Read None So Blind Online

Authors: Barbara Fradkin

Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Police Procedural, #General, #Crime

None So Blind (5 page)

BOOK: None So Blind
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Once the introductions and procedural formalities were over, the lead board member, who had introduced himself as Pierre Anjou, invited the institutional parole officer to summarize the case. Green leaned forward curiously. From previous cases, he remembered Gilles Maisonneuve as an experienced PO with a reputation as a hard-ass. If he had bought Rosten’s sudden conversion to remorse, perhaps the board would too.

After giving a brief sketch of Rosten’s criminal history, which was essentially unblemished until his current offence, Maisonneuve sped through Rosten’s twenty years of anger, protest, and endless legal wrangling before arriving at the past three months. Maisonneuve had personally worked on Rosten’s release plan and administered a number of standard risk- and needs-assessment measures. In drawing the board’s attention to the man’s moderate scores, he explained they would have been even better had Rosten co-operated more fully in recommended treatments and not lost all ties to friends and family on the outside.

However, Maisonneuve was quick to add, despite his reluctance to assume responsibility, Rosten had never presented a discipline problem, had no history of substance abuse, and had co-operated fully with CSC rules and routines. He had used his advanced education and skill as a teacher to help in the prison school program by mentoring and tutoring students toward high-school diplomas and even advanced science credits. This was a skill he intended to carry into his community placement.

“But what about insight and remorse?” the lead board member said.

Maisonneuve paused and leaned across the table, conversational now. “As I mentioned and his records show, although Mr. Rosten has been a model inmate, exhibiting no violent or disruptive behaviour, some attitudinal problems have hindered his progress in the past. He has had difficulty accepting responsibility for his crime and coming to grips with its implications for himself, the victim’s family, and the community at large. It has been a difficult admission for a man in his position, and one that until recently he has been reluctant to make. The professional opinion of CSC counsellors and psychologists is that the crime was so repulsive to him and so contrary to his values and self-image that he denied it happened. Perhaps he even blocked out all memory of it. We may never know. However, he has now come to accept that he committed this crime while under the stress of his new job at the university and the increased financial pressures of his family. His wife had recently given birth to twin girls and no one was getting much sleep.”

Ridiculous
, Green thought, just as Anjou echoed his thoughts. “Everyone has pressures, Mr. Maisonneuve. Some of us even have children.”

“Agreed. It’s not an excuse. But his circumstances are very different now. He has no family obligations, financial or otherwise — in fact there’s been no contact with his family at all since his incarceration, and none is anticipated. He has no job pressures, other than the job he will be applying for if his parole is granted. He is no longer a young man, and his spinal cord injury has left him with considerably diminished sexual capacity. Certainly his capacity to physically assault and overpower a victim is greatly diminished, should he ever feel the urge.”

“So what are your recommendations, Mr. Maisonneuve?”

“At this stage of his life, James Rosten wants to use his skills to help others with literacy and schooling. Based on extensive discussions with Mr. Teske here, who is the director of the prison school at Warkworth, with other CSC personnel, and with CSC psychologist Dr. Kim Lee, whose report is before you, I consider him a minimal risk to reoffend and I support the following plan:

“Number one. Release to serve the remainder of his sentence in Horizon House, a new, fully wheelchair-accessible, community-based residential facility in the City of Belleville. It has private rooms, communal meals, and 24/7 supervision. Belleville is nearly three hundred kilometres from Ottawa, where his offence took place.

“Number two. Employment as an online tutor and instructor with adult male clients in CSC programs, initially on a volunteer basis, but with the potential to expand to educational and employment centres if it works well and if funding can be secured. As a precursor to that, Mr. Rosten will be working hard to familiarize himself with digital and online technology, which was in its infancy when he was incarcerated.

“Number three. Financial support will be available through the Ontario Disability Support Program and private personal investments, and there is the potential to supplement that sum through his teaching.”

