The God Project Read Free Page B

think we’ll find anything.”
    “Not find anything?” Sally asked. The emptiness was gone from her eyes now, but her face was filled with a pain that Wiseman found almost more worrisome than the shock had been. She’ll get over it, he told himself. It’ll be hard, but she’ll get over it.
    “Why don’t you two go home?” he suggested. “There’s no reason to stay here. And we’ll talk in the morning. All right?”
    Sally got to her feet and leaned against Steve. “What happened?” she asked. “Babies don’t just die, do they?”
    Wiseman watched her, trying to judge her condition. Had it been anyone but Sally Montgomery, he would have waited until morning, but he’d known Sally foryears, and he knew she was strong. The Valium had calmed her down and would keep her calm.
    “Sometimes they do,” he said softly. “It’s called sudden infant death syndrome. That’s what Mark Malone thinks happened to Julie.”
    “Oh, God,” Steve Montgomery said. He saw Julie’s face, her dancing eyes and smiling mouth, her tiny hands reaching for him, grasping his finger with all her own, laughing and gurgling.
    And then nothing.
    Tears began running down his face. He did nothing to wipe them away.
       As the spring dawn crept over Eastbury, Steve Montgomery stood up and went to the window. He and Sally were in the living room, where they’d been all the long night, neither of them wanting to go to bed, neither of them willing to face whatever thoughts might come in the darkness. But now the darkness was gone, and Steve wandered around the room, turning off the lamps.
    “Don’t,” Sally whispered. “Please don’t.”
    Understanding her, Steve turned the lights back on, then went back to sit beside her once more, holding her close against him, neither of them speaking, but drawing strength from each other’s presence. After a while there was a sound from upstairs, and then footsteps coming down the stairs. A moment later Sally’s mother was in the room. She paused, then came to the sofa and drew Sally into her arms.
    “My poor baby,” she said softly, her voice soothing. “Oh, my poor baby. What happened? Sally, what happened?”
    Her mother’s voice seemed to trigger something in Sally, and her tears, the tears that should have been drained from her hours earlier, began to flow once more. She leaned against her mother, her body heaving with her sobs. Over her daughter’s head, Phyllis Paine’s eyes met her son-in-law’s.
    “What happened, Steve?” she asked. “What happened to my granddaughter?”
    I have to control myself, Steve thought. For Sally, I have to be strong. I have to tell people what happened, and I have to make arrangements, and I have to take care of my wife and my son. Then another thought came to him: I’ll never be able to do it. I’ll come apart, and my insides will fall out. Oh, God, why did you have to take Julie? Why not me? She was only a baby! Just a little baby.
    He wanted to cry too, wanted to bury his head in his wife’s bosom, and let go of his pain, and yet he knew he couldn’t. Not now, perhaps not ever. He met his mother-in-law’s steady gaze.
    “Nothing happened to her,” he said, forcing himself to keep his voice steady. “She just died. It’s called sudden infant death syndrome.”
    Phyllis’s eyes hardened. “A lot of nonsense,” she said. “All it means is that the doctors don’t know what happened. But something happened to that child. I want to know what.”
    Her words penetrated Sally’s grief. She pulled herself from her mother’s embrace and faced her. “What do you mean?” she asked, her voice strident. “What are you saying?”
    Phyllis stood up, searching for the right words. She knew where the blame lay, knew very well, but she wouldn’t say it. Not yet. Later, when Sally had recovered from the shock, they would have a talk. For now, she would take care of her daughter … as her daughter should have taken care of Julie.
    “I’m not