FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES

Prologue

A couple walked hand in hand, along the canal, during a summer storm. He stopped suddenly turning to face her, pulling her to him, their bodies pressed together. For a moment they just stood there, the rain pouring down on them. He tenderly took his right hand into hers, fingers becoming intertwined, while his left hand lay across her back. Slowly they swayed to the music playing only in their minds. Their feet moved in the familiar one-two-three waltz pattern. She closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder. Her dress was sticking to her, showing off her figure in the pelting rain. He looked at her and she met his gaze. Her dark eyes deep, intense. He saw her smile—that smile he thought she reserved for only him. Then his lips descended upon her in a passionate kiss.

Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women

Fluvanna County, Virginia

Tuesday, June 21, 1988

12:00 PM

The first thing that Sonja Chenko was aware of was pain. A dull pain, but she could still feel it—in her head, and a dull ache in her ribcage when she breathed. What had happened? Sonja tried to make sense of the hazy images that filled her head—a woman with a knife coming towards her, wresting the knife from the woman and pinning her to the ground, the other inmates cheering as Sonja straddled the woman, pressing the knife into her throat and fighting the guards that tried to pull her off.

A gentle hand briefly stroked the side of Sonja’s face, just like her mother used to do when she was a little girl.

“A smile is a window,” her mother would often say to her, “A frown is a door.”

Only Sonja wasn’t a little girl now, and her mother had died long ago. Sonja opened her eyes.

She was lying in a bed, probably in the prison infirmary, propped up in a semi-reclining position. Turning her head, she could see an IV in one arm, while the attempt to move her other arm reminded Sonja that she was handcuffed to the bed’s railing. Standard procedure for dangerous criminals. She stared up at a blurry figure with a cloud of dark hair.

“Just look at yourself,” the figure said. The woman’s voice held a faint trace of an Italian accent. “I can’t believe that this is what you’ve come down to, Sonja. Prison brawls?”

Sonja’s vision was clearing now and she stared at the slender woman with the startling blue eyes. The woman was wearing the uniform of a prison nurse—her badge only identifying her as Eva.

“Yeah?” Sonja said, her voice coming out in a dry rasp. “What do you care?”

Eva laughed softly, taking a cup of water and a straw from the metal nightstand next to the infirmary bed. “Here,” she said. The cup was held to Sonja’s mouth, and Sonja sipped the cool water obediently until the cup was taken away again and placed back on the nightstand.

“Oh believe me, I care,” Eva said. “I also know you’re accustomed to the finer things in life—you deserve better than this prison squalor.”

“You seem to be remarkably well informed. Have we met before?”

“Not exactly,” Eva said. “But in a way we could be sisters, I believe we have a mutual acquaintance. Lee Stetson?”

“Don’t you talk to me about Lee Stetson,” Sonja said, her voice now a fierce hiss. She was surprised at the depth of anger she still felt after all these years. “That man is the reason that I’m here, the reason that my Grandfather died a broken man.”

“You misunderstand me. I’m not Lee Stetson’s friend—I’m just another woman who would also like to make him pay for what he did to me—for what he did to us.”

“I’m listening,” Sonja said.

Eva paused, her eyes staring intently into Sonja’s eyes—almost as though she could see inside. “What would you say if I told you that I had a plan to destroy the Scarecrow— permanently? All I need is your help.”

“I would say that you’re insane. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m in a federal prison, convicted of crimes against the US Government.”

“I can get you out of here.”

“What?” Sonja laughed disbelievingly. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“I can get you out of here,” Eva repeated. “All I need is for you to trust me, and you and I can make the Scarecrow pay.”

“We can make him bleed.” Sonja smiled.