The Heavens May Fall (34 page)

“Well, if you insist,” Ben said.

“I do. Need a ride?”

“No.” Ben nodded toward the deputy still standing quietly in the back of the courtroom. “I’ll catch a cab home. After being surrounded by men twenty-four hours a day, I’d like to be alone for one night. Get cleaned up and get my head together before I see Emma.”

Ben held out his arms one last time and embraced both Boady and Lila. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”

Chapter 58

By the time Boady left the Government Center, the snow had stopped falling and the final tally came to eight inches. He had cursed the snow that morning on his drive in, but now the city was absolutely stunning. The world was right. He meandered as he made his way toward Macy’s to buy a new coat. He felt like whistling a Christmas carol, but he and Diana had a rule: no carols until after Thanksgiving. So he whistled “Singin’ in the Rain” instead.

The downtown Macy’s was a mere four blocks from the Government Center, and after he bought the coat, he decided to take in the beauty of Minneapolis in winter and walk outside as he made his way back to his car.

Still a block away from the parking ramp, he spied a man standing on the corner of Seventh Street and Third Avenue. He wore a coat that looked an awful lot like the one Boady just gave Ben. The man was looking away from Boady and in the direction of the oncoming traffic. The coat collar was up, but even so, the man looked like Ben Pruitt. Boady picked up his pace slightly, and as he drew closer he could see that it was Ben watching for a taxi to come up the street. Boady was about to call out to his friend when a white SUV pulled up and stopped in front of Ben.

Ben jumped into the SUV and immediately leaned over to the driver and began kissing her. Boady stopped walking, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He could not see the woman’s face as she wrapped her hands around Ben’s shoulder and neck and held him in their embrace. Boady couldn’t move as he watched the kiss grow in intensity.

When they ended the kiss, Ben settled into the passenger seat of the Cadillac Escalade, and Boady could see the face of the driver. It was Malena Gwin.

The SUV pulled back out into traffic and headed toward Boady. As it passed, Ben and Boady locked eyes. The corners of Ben’s mouth turned upward into a malevolent grin, as if to say
now you know my secret
. But behind Ben’s eyes, Boady saw fear.

Chapter 59

Lila parked on Summit Avenue because Boady’s driveway hadn’t been cleared of snow yet. She stomped slush off of her boots as she crossed the porch, knocked on the front door as she always did, and then let herself in. Lights were on in the entryway and Professor Sanden’s office, but the rest of the house remained dark. She began loosening the laces on her boots.

“Professor Sanden?” she called out. “I just came to clear out my room.”

Still no reply.

She slipped her wet boots off and walked in her stocking feet to Boady’s office. Through the glass of the French doors she could see him sitting at his chair, staring at his computer monitor.

“Professor? You okay?”

Professor Sanden looked up at her with an expression so sad, so defeated, that it confused Lila. He waved her in. “Sit down,” he said pointing to a chair. When she had taken a seat, he turned the monitor so that she could see it. The screen showed a paused image from the tollbooth footage—a white SUV with a man in the driver’s seat. “Recognize him?” he asked.

Lila looked closely at the image, the recognition seeping into her consciousness one sliver at a time. “That looks like . . . Mr. Pruitt.”

“It is Mr. Pruitt,” Professor Sanden said. “The car belongs to Malena Gwin.”

“I don’t understand.”

“After court today, I saw Ben get into this car and kiss Malena Gwin. We were looking for a red sedan, not Malena Gwin’s SUV. I mean, who would have thought of that?”

“Professor Sanden, I still don’t understand.”

Sanden paused as if to force out words that refused to cross his tongue. “Ben Pruitt killed his wife, and he had Malena Gwin as an accomplice.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Lila said. “Malena Gwin was the one who caused this whole trial. She’s the one who said she saw Mr. Pruitt that night. If it wasn’t for her, Mr. Pruitt would never have been charged.”

“And when he gets acquitted, he’ll have double jeopardy. He can never again be prosecuted for her murder. He wanted to get charged. He needed to go to trial. That was his plan all along.”

“But he was convicted.”

