Law of Attraction (39 page)

Anna swallowed, then let him lead her across the patio.

They stood in the darkness of an old oak tree. Nick studied Anna with wary eyes. He reached out one gloved hand and caressed her cheek. Then he ran his hand down the side of her face, to her neck.
Suddenly, he grabbed the lapel of her blouse with both hands and ripped it apart.

“What are you doing?” Anna cried, trying to push his hands away. Nick grabbed her wrists and held them tightly behind her back.

“Shhh,” he said.

He tore the front of her blouse open, popping several silk buttons. His hand skimmed over her breasts, then around the waistline of her pants. He spun her around and frisked the small of her back. When he didn’t find what he was looking for, he loosened his grip. Anna yanked herself out of his grasp.

“Jesus, Nick, what the fuck?” She tried to fill her voice with righteous indignation.

But she knew what he was doing. She looked down at the lacy white underwire bra, the only hardware on her body.

Nick shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I had to see if you were wired.”

“You could’ve just asked me,” she snapped. She tried to close her blouse, but too many buttons were gone, and it hung open, exposing her cleavage. She tugged the fabric over her breasts and crossed her arms to keep the shirt in place.

Nick shook his head. “I had that in a case once. My client walked up to a snitch and whispered, ‘Are you wired?’ Right into the microphone. The jury loved that tape.”

“What the hell is going on, Nick?” Anna tried to sound angry, but she felt a blossoming fear.

Nick put his hands in his coat pockets. “The surveillance video at my apartment,” Nick stated flatly, confirming Anna’s fears. “What did you see?”

Anna exhaled slowly. “I don’t know what I saw. Maybe you’d better explain it to me.”

Nick looked around. The memorial was deserted except for a few random couples around the Tidal Basin.

“This isn’t exactly how I imagined our conversation would go when I came to talk to you this afternoon,” he began. “I wanted to tell you that I still love you.”

Anna nodded, but said nothing.

“I wanted to know if there was any chance you still had feelings for me,” Nick said.

“Nick,” Anna sighed, “of course I still have feelings for you. Why do
you think I agreed to meet you tonight? For the past year we struggled with I’m-a-prosecutor-you’re-a-defense-attorney. We gave each other up for our jobs. So when you told me you were quitting, I thought this could change everything—maybe we can have our happy ending after all. But . . . I need to know what happened with Laprea Johnson.”

“Don’t ask me that, Anna.”

“I deserve to know what happened.”

“I agree. But don’t ask.”

“Nick.” She stepped forward and met his eyes. “I can help you. Did you know that the video recording system in your building recycles? The tape from that night will be gone, overwritten, in nine days. I’m the only one who’s seen it. If I wait a few days to send a subpoena, there’ll be nothing tying you to Laprea that night. Do you get it, Nick? I can help you. But I need to know the truth.”

Nick paused, staring out at the water. When he finally turned to Anna, his voice was calm and emotionless. “It was an accident, Anna. D’marco beat up Laprea that night, and I guess she blamed me. She was furious, crazy. You must have seen that on the tape.”

Anna nodded.

“I never should have let her upstairs like that, but I was afraid of what she might do. She wasn’t any better up in my place. I tried to calm her down, but she just got wilder. I couldn’t get her to leave my house. Then she grabbed my phone and said she was calling the police. Calling the police—on me! I had to practically rip the phone out of her hands. And then she’s kicking and swinging at me.

“I hit her, but I swear, I didn’t mean to hurt her. She was attacking me. But she fell back, and her head—her head hit the stones. The fireplace.” Nick started to choke up. He forced his next words out between ragged breaths. “There was a cracking sound. God, Anna. And the blood. There was so much blood.”

Anna swallowed a wave of nausea. Nick was no longer looking at Anna, but above her. He wasn’t seeing the trees or the Tidal Basin, but the picture in his mind.

“I tried to do CPR. But it didn’t matter—she was dead. I still kept trying. I was in shock. Literally, medically in shock. Do you see, Anna? It was an accident.”

“Why didn’t you just call the police?” Anna asked softly.

Nick blinked and turned his gaze back to Anna.

“God, the fucking police—they hate me! Can you imagine me
calling the police? Hi, this is Nick Wagner from OPD, this crazy bitch just fell and died in my apartment. They’d have loved it.”

