“Mom,” Dylan said. “You’re free.”
Still nothing.
We held her anyway.
Behind us, Zach’s family had come undone. His mother sobbed, hands clutched to her chest. His sister was shouting insults again.
Movement caught the corner of my eye. The judge and Goldberg were laughing again. Talking like men who played golf together. They shook hands, and the judge left. Deputy AG Belmont tried to stop the judge, but he was clearly done listening.
Goldberg walked past Belmont and said in that polished voice of his, “Tell Harlow he’s done. Hate and lies go far in this country. But the almighty dollar goes farther.”
Belmont’s mouth opened wide, but nothing came out.
Then Goldberg came up to me.
I left Lacey in Dylan’s arms and rose.
“Mr. Goldberg,” I said, “I don’t understand what just happened. But thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
He smiled. “We’ll have a real meeting soon once things settle. There’s work ahead. I will push for police protection to make sure you’re safe until they catch Myers. Although I doubt he will come anywhere near you now that they are looking for him. In all the years I’ve been doing this, criminals never come back once the police are hunting them. The benefit of killing you was to keep the police off his trail. Obviously, that didn’t work. Now running is his only option. Also, the AG and his deputy will get ugly. But, for now, take your family and go home, through the back door. The front is already swarming with reporters.” He lowered his voice. “I usually don’t make promises, but I’m very confident we can get the charges dropped without ever going to trial. The evidence against her is weak, to say the least. No murder weapon. A suspect on the run.”
A grin tugged at his mouth. “I’ve handled people in far worse positions than this.”
“But the attorney general—”
He waved that off. “Thomas, that fragile-egoed prick. He is only an AG. Judges know that.”
“Only?”
The grin widened. “There are people who answer to the AG. And there are people the AG answers to. I know the latter quite well.”
My hands closed around his. I shook hard. Maybe too hard. But I was beside myself with joy. “How much do we owe you?”
I knew I couldn’t pay his fees. The contract read eight thousand dollars an hour.
“Don’t worry about a dime,” he said. “It’s already handled.”
“What?”
“By Amanda.”
He nodded toward the door.
I turned quickly. And there she was, tears streaming down her face as she watched all this unfold. One hand was pressed over her mouth as she tried to hold herself together.
My attention went back to Lacey as the guards lifted her shackled hands. One of them pulled out a key. His fingers hesitated for half a second. Then he set her free.
The cuffs slipped from Lacey’s wrists and slid out of the officer’s grip. They hit the floor with a hollow clang.
For a moment, Lacey just stood there, and it looked like nothing had changed. Like she would keep staring into nothingness forever.
But then her head moved.
And she looked up.
Actually looked up. Straight at me.
“Lacey?” I gasped.