“True. I don’t think that was part of the plan. I’m sure he believed that once Malena Gwin changed her testimony, he’d walk. Regardless, he had a trump card. He knew about the bedding. He knew the furnace wouldn’t work as long as that duct was clogged. He stuffed that bedding down there to make sure it would eventually be found.”

Lila played the case in her head, seeing it differently this time around. “That’s why he moved the body.”

Boady smiled at Lila’s insight. “Exactly. It never made complete sense why the killer went through the trouble of moving the body to that parking lot. We all assumed the killer was trying to hide his crime and failed when he found no room in the dumpster. But it was the exact opposite. Ben dumped Jennavieve’s body in that parking lot to ensure it would be found while he had an alibi in Chicago. We couldn’t prove the alibi because Max Rupert was right. He did drive back here. Malena Gwin said it was a red sedan because it would get Max looking for the wrong car.”

“We need to tell Judge Ransom,” Lila said. “He didn’t acquit Mr. Pruitt today. We need to tell him before he issues that order tomorrow.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Professor Sanden. Ben Pruitt is a murderer. We know he’s a murderer. We know he’s about to go free. We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“We are bound by the rules, Lila. We have an ethical obligation to act diligently for our client’s best interest. If we take any action that is contrary to our client’s best interest, not only do we violate that obligation, but the evidence would be inadmissible. Ransom all but said that he intends to acquit Ben. If we went to him and told him what we know, he would have to ignore it. He has no choice either. What we know about Ben now will not become evidence. Ben will not be convicted if we go running to Ransom—at least not under that theory.”

“Is there nothing we can do?”

“I’ve been racking my brain over that question, Lila. I have an idea, but . . . I don’t know. There’s no precedent for it, at least none that I know of.”

“Can I help?”

“Yes. There’s a book in the law library, a treatise on ethics that I use in my class. It can’t be checked out, but I’ll call ahead and tell them it’s for my research and they’ll let you leave with it.” Boady wrote the title of the book on a piece of paper and handed it to Lila. “Can you drive over and get that for me?”

“Sure thing, Professor. I’ll have it here in a flash.” Lila ran to the door, slipped on her boots, and raced to her car, nearly falling on the slippery, snow-covered sidewalk.

The interior of her car was still warm and the windshield clean. When she got behind the wheel, she pulled her keys from her purse so hurriedly that they sailed from her trembling fingers, bounced off of the steering column, and fell to the floor. Lila reached down and patted the wet floor mat, looking for her keys, all the while cursing herself for losing her head. She was about to open her door and get out to look for the keys when her fingers felt them under her seat.

When she sat back up, she saw the headlights of a car, a black BMW, pulling up to the curb across the street to park. Lila was about to start her car when the door of the BMW opened enough to flood its interior with light. And there, behind the wheel, sat Ben Pruitt.

Lila slid down in her seat just enough to keep a thin view of Ben Pruitt stepping out of his car. He straightened up, looked around, and then bent back down, reaching into the center of his car. When he stood back up, he had a small black pistol in his hand.

Lila scrunched down even more and held her breath.

Ben Pruitt tucked the gun into the back of his waistband and started toward Professor Sanden’s house.

Chapter 60

Max Rupert had gotten two calls from Frank Dovey that evening, which he let go to voice mail. When he listened to them later, he could hear the desperation in the man’s voice. The first call came just after Max got home from work. The message came across as a command, telling Max that he needed to get to the prosecutor’s office right away—something about only having twenty-four hours to find a smoking gun. Max deleted the message without returning the call.

The second message, left half an hour after the first, was more pleading in tone. Dovey apologized for calling Max at home, explaining that he’d gotten Max’s number from Lieutenant Briggs and that he really needed Max’s help. In the second message, Dovey explained that Kagen had pled the Fifth and that the case had fallen apart. He said that he’d managed to get a delay of one day to fix the holes in the case, and that he needed Max’s help to do that. Dovey ended that call with a plea that rang pathetic in Max’s ear. Max deleted that message as well.

Later that evening, after Max shoveled the snow from his driveway, his phone chimed again. He didn’t recognize the caller and considered letting it go to voice mail, believing it to be Dovey again, using a different phone. Instead, he decided to confront Dovey and let loose the raw opinions that had been swirling through Max’s head as he shoveled snow.

