Prodigal Son

by Danielle Steel

  “The witness is excused,” the defense attorney said, and sat down next to Michael. He had expected her to be a basket case, from what Michael had told him. He said she would collapse on the witness stand, but she had been strong, intelligent, and coherent. She had destroyed their case more than any other witness. The district attorney was practically dancing when she came off the stand. And as she walked by him, she couldn’t resist looking at Michael this time. She had to. Her eyes searched his face, and he looked right through her, as though he hadn’t seen her, and had never known her. She felt as though a gust of freezing air had hit her face, and then she walked past him. His eyes were the most terrifying she had ever seen. The mask was off. He was everything Peter had said and Bill had feared.

  On the final day of testimony, his attorney put Michael on the stand. He looked gentle and pleasant as he took the oath and sat down. He had his doctor face on, the one that had won him the title of saint in three counties for twenty years.

  His attorney walked him through many of the same questions, about his career, his training, the fact that he’d been an anesthesiologist in Boston, and gave it up to join his father in his practice. The attorney asked about their marriage, Maggie’s accident before that, and her health subsequently. Maggie had stayed in the courtroom to hear him and was sitting between Bill and Peter. And then the attorney asked him about Maggie’s alleged affair with Peter.

  “She had an affair with my brother when she was fifteen” was Michael’s answer to the question.

  “How do you know that?”

  “He told me. We laughed about it. She was the school slut in those days.” People in the courtroom looked uncomfortable as he said it, and Maggie felt sick. He was destroying her reputation for the hell of it, as a final act of vengeance, and for testifying against him.

  “Did she have an affair with him again later, after you were married?”

  “Yes, she did. I believe our first child was his.” He said it with a wounded look.

  “Did she admit it to you?”

  “No, she didn’t. And I didn’t really want to know.”

  The district attorney stood up and objected then.

  “Your honor, do we have to go through this again, about Mrs. McDowell’s dating history at fifteen?”

  “It’s about the witness’s credibility, your honor,” the defense attorney insisted.

  “Sustained,” the judge said, looking annoyed. “Move on, counselor. We’re dealing with more important matters here than who Mrs. McDowell slept with, or didn’t, at fifteen.”

  He asked Michael about the medications he administered to her, and why he gave her tranquilizers and sleeping pills for many years.

  “I had no choice. She suffered from severe psychiatric problems, even before I met her, and certainly after we were married. Much of the time, she was too frightened to leave our room, or she became violent. I had to sedate her. I didn’t want to commit her to a psychiatric facility,” he said, looking mournful. Maggie was sitting rigid in her chair next to Peter, shaking with rage, and Peter gave her a calming look. He could only imagine what she was feeling. It was Michael’s last hurrah to hurt her, and he was having a field day with it. Maggie was afraid the jury would believe it.

  “Did you ever put weed killer in your wife’s food, or anything else she ingested?”

  “Of course not. I’m a doctor. I’m under an oath to do no harm,” he said, looking virtuous and benign.

  “Did your wife ever contact you after you were arrested? Write to you? Ask you to see her?”

  “Never. I tried to contact her several times, but she wouldn’t speak to me, or answer. I never received a single letter from her. I wanted to explain to her that it was all lies and I was being falsely accused, of all these charges.” He glanced innocently at the jury as he said it.

  “Do you know why she wouldn’t speak to you?” his attorney asked him, as though he couldn’t imagine a single reason.

  “She was already sleeping with my brother, and had been for some time.”

  “Do you know that for a fact?”

  “I was told by several people, even my own children. He lost all his money in the stock market crash, and I believe he came back to Ware to get hers. She’s been obsessed with him all her life, and he knows that. He was taking advantage of her, and I believe he convinced her and my son to frame me.”

  “Do you have any proof of that, Mr. McDowell?”

  “I don’t, but I know her. She’s a weak person, and very frightened, with deep psychiatric problems. She’s easy prey for a man like my brother.”

  “Was she easy prey for you?”

