Loreen Battles’s romance with Sonny the bodyguard lasted for only that one night of bliss. As she later confided to Nikki, “The man is a splendid physical specimen, but he’s so wrapped up in his bodyguard bullshit he doesn’t know anything else is going on in the world. He’s so out of it he thinks Boyz II Men is a day-care center.”
Nikki began to experience something rare for her, an almost ordinary life. A last wrinkle was ironed out one afternoon when she answered her office phone and heard that familiar voice. “Hi, Nikki, how’s it goin’?”
“Pretty good, Mace. How about you?”
“Same-o. Thought I might see daylight there for a while. But here I still am.”
“You do the crime, you do the time.”
“Yeah, but guys come and go all around me. Man raped a young woman and cut off both her arms. Did eight and was out. I got no chance of parole until ten, and all I did was get rid of a worthless, piece-of-shit bad-food pusher.”
His admission of guilt was like a curtain being pulled back from a window and the sunlight shining through. She felt so blissfully happy she had to fight to keep her voice neutral. “What is it you want, Mace?”
“Uh, well, I been enjoying our little talks over the years,” he said. “But I think I got to move on now.”
“That’s good, Mace,” she said. “That sounds like a positive step.”
“I got one last favor to ask.”
“Uh huh,” she said, suspiciously. “What might that be?”
“Could you see it in your heart...to give me Mr. Wise’s direct phone number?”
She was barely able to put her hand over the phone’s mouthpiece before she burst out laughing.
A few moments later, her giddiness under control, she told Mason Durant she thought she could do that one last, little thing.
CHRISTOPHER DARDEN was a key prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson criminal trial. He is the bestselling author of In Contempt .
DICK LOCHTE is an acclaimed mystery writer and screenwriter. His first novel, Sleeping Dog , was nominated for an Edgar Award.
The Trials of Nikki Hill Page 39
