The Trials of Nikki Hill (48 page)

The district attorney’s office was almost back to normal, though its reputation would be in question for some time to come. Wise was behind the big desk, at least until the next election, and probably thereafter. The top job hadn’t seemed to change him much. He was still rude and annoying and at times unbearable. As far as Nikki could tell, he was an honorable man, in his own odd way. As long as she did her job and got the proper number of convictions, he treated her with respect.

She and Virgil were maintaining a steady relationship that, both of them agreed, should be allowed to progress slowly. They attended church regularly and on more than one occasion had had cordial, if brief, conversations after the services with her father and her step-relations.

Loreen Battles’s romance with Sonny the bodyguard lasted for only that one night of bliss. As she later confided to Nikki, “The man is a splendid physical specimen, but he’s so wrapped up in his bodyguard bullshit he doesn’t know anything else is going on in the world. He’s so out of it he thinks Boyz II Men is a day-care center.”

Nikki began to experience something rare for her, an almost ordinary life. A last wrinkle was ironed out one afternoon when she answered her office phone and heard that familiar voice. “Hi, Nikki, how’s it goin’?”

“Pretty good, Mace. How about you?”

“Same-o. Thought I might see daylight there for a while. But here I still am.”

“You do the crime, you do the time.”

“Yeah, but guys come and go all around me. Man raped a young woman and cut off both her arms. Did eight and was out. I got no chance of parole until ten, and all I did was get rid of a worthless, piece-of-shit bad-food pusher.”

His admission of guilt was like a curtain being pulled back from a window and the sunlight shining through. She felt so blissfully happy she had to fight to keep her voice neutral. “What is it you want, Mace?”

“Uh, well, I been enjoying our little talks over the years,” he said. “But I think I got to move on now.”

“That’s good, Mace,” she said. “That sounds like a positive step.”

“I got one last favor to ask.”

“Uh huh,” she said, suspiciously. “What might that be?”

“Could you see it in your heart...to give me Mr. Wise’s direct phone number?”

She was barely able to put her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece before she burst out laughing.

A few moments later, her giddiness under control, she told Mason Durant she thought she could do that one last, little thing.

C
HRISTOPHER
D
ARDEN
was a key prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson criminal trial. He is the bestselling author of
In Contempt
.

D
ICK
L
OCHTE
is an acclaimed mystery writer and screenwriter. His first novel,
Sleeping Dog
, was nominated for an Edgar Award.