He nodded, and Lucy stared at the car’s dirty windshield. He saw her start to tremble. She had come to that petrifying brink where her fantasies adjoined the real world. Taking a deep breath, she said, “You’re saying I should change my plea and throw myself upon the mercy of the court. Aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “If you go to trial and lose, you’ll do hard time.”
The idea of jail petrified her, and for good reason: Nevada had some of the worst prisons in the country. They talked it over for a few minutes, and finally she agreed. They walked to the courthouse together and found her attorney in the courthouse lobby. When Lucy told him she’d changed her mind, her attorney had looked relieved.
“Ms. Price, please step forward.”
The bailiff motioned for Lucy to stand. She rose on wobbly legs, the bottom of her world about to drop out, and approached the bench with her attorney holding her arm.
“Your attorney has informed me that you wish to change your plea to guilty,” Judge Redmond said. “Is that correct?”
Lucy nodded woodenly.
“Do you understand that by changing your plea, you are giving up your right to a trial by a jury of your peers? Do you also understand that I will pass judgment this morning and may send you to prison?”
Again the wooden nod. The judge lowered her eyes and reviewed the facts of her case. It was all there in the file: Lucy’s gambling problems, busted marriage, the whole ugly story. Valentine hoped the judge would see the same thing in the file that he’d seen in Lucy the first time he’d met her: a damaged woman desperately in need of help.
After a minute, the judge closed the file and gazed down at her. “I’m ready to pass sentence. Ms. Price, is there anything you wish to say before I do?”
Lucy shook her head.
“Then you’re ready for me to make my decision.”
Lucy tried to answer, but the words refused to come out. She looked over her shoulder again, and Valentine saw panic in her eyes.
“Yes, Your Honor,” she said. “I am ready.”
