Murder in the Courthouse (36 page)

Tish turned on her, cursing, spittle spewing out of her mouth, full of hate like the devil himself.

Heaving the metal cylinder up over her head, Hailey crashed it down with a loud metallic thud onto Tish's forehead. Hailey pulled it back again. Blood flew across the bathroom, spattering onto the white sinks, the mirrors, the floor, the metal stalls. Hailey slammed it down on Tish's face with all her might and then . . . again and again, Tish Adams's nose crunching under the tank, blood spurting out onto the floor, onto Hailey in a gush.

Like an animal gone wild, Hailey pulled back the tank again, holding on to both ends as best as she could and thrust it down again
as Tish Adams lay on the floor. It careened off her chin and landed hard on her right shoulder. Tish Adams now lay in a pool of blood, creeping out to form a crimson rug underneath her. Like Alton's body. Teeth were in the blood on the floor beside Adams's face and her mouth hung open against the cool tile beneath her.

Hailey fell back, sitting on the floor of the ladies bathroom there in the Chatham County Courthouse. It was then she saw deep red blossoming, blooming ever bigger on her own chest.

Hailey Dean was shot.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

I
t was unnaturally cool.

Tish Adams stood, her face a black-and-blue pulp and arm in a sling, directly in front of none other than the imposing figure of Luther Alverson. He stared down from his bench at her. Slowly, he read the charges against her.

The indictments for murder had been handed down by a hastily assembled grand jury, rousted from their beds and called to the courthouse. In a bizarre twist of fate, on the first bench behind her, just beyond the rail, stood her son, Todd Adams, now out on bond thanks to Mikey DelVecchio and his new buddies at All-Night Bonding Company.

Across the aisle, on the front row, stood Garland Fincher. He stood stock-still, staring straight ahead of him directly at Tish Adams. His face looked like thunder. His hands in fists. Beside him, still standing, was Hailey Dean.

Her shoulder sported a thick bandage with stitches underneath where a bullet had grazed her, but otherwise not much worse for the wear. On her other side stood Chase Billings. He glanced occasionally at Tish Adams. For the most part, his eyes remained locked on Hailey beside him. It was hard to take in what happened the night before, that Hailey had somehow managed to literally dodge a bullet . . . well, almost. Tish Adams aimed the .22 straight at Hailey. If Hailey hadn't dived onto the floor at that split second, she'd be dead right now.

“Quit staring! Do I look that bad without makeup? It's your fault! I asked to stop at the drugstore for blush and lipstick but you said we didn't have time!” Billings checked to make sure she was smiling when she said it. She was. Actually, she was even more beautiful without the distraction of makeup, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to tell her that.

Her crystal green eyes were like pools of tropical ocean water, almost unnaturally green. They were framed by her light brown brows, and her silky blonde hair fell in waves around her face. Her lips were perfectly shaped and pink without lipstick or gloss to enhance them, and even with all Billings knew she had been through in her short life, her face remained unlined except for two light wrinkles on either side of her lips . . . laugh lines. Hailey Dean seemed to love to laugh and could almost always find something light and funny to say . . . when she wanted to. He loved that about her. She always made him smile . . . and she wasn't the kind of girl that minded laughing out loud, really loud if warranted. And then . . . there were her half smiles, and he loved those too.

Wham!

The sound of the judge pounding his gavel snapped Billings out of his daze. “So ordered. The defendant Tish Adams is hereby remanded to the Chatham County Jail until said time when she shall be tried for the murders of Alton Turner, Eleanor Odom, and Cecil Snodgrass, and the attempted murder of Hailey Dean. We now await the district attorney's decision as to whether this will be a death penalty case and at the time that announcement is made, this court will be in recess on this matter.
Court adjourned!
” He pounded the gavel again very loudly, shot a look of contempt and loathing at Tish Adams, and left the bench.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

“I
've got to hear the whole thing again, and this time, slowly. I only got the extremely abbreviated version at the hospital this morning. And then, the red tape of getting you out and over to the courthouse in time for the grand jury . . . I can't believe the DA moved so fast. He had to have the grand jury in there by 8
AM
at the latest to have the indictment handed down and signed in time for the hearing. What time did you testify in front of them, Hailey?”

