paused to see if there were any reporters waiting in ambush. She spotted vans from several local television stations, but none of the faces that had become familiar to her since the reversal in Clarence’s case had made her famous. She assumed that the reporters would be waiting outside the courtroom.
Millie entered the courthouse and stood in the shorter security line reserved for attorneys, court personnel, judges, and police officers. As she inched toward the metal detector, doubts assailed her again. She was weak- kneed and light-headed when she finally got to the head of the line. A stack of plastic trays stood on a table in front of the metal detector. Millie took her keys, her change, and the cell phone out of her attache case, put them in the tray, and passed the tray around the metal detector to a guard. Then she took off her coat and put it and the attache on the conveyor belt. The guard barely looked at the contents of the tray because her attention was focused on Millie as she walked through the metal detector. Millie went through without setting off the alarm. Then she put on her coat, put the cell phone, change, and keys back in her briefcase, and walked up the stairs at a natural pace, even though she wanted to run.
When Millie reached the second floor, she found the ladies’ room. As soon as she locked herself in a stall, she started to shake. She bent forward and rested her elbows on her thighs. It took an effort to keep from crying with relief, but she didn’t want to ruin her makeup. She knew Clarence would be so proud of her. She’d done it. She had gotten through security.
When Millie regained her composure, she took the cell phone out of her purse and smacked the casing against the side of the toilet until it cracked. Inside the hollowed-out cell phone was a gun. When Clarence told her about it, Millie had trouble believing it existed, but it did: a. 22 Magnum Mini-Revolver that held five bullets but was so small that it fit in her hand and looked like a toy.
Millie slid the revolver inside the crotch of her panties and rearranged her clothing. When she stood up, the metal felt odd and cool against her skin. Millie left the stall. No one else was in the restroom. She took a few steps to get used to walking with the gun in her underwear. When she was comfortable, Millie left the ladies’ room and walked down to the ground floor and around to the back of the courthouse to an alcove near the door that opened onto Fifth Avenue. Inside the alcove was an elevator that went up to the courthouse jail where prisoners with court appearances were held.
Millie checked her watch. Clarence’s court appearance was scheduled for 9:00. At 8:30 Millie pressed a button on the intercom attached to the wall. A disembodied voice asked her business, and she told the jailer she was Clarence Little’s attorney. Moments later, the elevator took her up to the jail. She waited in a narrow hall for a guard to escort her into a room similar to the noncontact visiting room at the prison. Glass separated her from Clarence. At Clarence’s insistence, Millie had gotten a judge to order that Clarence be allowed to wear a suit and tie to court appearances.
“You look more like a lawyer than I do,” Millie joked to ease the tension that threatened to paralyze her.
Clarence smiled. “And you look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Millie answered nervously.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes.”
As they spoke, Millie hiked up her dress. She took the miniature gun out of her panties and palmed it.
Millie and Clarence engaged in small talk while they anxiously waited for a jailer to end the meeting so Clarence could be escorted to court. Millie felt faint when the jailer unlocked the door behind Clarence and led him out. She opened her door and waited. Two guards handcuffed Clarence and walked him to the elevator. They made no objection when Millie asked to ride down to the fifth floor with her client. The elevator door opened and Clarence stepped to the rear. Millie pressed against him and passed him the gun. One guard stood facing the door. The other stood next to Clarence but slightly in front of him. As soon as the elevator door closed, Clarence raised his hands and shot the nearest guard in the back of the head.
The tiny gun made a popping sound that would not have attracted much attention in a large room but sounded hard and horribly loud in the confined space. Millie gasped as the jailer slid down the wall. The other guard turned. Clarence pressed the gun between his eyes and squeezed the trigger. There was no room to fall and the guard lurched against Millie. She screamed.
“What have you done?” Millie asked.
“The key,” Clarence commanded. “Quick, Millie. We only have a few moments.”
Millie had seen the guard put the handcuff keys in his front pocket after he handcuffed Clarence. The guard was pressed against her. She fought back a strong urge to throw up as she groped in his pocket. Blood was flowing from the wound between his eyes and she had to contort her body to keep it from getting on her dress.
“Good girl,” Clarence said when Millie unlocked his cuffs. The elevator shuddered to a stop on the fifth floor. Clarence found the button that kept the elevator door shut and jammed it in. Millie stared at the dead men.
“You said no one would get hurt,” she said, her voice breaking.
“It was us or them, Millie, and I chose us. It was the only way we could be together. Now we have to move fast. Where is your car?”
Millie was horrified by what she’d just seen, and she didn’t trust herself to speak. So she took the map with the location and the license plate number out of her attache case and held it out to Clarence with a trembling hand.
“Did you put my change of clothes in the trunk?” Clarence asked. Millie nodded.
“Give me your car keys.”
Millie handed Clarence the keys, and he put the keys and the gun in his pocket. He looked sad. “Here comes the hard part. Come to me.”
Millie turned her back to Clarence. She was shaking.
“We’ll be together soon,” he said.
“Will it hurt?”
“No, dearest. I’ll be gentle. It will be quick, and you’ll just pass out. I have to do this so they don’t suspect you helped me.”
Millie closed her eyes and felt Clarence’s arm encircle her throat. She was frightened. Then Clarence kissed her ear and said, “I love you, Millie.”
She tried to smile, but she was too tense. Then she remembered that they were going to be together forever. She imagined palm trees, a warm, gentle breeze, a pearl white beach, and a sea so blue that the scene looked like a picture postcard. Then the choke hold tightened and she panicked.
Millie tried to speak but her larynx was being crushed. She clawed at her true love’s arms, but the hold didn’t ease. Fear flashed through her. Have I made a terrible mistake? Millie thought, moments before she died.
Chapter Sixteen
Every day on death row was mind-numbingly similar. The lack of intellectual stimulation had been torture for a man with Clarence Little’s IQ, so Clarence had distracted himself for large parts of each day with mental reenactments of the slow torture and ultimate death of his playthings. Clarence never thought of the women he killed as victims. Victims were human beings. He thought of Winona Bedford, Carol Poole, and the other women as toys he used to act out his sexual fantasies.
Clarence had felt intense pleasure and an explosive sexual release whenever his playthings screamed or pleaded for mercy or died. Strangely he did not experience sexual pleasure while he was strangling Millie Reston. Maybe that was because he found her repulsive. He actually wondered if putting Millie down wasn’t a humanitarian act. The poor simpleton had no life and had been so easy to manipulate. He didn’t even have to waste a bullet on her. He shook his head in wonder. She was really like a cow in a slaughterhouse, following instructions without a thought as she was led to the abattoir.
Clarence marveled at the fact that she was so blinded by love that she hadn’t thought about how she was going to explain the gun. Millie had to have known that Clarence would be searched thoroughly before he was brought to court. She was the only person who could have smuggled the gun into the courthouse. She would have been asked to take a lie detector test, which she would have failed. If she had refused to take the test, her refusal would have confirmed the suspicions of the police. And Millie was weak. Eventually she would have cracked. Then
