Inside Out by Unknown Author Page B

were going to shit—they were swarming all over her during the Walsh incident—but never when there was good news to share? For months Nat had been trying to get people from the media to run a story on Horizon House that focused on its positive goals and achievements. Every other day, it seemed, stories were popping up on the front pages about prison riots, rape behind the walls, the escalating recidivism rate, the need for stricter sentencing, a call for more high-security prisons. Nat wanted people out in the community to read about programs that focused on rehabilitation, programs that gave inmates concrete skills as well as counseling so they could return to the community as law-abiding, tax-contributing citizens. The problem was there weren’t enough programs inside the walls, and fewer outside them, that emphasized rehabilitation. Those kinds of programs took money and support, both of which were sorely lacking.
    But good news didn’t seem to be much of a draw for the media. It didn’t sell papers or make for high television and radio ratings.
    “I’d like to talk to you about Lynn Ingram, Superintendent.”
    “I’m not giving out any statements, Mr. Walker.” Nat abruptly turned away from him and continued walking up the path.
    “I’m the reporter who interviewed Jennifer Slater yesterday. Matthew Slater’s widow.”
    She stopped and turned back around.
    He smiled faintly. “And I’ve got an interview with Mrs. Slater’s brother, Rodney Bartlett, that’s going to air at eleven this morning. I brought the tape along if you want a sneak preview.”
    “Come inside.”
    . . that Matt told Jen there was this freak who was stalking him—”
    “Is that the actual word Matthew Slater used, Mr. Bartlett?”
    “Stalking? Absolutely. ”
    “No. I meant — ‘freak/ ”
    There was a brief hesitation. Nat glanced over at the reporter, who had just gone up a notch in her estimation of him as an interviewer.
    “What else would he call. . . her? ‘Him’? ‘It’?”
    “But I thought Mattheiv Slater didn’t know Lynn Ingram ivas a transsexual.”
    “Because that’s what she said at her trial? Matt knew, all right. And that’s why he stopped going to that pain clinic. Once he found out, he wanted absolutely nothing more to do with the freak."
    “But before your brother-in-law found out, he did see her outside of the pain clinic. ”
    “Matt and my sister had a very solid marriage, Mr. Walker. It was built on devotion and trust. ”
    “You didn’t answer my question, Mr. Bartlett.”
    “If they were seen together, I can assure you it was completely innocent. ”
    Walker paused the tape. “If you recall, at Ingram’s trial, several witnesses gave testimony about seeing Ingram and Slater together in public places—a romantic restaurant on Charles Street, a bar near the clinic, and the Slater maid gave a statement about Ingram'coming to his home on several occasions for ‘pain treatments.’ ”
    Having recently gone over the trial notes, Nat remembered the maid’s statement in particular—the most meaningful part of which was that Jennifer Slater was never at home during these “professional” home visits.    .
    Walker resumed the tape.
    “Your sister believes Lynn Ingram got what was coming to her. I’m speaking about the recent attack, not her manslaughter conviction. ”
    A harsh laugh. “Manslaugher. I guarantee you, if Ingram was your typical grotesque-looking transsexual, he’d have got what he deserved. He should have been charged with and sentenced for first-degree murder. My sister got no justice. She was destroyed by this monstrosity. ”
    “Destroyed?’’
    “Do you have any idea of the humiliation she suffered? Friends — let’s say people she thought were friends—dropped her like she had leprosy. Just when she needed all the support and comfort she could get. Jen was abandoned. Even members of our own family avoided her. ”
    “But you stood by her through thick and