The judge nodded. "And no ready means of identification? It could be Rachel or Kerry or some other girl?"
"There was nothing left to identify. No clothes, no personal effects. The body was partially burned. We'll be running DNA tests on the surviving bone."
"How long will all of this taker"
Stride shook his head. "I wish I could give you a clear answer, Your Honor. It could be a couple days, and it could be a few weeks."
"And you found no other evidence of note near the body?"
"No. We'll continue searching, but I'm not optimistic, given the amount of time that has passed."
Dan interrupted. "But the real key is the identity of the body, Your Honor. If this turns out to be Rachel, it has an enormous bearing on the trial."
"If, if, if," Gale said. "If this, maybe that. No evidence, but we'll continue searching. Maybe a few days, maybe a few weeks, maybe never. Mr. Stoner should not have to sit around while the police and the prosecution stall us with vague promises of evidence yet to come. Neither should the jury. There is really nothing here, Your Honor, except smoke."
Judge Kassel sighed. "I'm inclined to agree."
Dan grabbed the bench with both hands. "Your Honor, just a few days. Give us until the end of the week to confirm the identification. If we don't have anything by then, we'll wrap up the trial."
"And meanwhile the witnesses will be a distant memory," Gale said scathingly. "It's now or never."
"They can have any testimony they like read back to them," Dan said.
"Oh, please," Gale said.
Kassel cut them both off. "That's enough, gentlemen. Mr. Erickson, I'm sympathetic to your situation. I'm loath to proceed with the tantalizing possibility of new and crucial evidence so close. But right now, you have nothing but hopes and theories. You went into this case without a body, convinced you could get a conviction. You're going to have to abide by that decision."
The judge reached down, clicking on her microphone, and banged her gavel again to quiet the courtroom. She directed her announcement to the court.
"The motion for continuance is denied. We will proceed with the trial."
"Your Honor, I renew my motion that hearsay evidence of a sexual relationship between the defendant and Rachel Deese, as cited in deposition by Dr. Nancy Carver, be admitted, on the grounds that the declarant is unavailable as a witness."
"Denied. Anything more, Mr. Erickson?"
Dan clenched his fists in frustration. "No, Your Honor."
"Fine. Bailiff, please bring in the jury."
Stride turned away from the bench. He saw fury in Dan's eyes, a coldness, directed at him, he had never felt in his life. It was as if Dan's future had been buried in the shallow hole where they had dug up the body, and he could find only one person to blame.
Dan whispered, "You fucked this whole case up for me from day one."
Stride didn't reply. He didn't have time.
Something was wrong.
The buzz in the crowd had changed. The noise and whispering that followed the judge's decision turned into something else. People were confused, pointing, standing. Someone was shouting. It was Maggie, in the third row, calling Stride's name and scrambling across people to get to the aisle.
Close by, others began screaming.
Stride saw Graeme Stoner jerk up out of his chair at the defense table, as if an electric current were bolting through his skin. Graeme steadied himself with his hands flat on the table. His eyes were wide, filled with puzzlement.
Graeme's mouth fell open, as if he were about to laugh. Then his chest heaved, and instead, a trickle of blood dribbled from his lips. Graeme blinked. He looked down at the drips splashing on his white shirt like cherries in the snow.
He smiled.
Then his chest heaved again, and the trickle became a river.
Bright red blood streamed from Graeme's mouth, then his nose. The river poured over his suit, bathing his shoutders and chest, then spilled onto the table, soaking the raft of papers scattered there. It cascaded like crimson fountains into puddles on the floor.
Graeme's eyes turned gray and glassy and rolled up into his head. For another few seconds, he remained standing at attention. Then his body seemed to shrivel. His shoulders caved inward, and he collapsed in a pile on the table, his face dangling over the edge, still spouting a geyser of blood that now squirted over the courtroom floor in a growing lake. There was no way to turn off the spigot, and even Dan Erickson and Archibald Gale shouted and reared back as the red flood pooled around their shoes.
All the while, Graeme lay face down, draining the last few beats of his heart.
Stride tried to run, but he slipped in the blood. He regained his balance and dove forward. Maggie arrived first. She battled past the last few people who stood in her way, transfixed by the horror in front of them. She leaped over those who had thrown themselves to the floor, screaming, in an effort to escape.
Emily Stoner stood in the front row, as frozen as those around her, staring at the blood-soaked body of her husband immediately in front of her. Her right arm was held high. Maggie's tiny hands clenched Emily's outstretched arm in an iron grip, holding it in the air, but it was as if Emily didn't notice. She didn't move. She didn't let go.
Then Stride arrived, leaning past Graeme Stoner's dilapidated corpse to strip the red-stained butcher knife from Emily's hand.
Bedlam.
32
The chambered windows in the upper-floor library of the Kitch were closed, buffeted by a morning thunderstorm. Gale sipped coffee from a china cup as he leaned against the window frame. He glanced over at Dan Erickson, who sat on the sofa with a plate of eggs and sausage and a tall orange juice in front of him.
"You know, they would have acquitted him," Gale told Dan. His lips curled upward in a smile, and his eyes twinkled.
Dan's fork and knife clinked on the plate as he cut up his eggs, yolks oozing out "Don't be so sure. You heard the interviews Bird did with the jurors. They didn't believe Sally was involved. They thought Graeme did it."
"I believe they said 'probably,' and that would be reasonable doubt if we were in a courtroom. Besides, they all had the opportunity to watch your press conference last week. Angry prosecutor denouncing the unfounded allegations against an innocent girl. No evidence except what points to Mr. Stoner." Gale's face was illuminated by a flash of lightning. "Forget the fact that you couldn't prove it in court"
"Says you," Dan replied pleasantly.
Gale shook his head. "I can't believe Emily got in there with the knife."
"We had metal detectors, but the media was hounding her. She asked to be brought in through the rear door. Who knew she was going to go off the deep end?"
"You're saying it was a surprise? Please. I half think you wanted something like this to happen, Daniel." Gale sipped more coffee. "Did you work out a deal with her?"
"Manslaughter two. Three years, minimum security."
"A slap on the wrist," Gale said.
"Oh, come on. The man killed her daughter. Archie, we're not in court anymore. You don't really believe Graeme was innocent, do you?"
"I don't know if he was innocent. I don't know if he was guilty. Neither do you."
Dan dabbed at his lips with a napkin and stood up, smoothing his suit He took the pot of coffee and poured himself a cup. "Well, it was brilliant putting Sally at Rachel's house. What tipped you off?"
"It's obvious you've never raised teenagers," Gale said, laughing. "She watches another girl come on to her boyfriend, and she just goes home to bed? Not a chance. That was a catfight in the making."
"And the Kerry McGrath thing?"
"I went looking for connections once I knew Sally had gone to see Rachel that night. When Kevin admitted Kerry had asked him out, it was almost too good to be true."