Anna slapped him, hard.

“You asshole! You killed Laprea Johnson—you orphaned her children—and you talk about her that way! You pinned her death on your own client!”

“I’m sorry!” Nick knew he’d gone too far. He held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture and lowered his voice. “I’m sorry. But Laprea was out of control. And D’marco Davis was just getting worse. That’s why you tried to get him locked up in the first place, right? Fact is, he would’ve killed her eventually. And he would’ve gone to jail. All I did was accelerate that.”

Anna stared at him in wonder. She remembered what Nick had told her about his father’s hit-and-run. Nick had deliberately shaped his life to avoid becoming his father. But when it really mattered, he’d done exactly what his father taught him.

Her silence seemed to encourage Nick. He took a step toward her and kept talking. “I just panicked, Anna. But it’s okay now, see? D’marco is in jail for what he did, not for killing Laprea. There’s no more murder case. And I’m done with criminal law. We can go on with our lives. It’s all over.”

He put his hand lightly on her arm. “I love you, Anna.”

She flinched away, repulsed.

“You love me, too.” The arrogance in his voice was gone, replaced with a soft pleading. “Right?”

She shook her head and pulled her torn shirt tighter across her chest. She didn’t love him now. She never would again.

“It’s over, Nick.”

The wild look in his eyes grew brighter. He was fiddling with something in his pocket.

“Don’t say that! We’re in love. It can be like it used to be.”

“I’m sorry. You’re not the man I thought you were. I’m not the woman I thought I was.”

“It’s
him,
isn’t it?” Nick spat. “Jack.”

He gestured with his left hand while his right hand stayed in his pocket.

“This isn’t about Jack.”

“The hell it’s not!”

Nick slowly drew the gun out of his pocket and pointed it at the
ground. Anna stared at the dull black metal. She fought the urge to flee. She couldn’t outrun a bullet.

“A gun.” She spoke slowly as she eyed the weapon. “Is that the same gun you promised to get rid of?”

A shade of hysteria tinged his laugh. “Seems pretty minor compared to everything else, doesn’t it?”

“Nick, take it easy. You’re only making things worse for yourself.”

“No, Anna. There’s no way things could get any worse.”

Nick racked the slide, chambering a round in the weapon.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

•  •  •

Across the Tidal Basin, Jack held a set of earphones to one ear as a police officer pointed a parabolic microphone at the monument. The mike was the size and shape of a large round serving platter, curved toward the sound it was picking up. Jack had anticipated that the defense attorney might suspect that Anna was being taped, so he’d used this microphone rather than equipment that would go under clothing. The parabolic microphone couldn’t work everywhere, but the Tidal Basin was the perfect site. With the mike focused across the clear space of the water, Jack and the police team had recorded the entire conversation between Anna and Nick.

Anna’s calm announcement that Nick had a gun made Jack’s stomach clench into a knot of terror.

“Go!” Jack yelled to the group of SWAT officers standing behind him. “Go! Go!”

The officers ran through the forest of pine trees that surrounded the cherry blossoms.

Jack shoved his earphones at an officer staying behind with the microphone and—although it wasn’t protocol—ran with the arrest team, through the trees. He cursed himself for letting Anna put herself at risk. As a prosecutor, he felt it had been the right call—look what they’d gotten, a full confession! As a man, he felt sick with regret.

Jack pushed himself to run even faster. Somehow he stayed on his feet, despite the uneven ground and jutting roots. He didn’t feel the branches clawing at his body, tearing bloody little creek beds into his arms and face. He had to get to Anna before Nick hurt her.

•  •  •

Anna stared at Nick. He was still pointing the gun at the ground. Her initial fear from seeing the gun subsided. She realized Nick wouldn’t hurt her. She’d always known that about him. But she knew what he planned to do, and it filled her with dread.

“Easy, Nick, take it easy.” She used her most soothing voice. “Look at me. It’s gonna be okay. Just put the gun down.”

“I’m sorry for everything,” he choked. “I can’t live with this.”

“You can make amends. We’ll find a way.”

“How can I make amends? Can I bring Laprea back? Can I give those kids their mother?”

“You can’t fix things if you’re dead!”

“I deserve to die.”

