'What's wrong?' Abbie asked, putting her hand on top of Matthew's.
'Nothing,' Matthew answered, wishing he could enjoy the evening but finding it impossible to be happy knowing that Abbie's freedom and his career depended on whether Tracy Cavanaugh decided to tell Judge Baldwin about the fake photograph.
'You've been so quiet. Are you sure nothing is bothering you?'
'It's the case,' he lied. 'I'm worried that I won't be able to convince Judge Baldwin to keep out the Rizzatti evidence.'
Abbie put down her coffee and turned toward Matthew. She put her hand on his cheek and kissed him. 'Don't think about law tonight,' she said.
Matthew put his cup down. Abbie snuggled against his chest.
'Very touching,' Charlie Deems said from the living-room doorway.
Abbie jerked around and Matthew sprang to his feet. Deems gave them his goofy grin and ran his finger around his left ear to clean out some wax.
He wore a pressed shirt and ironed slacks.
His hair was slicked back. He looked like a farm boy at a 4-H meeting, except for the gun with the silencer that dangled from his right hand.
'Looks like you two are having a real good time,' Deems said.
'What are you doing here?' Abbie asked, standing beside Matthew.
'I came to visit,' Deems said, walking casually across the room until he was two arm lengths from them. 'I'll bet I'm the last person you expected to see. Am I right?'
'I'd like you to leave.'
'I bet you would. Then you and Mr. Smart Guy here could do the nasty thing. Course, if I was in your shoes, I'd want me out of this house, too. And I don't blame you. Me being a previously convicted murderer and all. What did you call me during my trial? An animal, devoid of feeling.'
'What do you want, Mr. Deems?' Matthew asked.
'I might want revenge on the person responsible for putting me in that teensy-weensy cell on death row. I remember every minute on the row, Miss Prosecutor.' Deems smiled wistfully, like a man recalling a sweet summer morning. 'Did you know that the toilet in the cell above us leaked. Did you know we was double-bunked for a while. Man, was that cell crowded. I had to eat my dinner sitting on the crapper. That's quite an indignity.
Some people put in that situation, finding themselves with the person responsible for it, might be filled with rage and an uncontrollable impulse to do the responsible person some type of outrageous harm.'
Deems paused for a heartbeat. Then he broke into a grin.
Abbie's mouth was dry and her senses were more alert than at any other time in her life., 'Rape. Am I right? Bet it's what you thought of first. You're probably picturing it right now. Can you see yourself naked, tied up on the bed, screaming, with no one to help you? At my mercy?
That's not a pretty picture.'
Deems let the thought linger. Then he took a step toward Abbie. She moved into Matthew.
Deems smiled again. 'I was hoping to get you alone for a long weekend, Counselor. Unfortunately, I'm a little pressed for time, so I'm gonna have to do you now.'
Matthew stepped in front of Abbie. 'You will not hurt her.'
Deems laughed. 'What are you gonna do? Cross-examine me to death?' The smile disappeared. 'I didn't appreciate the way you set me up so I'd look like a fool. In fact, I don't appreciate either of you. So, first, I'm gonna have my way with the little lady, while you watch.
Maybe you'll even learn a thing or two. Then I'm going to make sure you both die very slowly. And I'll watch.'
Matthew lunged while Deems was speaking. The move surprised Deems.
Reynolds drove him into the wall, but this was the first fight he had been in since grade school and he had no idea what to do next. Deems brought a knee up between Matthew's legs. Matthew gasped and sagged.
His grip on Deems loosened.
Deems saw Abbie race out of the room and quickly head-butted Reynolds.
Matthew staggered backward. Deems heard Abbie pounding up the stairs and shot Reynolds in the side. Matthew looked dazed and crumpled to the floor.
'We're gonna get to the good part soon,' Deems said, 'so you stay right here. Any objection?'
Matthew gasped from pain. Deems kicked him hard in the ribs and Matthew fainted.
'Objection overruled.'
Deems turned toward the stairs. He listened for a moment, then climbed them. At the top he shouted, 'Come out, come out, wherever you are.'
There was no response.
'The longer it takes me to find you, the longer it will take you and your boyfriend to die.'
Deems paused for an answer, but there was only silence. He looked down the hall. There were two doors on one side and three on the other. He eased open the first door. It was an empty guest bathroom.
The next door opened into Abbie's bedroom. Deems liked it.
The bed had a headboard and a footboard to which he could tie Abbie's hands and feet. He smiled in anticipation. Then he dropped beside the bed and looked under it. Abbie wasn't there.
But, he thought, she might be in the closet. He stepped to the side and whipped open the door. A wall of dresses screened off the back wall.
Deems ripped the curtain apart and made certain Abbie was not hidden in the shadows. Then he stepped into the hall.
'You're pissing me off, bitch,' he screamed. 'Get out here now or I'll start cutting off your boyfriend's fingers.'
Deems waited, hoping the loud threats would flush Abbie from hiding the way beaters flush lions for big- game hunters, but the hall stayed empty.
Deems smashed open the door to the guest room. He heard a whimper from the closet and smiled coldly. He heard another muffled sob and relaxed.
Deems put the gun on the guest bed. He did not want to risk shooting Abbie and spoiling his fun. Then he tiptoed to the closet door, counted to three silently and whipped the door open, screaming, 'Surprise!'
But the surprise was all his. Abbie was sitting on the closet floor with her back braced against the wall. The handgun she carried in her purse was aimed at Deems. Her face was set and there were no tears on her cheeks. It dawned on Charlie that Abbie had lured him to the closet with phony sobs and whimpers.
He felt a momentary flash of fear, until he remembered his dark angel.
Charlie straightened slowly and raised his arms straight out from his sides as if they were angel wings. Suddenly he knew his angel was in the room, a shimmering presence, ready to protect him from all harm. He did not fear the gun, because nothing could hurt him while his angel stood sentry.
'What are you going to do, shoot me?' Deems asked with a smirk.
Abbie did not answer. She pulled the trigger instead. Deems's eyes widened in disbelief when the first bullet hit him and he died with a look of utter confusion on his face.
Chapter TWENTY-EIGHT
Judge Baldwin took Abbie off the electronic surveillance program at Jack Stamm's request the day after she killed Charlie Deems. She was at Matthew's side on the Thursday morning after the shooting, the day the doctors at St. Vincent's Hospital permitted him to have visitors for the first time.
Tracy waited until the end of visiting hours and convinced Abbie and the others to leave on the pretext that she had a confidential legal matter she had to discuss with her boss.
'How are you feeling?' Tracy asked when they were alone.
'Okay,' Matthew managed.
'I brought these for you,' she said, holding out a vase filled with roses. 'Where should I put them?'
Matthew slowly lifted his right arm and pointed toward several other vases that decorated the window. The nurse had cranked his bed into a sitting position. There was an IV in his left arm and a breathing tube in his nose. He looked tired, but alert.
Tracy pulled a chair next to Matthew's bed.
