Monday 30th June

ICU, Mount Sinai Hospital, Fifth Avenue

The week of night shifts came round in the roster to everyone in turn, so Goren had not really thought one way or other if Jenny would be there when he went to visit Frank. He was there twice or three times a week and usually at times he knew he could avoid seeing her.

So he was neither expecting to see her, nor surprised when he did. Out in a small waiting area because it was a time when the nursing staff had to undertake some of the more intensive care and maintenance, his brother's shell of a body needed.

"Not your usual time Bobby" she said as he went to get a soda from the machine.

"I don't really have them. Except avoiding those you seem to favour Jenny"

"Ouch! Do I detect a little hostility?" she feigned hurt.

"Not enough for you?" he shrugged, strongly suspecting his lack of aggression and anger had disappointed her ever since this happened.

Jenny didn't reply as he opened the can and sat down facing her across the room.

"Since we are both here I suppose there is no point in asking" he went on. "Whether you are ready yet to do as I want? Let Frank's body go?"

"How can you say such a terrible thing? About your own brother too"

Goren tutted. "No need for the act Jenny. There's only you and me here now. And I apologise. For thinking you would get bored with this little game so soon. What's it been? Six weeks now?"

Again she said nothing.

"You know the trouble with playing games with the dead? They don't provide a lot of competition"

"I wish you would not keep speaking of Frank like that"

"It's not my brother I'm taking about Jenny. It's your sister this has all been about isn't it?"

She was lucky not to break her neck her head twisted so fast. The smile on Goren's face was fractional.

"Oh so you did know. I wasn't sure. I am now, so thank you. You really should have been better prepared for that Jenny. Nicole would have been. And with something ready to roll off her tongue instead of sitting with her mouth open. Don't deny it either. DNA can't lie"

"I will be speaking to my lawyers about illegal evidence collection by NYPD"

"Speak to them all you like. But to save you some money I'll tell you. It was me took hair from your brush in the bathroom and had it analysed. The night Caro and I came to your apartment. Sue me if you want. But it will have to be privately, not as a cop"

"Bastard" she muttered

"I do wish you would stop trying to shift blame onto me for your lack of foresight Jenny. If you had not lied that night on Penn Station when you were as shocked to see me as I was you, I probably would not have done it"

Goren paused. "But I will give you credit for the recovery you made when the timing of events did not work out as you expected. Making sure you told Frank at least some of your secret family history and then telling us. So there was no danger of me tripping you up when we all had dinner that night and exposing you to Frank as a liar"

"I guessed by then you would have done some more digging" she muttered in her first admission of anything.

"So when did you find out? About your biological father?"

"You tell me. You seem to think you know so much"

He took a sip of his soda. "Two possibilities fit the best. I'll start with when your mother was dying. When you moved back to live with her, take on her affairs. Either you found something in her papers or maybe she told you. The dying do that. Feel the need to leave this world with their conscience clear. My own mother made a confession you might call it, around that time in her life"

"Both" Jenny said softly "I found a couple of letters they wrote and then I asked her"

"I'm sorry about that. Must have been a terrible shock"

She looked at him with that so familiar face. "I actually believe you mean that. I have an idea from something Frank said you know what that is like. And just out of interest when was the other?"

"When Wallace began sexually abusing you"

"Bullshit!" she spat jumping up from her seat.

"Yes he did Jenny. He did it for almost two years. When you lived with him and Nicole in Castlemaine. When your Mom lost her job and had to go find work in Melbourne. Where she met and later married your stepfather"

"I stayed in Wangaretta with…"

"No you did not!" he stood up and went to the window where she was staring out.

"I saw your photo album Jenny" his tone was softer as he leaned to speak in her ear. "A picture of Nicole when you were a baby. She had a school blazer on. Eight years later there was another picture. Same badge on the blazer on the grass in the picture. Nicole was at High School by then. You were the one attending South Castlemaine School. I spoke to the local School Board Jenny. They checked the files for me. You were there six semesters and at the Wallace address. Stop lying about that at least"

He heard her sigh. "Okay so I did live there a while. But I barely remember it and…and that never happened"

Goren was the one to sigh. "Yes it did. The same as it did to Nicole when she was about that age. The same as she denied her father had sex with her"

He turned and walked away and then suddenly turned back "That's it isn't it? That's how you are different to your half sister. She denied it all her life. You didn't. You only began this denial when you found out…when you found out last year it wasn't just your uncle…it was your father. And that he knew…knew when he was doing all those nasty things to a little girl that it was his own daughter he was doing it to"

"You're sick do you know that Bobby?" she spun round. "You spend far too long in…in the gutters of other people's minds"

"So did she ever know? Your Mom I mean. I think not. If she did I don't think she would have told you the truth about who your father was. Someone did though. At some point someone guessed or you told them"

"Rave on as much as you like Bobby it doesn't make it true. All these theories, patterns and profiles and I don't doubt you get plenty of pillow talk about that sort of stuff. Is that what does it for you in the sack? What turns you on? Caro's dirty stories about the perversions and fantasies she hears from patients"

"If it makes you feel better to think that, be my guest" he sat down again.

"Like I said this is about you and Nicole. She's the one you really blame. For either not saving you from your father or for being the one who helped him. Telling you it was normal; it was fun, grooming you, seducing you maybe even showing you what to do…how to really please her Daddy she probably didn't know was your Daddy"

"You are one sick son of a bitch" she said softly but he could see the tears in her eyes.

"No I'm not Jenny. I wish I were. You spoke of patterns. That's what made me wonder. It's not unusual with abusers that they do that. When one child gets to puberty they move on to a younger one. And by then they have the first child so…so twisted around that they can assist in the abuse of the next. Abuse the younger children themselves. It's not your fault any more than it was Nicole's. But somehow she found you and your Mom again before she died. Got her claws into you again. Or you found her. Which was it?"

"That did not happen"

Goren took a deep breath "Of course it did. How else would my brother's name mean anything to you when you stumbled across him in Miami?"

"She found us" she almost spat the words. "Took her vacation last summer in Seattle. Ran into a former co-worker of mine mistook her for me. Tracked us down that way, though knowing all she had done my mother sent her away. Wanted nothing to do with her. Small world they say. You just said it yourself"

"And all of this…all this carnage you created in the lives of so many people Jenny…what was that? You proving to yourself you were better than your sister by being worse than her? Though I don't think you really know yourself any more. Must be frustrating she killed herself before she could see you now…in your…your moment of triumph"

"Go to hell" she turned at the door "And what makes you so sure she did kill herself Bobby?"

With that she was gone from the room and Goren made no attempt to stop her. Instead he went to see his brother.

"Hiya Frankie" he said giving his forehead a kiss. "Now where were we?"

He picked up the book and sat down.

"In the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat trap and fetched it down, and unstopped the best rat hole, and in about an hour we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones, and then…"

To be continued…