Mind Over Matter

tuned.”
    “Will you tell us what happened when your son was abducted?”
    “June 22. Almost ten years ago.” Alice closed her eyes a moment. “To me it’s yesterday. You have children, Mr. Marshall?”
    “Yes, I do.”
    “And you love them.”
    “Very much.”
    “Then you have some small glimmer of what it would be like to lose them, even for a short time. There’s terror and there’s guilt. The guilt is nearly as painful as the fear. You see, I hadn’t been with him when he’d been taken. Jenny was Matthew’s nanny. She’d been with us over five years and was very devoted to my son. She was young, but dependable and fiercely protective. When I made the decision to go back into films, we leaned on Jenny heavily. Neither my husband nor myself wanted Matthew to suffer because I was working again.”
    “Your son was nearly ten when you agreed to do another movie.”
    “Yes, he was quite independent already. Both Peter and I wanted that for him. Very often during the filming, Jenny would bring him to the studio. Even after the shooting was complete, she continued in her habit of walking to the park with him in the afternoon. If I had realized then how certain habits can be dangerous, I would have stopped it. Both my husband and myself had been careful to keep Matthew out of the limelight, not because we were afraid for him physically, but because we felt it was best that his upbringing be as normal and natural as possible. Of course he was recognized, and now and then some enterprising photographer would get a shot in.”
    “Did that sort of thing bother you?”
    “No.” When she smiled, the sultry glamour came through. “I suppose I was accustomed to such things. Peter and I didn’t want to be fanatics about our privacy. And I wonder, and always have, if we’d been stricter would it have made any difference? I doubt it.” There was a little sigh, as though it were a point she’d yet to resolve. “We learned later that Matthew’s visits to the park were being watched.”
    “For a time the police suspected Jennifer Waite, your son’s nanny, of working with the kidnappers.”
    “That was, of course, absurd. I never for a minute doubted Jenny’s loyalty and devotion to Matthew. Once it was over, she was completely cleared.” A trace of stubbornness came through. “She’s still in my employ.”
    “The investigators found her story disjointed.”
    “The afternoon he was abducted, Jenny came home hysterical. We were the closest thing to family she had, and she blamed herself. Matthew had been playing ball with several other children while she watched. A young woman had come up toher asking for directions. She’d spun a story about missing her bus and being new in town. She’d distracted Jenny only a few moments, and that’s all it took. When she looked back, Jenny saw Matthew being hustled into a car at the edge of the park. She ran after him, but he was gone. Ten minutes after she came home alone the first ransom call came in.”
    She lifted her hands to her lips a moment, and they trembled lightly. “I’m sorry. Could we stop here a moment?”
    “Cut. Five minutes,” Sam ordered the crew.
    David was beside her chair before Sam had finished speaking. “Would you like something, Mrs. Van Camp? A drink?”
    “No.” She shook her head and looked beyond him. “It isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Ten years, and it still isn’t easy.”
    “I could send for your husband.”
    “I told Peter to stay away today because he’s always so uncomfortable around cameras. I wish I hadn’t.”
    “We can wrap for today.”
    “Oh, no.” She took a deep breath and composed herself. “I believe in finishing what I start. Matthew’s a sophomore in college.” She smiled up at David. “Do you like happy endings?”
    He held her hand. For the moment she was only a woman. “I’m a sucker for them.”
    “He’s bright, handsome and in love. I just needed to remember that. It could have been…” She linked her hands again and the ruby on her finger shone like blood. “It could have been much different. You know Clarissa’s daughter, don’t you?”
    A bit off-balance at the change of subject, David shifted. “Yes.”
    She admired the caution. “I meant it when I said Clarissa and I are friends. Mothers worry about their children. Do you have a cigarette?”
    In silence he took one out and lit it for her.
    Alice blew out smoke and let some of the tension fade.“She’s a hell