Final Things: A Novel of Suspense
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Final Things: A Novel of Suspense is a crime novel by Virgil Thompson (Author). Published in 2002, it is part legal thriller, part psychological drama. It deals heavily in issues surrounding capital punishment, as its main character is awaiting execution. Other themes include domestic violence and corporate corruption.
[edit] Plot
The novel jockeys between the upscale communities of Connecticut and a maximum security prison. The prologue is a flashback to the night Chief Executive Officer Richard Heath of the Heath Group and several members of his family are murdered. The prologue is written in first person from the point of view of Eric Betancourt, the young protection associate who happens to be on call the night of the murders. Richard Heath has gone to a private getaway in Stanwich, Connecticut, where he is frequently visited by young girls. As the prologue opens, the bodyguards have been dismissed but Heath is by no means alone. Heath has been joined by his son, Jack, who invited a girlfriend. The trio becomes a foursome when Kate Heath, Richard's wife, flies in from a business trip.
Eric is paged out of bed around midnight to check out Heath's main home in wealthy Parkford, Connecticut. As the murders (have already) occurred in Stanwich, Eric finds the Heaths' Parkford home empty. He is paged because a trespasser has been spotted on closed circuit television on the Parkford home grounds by a security monitoring center. Eric checks out the property and finds a Town Car belonging to Heath's wife parked outside the property. Eric dutifully drives the Town Car onto the property, checks out the empty house and the rest of the grounds. He gives the "all clear" signal to the security monitoring center.
The novel fast forwards to a commentary by the narrator (still Eric Betancourt, eight years later) on the identity of the Stanwich killer. It is clear from the narration that Eric is obsessed with this killer. It is also clear that Eric thinks he doesn't know who the killer is, which presents a problem, because Eric is on death row awaiting execution for the Stanwich killings.
In two separate jury trials he was found guilty of capital felony. The first verdict was overturned when juror misconduct was alleged. The second jury recommended the death penalty.
The case against him is strong. Matter from the crime scene was found in the Town Car. The car had been used to transport the murderer to and from the crime scene. Eric picked up fluid and fibers from the Town Car when he parked it and then transferred same to his clothes, personal vehicle, and home. Eric entered the Heath home on his security check, where the weapon (belonging to Richard Heath) was found after it had been used to kill the victims. Eric was having an affair with Heath's wife, Kate, one of the victims. He had a complicated history with another victim, Jack, Heath's son. He had no alibi.
The novel proceeds with a jolting, gritty introduction to the Malcolm Morton Connecticut Correctional Institution in Bynum, Connecticut and the MCU (Maximum Control Unit) on which Eric spends his days and nights. Eric has just won in court the right to continue making decisions in his case. He was diagnosed with brief reactive psychosis, meaning he has become so affected by imprisonment that his sanity is in question. The diagnosis followed his decision to stop all appeals that do not address the claim that he is innocent. Since the appellate process does not retry cases, he has essentially exited the appellate process and is facing a hard execution date. His family, which has guided his case and paid his legal fees down the line, vehemently resists his decision, forcing him to take a court-appointed attorney to navigate the only legal course left to him: an appeal for clemency. Clemency may be sought only after appeals stop. If Eric wins his bid for clemency, he will get a commuted sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
As Eric prepares to face the clemency board, the novel uses a series of encounters to demonstrate there is something odd about Eric. He is understandably obsessed with the killer. He's also very afraid that the killer is fixated on him. He believes the Stanwich killer has murdered others since Stanwich and he believes he can sense the killer's rage and determination through photographic images.
Eric's claims are quickly settled in no-nonsense fashion as Eric demonstrates time after time that he can glean useful information from photographic images. In fact, it is well known among prison staff, who initiate new guards on Eric's unit by entreating Eric to show what he can do. Everyone wants to show Eric pictures and hear what he has to say, including a pair of TV psychics and a private investigator from Maryland.
Note: The novel makes a point of wagging its finger at the circus that surrounds heinous crime and capital punishment. Eric is bombarded with letters from novelists, private investigators, and private citizens who want to meet him. He receives letters from women he calls "letter queens," who provide a colorful, if morbid, fantasy life and propose marriage. It should also be noted that in spite of Eric's chosen profession, he comes from a privileged family with deep pockets.
