If Tommorrow Comes Part 4

"Harriet, may I speak to Mr. Stanhope, please?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Whitney. He's on his way to Houston for a meeting. If you'll give me your number, I'm sure he'll telephone you as soon as he can."

"I---" There was no way she could have him telephone her at the jail. Not until she had a chance to explain things to him first.

"I--- I'll have to call Mr. Stanhope back." She slowly replaced the receiver.

Tomorrow, Tracy thought wearily. I'll explain it all to Charles tomorrow.

That afternoon Tracy was moved to a larger cell. A delicious hot dinner appeared from Galatoire's, and a short time later fresh flowers arrived with a note attached. Tracy opened the envelope and pulled out the card. CHIN UP, WE'RE GOING TO BEAT THE b.a.s.t.a.r.dS. PERRY POPE.

He came to visit Tracy the following morning. The instant she saw the smile on his face, she knew there was good news.

"We got lucky," he exclaimed. "I've just left Judge Lawrence and Topper, the district attorney. Topper screamed like a banshee, but we've got a deal."

"A deal?"

"I told Judge Lawrence your whole story. He's agreed to accept a guilty plea from you."

Tracy stared at him in shock. "A guilty plea? But I'm not---"

He raised a hand. "Hear me out. By pleading guilty, you save the state the expense of a trial. I've persuaded the judge that you didn't steal the painting. He knows Joe Romano, and he believes me."

"But... if I plead guilty," Tracy asked slowly, "what will they do to me?"

"Judge Lawrence will sentence you to three months in prison with---"

"Prison!"

"Wait a minute. He'll suspend the sentence, and you can do your probation out of the state."

"But then I'll--- I'll have a record."

Perry Pope sighed. "If they put you on trial for armed robbery and attempted murder during the commission of a felony, you could be sentenced to ten years."

Ten years in jail!

Perry Pope was patiently watching her. "It's your decision," he'said. "I can only give you my best advice. It's a miracle that I got away with this. They want an answer now. You don't have to take the deal. You can get another lawyer and---"

"No." She knew that this man was honest. Under the circ.u.mstances, considering her insane behavior, he had done everything possible for her. If only she could talk to Charles. But they needed an answer now. She was probably lucky to get off with a three-month suspended sentence.

"I'll--- I'll take the deal," Tracy said. She had to force the words out.

He nodded. "Smart girl."

She was not permitted to make any phone calls before she was returned to the courtroom. Ed Topper stood on one side of her, and Perry Pope on the other. Seated on the bench was a distinguished-looking man in his fifties, with a smooth, unlined face and thick, styled hair.

Judge Henry Lawrence said to Tracy, "The court has been informed that the defendant wishes to change her plea from not guilty to guilty. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

"Are all parties in agreement?"

Perry Pope nodded. "Yes, Your Honor."

"The state agrees, Your Honor," the district attorney said.

Judge Lawrence sat there in silence for a long moment. Then he leaned forward and looked into Tracy's eyes. "One of the reasons this great country of ours is in such pitiful shape is that the streets are crawling with vermin who think they can get away with anything. People who laugh at the law. Some judicial systems in this country coddle criminals. Well, in Louisiana, we don't believe in that. When, during the commission of a felony, someone tries to kill in cold blood, we believe that that person should be properly punished."

Tracy began to feel the first stirrings of panic. She turned to look at Perry Pope. His eyes were fixed on the judge.

"The defendant has admitted that she attempted to murder one of the outstanding citizens of this community--- a man noted for his philanthropy and good works. The defendant shot him while in the act of stealing an art object worth half a million dollars." His voice grew harsher. "Well, this court is going to see to it that you don't get to enjoy that money--- not for the next fifteen years, because for the next fifteen years you're going to be incarcerated in the Southern Louisiana Penitentiary for Women."

