He grunted agreement, although he pointed out there wasn’t enough there to get Baladine arrested, let alone convicted. I agreed and put in the first of the Nicola tapes to see if it might give us something more concrete.
The tape was dated about six months before Nicola’s arrest for theft. We watched Nicola waking Utah and Madison, a sleepy Utah clinging to her nanny while Madison chatted vivaciously about the many things she was doing better in at school than anyone else. We saw Eleanor and BB kissing briefly as he left for the office on a “don’t know how late I’ll be tonight, sweetheart” line and Eleanor in the nursery adjuring Nicola not to baby Utah. “She’s almost three. It’s time you stopped carrying her everywhere.” When Nicola said brokenly that she didn’t understand, Eleanor told her not to play stupid and plunked Utah from Nicola’s arms onto the floor. Utah began to howl. As soon as Eleanor left the room, Nicola picked her up and began soothing her in a language I didn’t know, presumably Tagalog.
It was unnerving to watch Nicola Aguinaldo alive, even in the grainy production of the home video. She was petite, so small that next to Eleanor Baladine she looked like a child herself. In Eleanor’s presence she became as waxen as one of the children’s dolls, but alone with the little girls she grew more relaxed. Robbie came in and began playing with Utah. He spoke Spanish to Nicola, who teased him about his accent and got him to laugh back at her. I had never seen Robbie happy. Talking in Spanish to him, Nicola became vivacious, almost beautiful. Eleanor called up to say the school bus was there.
The tape covered a two–week period. Scenes broke off abruptly as people either moved out of camera range or turned off the camera. A conversation Eleanor was having with a gardener ended suddenly as Baladine called Nicola to his study. We watched her enter and stand with a face drained of expression. When she quietly took off and folded her clothes, she seemed to treat it as the same kind of chore that putting away Madison and Utah’s clothes was. Baladine himself did not undress. It was unbearable, and I couldn’t watch. When Morrell heard me crying he switched off the machine.
“I can’t show that to a roomful of reporters,” I muttered. “It’s too indecent.”
“Do you want me to watch the other reel and summarize it for you?” he asked.
“Yes. No. I think I’d better see for myself.”
The second reel was similar to the first, except for the scene in Baladine’s study. This time Nicola was begging for money for her child’s hospital bills and Baladine was telling her impatiently that he paid her a good wage and that she had a hell of a nerve to try begging for money on a made–up story. Nicola offered herself to him and he laughed at her. It was a scene of such agonizing humiliation that I finally left the library to pace the school corridor. When I came back, Morrell had finished the tape and rewound it. Father Lou had slipped into the room while I was walking around.
“There wasn’t anything on it about the necklace or her arrest. We’ll have to imagine that part,” Morrell said.
“That poor child,” Father Lou said. “What a crucifixion she endured. That man, her boss, he’s the one you’re after?”
I was as sweaty and depleted as if I’d run a marathon and could only nod.
“I still don’t know if you’re doing the right thing or not, but I’ll help you out. Let you use the library here for your press conference.”
I blinked. “But, Father, you know—Baladine not only has a lot of artillery at his disposal, he’s not afraid to use it. Women and children don’t mean anything special to him. I couldn’t possibly guarantee your safety, or the safety of the school. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?” Morrell said sharply when I didn’t finish the sentence.
“Unless I get Baladine to come to me first. Before we lay the case out to the media. Especially since we can prove Frenada was at his pool the night he died. If I bring him to me, I won’t have to lie here tensely waiting for him to make some kind of move.”
“No,” Morrell said. “Putting your head on the block for him to chop off is nuts. You know Freeman Carter would give you the same advice.”
I scrunched up my mouth in a monkey face. “More than likely. But I’m tired of walking around in terror. Ever since he sicced Lemour on me in June, I’ve had to watch every step I take, and my time in Coolis has only made me more nervous. If I let him know I’ve got these tapes and the tape he made of him and Alex, I think he’ll come get them. And if I leave the church, he won’t do it here where the kids will be in danger.”