The 6th Target

our waitress and the owner's daughter, brought four glasses and two tall bottles of mineral water.

'Water, water, everywhere,' Syd said. 'What's up, ladies? This is a bar, ya know what I mean?'

I answered by pointing at each of us. 'It's like this, Syd. Working. Working. Working.' I pointed to Claire and said, 'Pregnant and working.'

Sydney laughed, congratulated Claire, took our orders, and headed to the kitchen.

'So does he hear voices?' I asked Yuki.

'Maybe. But a lot of people hear voices. Five to ten thousand in San Francisco alone. Probably a couple of them here in this bar. Don't see any of them shooting the place up. Fred Brinkley might very well hear voices. But that day? He knew what he was doing was wrong.'

'The bastard,' said Claire. 'That's me, speaking on the record as a very biased eyewitness and victim.'

That day flooded back to me with sickening clarity -the blood-slicked deck and the screaming passengers and how scared I was that Claire might die. I remembered hugging Willie and thanking God that Brinkley's last shot had missed him.

I asked Yuki, 'You think the jury will vote to convict?'

'I dunno. They damn well should. If anyone deserves the needle, it's him,' Yuki said as she vigorously salted her french fries, her hair swinging freely in front of her face so that none of us could read her eyes.

Chapter 123

IT WAS AFTER TWO IN THE AFTERNOON, day three since the jury had begun their deliberation, when Yuki got the call. A shock went through her.

This was it.

She sat rigid in her seat for a moment, just blinking. Then she snapped out of it.

She paged Leonard and speed-dialed Claire, Cindy, and Lindsay, all of whom were within minutes of the courtroom. She got up from her desk, crossed the hall, and leaned into David's cubicle.

'They're back!'

David put down his tuna sandwich and followed Yuki to the elevator, which they then rode to the ground floor.

They crossed the main lobby, went through the leather-studded double doors to the second lobby, cleared security outside the courtroom, and after going through the glassed-in vestibule, took their places behind the table.

The courtroom had filled up as word spread. Court TV set up their cameras. Reporters from the local papers and stringers from the tabloids, wire services and national news, filled the back row. Cindy was on the aisle.

Yuki saw Claire and Lindsay sitting in the midsection, but she didn't see the defendant's mother, Elena Brinkley, anywhere.

Mickey Sherman came through the gate wearing a flattering dark-blue suit. He put his metallic briefcase down in front of him, nodded to Yuki, and made a phone call.

Yuki's phone rang. 'Len,' she said, reading his name off the caller ID, there's a verdict.'

'I'm at my fucking cardiologist,' Len told her. 'Keep me posted.'

The side door to the left of the bench opened, and the bailiff entered with Alfred Brinkley.

Chapter 124

BRINKLEY'S BANDAGE HAD BEEN REMOVED, exposing a line of stitches running vertically from the middle of his forehead up through his hairline. The bruises around his eyes had faded to an overboiled egg-yolk color, yellowish-green.

The bailiff unlocked Brinkley's waist chains and handcuffs, and the defendant sat down beside his lawyer.

The door to the right of the jury box opened, and the twelve jurors and two alternates walked into the courtroom, dressed up, hair sprayed and styled, a sprinkling of jewelry on the women's hands and around their necks. They didn't look at Yuki and they didn't look at the defendant. In fact, they looked tense, as though they may have been fighting over the verdict until an hour ago.

The door behind the bench opened, and Judge Moore entered his courtroom. He cleaned his glasses as court was called into session, then said, 'Mr. Foreman, I understand that the jury has a verdict?'

'We do, Your Honor.'

'Would you please hand your verdict to the bailiff.'

The foreman was a carpenter, with shoulder-length blond hair and nicotine-stained fingers. He looked keyed up as he gave a folded form to the bailiff, who brought it to the bench.

Judge Moore unfolded the form and looked at it. He asked the people in the gallery to please respect the protocol of the court and to not react outwardly when the verdict was read.

Yuki clasped her hands on the table before her. She could hear David Hale's breathing beside her, and for a fraction of a moment, she loved him.

Judge Moore began to read. 'In the charge of murder in the first degree of Andrea Canello, the jury finds the defendant, Alfred Brinkley, 'not guilty' by reason of mental disease or defect.'

A wave of nausea hit Yuki.

She sat back hard in her chair, barely hearing the judge's voice as each name was read, each charge a finding of 'not guilty' by reason of insanity.

Yuki stood up as Claire and Lindsay came forward to be with her. They were standing around her as Brinkley was shackled, and they all saw how he looked at Yuki.

It was an odd look, part stare, part secret smile. Yuki didn't know what Brinkley intended by it, but she felt a prickling of hairs rising at the nape of her neck.

And then Brinkley spoke to her. 'Good try, Ms. Castellano. Very good try. But don't you know? Someone's got to pay.'

One of the guards gave Brinkley a shove, and after a last look at Yuki, he shuffled up the aisle between his keepers.

Sick or sane, Alfred Brinkley was going to be off the streets for a long time. Yuki knew that.

And still – she felt afraid.

Chapter 125

A MONTH LATER, Conklin and I were back in Alta Plaza Park, where it all began.

This time, we watched Henry Tyler come down the path toward us, his coat whipping around him in the wind. He reached out a hand to Conklin, gripping it hard, and then stretched his hand out to me.

'You've given us back our lives. I can't find words to thank you enough.'

Tyler called out to his wife and to the little girl playing on a hexagonal construction, some new kind of jungle gym. Face brightening in surprise, Madison dropped down from the bars and ran toward us.

Henry Tyler swung his daughter up into his arms. Madison leaned over her father's shoulder and put an arm around my neck and Rich's, gathering us into a three-way hug.

'You're my favorite people,' she said.

I was still smiling when Henry Tyler put Madison down and said to us, his face radiant, 'We're all so grateful.