person who was lying facedown in the hall. He was carrying a camera. Every so often he would stop and take a photograph. Another cop was videotaping the scene.
Anthony walked inside and knelt next to the body of Ellen Crease. He spotted the entry wound in the back of her head. He had no desire to see the mess the bullet had made when it exited. It was enough to know that Crease was dead.
Anthony walked outside just as Quinn gasped in pain. The medic apologized and Quinn gritted his teeth. He looked spent, but Anthony needed to find out what had happened. He squatted down beside the judge.
'Feel up to talking?'
'I can manage a little.'
'We're gonna have to take him to the hospital,' the medic said. 'Make it quick.'
'She was in it with Brademas,' Quinn said. 'She hired Jablonski to make the hit on Lamar because he was going to leave her for Karen Fargo.'
Anthony remembered his interview with Crease in the library on the evening of her husband's murder. He had been impressed by the dignity with which she had conducted herself despite her grief. Maybe the grief had not been an act.
'Crease was going to go on television Thursday night and tell everyone that I had been blackmailed to fix her case. She wanted me to speak at her press conference. Laura figured out what happened. She came here and confronted Crease. We were going to the police. Crease shot me and hit Laura. She was going to kill us.'
'Gotta go,' the medic said as he signaled his partner.
'You take care,' the detective said as the medics started maneuvering the stretcher toward the ambulance. 'I'll talk to you at the hospital.'
Anthony walked over to Leroy Dennis, who was finishing up with Laura. She joined Quinn in the back of the ambulance. When the ambulance drove away, Anthony said, 'Let's talk to the man of the hour.'
The detectives found James Allen in the sunroom.
'Mr. Allen?' Anthony said.
Allen looked up, but he seemed to have trouble focusing and he looked unstable.
'Do you remember me, sir?'
Allen made an almost imperceptible nod. Anthony sat across from him.
'I had to do it,' he said, his voice slightly louder than a whisper.
'I know, Mr. Allen,' Dennis said. 'She was going to kill them.'
'How did you happen to come back to the house? I understand from the officer who talked to you that this was your night off.'
'I didn't feel well, so I came home. I wanted to make myself some tea to calm my stomach before going to my quarters. I was going toward the kitchen when I heard them. Judge Quinn said he was going to the police. Then there was a gunshot.'
Allen paused and shook his head in disbelief.
'I froze for a moment. Then I went into the den where the gun collection is kept. She was raising the gun to fire again when I reentered the hall. I ... I didn't feel that I had a choice.'
Allen began to sob. Anthony watched helplessly. Dennis went into the hall and returned with a doctor. Then the detectives left.
'Let's take a walk,' Anthony said. 'I want to talk to you about something.'
'Such as?'
'This blackmail business,' Anthony told Dennis as they headed back toward the pool where the other policemen would not overhear them.
'We don't have any proof that Quinn fixed Crease's case. With Crease and Brademas dead, it doesn't look like we'll get any unless the judge confesses.'
Anthony stood on the edge of the empty pool. Debris had settled on the bottom. Leaves mostly. Anthony figured the pool man would have cleaned it eventually, but he wondered what would happen now with everybody dead.
'Quinn's a good judge,' Anthony said.
'If he fixed a case, he violated the law.'
'I know that, but I'm wondering about the value of pursuing our investigation now that Crease is dead.'
'Value? That's a funny word to use, Lou. We don't get paid to deal in values. That's for philosophers. We're lawmen. The senators and representatives write the laws, the governors sign them, we enforce them. Cops aren't supposed to think about whether the laws are good or bad.'
Anthony walked away from the pool and into the garden. He could see the setting sun through the denuded tree limbs.
'Do you believe in second chances, Leroy?'
'That's what bleeding-heart defense lawyers are always whining for. Isn't that what you've told me?'
Anthony smiled. 'You got me there. Well, I'm just one part of this team. You've got a vote, too, but I think that we should put this case to rest and leave Richard Quinn alone.'
Dennis thought about Anthony's proposal for a moment. Then he shrugged.
'I'll go along with you for now. But I won't do it for nothing.'
'What do you want, Leroy?'
'A Captain Neon burger and a pint of Terminator stout.'
EPILOGUE:
[1]
'Are you all right?' Laura asked when Quinn stopped.
'I'm a little winded. Just let me rest for a moment.'
Quinn was home from the hospital and trying to get some exercise by walking along the streets in Hereford Farms, but he did not have much stamina. Quinn leaned on his cane for a moment while Laura waited patiently. It was not hard to do. Balmy spring weather had suddenly appeared. Flowers were starting to show up, the temperature was perfect and the sky was children's-book blue.
'Okay,' Quinn said. Laura took his arm and they started down Peacock Road toward the swimming pool and the tennis courts.
'Stanley Sax stopped me in the courthouse hallway,' Laura told Quinn, introducing a subject they had avoided. 'He wants to know when you'll be ready to go back to work.'
Quinn looked straight ahead.
'What did you say?' he asked.
'I said it's up to your doctors. Is that what I should have said?'
'Be honest with me, Laura. Do you think I deserve to be sitting as a judge?'
Laura stopped walking. She faced Quinn.
'I love the fact that you're so principled, Dick, but I wish you would recognize your humanity a little more often. You're going to make wrong choices. Don't punish yourself when you do because that's ego; that's crediting yourself with infallibility.
'You asked me if I think you should go back to the bench. I think you should do what makes you happy, and that's being a judge. I wouldn't tell you to go back if I didn't think it was right. The people of this state need good judges. If you leave the bench, you'll be letting them down so you can punish yourself.'
Quinn and Laura walked in silence for a while. Finally, Quinn said, 'I want to go back, I just ...'
'You just acted like a human being.'
Quinn looked anguished. 'You really think it's the right thing to do?'
'Yes, Dick.'
'Then the next time you see Stan tell him I'm anxious to get back to work.'
[2]
'Un autre, s'il vous plait,' James Allen said.
'Immediatement, monsieur.'
The waiter took Allen's empty cup and saucer and carried it inside the cafe. Allen smiled. He was especially pleased because the waiter was conversing in French. Allen had noticed that many of the waiters switched to English the moment an American tried to converse in French if the American's accent or grammar was not