Tracy felt the courtroom begin to spin. Some horrible joke was being played. The judge was an actor typecast for the part, but he was reading the wrong lines. He was not supposed to say any of those things. She turned to explain that to Perry Pope, but his eyes were averted. He was juggling papers in his briefcase, and for the first time, Tracy noticed that his fingernails were bitten to the quick. Judge Lawrence had risen and was gathering up his notes. Tracy stood there, numb, unable to comprehend what was happening to her.

A bailiff stepped to Tracy's side and took her arm. "Come along," he said.

"No," Tracy cried. "No, please!" She looked up at the judge. "There's been a terrible mistake, Your Honor. I---"

And as she felt the bailiff's grip tighten on her arm, Tracy realized there had been no mistake. She had been tricked. They were going to destroy her.

Just as they had destroyed her mother.

Chapter 04.

The news of Tracy Whitney's crime and sentencing appeared on the front page of the New Orleans Courier, accompanied by a police photograph of her. The major wire services picked up the story and flashed it to correspondent newspapers around the country, and when Tracy was taken from the courtroom to await transfer to the state penitentiary, she was confronted by a crew of television reporters. She hid her face in humiliation, but there was no escape from the cameras. Joe Romano was big news, and the attempt on his life by a beautiful female burglar was even bigger news. It seemed to Tracy that she was surrounded by enemies. Charles will get me out, she kept repeating to herself. Oh, please, G.o.d, let Charles get me out. I can't have our baby born in prison.

It was not until the following afternoon that the desk sergeant would permit Tracy to use the telephone. Harriet answered. "Mr. Stanhope's office."

"Harriet, this is Tracy Whitney. I'd like to speak to Mr. Stanhope."

"Just a moment, Miss Whitney." She heard the hesitation in the secretary's voice. "I'll--- I'll see if Mr. Stanhope is in."

After a long, harrowing wait, Tracy finally heard Charles's voice. She could have wept with relief. "Charles---"

"Tracy? Is that you, Tracy?"

"Yes, darling. Oh, Charles, I've been trying to reach---"

"I've been going crazy, Tracy! The newspapers here are full of wild stories about you. I can't believe what they're saying."

"None of it is true, darling. None of it. I---"

"Why didn't you call me?"

"I tried. I couldn't reach you. I---"

"Where are you now?"

"I'm--- I'm in a jail in New Orleans. Charles, they're going to send me to prison for something I didn't do." To her horror, she was weeping.

"Hold on. Listen to me. The papers say that you shot a man. That's not true, is it?"

"I did shoot him, but---"

"Then it is true."

"It's not the way it sounds, darling. It's not like that at all. I can explain everything to you. I---"

"Tracy, did you plead guilty to attempted murder and stealing a painting?"

"Yes, Charles, but only because---"

"My G.o.d, if you needed money that badly, you should have discussed it with me.... And trying to kill someone.... I can't believe this. Neither can my parents. You're the headline in this morning's Philadelphia Daily News. This is the first time a breath of scandal has ever touched the Stanhope family."

It was the bitter self-control of Charles's voice that made Tracy aware of the depth of his feelings. She had counted on him so desperately, and he was on their side. She forced herself not to scream. "Darling, I need you. Please come down here. You can straighten all this out."

There was a long silence. "It doesn't sound like there's much to straighten out. Not if you've confessed to doing all those things. The family can't afford to get mixed up in a thing like this. Surely you can see that. This has been a terrible shock for us. Obviously, I never really knew you."

Each word was a hammerblow. The world was falling in on her. She felt more alone than she had ever felt in her life. There was no one to turn to now, no one. "What--- what about the baby?"

"You'll have to do whatever you think best with your baby," Charles said. "I'm sorry, Tracy." And the connection was broken.

She stood there holding the dead receiver in her hand.

A prisoner behind her said, "if you're through with the phone, honey, I'd like to call my lawyer."

When Tracy was returned to her cell, the matron had instructions for her. "Be ready to leave in the morning. You'll be picked up at five o'clock."