The public whirlwind surrounding Eric's predicament is contrasted by the private torment his situation inflicts on his family. The Betancourts are a fractious, damaged unit with explored and unexplored issues of domestic and sexual abuse. There is a distant shady character who figures as the cause for the troubled Betancourts. In spite of that, Eric's siblings could stand in at a role call for who's who in corporate America. They are self-aware and selfish go-getters, heavy drinkers, bad parents, and whiners. Their issues are tempered by a genuine and desperate fear for Eric's life. One can picture them easily on the cover of pop magazines, beautiful, broken have-everythings who can't get it together long enough to enjoy it. The Family Betancourt is large: father James, elder sister Noelle, Robert, deceased brother Jason, younger brother Trent, and baby sister Sharon. Coming at the reader through Eric's viewpoint, the characterizations of family are precise and merciless. Eric, who is perceived by his siblings as a thrill junkie, fled this "paradise" as soon as he was eighteen, escaping to military service. Eric is a Marine Corps veteran.
Now that he has been cut off from the family money, Eric welcomes a private investigator to his case. Grace Vilsaint, the PI from Maryland, gets a backwards letter of introduction through Eric's former wife, Pamela. Eric and Pam served together in the Marines. Now Pam is an investigator team leader for a big agency in Washington DC.
"Profiling" Eric, Grace realizes Eric wants his impending execution to bring the Stanwich killer into the open. It's Eric's opinion that the killer is proud of the killings and resents Eric for getting the attention of the public and the media.
Soon after Eric is given a hard date for execution, two roommates are murdered. The crime scene suggests elements of the Stanwich murders.
Eric is devastated about the loss of life. And the murders do nothing to clear him. Instead, they suggest an accomplice, which brings out the state violent crime investigators. One man in particular, Detective Bonadies, is not surprised by the possibility of an accomplice.
Time is running out. The clemency hearing is a disaster. Eric's attorney attempts to use newly discovered evidence of corporate corruption to win a stay of execution. The evidence suggests organized crime may have wanted to eliminate Richard Heath. Oddly enough, the evidence is delivered by Ann Heath, Richard's daughter.
When the stay of execution and clemency request are denied, Eric must prepare for execution. He uncovers a minor deception by his private investigator that endears her to him. Although he refuses to allow his family in the witness room, he agrees to let Grace support him during the exceution. During a poignant farewell session with immediate family, Eric shows that his decision to die without family support is rooted in love. His family situation remains complex.
Eric begins the last hours of his life, during which he learns the killer has taken the life of his ex-wife Pam.
The novel switches to third person and takes on the viewpoint of two officials. In the immediate time frame, the execution of Eric Betancourt continues toward its climax while Detective Bonadies of the state violent crime unit, acting on a morsel of information Eric gives him, races to the crime scene of the killer's latest victim. Detective Bonadies gets this information after showing Eric a photograph of the body of his ex-wife. The second official is in the execution witness chamber and tells the reader what it is like to watch the preparations.
With precious time to spare, Detective Bonadies gets more information at a fresh crime scene. He finds ... sooner than the killer intended ... a treasure of information about Stanwich and a man names Gregory Ozolins, who once worked at a Heath Group company. Ozolins was displaced when Heath sold Ozolins' designs to a new York-based IT company.
The information found by Bonadies is enough to get Eric a third trial. Eric is spared with seconds to go. Physically and mentally wrecked, Eric is hospitalized at the prison until the judge overseeing his case awards bail. The state's attorney is so unlikely to get a conviction that he is expected to re-file the charges as manslaughter and offer Eric a sentence of time served. The state's attorney assumes Eric will not risk his life when he can simply walk away. This way, Eric does not walk off death row innocent and the case goes away.
Eric is transferred to a private hospital. The novel is still in third person, mostly from Bonadies' point of view. The time frame has advanced several months and there is an ominous feeling, created by the direction the investigation is taking, that Eric was safer inside prison.
