Guilty

by Karen Fenech

  In a murder case, the first person of interest was always the spouse. Ryan’s gaze went to Timothy Fahey, seated straight and tense behind the prosecutor. Colson had cleared Fahey of any suspicion in his wife’s death.

  Gaines had a criminal record with arrests and jail terms for breaking and entering and petty theft. No violent offences. Until Sharon Fahey’s murder. The evidence against Gaines in the Fahey homicide was damning. Blood, DNA, a murder weapon with his prints on it—they had it all.

  But as damning as that evidence was, Ryan didn’t fool himself into thinking the case was open and shut. In Faith’s capable hands, that evidence could be presented as circumstantial. Since Gaines worked as a handyman in Sharon Fahey’s home, Gaines was all over the premises.

  Yeah, they had evidence but Faith could make a case for reasonable doubt. Though Sharon had been raped, they had no evidence of semen. While Ryan’s gut told him Gaines had used a condom, the absence of something couldn’t be proven.

  Ryan had people stationed inside the courtroom as well as out but scanned the crowd for himself. Gaines was the most hated man in the county and Ryan wouldn’t rest easy until Gaines was out of here and back inside the jail.

  Despite the cold and dark day, people had come out to observe the proceedings. Inside the courtroom, it was wall-to-wall people and yet more continued to squeeze inside, rubbing their arms against the chill, speaking in hushed conversations with the occasional nervous laugh ringing out. Making their way to the seat behind Timothy Fahey, were some of Mrs. Fahey’s co-workers, teachers from the high school where she’d taught, and staff and volunteers from the homeless shelter. The women huddled together on the wooden bench seat flanked on each end by the only two men with them, the school principal and the executive director of the shelter.Ryan made no effort to hide his perusal of the courtroom. He caught the eye of more than one person. If those in attendance knew they were being watched, so much the better.

  Faith left the courtroom accompanied by one of Irwin’s minions, her heels clicking with purpose. The trim skirt she wore flared slightly at the hem with her deliberate stride. Ryan watched her go, drinking in the sight of her.

  She returned a few moments later. As she was resuming her seat, the proceedings were called to order. Judge Halloran Houghton was presiding. All in attendance rose to their feet until the judge took his seat.

  The charges against Gaines were read and acknowledged. A request for a plea was made. Faith entered a plea of “not guilty” for Gaines. Ryan tensed hearing that. The outcries from the crowd prompted Judge Houghton to slam his gavel and threaten to clear the courtroom. Though it was unlikely Houghton would grant bail, Faith did not make the request. Not only couldn’t Gaines afford bail, but she must have concluded that the best place for him would be in a jail cell where he would be as far away from the public and any retaliation as possible.

  Unfortunately, Ryan thought, entering the plea and setting a trial date for six weeks from today wasn’t a lengthy process, and Houghton didn’t need to make good on his threat. An instant later, Houghton’s gavel came down a second time and court was adjourned.

  Ryan would have preferred a few extra minutes before court was dismissed. Heads were running hot right now and a few moments for those heads to cool would have been a good thing.

  Through the earpiece he wore, Ryan heard his men outside comment on the crowd on the courthouse steps and on the sidewalk in front. Traffic had backed up. Ryan overheard a couple of his cops directing vehicles to move on.

  Time to get Gaines back to his cell. Ryan rose to his feet to get the transport underway. Galbraith took up a position beside Gaines as Gaines rose gingerly from the chair, moving as if his legs wouldn’t support him. Galbraith cuffed Gaines then clamped a hand around Gaines’s elbow and turned the man in the direction of the private side door they would all exit from.

  As Colson was about to fall in on Gaines’s other side, Faith zipped her briefcase then took that position herself.

  Ryan swore under his breath. Faith intended to leave the courthouse alongside Gaines. Despite the heavy police presence in and around the courthouse, transporting the hated Gaines to and from his cell was not without risk, no matter how well planned or manned, and Ryan didn’t want Faith anywhere near the man.

  Not his call. Ryan knew that too. Even if they were still a couple, Faith would cut off one of his body parts if he tried to tell her how to do her job. He understood that. He was as territorial about his own job, but understanding it with his head was far different than accepting it with his heart.

  Ryan joined the group made up of Faith, Gaines, Galbraith and Colson. He went to stand beside her. Her gaze went to his and in that instant he saw that his presence wasn’t welcome, but she masked any emotion quickly.

  Ryan put his personal feelings about that aside and returned his attention to his surroundings. The crowd inside the courtroom remained thick with most staying where they were, in the seats or the aisles, rather than leaving. Angry gazes were riveted on Gaines. Now with court no longer in session, shouts and comments were hurled at Gaines from the public. The crowd was quickly developing a mob mentality.

  Members of the media raised cameras and microphones and jockeyed to get closer to Gaines. Ryan’s officers intervened, putting themselves between Gaines, the public, and the reporters.

  Ryan gave Galbraith the signal to move to the exit door while he continued to sweep the courtroom with his gaze. And then he saw it . . . a flicker of movement. Timothy Fahey moved out from behind D.A. Irwin and raised his arm. Fahey was holding a gun aimed at Gaines.

