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“Yes, I am.” He hugged her quickly, then let her go.
“Are you going to win?” Her eyes were bright and full of certainty. She could not imagine him losing, or what that would mean.
“I don’t know, sweetheart, but I’m going to try very hard. Wish me luck.”
“Aren’t you right?”
“I think so.” Should he say “right” didn’t always win? She was three! This was too soon.
“Grandmama says you’re very clever,” Cassie went on.
“Nobody wins all the time. But I’ll try very hard.”
She looked uncertain for a moment, and then she smiled. “I wish you win.”
“Thank you.” He leaned again and kissed her cheek very gently. “Now, whatever happens, it won’t hurt too badly.”
She looked at him very seriously for an instant and touched her cheek where he had kissed her, then turned and ran into the dining room, where Charlotte was holding the door open for her, Sophie in her arms. Daniel’s eyes met his mother’s and Charlotte blew him a kiss. Then Sophie turned her big blue eyes to look at him and smiled a beautiful baby smile full of love and trust, so that Daniel thought it was all he needed to sustain him through this most difficult day.
He went out the front door and walked swiftly to the nearest main street, where he could catch a taxi to the courthouse.
* * *
—
DANIEL FOUND KITTERIDGE almost immediately. He looked as if he had been pacing back and forth waiting for Daniel, perhaps wondering if he would ever show up. His relief was palpable.
“At least you’re here, for whatever that’s worth!” Kitteridge exclaimed. “Did you find anything in Alderney?” If Kitteridge was trying to hide his tension, he was making a poor job of it. “For God’s sake, tell me! Your brother-in-law’s been sending wires back and forth to his people in Washington, but they still can’t say when Morley Cross was killed. Hillyer won’t wait much longer. If he has to, he’ll just think we’re stalling, and we will have to be clever to persuade the jury that Cross was killed after Sidney left. I don’t believe it myself!”
“There’s plenty I found out on Alderney.” Daniel took him by the arm, primarily to keep him still. “May Trelawny was murdered.”
“What? I thought she fell off a horse or something.”
“She was kicked to death by it, or at least that was what it was made to look like. But the medical evidence doesn’t fit together. She was killed because she wouldn’t sell her house. I’ve brought the doctor over to testify.”
“Never mind that! Was it Sidney?” Kitteridge demanded.
“No. It was somebody considerably older.”
“Okay then, what is so special about the house? I mean, to commit murder for. It’ll have to be something pretty big.”
“It is. Trust me. I’ll bring it out. It’s murder…and treason!”
Kitteridge looked at him narrowly, suspicion, disbelief, and hope struggling in his face.
“I’ll bring it out! I promise!” Daniel knew the risk he was running even as he said it, but he felt he had nowhere else to go. Caution now would lose him everything.
Kitteridge grasped him by the arm. “Well, come on, then, you’d better lead. And please God you know where you’re going!”
CHAPTER
Twenty-five
COURT RESUMED AND, in agreement with Kitteridge, Daniel rose to his feet to open the case for the defense.
“Gentlemen of the jury, I’m going to show you a long and twisted story of a man accused of two crimes he did not commit. And that story involves a far greater and more terrible crime that he did not even know of. Two crimes that did not actually happen—or not as you may see them—and one that did, and was so well hidden that you did not know of it. A triple jeopardy, if you like.”
He saw in their faces that he had their attention, if only because they did not understand.
