what they say. I believe you'll get some interesting reactions."
"I don't know."
"I promise you, Hank, it will be worth your time." Say yes, you son of a bitch, say yes!
Hank hesitated, then said: "Okay, I'll give it a whirl."
Berrington tried to conceal his satisfaction behind an expression of gravity, but he could not help a little smile of triumph.
Hank saw it, and a suspicious frown crossed his face. "You're not trying to use me, are you, Berry? Like to frighten someone, maybe?"
Berrington smiled and put an arm around the reporter's shoulders. "Hank," he said, "trust me."
Chapter 20
JEANNIE BOUGHT A THREE-PACK OF WHITE COTTON PANTIES at a Walgreen in a strip mall just outside Richmond. She slipped a pair on in the ladies' rest room of the neighboring Burger King. Then she felt better.
Strange how defenseless she had felt without underwear. She had hardly been able to think of anything else. Yet when she was in love with Will Temple she had liked to go around with no panties on. It made her feel sexy all day. Sitting in the library, or working in the lab, or just walking down the street, she would fantasize that Will showed up unexpectedly, in a fever of passion, saying, "There isn't much time but I've got to have you, now, right here," and she was ready for him. But without a man in her life she needed her underwear like she needed shoes.
Properly dressed again, she returned to the car. Lisa drove them to the Richmond-Williamsburg airport, where they checked their rental car and caught the plane back to Baltimore.
The key to the mystery must lie with the hospital where Dennis and Steven were born, Jeannie mused as they took off. Somehow, identical twin brothers had ended up with different mothers. It was a fairy-tale scenario, but something like it must have happened.
She looked through the papers in her case and checked the birth information on the two subjects. Steven's birthday was August 25. To her horror she found that Dennis's birthday was September 7 - almost two weeks later.
"There must be a mistake," she said. "I don't know why I didn't check this before." She showed Lisa the conflicting documents.
"We can double-check," Lisa said.
"Do any of our forms ask which hospital the subject was born at?"
Lisa gave a rueful laugh. "I believe that's one question we didn't include."
"It must have been a military hospital, in this case. Colonel Logan is in the army, and presumably 'the Major' was a soldier at the time Dennis was born."
"We'll check."
Lisa did not share Jeannie's impatience. For her it was just another research project. For Jeannie it was everything. "I'd like to call right away," she said. "Is there a phone on this plane?"
Lisa frowned. "Are you thinking of calling Steven's mother?"
Jeannie heard the note of disapproval in Lisa's voice. "Yes. Why shouldn't I?"
"Does she know he's in jail?"
"Good point. I don't know. Damn. I shouldn't be the one to break the news."
"He may have called home already."
"Maybe I'll go see Steven in jail. That's allowed, isn't it?"
"I guess so. But they might have visiting hours, like hospitals."
"I'll just show up and hope for the best. Anyway, I can call the Pinkers." She waved at a passing stewardess. "Is there a phone on the plane?"
"No, I'm sorry."
"Too bad."
The stewardess smiled. "Don't you remember me, Jeannie?"
Jeannie looked at her for the first time and recognized her immediately. "Penny Watermeadow!" she said. Penny had done her doctorate in English at Minnesota alongside Jeannie. "How are you?"
"I'm great. How are you doing?"
"I'm at Jones Falls, doing a research project that's running into problems. I thought you were going after an academic job."
"I was, but I didn't get one."
Jeannie felt embarrassed that she had been successful where her friend had failed. "That's too bad."
"I'm glad, now. I enjoy this work and it pays better than most colleges."
Jeannie did not believe her. It shocked her to see a woman with a doctorate working as a stewardess. "I always thought you'd be such a good teacher."
"I taught high school for a while. I got knifed by a student who disagreed with me about Macbeth. I asked myself why I was doing it - risking my life to teach Shakespeare to kids who couldn't wait to go back out on the streets and get on with stealing money to buy crack cocaine."
Jeannie remembered the name of Penny's husband. "How's Danny?"
"He's doing great, he's area sales manager now. It means he has to travel