Jim Robinson

“Good,” Holly says, and sets sail, sensible low heels clacking. The elevator doors open on the fifth floor and there, waiting to get on, are Barbara’s parents. Tanya has her cell phone in her hand, and looks at Holly as if at an apparition. Jim Robinson says he’ll be damned.

Barbara’s parents Tanya and Jim meet Holly; Jim holds the elevator door.

She ends the call, wondering just what Barbara’s special project could be. Writing is Holly’s best guess, something carried in the genes. Jim Robinson, their father, spent ten years as a newspaper reporter on the Cleveland Plain Dealer; Jerome is writing a book about his notorious great-grandfather; so why not?

The account names Jerome and Barbara’s father Jim Robinson and his decade as a Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter.

Dad said he’d do it for her on his way home from work. He goes out to get the paperwork, then comes back in from the driveway holding up a key. He’s not mad, but he’s irritated.

Jerome describes his actual father buying and re-registering his mother’s red Malibu in the established Robinson household. Holly explicitly names Jim Robinson as Jerome and Barbara’s father, and End of Watch shows Jim and Tanya together as Barbara’s parents. The trilogy/series continues these same siblings, parents and household; no competing father is established.

Holly doesn’t protest this; although Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are alive and perfectly fine, Barb and Jerome sort of are her kids.

The same Mr. and Mrs. Robinson sentence identifies both parents of Jerome and Barbara. Holly explicitly names their father Jim Robinson.