Page 136 of Fifty-Fifty

I hung my head. I couldn’t look. Harry grabbed my shoulder, I could feel his tension in his grip.

Not a single noise could be heard. Not even a breath. The courtroom was a tomb. And I had a creeping dread that Sofia would be buried in it.

The foreman cleared his throat, and when he spoke, he sounded like he was shouting from the rooftops, far above my head.

‘Not guilty.’

A rumble of noise, building. Sofia grasped my arm and cried out. It sounded both human and animalistic. A grunt of pain and relief, like a thorn being pulled from flesh.

‘In the matter of the People versus Alexandra Avellino, do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?’

No pause this time. No hesitation of any kind.

‘Guilty.’

There was no quelling the noise now. The guttural sound that came from Alexandra’s throat was the opposite of Sofia’s. There was no relief, just pain and anger. Her hands flew from her sides and Kate tried to calm her.

There was no way to quiet this courtroom. The gallery erupted in chatter, and it was all Judge Stone could do to tell Kate that her client would be sentenced at a later date, before he discharged the jury, revoked Alexandra’s bail and adjourned the court.

Dreyer was still pumping his fist, a grin of angry satisfaction on his face as the court security guards approached Alexandra with a set of cuffs. She recoiled, yelling, ‘No, no, no, they got it wrong, it was my sister!’

They held her down, cuffed her and took her away, Kate following behind them. Before they disappeared through the side door, Kate turned, saw me, gave me a thumbs-up. It was bittersweet for Kate. She’d backed the wrong sister, and she knew it. And yet, she had done the right thing.

A large hand slapped me on the back.

‘We did it, Eddie. We got her,’ said Harry.

‘I didn’t know what that jury was going to do. I had no clue.’

‘From the moment you exposed that journal, it was always going this way,’ he said.

‘Really? I didn’t think so. I just couldn’t call it one way or the other. I got lost in this one, somewhere along the way.’

‘You haven’t slept in a long time. I’m surprised you can still stand. It’s okay, you can’t call the verdicts all of the time. Get some rest,’ he said.

He sniffed, and followed Sofia as she was swallowed by the crowd. The reporters were barking questions at her, a melee of noise and camera flashes.

Dreyer was besieged by reporters too. He put on that hellish, triumphant look and thanked his team.

I pushed through the edge of the crowd, kept my head down and made for the door. It was over. The killer was in custody. Sofia was free. Justice, if there was such a thing, rarely saw its reflection in a verdict. Justice is not about right and wrong. People make mistakes. Criminals and jurors alike. Verdicts are often flawed because people are flawed. This verdict was right, and as I left the courthouse I stared up at the stars and stripes, and felt that maybe they weren’t in such bad shape after all. I needed to get back to my office.

I wanted to sleep until next year.

FIFTY

EDDIE

Within an hour of the verdict I was in the back room of my office, lying down on my cot, eyes closed, two-fingers of whiskey rolling around in my empty stomach

and my eyes shut tight.

My body wanted sleep. My brain, too. I’d never felt so tired. Months of sleepless nights and long days were finally taking their toll.

But no sleep came.

All I could think of was Harper. Her killer was still out there. It was possible that Alexandra had killed Harper, and that thought was hard to resist but there was nothing linking her to the murder apart from Harper working on Sofia’s case. If Harper saw something during that visit to the Franklin house, and had to be taken out by Alexandra, I couldn’t see what it was. I only had theories – nothing approaching a solid.

Thoughts were banging around in my head so much I could almost hear them.