  “She was never my prey. I loved her,” he said nobly.

  After Michael’s testimony, the district attorney asked Michael several more questions, and destroyed the credibility of almost everything he had said. But Maggie felt like she’d been dragged by the hair naked all over the courtroom. The defense asked him several questions about the geriatric patients, and even his own parents. And then finally, the defense rested. And both the DA and Michael’s attorney made closing arguments. Both were eloquent and forceful. And after that the jury was instructed by the judge, and led out of the courtroom to begin their deliberations.

  Michael was about to be returned into custody when he turned to where Maggie was sitting with their son and Peter.

  “You were nothing!” he shouted at her. “You meant nothing to me! You never did! I felt sorry for you. You were pathetic,” he said venomously, and then the deputies almost dragged him from the courtroom. And before they could, he turned to Peter, his eyes blazing at him. “You, with your high and mighty Wall Street life, while I stayed in this backwater to take care of our parents. I had as much right to that life as you did. I wanted to get out of here too, and be someone, but I stuck around and took care of them. You didn’t!” he shouted at him. It had been all about jealousy and money and the life he’d wished he had. Maggie was shaking when Jack Nelson led her out of the courtroom, as the deputies dragged Michael away, still shouting at them. Jack took them back into their private room. Maggie looked like she was about to faint, as Peter stood near her.

  “Listen to me,” Peter said firmly, holding her arm to get her attention. “He’s a very sick man. He’s a murderer. What he says means nothing. He lies through his teeth.” She nodded then, and sat down in a chair, fighting back tears. She had wasted twenty-three years of her life with him, and he had nearly killed her. And he had just told her that he never loved her. It wasn’t even a crime of passion of some kind, it was cold-blooded attempted murder.

  Jack Nelson left them alone after that, while the jury deliberated. The three of them were silent for a long time, and then Bill turned to Peter.

  “Can I ask you something?” Peter could guess what it was.

  “Sure,” Peter said quietly. Maggie had started to get back a little color in her face.

  “Am I your son?” Bill looked from Peter to his mother for confirmation, and they both shook their heads.

  “I’m sorry to say you’re not,” Peter said kindly. “I wish you were. I’d be proud to be your father, and I wouldn’t keep it a secret if I were.”

  “Shit!” Bill said with feeling, and all three of them laughed. “That would be the only piece of good news in this whole thing.”

  “Well, you can say you’re my son anytime you want. Speaking of which,” he turned to Maggie, “as often as we supposedly got laid, I’m damn sorry I missed it.” Maggie smiled and then finally laughed at that too.

  “I loved being called the school slut,” she said miserably.

  “You can’t listen to anything he says. He just wanted to hurt you,” Peter said, and she nodded, and slipped her hand into his. It was easy to figure out that Michael had not only lied to everyone else, he had lied to his attorney, who had believed him.

  An hour later, the district attorney came back to their conference room and told them that they might as well go home. The jury could be out for
days and probably would be.

  “We’ll call you at home when they come back in.”

  Jack Nelson helped them out of the courthouse and past the reporters. He sent them home in a squad car again, as he had every day, and he patted Maggie’s shoulder as she got in. He felt sorry for everything that had happened to her. And just like everyone else, Michael had lied to him too, and he’d believed him.

  Maggie lay on the couch when they got back to the house, and fell asleep a little while later, while Peter and Bill watched basketball on TV. Bill had called Lisa to check in, but as they had since the trial began, they spared her the ugly details. She didn’t need to know them. He was her father after all, and she had loved him. And she was only sixteen.

  As Peter watched Maggie sleeping on the couch, he hoped the jury would return their verdict soon. This needed to end, for all their sakes. And as she slept, Bill and Peter exchanged a long tired look.

  Chapter 24

  The jury took three days to deliberate, and went over all the toxicology reports carefully, looking at the charts and descriptions about various medications and poisons. Particularly the paraquat that had been used on Maggie, and the succinylcholine he had used on the geriatric patients. They reread some of the testimony, and they voted unanimously.