She had a visitor. Otto Schmidt seemed to have aged years during the few hours since Tracy had last seen him. He looked ill.

"I just came to tell you how sorry my wife and I are. We know whatever happened wasn't your fault."

If only Charles had said that!

"The wife and I will be at Mrs. Doris's funeral tomorrow."

"Thank you, Otto."

They're going to bury both of us tomorrow, Tracy thought miserably.

She spent the night wide awake, lying on her narrow prison bunk, staring at the ceiling. In her mind she replayed the conversation with Charles again and again. He had never even given her a chance to explain.

She had to think of the baby. She had read of women having babies in prison, but the stories had been so remote from her own life that it was as though she were reading about people from another planet. Now it was happening to her. You'll have to do whatever you think best with your baby, Charles had said. She wanted to have her baby. And yet, she thought, they won't let me keep it. They'll take it away from me because I'm going to be in prison for the next fifteen years. It's better that it never knows about its mother.

She wept.

At 5:00 in the morning a male guard, accompanied by a matron, entered Tracy's cell. "Tracy Whitney?"

"Yes." She was surprised at how odd her voice sounded.

"By order of the Criminal Court of the State of Louisiana, Orleans Parish, you are forthwith being transferred to the Southern Louisiana Penitentiary for Women. Let's move it, babe."

She was walked down a long corridor, past cells filled with inmates. There was a series of catcalls.

"Have a good trip, honey...."

"You tell me where you got that paintin' hidden, Tracy, baby, and I'll split the money with you..."

"If you're headin' for the big house, ask for Ernestine Littlechap. She'll take real good care of you...."

Tracy pa.s.sed the telephone where she had made her call to Charles. Good-bye, Charles.

She was outside in a courtyard. A yellow prison bus with barred windows stood there, its engine idling. Half a dozen women already were seated in the bus, watched over by two armed guards. Tracy looked at the faces of her fellow pa.s.sengers. One was defiant, and another bored; others wore expressions of despair. The lives they had lived were about to come to an end. They were outcasts, headed for cages where they would be locked up like animals. Tracy wondered what crimes they had committed and whether any of them was as innocent as she was, and she wondered what they saw in her face.

The ride on the prison bus was interminable, the bus hot and smelly, but Tracy was unaware of it. She had withdrawn into herself, no longer conscious of the other pa.s.sengers or of the lush green countryside the bus pa.s.sed through. She was in another time, in another place.

She was a little girl at the sh.o.r.e with her mother and father, and her father was carrying her into the ocean on his shoulders, and when she cried out her father said, Don't be a baby, Tracy, and he dropped her into the cold water. When the water closed over her head, she panicked and began to choke, and her father lifted her up and did it again, and from that moment on she had been terrified of the water....

The college auditorium was filled with students and their parents and relatives. She was cla.s.s valedictorian. She spoke for fifteen minutes, and her speech was filled with soaring idealism, clever references to the past, and s.h.i.+ning dreams for the future. The dean had presented her with a Phi Beta Kappa key. l want you to keep it, Tracy told her mother, and the pride on her mother's face was beautiful....

I'm going to Philadelphia, Mother. I have a job at a bank there.

Annie Mahler, her best friend, was calling her. You'll love Philadelphia, Tracy. It's full of all kinds of cultural things. It has beautiful scenery and a shortage of women. I mean, the men here are really hungry! I can get you a job at the bank where I work....

Charles was making love to her. She watched the moving shadows on the ceiling and thought, How many girls would like to be in my place? Charles was a prime catch. And she was instantly ashamed of the thought. She loved him. She could feel him inside her, beginning to thrust harder, faster and faster, on the verge of exploding, and he gasped out, Are you ready? And she lied and said yes. Was it wonderful for you? Yes, Charles. And she thought, Is that all there is? And the guilt again....

"You! I'm talkin' to you. Are you deaf for Christ's sake? Let's go."