“Max Rupert here.”

“Max, this is Lila Nash.” Her voice, a whisper, came through the phone in quick spurts.

“Lila, how are—”

“Max, I can’t explain, but I need you to come to Professor Sanden’s house. It’s urgent.”

“Look, Lila, if this is some sort of trick to get me to talk to Boady, I’m disappointed.”

“Damn it, Max. This is Lila. You know me. I need you to get over here.”

Something in her voice convinced him that this was no stunt. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure if I am supposed to be calling you. I don’t know what to do. Can you just get here as fast as you can?”

“With lights and sirens, I can be there in ten, maybe twelve minutes.”

“No sirens, at least not when you get close. Something’s going down, and I don’t want to make it any worse.”

“Are you safe, Lila?”

“Yes, but I’m not so sure about Professor Sanden. Please hurry. I’ll explain when you get here.”

“I’m on my way.” Max put his phone into his pocket, grabbed his gun, badge, and a coat, and ran out the door.

Chapter 61

Boady stared at the computer screen, the words of the case he’d been reading no longer in focus. Instead, he saw a vision of Emma’s face. She had her mother’s eyes, sad eyes that held more pain in them than a ten-year-old should have to bear. And what was about to happen, what Boady had in mind, would break that little girl’s heart even more, break it in a way that could never be mended.

How could she ever forgive him for what he was about to do? But it had to be done. Boady could see no other way.

He thought back to the years he spent with Ben Pruitt and searched his memory for signs of the monster he now could see. There were ten years between their ages, but Boady felt a brotherly fondness for his protégé that still tugged at his heart, even now that he knew the truth. Had that monster been lurking inside Ben the whole time? Had the closeness he felt toward Ben blinded him? Boady thought back to all the meetings they had at the jail, the pure emotion on Ben’s face, the tears and other small touches that put his performance over the top. He’d been so convincing.

As Boady tore down and restacked his memories of Ben, he came to realize that Ben’s performance wasn’t simply the creation of a brilliant actor. Acting was part of it, yes, but this was more than just an act. This was the work of a sociopath.

He heard the front door open and assumed that it was Lila returning because she had forgotten something. The sound didn’t pull him from his thoughts. After a few minutes, he sensed a presence in his periphery. He looked up to see Ben Pruitt standing in the doorway to his office. Boady jumped on the inside but suppressed his reaction on the outside.

“Good evening, Ben,” he said.

“Mind if I come in?” Ben asked.

“Be my guest.” Boady gestured to a chair.

“Isn’t this where you say you’re surprised to see me?”

“No. There’s no point in such pretense.” Boady clicked his mouse to bring up the freeze-frame from the tollbooth. He turned the screen to Ben.

“I don’t think that’s my best side, do you?”

“You killed Jennavieve?” No matter how he tried, Boady couldn’t mask the hurt in his voice.

“Are you asking me as a friend, or as my attorney?”

“I think it’s safe to say that we are no longer friends, Ben. Not after this.”

“That’s too bad, because I still like you, Boady. You did a hell of a job for me. Honestly, I’ve been dying to spill the beans for a while now, especially after they found the sheets and the knife. I wanted so bad to let you in on my little secret. And because we have attorney-client privilege, I could have. But then I remembered ol’ Miguel Quinto. I didn’t want you slacking on the job the way you did with him. Things were getting critical, and I needed your head in the game.”

“Why are you here, Ben?”

“Well, Boady, when I saw you downtown, I got a little nervous. I mean, you should have seen the look on your face—like you just watched me stab a puppy or something. That got me to thinking, and, well, I just thought I’d drop by to make sure you aren’t thinking of doing anything foolish.”

“What could I do?” Boady asked. “My hands are tied.”

“That’s what I always liked about you, Boady. Everything by the book.”

“You killed Emma’s mother.”

“I killed a shrew,” Ben shot back coldly. Boady could see in his eyes that Ben had spoken a truth he hadn’t meant to utter out loud. Ben took a small breath to recompose himself and then continued. “Great job, by the way, getting that napkin with Kagen’s DNA on it. I was getting a little concerned that you weren’t going to pull it off. But then you did your magic.”