets. They were
given a small cloth and no cleaning solution, so they basically had
to scrub the inside of the toilet with bare hands. Others had to
clean the cells. They had to scrub the floor with rough brushes. It
was humiliating work, for the guards would whistle and joke about
how good it was to have a woman in the house. Simon had only been
on toilet-cleaning duty once, a few days after his arrival. After
that, he never had to do any disgusting jobs. He was always
well-behaved and never caused problems. He mostly worked in the
laundry, pressing sheets.

The prisoners worked ten hours a day. After
work, they had some free time. Some of them took a walk in the
yard, some worked out in the small gym, while others sat and
talked. Very few of them spent time in the library, which was
surprisingly well-stocked. And that’s where Simon preferred to
spend his free time. He read books which he had never read before
because of his obsession with his laboratory work. He could also
read the daily newspaper. That kept him in touch with what was
going on outside.

That’s how he became friendly with one of the
guards, called Paul Tuttle. He was an older guy who could hardly
wait to retire. He was nearly always on library duty because of his
age, which had slowed him down. The third time Simon was there,
they started chatting. Tuttle was extremely interested in why Simon
had killed his wife. Simon didn’t know what to reply, so he said
that she’d gotten on his nerves.

“My wife gets on my nerves as well,” Tuttle
answered calmly.

Simon was astonished.

“She keeps bugging me and nothing I do is OK.
You won’t believe this, but I’ve often thought of doing the exact
same thing as you did. Of course, I’d be a lot more careful. I
wouldn’t let them catch me.”