During the PO’s entire presentation, Rosten had barely moved a muscle. He seemed to be staring at his hands, which were clasped on the table before him. The board members asked a few questions but showed almost no interest in Rosten’s belated change of heart, preferring to dissect the minutiae of his job plans and his potential to endanger the public.

Green’s mind wandered. He was cast twenty years into the past, once again trying to understand how a promising young professor who had just completed his post-doc and landed a rare tenure-track position in the biology department of Carleton University, who had just bought a big new house in the upscale suburb of Whitehaven, and who had just become the proud father of twin baby girls — how a man on the brink of his dreams — could lure a young college student under the pretence of helping with her studies, drive her out into the country, strangle her, and bury her half-naked body in the woods.

Furthermore, he wondered, how could such a man could return home to hug his young daughters and show up for his class the next morning as calm and self-assured as ever?

No explanation had ever been put forward by the defence during the trial, because the possibility of guilt had never been entertained. So the police and the Crown had been left to wonder. All these years without a credible theory … until now. Was the PO’s theory of repression possible? Green wracked his memory for clues. Had there been any signs of stress in Rosten’s life? Rosten’s wife had stuck by him, loyally providing an alibi of sorts, until the exam comments were released. And until other students, mostly female, admitted receiving similar notes offering private help and described him as flirtatious and full of himself. Then a chill had descended over her demeanour, and, by the end of the trial, she had stopped visiting him in the detention centre. The very day of the guilty verdict, she had packed up the children, climbed into the family minivan, and headed home to her parents in Halifax.

Had she sensed an invisible darkness in him, even before all the evidence was out? Had it remained hidden even from himself, as the PO claimed, or was this latter-day insight just an elaborate sham to win his way out of prison? Green wished he could see Rosten’s face and look him squarely in the eye as the story was told.

The prison school director, Theodore Teske, was speaking now about Rosten’s patience and commitment to the inmates he’d helped in recent years. His involvement had begun slowly, even grudgingly, when he was spending much of his free time hiding out in the prison library, avoiding the threats from other inmates and poring over law books. Other inmates began to ask him questions and he helped them understand the material they were struggling to read. The librarian spoke to Teske and to the chaplain, who encouraged Rosten to form a tutorial group. Bit by bit, Rosten became engaged. His natural love of teaching took over, almost in spite of himself. He treated even the slowest inmate as a challenge.

Green listened first with disbelief but gradually with reluctant surprise. He had never seen any emotion from Rosten but resentment and contempt. If anything, Rosten had conveyed an arrogant belief that he did not belong in prison and had nothing in common with the losers who surrounded him.

How many sides were there to James Rosten, and would he ever reveal his true self? Green found his heart pounding as the school director wrapped up and the board members turned their sights on Rosten himself.

W
ith the flair of a trial attorney, Pierre Anjou slapped his file shut and fixed Rosten with a disbelieving stare. Rosten stiffened, and Green saw Teske touch his arm. To caution him, or reassure him?

“Unlike most of the inmates in this prison, Mr. Rosten, at the time you committed your offence, you had been living a very successful life. You had advanced education and skill, a stable job, financial security, and a loving family. Yet despite all those advantages, you chose to murder a young woman. I’ve read the psychological reports and listened to Mr. Maisonneuve here describe the pressures of university teaching, the exhausting demands of twin babies, your repression of the memory of the crime, but I see little evidence in these reports of the steps you’ve taken to rectify that. No counselling, stress- or anger-management programs. No admission even of the need for them. Then, three months ago, with this review coming up, suddenly you change your tune. According to your file, you’ve spent years fighting your conviction and denying your guilt, and only three months facing the truth. That raises concerns for me. Raises doubts about your sincerity.”

Rosten said nothing. Initially he had tried to meet Anjou’s stare, but as the criticisms mounted, he bowed his head.
Wise,
Green thought. Staring down a member of the Parole Board of Canada would not advance his cause.

“Was all that denial of your guilt a lie?”