“The DA swore me in at eight-fifteen, I told my story, and, believe it or not, I was out of there at eight-thirty.”

“No questions?” Billings asked, gently holding the back of her elbow on her good side, the left, as they descended the courthouse steps. Finch stood protectively on her right.

“I never fell for her act . . . with the oxygen tank and all . . . the ‘poor me' look all the way through the trial . . . always skulking around . . . she put a bad taste in my mouth from the get-go. No wonder the son is such a loser. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, you know that's right,” Finch, glancing to the left and the right as if on lookout, was growling the whole way down the steps, having his own conversation by himself that had nothing to do with what Hailey and Billings were talking about.

“Not a single question. I started with me flying down to profile for the state and pick apart Todd Adams's behavior. I told it just how it unfolded . . . going to Alton's home, the murder scene, going back out there and finding the black plastic valve, Elle's death, and meeting Cecil Snodgrass. Then, I went straight to last night. They didn't ask any questions, but they were all listening and taking notes. We'd only been outside the grand jury room for two, maybe three minutes when they rang the buzzer that they'd voted. The DA went in, was in there about one minute, and came out with the signed indictment.”

“Then what happened? Oh, and did they get the oxygen cap out of the back of your car?” Chase Billings, still staring at Hailey nonstop, asked the question standing at the crosswalk to the parking deck.

“They did get it. Amazing I hadn't thrown it out. They got it this morning. Techs got it and took photos. I think they're back out at Alton's right now. So anyway, back to this morning . . . then I walked to the elevator with the DA, we went and filed the indictment at the clerk's office, and then we came to the courtroom.”

“Oh.” Billings was still staring, Finch still fussing.

“Then, the DA peeled off and went into the judge's chambers and I went into the courtroom. That's when I saw you guys; and before I could really even sit down, the judge came onto the bench and they wheeled Tish Adams in front of him.”

“I should have seen it coming. I can't believe I didn't figure it out before the old bag could take a shot at you. You know, the more I think about it, all the signs were there . . .” Finch was in his own world, still muttering under his breath about Tish Adams.

“Hey, Finch! How are you, man? Long time no see!” All three looked at a tall man coming toward them in the crosswalk. It was none other than Cloud Sims, still in jeans and silver-studded cowboy boots, sauntering up.

“Sims! Hey, guy! How are you? What brings you to Savannah?” Finch grabbed Cloud Sims in a big bear hug. Hailey stared between the two of them.

“And Miss Hailey Dean, how are you? And what are you doing with a character like Garland Fincher? You're going to get a bad reputation hanging out with this guy. And lo and behold, the famous Lieutenant Chase Billings! Last time I saw you, you'd just busted up that bank robbery!” The bear hug with Finch complete, Cloud began pumping Billings's right hand enthusiastically.

“Good memory, Cloud. That's right. I'll never forget that one. So what brings you here?”

“Wait a minute, who
are
you?” Hailey asked with a quizzical look, glancing between the three.

“Just like I told you on the plane, I'm Cloud Sims, Cornhusker-turned-NYPD, now private eye! I've run into these two troublemakers more than once. And I'm still not giving up on having dinner with you sometime, Hailey Dean.”

Billings immediately jumped in, effectively cutting off discussion of Cloud's dinner plans. “Sims, you never did say what case you're working down here.”

“Ah. Right. I had to lie to Hailey about being here, you know, to protect my client. Some judge's wife convinced he's seeing some other lady in the courthouse. You know, same old same old! But it pays the bills and then some! Right?”

“Oh no!”
all three groaned in unison.

“Not Judge Regard and Eleanor Odom? You're hired by Vickie Regard, right?” Finch asked first.

“Well, normally I wouldn't divulge, but since we're old crime-fighting buddies, I'll spill the beans.” Cloud Sims looked around, then lowered his voice a smidge.

