Even though the sun was now up and shining brightly outside, the interior of the house was dark with the windows covered in newspaper. Francis sat with his head buried in his hands, elbows balanced on his knees in despair.
What he wanted was vengeance, and in that very moment there in his mother’s wingback, he vowed revenge on Sookie Downs for killing the women he loved. Somebody had to do the right thing and kill Sookie Downs. Of course, Francis couldn’t trust the criminal justice system to prevail. What a joke.
Sookie Downs must die.
He looked out from over his fingers back at the screen. Abruptly, the images switched. A live shot of a police press conference going on on the front steps of GNE in New York City was interrupted by an emergency local cable cut-in. The news alert showed a towering fire and dark plumes of smoke billowing up over a cemetery. Something about the background looked vaguely familiar to Francis. The handheld camera shook as another explosion rocked the cemetery… the banner read in all caps CRESTLAWN SACRED GROUNDS CEMETERY THE TARGET OF TERRORIST ATTACK.
Francis jumped to his feet. A third blast ripped out of Aunt Matilde’s mausoleum, which he knew so well, while flames roared into the sky.
Francis instantly decided this would be a great time to get out of town. Prepared to live out of his car for a while again, he hastily threw clothes into his old duffel bag, along with several cans of Vienna sausage, and, of course, the new.38 he just bought at the bi-annual gun and ammo show. He gathered up his mother’s gas card and Leather Stockton’s red thong, still in its plastic baggie. Gently placing them both in his coat pocket, he turned off the lights in the living room and locked the front door.
Hey… why not kill two birds with one stone? He could easily track down Sookie Downs once she made bond. A thought hit him… Would Sookie Downs make bond? It would be a lot harder to kill her if she didn’t bond out of jail after initial murder charges.
Wait a minute… What was he thinking? Of course she’d make bond. It was New York City… even terrorists make bond in the Big Apple.
New York wouldn’t be such a bad place to go for a while, anyway. Francis had a new girlfriend there who’d been coming on to him for months on the airwaves. He didn’t know that much about her, but he planned to get to know her very well. She was beautiful and quite the spitfire. Francis loved that in a woman. And obviously, his new love needed him now more than ever.
Her name was Hailey Dean.
Acknowledgments
First, my deepest thanks to my editor, Gretchen Young, who maintained great faith in me and conspired with me to create Death on the D-List. You are not just editor, but friend tried and true. (Plus your daughter will grow up to be a New York City cabbie and will be of great use to us both.) Thank you.
To Jim Walton and Ken Jautz, who are NOT the inspirations for this book, thank you for the support, the opportunities, and the friendship.
To our wonderful staff on Nancy Grace. To Dee Emmerson, bless you!
Dean Sicoli, my Executive Producer, “Bestie,” without you there would be no HLN Nancy Grace and I’d probably be prosecuting shoplifting cases in night court right now. Friend, forever.
And last and dearest, thank you, David. Finally I got it… true love. You and the twins are the joys of my life.
And my deepest thanks to my Father God and Christ, nothing can separate us from Your Love.
Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace joined Court TV from the Atlanta Fulton County District Attorney's Office, where she served for a decade as Special Prosecutor, compiling a perfect record of nearly 100 felony convictions at trial and no losses. She has also appeared on The View and The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss today's most important trials. She lives in New York City.
