Cracks in the Sidewalk(54)

Once he was sworn in, JT looked at Noreen.

“While your wife Elizabeth was in the hospital,” Noreen asked, “did you bring the children to see their mother?”

“Of course,” JT answered. “We all visited Elizabeth in the hospital. I brought the kids to see Christian in the nursery a few days after he was born.”

“When was the last time you took the children to see your wife?”

Jeffrey gave a deep sigh. “Almost ten months ago. I took David and Kimberly to visit their mom in October of nineteen-eighty-four. I’m pretty certain it was October, because in November Elizabeth suffered a pulmonary embolism and she was in the Intensive Care Unit for quite some time.”

“Did you bring the children to see her while she was in Intensive Care?”

“No. Children aren’t allowed in Intensive Care.”

“During that time did you visit Elizabeth?”

“I wanted to.” JT conjured up another sigh, this one deeper than the first. “But unfortunately, with caring for the children, I didn’t have much free time.”

“We’ve heard testimony that your motherin-law volunteered to watch the children for you. Why didn’t you take her up on that offer?”

“Because I felt it wasn’t in the best interest of my children.”

“Why is that?”

“Claire McDermott has a violent temper. She’s the kind of person who without provocation takes a sledgehammer to your door. And she bad-mouths me to my kids. Neither she nor my father-in-law have one nice thing to say about me. They say I’ve turned my back on Elizabeth because I’ve accepted that she’s dying. But what else can I do? I’ve got a responsibility to my kids. We have to move on with our life. We’ve got to keep living, because if we don’t we’ll be buried alongside Liz.”

“Jeffrey, you mentioned that the McDermotts have a negative opinion of you. Is that a guess, or have they actually told you?”

“It’s a fact. When I asked for a loan,” JT said, his voice crackling with fragments of anger, “Charlie McDermott not only refused to help, he said flat out that I was a failure. He told me I shouldn’t even be in retailing.”

“At the time you asked for that loan weren’t you in danger of losing Caruthers Couture, the store which was your family’s sole source of income?”

JT cast a vengeful eye across the room to the plaintiff’s table. “Yes.”

“And did you ultimately lose Caruthers Couture?” Noreen asked.

“Yes,” JT repeated with increasing bitterness. “It went belly-up, because I couldn’t meet the financial obligations.”

“So what income have you and your children lived on since the store closed?”

“None. We’ve survived on what little money I had left in the bank and some personal possessions I’ve been able to sell.”

“Those personal possessions,” Noreen prodded, “did they include the jewelry that your wife, Elizabeth, has asked to have returned?”

“Yes. Her engagement ring was a two-karat diamond. I figured it was more important for me to provide for our children than for Liz to be buried with that ring on her finger.” Wistfully he added, “I had hoped she would understand.”

“Did you ever discuss your financial situation with Elizabeth and ask for her assistance?”

“Yes. When her father refused to help out, I suggested that we get a second mortgage to tide us over until I could get situated in some new business. She wouldn’t sign the papers.”

“She knew that you and the children had no money to live on and still refused to sign the papers?”

“Yeah,” JT said with an air of disgust. “She knew, her whole family knew.”

“Did it make you angry when Elizabeth and her parents not only refused to help but refused to acknowledge your predicament?”

“Sure it made me angry, I’m only human.”

“Is that anger why you finally decided not to allow the children to see Elizabeth or her parents?”

“Of course not,” JT answered indignantly. “I decided that the children shouldn’t be around Liz for their own good.”

“What prompted you to come to that decision?”

JT raised his hand to his chin and sat like he was deep in thought for almost a full minute.

“It wasn’t a sudden decision,” he finally said. “It was just a bad situation that eventually decided itself. Liz got so much worse, and I could tell it was painful for the kids to see her that way. Then in December she had an incident where she forgot about being paralyzed and took an ugly fall in the hospital. Claire was upset and called and said I ought to get over there. She said the IV had been torn loose from Liz’s arm, and there was blood all over the room.”

“Did you go?”

“I couldn’t. There was nobody to stay with the children, and I certainly wasn’t going to let them see their mother like that.”

“Is that when you decided it would be better for the children not to see Elizabeth anymore?”

“I suppose so. They hadn’t seen her since October and they weren’t asking to go.” JT gave a forced chuckle. “You know kids, out of sight, out of mind. Anyway, I figured for the time being it would be better for them not to go, I didn’t want to have them walk in on something horrible like what had just happened.”