For one, Bonadies can't find Gregory Ozolins, who is alleging through emails that he is the Stanwich killer. Bonadies has found sex tapes linked to the Stanwich crime scene. The tapes suggest Ann Heath was sexually molested by her father. Bonadies finds out that Eric knew about the sex tapes and lied about them. Bonadies finds out Pam's murder is connected to a crime far older than the Stanwich case, a crime in which Eric's brother Jason died.
The novel returns to Eric's point of view and shifts into gear for the ending. Eric is given a yearbook by Bonadies. The yearbook was taken from Pam's things. When Eric searches the yearbook, he finds a notation that takes him back to his boyhood. He remembers his brother Jason's drowning death. Eric also remembers this: while retrieving a personal item for Richard Heath, Eric found a cache of VHS tapes depicting old and new sexual acts. Ann was on the tapes. Another memory: when Eric took the tape to her, he and Ann discussed their low opinion of Heath. Ann disclosed what she knew about Jason's drowning. Eric asked Ann to tell no one else what she told him, namely that her father covered a crucial element about Jason's drowning. Until he finds the yearbook, Eric did not consider Ann may have disregarded his request.
As he considers, now, that she might have told a member of his family (his father, his brother Robert, or his brother Trent), Eric faces the possibility someone in his immediate family is a homicidal sociopath.
Though this is by no means an easy step for Eric, he realizes he has to test his theory. Luring his brothers and father into a meeting with Ann Heath outside an abandoned warehouse, Eric observes from an upper floor window. At his side is private investigator and now love interest Grace Vilsaint.
Ann Heath arrives first. Eric sees the distress and rage on her face, the face she shows when no one is looking. He feels certain that Ann indeed worked with someone to kill her father. Eric tells Grace, "It's going to be someone with a reason to hate pedophiles." Eric's brother Trent was molested by an uncle.
Trent shows up first. Eric watches their interaction. There's no guilty exchange between Trent and Ann. Trent is not the killer.
Eric's father shows up after Trent leaves. Not knowing Trent was ever there, Eric's father meets Ann. Eric can't tell if his father is the one. While his father is with Ann, Eric's brother Robert drives up. Robert walks up to his father, draws a gun, and shoots. Robert and Ann get Eric's father into the trunk of a car. Then they enter the building, convinced Eric is exactly where he is: on an upper level inside somewhere and watching.
Things get worse when Eric's brother Trent returns, parks, and enters the old building, presumably wondering why his father and brother's cars are outside.
To save Trent, Eric confronts Robert. Their confrontation goes from verbal to physical. Robert wounds Eric but not before Eric saves Trent from a fatal attack. Grace shoots and kills Robert. When Grace is checking Eric's wounds, Ann finds Robert's gun and points it at Eric, Grace, and Trent.
Eric, too weak to raise his voice, asks Trent to speak to Ann for him. "He didn't know it was you," Eric tells Trent to tell Ann.
Hearing this, Ann understands immediately. Her intended victim was her father and no one else. Jack, Kate Heath, and Jack's girlfriend (the fourth victim) arrived in Stanwich unexpectedly. Ann had not planned for Jack to die.
Throughout the Stanwich case Eric has been unable to use his gift to solve the murders because the crime scene photos just did not give enough information. From Jack Heath's photo, he got fear and pain but no clue to the identity of Jack's killer. Jack did not see his killer's face and so died without knowing the shooter was his sister.
Acknowledging Trent's statement and overtaken by grief, Ann shoots herself. Rescue arrives.
It's over.
In the Epilogue, Eric and Bonadies tie up loose ends. Eric's father survives surgery. His body located, Gregory Ozolins is exonerated and revealed as a temporary dupe. Bonadies and Eric agree Robert loved the experience of killing too much to let Ozolins go down in history as the Stanwich Killer.
Recovering from his wounds, Eric travels to meet Grace, who has returned home to Maryland. She is pointedly aware that she shot and killed Eric's brother. Eric tells her, "Thank you for saving Trent. And for saving me." Eric and Grace agree that they want a relationship and they are willing to take it slow.
The novel ends.