“It's Regard all right, but not Eleanor Odom. She knows all about Eleanor. That's old news. Now it's some young public defender straight out of law school. That Judge Regard. He sure gets around. When does that guy have time to sit on the bench?” Cloud burst into laughter.

“Hey, I have to run, guys. I got some recon to do. I'll see you around the courthouse. You, Hailey Dean, I intend to see you one night for dinner! And no, I don't have your number but hey, I'm a PI! I'll find it! Bye, folks!”

With that, Cloud Sims hustled toward the steps. He bounded up them two at a time.

“You're having a date with that guy?” Billings asked as soon as Sims was out of sight.

Hailey started laughing. “I've been trying
not
to have a date with him since I got on the plane from LaGuardia!” The light turned green and the three headed into the crosswalk.

“Hailey, back to Tish Adams, you think it will be a DP?” Billings asked.

Weaving between pedestrians, Hailey gave a brief glance toward where she'd been pushed in front of the CAT bus. “You know what? I should call the DA. I just realized, there should be two counts of attempted murder and agg assault . . . he didn't include the bus!”

“That's right, Hailey. And we just managed to narrow down the exact time yesterday. That camera on the top right corner of the courthouse may just be the ticket. And the parking garage exit camera may help too.”

“Really? That's great! I can't wait to see this . . . myself pushed in front of a bus with a not-so-graceful landing.”

“We've already sent a subpoena to the parking garage owners for it. That could prove it. You don't need to call him; I'll bring the video over to him myself and he can re-indict. Just those counts. They can play for the grand jury; you probably won't even need to testify again.”

“Great!” Hailey responded as they stepped up on the other sidewalk. Both Finch and Billings lifted her under her elbows. She felt she could walk just fine but knew they were dead set on helping her, so she stayed quiet. They both blamed themselves for not being there the night before.

“I mean . . .
why couldn't we see she's pure evil?
I can't believe we all missed it . . .” Finch kept fighting with himself, although he did occasionally glance over at Hailey and Billings as if he half-expected them to answer all his hypotheticals . . . his shoulda coulda wouldas.

“So, Hailey, death penalty or no death penalty?” Billings asked again, totally ignoring Finch's questions.

“I don't think he has a choice. Mass murder's defined in the criminal code as more than one body. Second, you have the murders of not one but two law enforcement officers, Turner and Snodgrass. Third, as if you need a third, you've got the murder of an officer of the court, Elle. And there's a fourth trigger for the DP: They were tortured. Alton was severed nearly completely at the waist, Elle died a painful death from, essentially, poison, and Snodgrass was fed to the gators. I only hope he was fully sedated when it happened. That's three grounds for a death sentence . . . off the top of my head.”

“I mean . . . Hailey . . . if you had told me you were going out to Alton Turner's house and I had seen the cigarettes with lipstick on them . . . maybe
I'd
have figured it out.” Finch wouldn't stop.

“You would
not
have figured it out. You couldn't. Stop beating yourself up. With her dragging around an oxygen tank, all hunched over like she was near death, crying, gasping for breath every other minute and really loudly in front of the jury . . .”

“Then there was the fake COPD episode when the state surprise-called her to the stand . . .” Finch chimed in to defend himself.

“I thought it was a fake asthma attack. Who said COPD? I'm sure they said asthma in court . . .” Billings cut in.

“
Whatever it was, it was fake!
She had to fake it to get out of court and down to Gator World before dark! That's my point! You couldn't have guessed it with all that acting going on . . .” Hailey managed to get a few words in.

“And with the training in nursing, I mean, the tank, the syringe, the GHB, and she knew where to get 'em and she knew how to use 'em.” Finch was trying again to justify how he'd missed the whole charade that played out right under his nose.

“Right . . . an oxygen tank with a loaded .22 stashed under it. I bet they don't teach that at nursing school. This lady's no softie.” Billings again.

“And she's no lady, either,” Finch snapped.

They headed to the elevator bank at the parking deck and stepped on together. “Hey . . . do you think she's the one who killed Julie? Hailey, do you remember where you left your car?”