Heart of a Killer Read Online Free Page A

Karen’s condition, even though Karen had sworn her to secrecy. It was one of a number of issues in which Terry was caught in the middle between daughter and granddaughter.
    Terry waited outside, as she did on all these visits. She wanted the two of them to be able to talk alone; she thought they could connect better that way.
    Karen was fourteen years old, but she seemed stuck on twelve, or maybe thirteen. Her disease had made her more frail, or at least she seemed that way to Sheryl, and the physical changes made her seem younger than she was.
    “Pretty good,” Karen said, although Sheryl would have known better even if Terry had not kept her current. Karen looked exhausted, pale, and washed out, and Sheryl had to catch herself so as not to react to Karen’s appearance when she first walked in.
    What Sheryl didn’t realize was that Karen was there this morning, and had started coming on mornings more than previously, because by the afternoon her strength had been pretty much sapped.
    “You getting enough rest?” Sheryl asked.
    Karen frowned. “All I do is rest.”
    “It’s good for you. How is Tommy?” Tommy was the latest of Karen’s boyfriends, though “boyfriend” was not a word Karen would ever have used. In Karen’s mind, she and Tommy just “hung out.” Sheryl wasn’t sure what that meant in the modern parlance, and wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
    “Okay, I guess.”
    “Trouble between you two?”
    “No, we just … whatever. I’m staying home a lot … studying.” Karen seemed frustrated, which was completely understandable to Sheryl. She of all people knew what it was like to be prevented from doing what she wanted, when she wanted, though obviously it was for a different reason than the one her daughter faced.
    Sheryl put her hand on her daughter’s. “Karen, it’s going to be all right, I swear. Before you know it, you’ll be feeling better and have more energy than you’ve ever had before.” This was one of the areas in which Sheryl was not forthcoming; she would not tell Karen her transplant plans until they were about to become a reality. Karen would be upset and never willingly go along, which was why Sheryl had no intention of giving her a choice.
    They talked for a while, but it was a guarded, strained conversation, since neither could broach the only subject that was on their minds, that was dominating their lives.
    Five minutes before the hour was up, Karen asked, “How do things look for the parole hearing?”
    Sheryl’s parole hearing was coming up, a biannual event that Sheryl had spent absolutely no time thinking about. “Same as last time,” Sheryl said. “It’s just a formality, Karen. No one is granted parole this early.”
    It wasn’t the first time Karen had heard that, but each time was like a slap in the face. She had always invested most of her hope in that process. In her view, people were gathering to decide whether her mother should stay in prison. Surely they could decide “no” just as easily as “yes.”
    “Can I talk to them this time?” she asked.
    “I don’t think so, honey. It’s not done.” Sheryl would never want to put Karen through that, especially since she was telling the truth. The hearing was a formality; there was no chance that at this stage of her term she would be let out, no matter who testified.
    “But he was my father. If I tell them that I forgive you, maybe they will.”
    “I’ll talk to my lawyer,” she said, which was partially true. She would be talking to her lawyer, but not about Karen testifying before the parole board.
    She would be talking to her lawyer about being allowed to die.

 
    Jamie Wagner’s visit to the prison was a major opportunity for Lila Baldwin. A guard at New Jersey State, Lila had been keeping a close eye on Sheryl Harrison for the past six years, watching for anything unusual, anything that she could report. In all that time, there had been nothing really even worth mentioning; Sheryl