Diehl, William - Show of Evil by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

I'm sure you're aware that three
professional psychiatrists have concluded that your client is sane.
    VAIL:

Thirteen
    Jane Venable stared south from her thirtieth-floor office window in
the glass and steel spire towards the courthouse and thought about
Martin Vail. It had been a long time since she felt such passion or
been as comfortable with a man. Throughout the day she kept having
flashbacks of the night before, fleeting moments that blocked out
everything else for an instant or two. Now, staring into the
late-afternoon mist in the direction of the courthouse, she wondered if
Vail was having the same kind of day.
    God, I'm acting like a high school girl
, she thought, and
shrugged it off.
    But she had a brief to be filed and she decided to take it herself
rather than have her secretary do it. Then she would drop in on Vail.
Why not? Her memory jumped back to an afternoon ten years earlier when
Vail had shown up unannounced, in the same office that was then hers;
how she had suddenly realized while they were talking that she was
breathing a little faster and paying more attention to him than to what
he was saying. Ten years and she still remembered that brief encounter
when she had first realized that she was attracted to the
rough-and-tumble, sloppy, shaggy-haired courtroom assassin.
    He had slicked up a bit since then: the hair was a little shorter
and his suits weren't so bagged-out, but the cutting edge was still
there, just under the surface. Even as a prosecutor he was a gambler,
unlike most of the lawyers she knew, who were more concerned with how
close to the corner of the building their office was and what kind of
car to move up to next.
    What the hell, we started something, I'll be damned if I'm going
to let it fizzle.
    Then she laughed at herself.
    Fizzle! It hasn't even started yet. What's the matter with you?
    Aw, screw you
, she said to herself.
    She stuffed the brief in her attache case and headed out the door.

    On the fourth floor of the Criminal Courts Building, Abel Stenner
burst out of his office and raced towards Naomi's desk.
    'My God, Abel, what set you on fire?' she asked.
    'Is he busy?' Stenner asked, ignoring her question.
    'He's on the phone with - '
    'Won't wait,' Stenner cut her off, and entered the office with Naomi
trailing close behind. Vail was sitting in his chair with his back to
the door, blowing smoke into the exhaust fan. He wheeled around when
Stenner entered, took one look at his chief investigator, and knew
something was up.
    'I'll call you back,' he said, and put down the phone.
    'They made a bust in the Delaney case,' Stenner announced.
    'Already? Who?' Naomi asked with surprise.
    'His executive secretary. Fifty-three years old. Crippled husband,
daughter in college.'
    'Sweet Jesus. How did they nail her so quickly?' Naomi said.
    'Shock must've been on the case,' Vail answered.
    'You're right. Called me from his car. They had just Mirandized her
and she came out with it. Said it twice. "I killed him." They're
bringing her in now. Murder one.'
    Vail whistled slowly through his teeth.
    'Why'd she do it?' Naomi asked.
    'That's all I know. Maybe we ought to head down to Booking.'
    They breezed out of Vail's office. Shana Parver was deep in a law
book as Vail and Stenner passed her cubbyhole. Vail's rap on the glass
startled her.
    'C'mon,' said Vail.
    'Where?'
    'Downstairs.'

    Edith Stoddard cowered as Shock Johnson and Si Irving led her
through the wave of press that swarmed towards her when she got out of
the car. They brought her into the booking office just as Stenner,
Vail, and Parver got off the lift, which was directly across the hall
from the entrance to Booking. Three TV crews, several photographers,
radio interviewers, and reporters crowded through the doorway as they
brought Stoddard in. Her hands were cuffed behind her and she seemed
terrorized by the media and the police and the grim surroundings. Her
eyes flicked from one group to another. Detectives crowded around