  They called Maggie at her house, and Jack sent a car for them. They walked into the courtroom, and the jury filed in a few minutes later. Michael was at the defense table, and the judge asked the defendant to rise.

  The foreman of the jury stood in the jury box, and the judge asked if they had reached a verdict. He said they had, and the judge asked him how they had found the defendant. The judge then read off each charge, and the foreman spoke in a strong, clear voice on behalf of his fellow jurors.

  “Guilty, your honor,” he said, after each count of murder in the first degree. “We find the defendant guilty of eleven counts of murder in the first degree,” which included his own parents. And then the judge asked him about the charge of the premeditated attempted murder of Margaret Higgins McDowell. “Guilty, your honor.” There was shouting in the courtroom, as the judge rapped his gavel and then thanked the jurors. And a moment later, they left the courtroom.

  The judge set sentencing of the defendant for thirty days later, and Maggie already knew she didn’t have to be there. She hadn’t had the stomach to look at Michael after the verdict. He had stood silently through all the guilty charges. And there was no expression on his face. Maggie watched him walk out of the courtroom, with deputies on either side of him, and she felt absolutely nothing for him. He was a stranger to her. And Peter felt just as little for the man who was his twin, and had murdered their parents.

  They left the courtroom with police protection, and sat staring at each other in her kitchen when they got home. Maggie couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t eat, and didn’t want to. Twenty-four years of her life had just ended. She had two wonderful children to show for it, but she knew now that her marriage had never existed for Michael, and it no longer existed for her either. And her children had lost their father. All she wanted to do now was pack and leave, and never see this house again, or anything to remind her of the life she had lived in it.

  She went upstairs to pack, while Peter called the airlines for a flight to London the next day.

  Before they left, on the following morning, Peter went to the cemetery to visit his parents’ graves. He wanted to say goodbye to them and apologize for not being a better son, and not protecting them from Michael. Peter knew he wouldn’t be back here again. And he thought they would understand it too. He hoped they would forgive him for what he hadn’t been able to do for them.

  He walked down the hill to the police car where Maggie and Bill were waiting for him. Jack Nelson had volunteered to drive them to Boston. He felt as though it was the least he could do to show his support.

  None of them spoke on the ride to the airport. They were lost in their own thoughts, and there was nothing left to say. Justice had been done.

  Jack hugged her when she got out of the car at Logan Airport, and he told her again how sorry he was. He shook hands with Peter and Bill, and then he left them, and they checked in. They had two hours until their flight to London, and Maggie couldn’t wait to leave. She wanted to get as far away from here as she could.

  They bought magazines, and stopped for something to eat. Bill was texting Lisa to tell her they were leaving Boston. They had talked late the night before about the verdict. She no longer believed their father innocent, so the verdict didn’t come as a shock to her. It was a sad coming of age for her. And she was relieved that it was over for all of them. She could never feel the same way about her father again. It was a huge loss for her.

  When Bill got up to get another cup of coffee, Peter looked at Maggie across the table. She had looked uncomfortable in her skin since the day before. Everything that had happened was so ugly.

  “I just want you to hear something from me,” Peter said gently. He looked at her, and he could see that she was numb. “This may be the wrong time to tell you, but I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life making up to you for what you went through. My brother is a monster, and you didn’t deserve any of it. You may have meant nothing to him. But you mean everything to me.” He was looking at her intently, and she could see that he meant it. She smiled and reached across the table for his hand.

  “I love you too. I’m sorry we all had to go through it. It can’t be any easier for you.”

  “I’m not the one who got poisoned,” he said, as they stood up to walk to the gate and catch their flight. And with that, he put his arms around her and kissed her. It was over. Michael couldn’t hurt either of them anymore. They stood in the airport and kissed as Bill saw them and smiled. He stood at a distance from them, and sent a text to his sister. He had promised he would if anything happened while they were away. She and Ryan had been hoping for this since Courchevel.

