To the public, Kevin and Renee were best known for landmark prosecutions of Camden's two "untouchables": mob-connected Mayor Milton Milan and cocaine godfather Jose "J.R." Rivera - criminals whose influence had suffocated chances for reviving one of America's poorest cities.
Kevin and Renee had accomplished this, the agent knew, while struggling through two perilous pregnancies - one of them so dire they planned the funeral before the birth. Their personal story remained largely unknown outside the starched-shirt world of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Camden.
Sweeney said nothing and stepped into the hallway.
Renee closed the door. She looked her husband in the eye.
"I have breast cancer," she said.
*
Of course they cried. He said everything would be OK. She said, "It has to be." Especially given what had happened with their daughters, Elizabeth and Katrina.
They held each other.
Five minutes later, Renee composed herself and opened the door. Without a word, she moved past Sweeney.
Safely back inside her corner office, Renee, the attorney-in-charge of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Camden, shut the door and called her mother.
"Mom, are you sitting down?"
After the call, Renee spoke to God.
Important investigations - of suspect billboard deals by former senior aides to New Jersey's governor and alleged corruption at the Delaware River and Bay Authority - could wait.
Renee needed spiritual answers.
She prayed, with anger: I know they say that God only gives you what you can handle. Well, God - I think I've had enough over the last five years. I think I got your message. I know you're there. I just don't think I can handle any more.
Five years before . . .
On a crisp October morning in 1998 filled with anticipation, Renee daydreamed as her husband drove her up the New Jersey Turnpike.