He placed the muzzle of the gun under his chin.

“Nick, no! You don’t deserve a death sentence! You wouldn’t give that to any of your clients. Don’t do it to yourself. Please.”

“What do I have to live for? Waiting for you and Jack to indict me? A trial, the press circus, prison?”

He wanted her to convince him that things could be okay. He wanted her to say she wouldn’t turn him in. It was too late for that. She tried to think of anything she could say that would make a difference.

“If you ever cared about me, you wouldn’t do this.”

It sounded so trite, she was surprised to see him lower his gun.

“Anna—” he started.

The arrest team came crashing through the trees right then. A dozen thundering, panting men in black paramilitary uniforms pointed their guns at Nick. Jack was among them, waving his arms and shouting.

“Don’t shoot!” Jack yelled to his men. “Don’t shoot! She’s too close! You don’t have a clear shot!”

Nick looked at Anna, his face twisted with the shock of her betrayal. Then his eyes cut to Jack. Nick raised the gun and pointed it at the Homicide chief.

“Fuck you,” Nick whispered.

“Jack, get down!” Anna screamed. She lunged at Nick and grabbed his wrist with all her strength—just as he pulled the trigger.

The gun fired: an earsplitting blast, a spark of orange in the dark night.

And then everything went black.

40

J
ack clenched his stomach, bracing himself for the shot. But nothing hit him. He looked wildly around to see if anyone else had been hit. The officers were all standing.

Then Anna swayed and collapsed at Nick’s feet.

“No!” Nick howled, and reached for her.

Jack was on him in a moment, yanking the defense attorney to the ground. Jack moved with a savagery he hadn’t known he possessed.

“Don’t you touch her,” Jack growled.

The rest of the team ran over. Jack shoved Nick at McGee.

“Arrest him,” Jack ordered. He sank down to Anna’s side.

McGee kicked Nick’s gun away from his feet and slapped on a set of handcuffs. Nick was sobbing and calling for Anna as McGee led him to a squad car.

Anna lay motionless on the grass. Jack put his hand down by her head and felt warm wetness. Blood.

“Anna?” Jack asked quietly. She didn’t move. The remaining officers gathered in a quiet black circle around her. Faces grim, they quietly lowered their guns. Their silence was unnerving. It took something really serious to hush a bunch of fired-up SWAT cops. “Call an ambulance!” Jack ordered. A couple of the officers pulled radios from their belts and stepped respectfully away to make their calls.

Jack turned back to Anna. He put a hand lightly on her chest. She was breathing shallowly. That was better than nothing. He tried to see where the bullet had gone in, but didn’t see an obvious wound. He knew he shouldn’t move her body until the paramedics got here.

He held her hand as he stroked her hair. He started talking to her, hoping his voice would help her find her way back from whatever dark place she was in.

“Anna, you did great. You were incredible.” He prayed she would hold on until the paramedics arrived. He could hear their sirens, approaching in the distance. “You saved my life.”

She was as still as the ground she was lying on. Jack’s heart skidded in his chest.

A bunch of people came crashing out of the trees: a handful of policemen leading two paramedics holding medical bags. The officers standing around Anna parted for them.

“Over here,” Jack yelled, pointing at Anna.

The paramedics bent down next to her. Jack stayed by her side as they began examining her.

He realized now—he admitted it in a way he hadn’t allowed himself before—that he was in love with this girl. This woman who had squared her shoulders, walked out here, and, with courage and dignity, done the right thing. He loved her. And he had squandered the short time he’d been given to be with her. Jack lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Come on. I can’t lose you. I need you, Anna. I love you.”

Seconds passed. Then Anna blinked her eyes open and grinned weakly.

“I thought so,” she whispered.

EPILOGUE

I
t was late on a Saturday morning, and the courthouse was quiet. Anna used her left hand to insert her motion in limine into the time-stamp machine. The little device hummed as it thumped the date onto the upper corner of the paper. She slid it into the slot for after-hours filings.

Anna was getting more adept at doing things one-handedly. She still wore a blue sling on her right arm, and her right shoulder ached. But the bullet hadn’t hit bone. Although Anna had lost a lot of blood that night, the doctors said that her injury would heal up cleanly. That was one thing she had in common with D’marco Davis.