Show of Evil

'You want to kill the people that kept you alive.'

'Alive. You call ten years in bedlam alive?'

'Would you have preferred the electric chair?'

'I would have preferred freedom. He played games with me.'

'He did the best he - '

'He fucked me to protect that miserable faggot Rushman. He had the tape. Not a woman on that jury would have found me guilty if they had seen the tape. Christ, after that he had plenty of room for reasonable doubt. A second person in the room, temporary insanity, irresistible impulse. But nooo, he had to play the clever boy, protecting Rushman's good name, sucking that prosecutor into his game. And you went along with it.'

'You tricked yourself. You provided the multiple personality defence…'

'I didn't know you two would use it to sell me out. I knew when he came up to see me in Daisyland the other day he was going to try and ruin me. Hell, he would have looked like a fool if he tried to stop me from leaving, but he was too smart for that. We had the perfect plan, Hydra and me. Hydra got Shoat and I was supposed to get Venable. I could have been back in the room with a perfect alibi. I could've laughed at Vail. I could've got them all - Venable, Shoat, Stennet, you - all but Vail. I would've let him live in his own hell. Then that bitch, Venable, screwed me up. Look at my face. She did that!'

Molly said nothing. She stared at him in disgust as he straddled her, resting on his knees.

'He should've pleaded temporary insanity, I could have walked out of there free and clear.'

'That's ridiculous, he couldn't - '

'Don't speak to me like that!'

'I'm sorry.'

'You're not sorry. You're patronizing me. You should know better.

She shut up and stared at the ceiling again.

'Vail was so fucking clever, playing all those little legal games of his in court, dicking around with that insufferable Shoat. Jesus, I could have done better.'

No answer.

'Ten years of drugs and shock treatments, egomaniac doctors, panderers, panderers, they were all fucking panderers.'

He turned to the night table and put the scalpel down. He picked up a hypodermic needle, stared at its point. He picked up the vial of morphine, inserted the needle into it, working the plunger until it was full of the deadly painkiller.

'Well, now, Mr Vail understands what it's like to hate enough to kill. And it's going to get worse.' He settled down on her and held the needle in front of her face. 'One hundred ccs, Doc. Permanent sleep, like the shot they give you when they put you away like a dog. I'll give it to you a little bit at a time, so the pain won't be so bad. A cc here, a cc there, here a cc, there a cc…' he sang.

He had lost it, she realized. Disassociated. Calm replaced by rage. Whatever he was going to do, he would do, she knew that now. She closed her eyes and waited with an eerie calm for the inevitable. She hardly felt the needle when it pierced her arm.

Thirty-Eight

An exhausted young surgeon walked out of operating room three. He was surprisingly young, a tall, lean man with his long black hair tucked up under his green surgical cap. His surgical gown and shoe mittens were blood-spattered. His eyes were bloodshot. He pulled off his mask and breathed a sigh of relief. Vail approached him.

'Doctor? I'm Martin Vail. Any news?'

The young doctor smiled and held out a large hand with long, delicate fingers. 'It's a pleasure, Mr Vail. I'm Alex Rosenbloom. Your man Stenner is one tough cookie.'

'He's going to make it, then?'

Rosenbloom nodded. 'But an hour ago I wouldn't have bet on it. We almost lost him twice.'

'Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.'

The young doctor slapped Vail on the shoulder. 'I'm thankful I didn't have to bring bad news out,' he said. 'Look, I know you've been very patient. They're taking him into Recovery now. You can stick your head in for just a minute.'