Chapter 16
It was over. So was Life. At least this was the way it seemed to Rita as she slumped dejectedly to a bunk in the County Jail. The cuts and bruises over most of her body had been treated at the prison hospital. Strangely, they yielded no pain.
Dr. Grossman, equally dejected, stood before her, tried in the five minutes that had been allotted to him, to bring Rita some small measure of reassurance.
"This is all my fault," he said soberly. "I'll be making a full report to the local medical authorities and the police and ... well, it won't diminish your guilt, but they'll have to realize that there were certain extenuating circumstances and ... are you listening, Rita?"
She did not answer. Her eyes were fixed in a sightless stare at the cement floor.
Grossman continued. "Your store..., " he bowed his head, "...is a complete ruin, but...." He wanted her to look at him. "...maybe it's just as well. They'd have stopped you one way or another and...."
She remained stiffly silent.
"It it's any consolation," Grossman went on, "your friend, Ridgewood confessed about the tape-recordings and his part in this thing, and the district attorney has ordered a full-fledged investigation. They'll subpoena the tapes from the bank vault and Ridgewood and Juneau will get what they deserve." Rita was silent.
"The kids ... and I know you'll be happy to hear this part ... they're letting 'em off light ... maybe just probation."
Rita did not move.
"It had to be this way, Rita. The women couldn't get any satisfaction from the authorities, so they just took the law into their own hands. That's wrong, perhaps. But the Bible says that good will always triumph over evil and this sort of proves it, you know."
Tears crept to the corners of Rita's eyes. She trembled in her anguish.
"I made you this way, Rita. For that, I alone am responsible, but if there is justice and compassion in the heart of that jury...."
"There is, Doctor. There is justice and compassion and human dignity in all of us. Only...." She bowed her head to hide the tears. "...only sometimes we're too weak to find it."
"I'm sorry, Rita."
She looked up at him. Her eyes were coated with tears, but they suddenly shone with a new brightness, a clinging hope for the future.
"Don't be sorry, Doctor," she said very tenderly. "Be glad. Maybe in discovering evil, I've suddenly realized the value of goodness. And courage and success don't come from a pill bottle...." She smiled through her tears. "...those things come from the human heart and whatever is there."
Dr. Grossman put his arms tenderly around Rita's shoulders. She buried her face against him and had a long cry, and after it was over with, after she had borrowed his handkerchief and wiped her eyes, she said:
"Everything is going to work out all right, Doctor." She blinked away her tears and swallowed the lump in her throat. "It's gonna be just fine."