  “The eagle has landed,” he texted to his sister with a broad grin. She got it immediately, gave a long slow smile, and forwarded it instantly to Ryan in L.A. Ben was sitting next to him when he got it. They were eating breakfast before school, and Ryan laughed as he read it to him.

  “What does that mean?” Ben asked him, looking puzzled. “What eagle?”

  “I think Dad just kissed Maggie,” Ryan explained.

  “Awesome,” Ben said with a grin. From Boston to London to L.A., the news was out and they approved.

  Bill tapped them gently on the shoulder then. “Come on, you guys. Let’s not miss our flight. You can do that on the plane.”

  “Right,” Peter said, still holding Maggie. She was smiling broadly, as Peter looked at Bill and laughed, and the three of them walked through the terminal arm in arm to catch their plane. They had lived through it. They had survived. They had suffered enormous losses, and in the losses had been blessed with enormous gains.

  To my beloved children,

  Beatie, Trevor, Todd, Nick, Sam,

  Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara:

  Sadly, there is evil in the world,

  unseen, unheard, often undetected,

  but nonetheless still there,

  a powerful force to be reckoned with.

  May you always be protected from harm,

  in all its forms. May you be wise, safe,

  and shielded from all those who wish you ill.

  May only goodness and kindness touch

  you for all of your days. May goodness

  always prevail in your lives. Good is

  more powerful than evil.

  And may my love for you, beyond measure,

  warm you on dark days.

  With all my love,

  Mommy/d.s

  By Danielle Steel

  PEGASUS • A PERFECT LIFE • POWER PLAY • WINNERS • FIRST SIGHT • UNTIL THE END OF TIME • SINS OF THE MOTHER • FRIENDS FOREVER • BETRAYAL • HOTEL VENDÔME • HAPPY BIRTHDAY • 44 CHARLES STREET • LEGACY • FAMILY T
IES • BIG GIRL • SOUTHERN LIGHTS • MATTERS OF THE HEART • ONE DAY AT A TIME • A GOOD WOMAN • ROGUE • HONOR THYSELF • AMAZING GRACE • BUNGALOW 2 • SISTERS • H.R.H. • COMING OUT • THE HOUSE • TOXIC BACHELORS • MIRACLE • IMPOSSIBLE • ECHOES • SECOND CHANCE • RANSOM • SAFE HARBOUR • JOHNNY ANGEL • DATING GAME • ANSWERED PRAYERS • SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ • THE COTTAGE • THE KISS • LEAP OF FAITH • LONE EAGLE • JOURNEY • THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET • THE WEDDING • IRRESISTIBLE FORCES • GRANNY DAN • BITTERSWEET • MIRROR IMAGE • THE KLONE AND I • THE LONG ROAD HOME • THE GHOST • SPECIAL DELIVERY • THE RANCH • SILENT HONOR • MALICE • FIVE DAYS IN PARIS • LIGHTNING • WINGS • THE GIFT • ACCIDENT • VANISHED • MIXED BLESSINGS • JEWELS • NO GREATER LOVE • HEARTBEAT • MESSAGE FROM NAM • DADDY • STAR • ZOYA • KALEIDOSCOPE • FINE THINGS • WANDERLUST • SECRETS • FAMILY ALBUM • FULL CIRCLE • CHANGES • THURSTON HOUSE • CROSSINGS • ONCE IN A LIFETIME • A PERFECT STRANGER • REMEMBRANCE • PALOMINO • LOVE: POEMS • THE RING • LOVING • TO LOVE AGAIN • SUMMER’S END • SEASON OF PASSION • THE PROMISE • NOW AND FOREVER • PASSION’S PROMISE • GOING HOME

  Nonfiction

  PURE JOY: The Dogs We Love

  A GIFT OF HOPE: Helping the Homeless

  HIS BRIGHT LIGHT: The Story of Nick Traina

  About the Author

  DANIELLE STEEL has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 650 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Pegasus, A Perfect Life, Power Play, Winners, First Sight, Until the End of Time, The Sins of the Mother, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; and Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved.