AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your honor, I am nervous about public speaking, but I must say for the record that my … That Lewis hit me manytimes before. I was always afraid to be with him. I was afraid to leave him because of what he might do to the boys. The incident he cited, that I had purposely flirted with a neighbor, is a lie, Your Honor. Tom knew that Lew was abusing me and was trying to protect me. No one was able to do that, myself least of all.
“Your Honor, I beg you to put him away for good. He shouldn’t ever be free to hurt anyone else. I would like a favor. May I go with you to your chambers? I want to show you my injuries.”
Switzer stood. “Your Honor, this should have been done during the trial, if at all.”
“Sit down, Mr. Switzer.”
The judge came out from behind the bench and wheeled Barbara through the door to her office. The door closed. Time went by. Yuki wondered how long it would take for Barbara to disrobe. She exchanged texts with Nicky, sitting next to her, and with Len Parisi, who was out in the hallway. After fifteen minutes, Judge Froman reappeared with Barbara, who’d obviously been crying.
Gaines went to Barbara and returned her to her place in the aisle. Judge Froman, back at the bench, banged her gavel and the room became still.
The judge adjusted her glasses and read the sentences in order. One year for each count of child endangerment. Four years for aggravated assault. Life in prison for attempted murder but the judge did not say “without possibility of parole.”
Yuki looked into Nick’s eyes. It was clear now that while Yuki had proved Lew Sullivan’s intent to kill his wife, byleaving his sentence open to parole at some distant year, the judge showed that she believed in redemption.
Lew Sullivan’s face was expressionless. He was looking at lifetime incarceration in a maximum-security prison. Maybe less, if he was very, very good.
If he ever came up for parole, Yuki would be there. And she would be there with Barbara.
CHAPTER 81
YUKI WAS AT her desk, a mug of oolong tea to the right of her open laptop. It was Saturday, but her work inbox was a font of chaos: hundreds of memos, transcripts, and all manner of email that had backed up during the Sullivan trial.
She was five minutes into turning the tide when her cell phone rang. She grabbed it without looking at the screen, sure that it was Brady, hoping he would say that he had Cindy.
She said, “Brady?”
“Yuki, it’s Mo Switzer.”
“Hi, Mo—”
“Yuki. I’m sorry to say, she’s dead.”
“What?Who?”
“Sorry. I’m a mess. Barbara Sullivan. I dropped over to hand deliver a note from Lewis. He wanted Barbara to know that he was truly sorry. And though I cautioned him against it, he made a confession. Lew was the one who wrote ‘I love you’ in blood on the basement wall. The door was unlocked. I found Barbara in bed. Dead. Her throat was cut.”
“She killed herself?”
“Unlikely. There were words written in blood on the bedroom wall. ‘I love you,’ just like in trial evidence. This time with a signature. ‘Blackout.’ I’m on her porch right now with Inspectors Alvarez and Conklin. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Oh my God. I can’t believe this.”
“Poor effing Barbara,” Switzer said. “May she rest in peace. By the way, Lewis Sullivan is still in lockup awaiting transfer to prison.”
Yuki thanked Switzer for the call. Then, she speed-dialed Lindsay and without preamble told her, “I think Blackout killed Barbara Sullivan.”
Lindsay said, “Are you serious? Says who?”
“Mo Switzer. He’s at her house.”
“Why does he think it was Blackout?”
Yuki said, “The wall. Bloody finger-paint writing.”
There was a long silence.
“Lindsay?”