Collectively the crowd held its breath. In the silence Green leaned forward to catch every nuance. The moment had come.

Rosten cleared his throat. “I … I … It was too awful a crime for me to face or admit to. Not just for my sake, but for my family and my children. I have two daughters, and I couldn’t bear the thought of them growing up with such shame in and revulsion of their father.”

“So this repression idea is a fiction? You knew all along that you were guilty?”

“No. But a life sentence provides a long period for reflection, especially when you’re in a wheelchair. Over the years, the reality sank in. I had so much invested in that denial, however, that I kept it up on the outside. I reasoned that as long as my children, my colleagues, and my old friends retained the slightest doubt in my guilt, there was hope for us.”

“So what changed? What happened three months ago?”

Rosten raised his head, appearing more confident about this question. “I turned fifty. And I realized I was never going to get my life back. My daughters and my former friends were gone forever. One of the police officers who put me away helped me to see that. In fact, he’s here in the room today. He pointed out that I still had years, potentially decades, to live. And I realized that, even in spite of myself, I had started to build a new life. Here and now. With the men I taught, the guys I made a difference to, guys who went on to earn a credit or diploma and who came back to thank me.”

“Three months is a very short time to change old habits and make effective preparations. Do you think you’re ready to be released?”

For an instant Rosten wavered. He glanced back at the observers and his eyes locked on Marilyn. A faint frown pinched his brow before he averted his gaze. “I do. I will have close supervision and support, and adequate financial means. I’ve been incarcerated a long time, but further incarceration will not make it any easier. I want to learn to use the Internet for teaching, to manage my chair in public, and face the outside world from this chair, with these scars and this baggage, while I still have good people to support me.”

Anjou pursed his lips, looking unconvinced. At his side, the other board member, who until then had merely jotted notes, leaned forward. “You’ve given us a lot of reasons why you’d like to be released, Mr. Rosten. But why
should
you be released?”

A classic question and one Rosten had clearly been coached in. He leaned forward intently in his chair. “In prison, I saw the difference that basic literacy and a high school diploma can make to the futures of men who never had the chance earlier in their lives. If we teach them to read and write, maybe they won’t end up back in here or on the streets. It’s taken me a long time to stop feeling sorry for myself. My life is not over. There is still some good I can do, and I’d like that chance to make amends. I have walked both sides of the street and that gives me a unique qualification to lend a helping hand to others.”

Damn it
, Green thought as he sat back in frustration. Clever bastard. Nowhere in his carefully crafted appeal was there an actual, unequivocal admission of guilt. He had left that to his parole officer. Whether the board members noticed that subtlety, they did not dwell on the issue, choosing instead to ask about the logistics of Rosten’s release plan and his ongoing medical needs.

Finally, Pierre Anjou thanked him and flipped back through the file. “As I said at the outset, the victim’s family has declined to read their statement at this hearing, but requested that it be read out at the close of the hearing. Here then is the submission made by Mrs. Marilyn Carmichael, mother of Jacqueline Carmichael, the victim.”

Anjou selected a single page from the pile and adjusted his glasses. For a long moment he peered over the rims at Marilyn, and then began to read. “When I gave a statement at James Rosten’s sentencing, I tried to describe how Jacqueline’s murder changed my family’s lives. In many ways, ruined our lives. Twenty years later, nothing has changed. The murder took away the warm, vibrant young woman we all loved, made our world a brutal, terrifying place, and destroyed our trust in laws, justice, and basic human goodness. My husband went to his grave recently a broken man, and my remaining two children have left the country and become estranged from me in their effort to run away from the memories.

“I need to pick up the pieces and build a new life. Jackie was a loving, generous girl, and it is her spirit that I must keep alive. Not bitterness, pain, and emptiness. James Rosten has spent the prime years of his life behind bars and he has lost everything including his health in payment for this crime.

“I believe it is time for him too to make what he can of the life he has ahead, and so for my sake and his, I support his release on parole.”

BOOK: None So Blind
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