  “You killed my wife!” Fahey shouted in a pain-filled cry. “You’re not going to get away with it by pleading not guilty!”

  Ryan pushed Faith flat on the tile and shouted, “Stay down!”

  He broke away from her and ran straight for Fahey, ramming his shoulder into Fahey, and knocking him onto the steps leading to the witness box. But as Ryan was grabbing Fahey’s arm to aim it high, away from the crowd, Fahey pulled the trigger.

  People shrieked and scrambled for cover. Ryan heard Faith scream and his heart felt as if it stopped. He seized the gun then slammed Fahey face down on the floor. Officers ran to Ryan and he released Fahey and the gun to them.

  Ryan ran to Faith. She was on her hands and knees peering down at Gaines. There was blood on her trim black suit jacket and dotting the white blouse beneath. A few strands of hair had come loose from the tight bun at her nape but she was unhurt. Ryan squeezed his eyes shut, taking that in. When he reopened them, Faith had removed her jacket and was pressing it to a wound at Gaines’s side that was spurting blood.

  “We need a medic!” Faith shouted. “We need a medic now!”

  Ryan dropped down beside her. His put his hands atop hers. “I’m stronger. Let me.”

  Faith looked at him. The anguish in her eyes had Ryan stumbling for an instant. He knew Faith’s job was more than a job to her, that her clients were important to her, but the pain he saw was out of proportion to what she should feel for a stranger.

  Ryan had no time to contemplate that further. Faith quickly removed her hands from Gaines and Ryan replaced them with his own. The fact that the wound was bleeding meant Gaines was alive but the man was bleeding out fast and it remained to be seen if he would remain that way.

  Sirens rose above the shouts and screams. The doors to the courtroom burst open. Ryan moved aside for the paramedics. Faith, obviously reluctantly, left Gaines’s side as well. Ryan clasped her upper arms. Without her jacket she was shivering in the wind blowing in from the doors left open by the medics. Ryan removed his own suit jacket and placed it around her trembling body. He bunched the ends in his fists, holding the jacket tight around her.

  Faith’s eyes were glazed, fixed on Gaines. Ryan took one hand from the jacket and cupped her cheek. He crouched so their gazes were level. “Faith. Faith!”

  Her eyes cleared and she nodded, though Ryan noted her lips were trembling as much as the res
t of her. Over his shoulder, he raised an arm and signaled to one of the medics, “Over here!”

  Faith cleared her throat. “I’m fine.” With more force she repeated, “I’m fine.” She shook her head. “I don’t need medical attention.”

  Ryan was about to argue that but just then Gaines was hoisted onto a gurney. The medics propelled the fallen man to the waiting ambulance. Faith broke Ryan’s hold on her and teetered after them.

  Ryan wanted to go with her, to be with her to make sure she was seen by a doctor despite her protests. To look at her again and again, as many times as it took to chase the fear that had a choke hold on him at how close she’d come to being shot. But that wasn’t what she needed from him now. What she needed was for him to make sure that what had happened today did not happen again. Ryan would make sure of it.

  CHAPTER SIX

  At Wade County General Hospital, Faith ran alongside the gurney that held James Gaines. She could see his chest, now bare after paramedics had cut off the top of his prison jump suit, rise and fall. He was alive. Faith was clinging to that.

  Just moments earlier, he’d been standing by her side. He’d been shaking. She’d felt it when she’d placed her hand on his arm in a show of support. The courtroom had been cool though not cold. Faith hadn’t believed James had been shaking from the temperature. He was afraid. He’d looked out at the crowd of jeering and hostile faces. He appeared bewildered by them all and terrified.

  Faith’s heart had gone out to him. James’s gaze had gone to hers and looked to her as if she was his lifeline. She’d given him a reassuring nod then whispered, “Do you remember what I told you?”

  She’d explained to him moments earlier at the defense table that this was a process and that they had to go through each step in turn, that the prosecution was building a case against him and that Faith would break down that case.

  James’s gaze had continued to hold hers and she remembered thinking, it was going to be all right. He would get through this. At Faith’s nod, some of the fear left his eyes.

  Then they started to leave the courtroom.

  She hadn’t seen the gun until it was too late. In truth, when Ryan had stepped up beside her, she’d lost her focus. Could concentrate on nothing but him. Telling herself that he was only there because of the transport, that once James was out of the courtroom and back in police custody she wouldn’t need to see Ryan at all, hadn’t helped. It only brought home to her that she sounded afraid of him. She released a tremulous breath. Not sounded afraid, she was afraid.

  The last year without him, her life had been a careful balancing act that she would not be able to maintain if she was near him. Since he’d shown up at her house three nights earlier, she’d already felt the balls she struggled to keep in the air everyday slipping.

  In that instant when he’d been at her side, her thoughts had become consumed by him. And then Fahey fired a gun.

  As Ryan knocked her out of the way, Faith had seen James go down. Had heard his cry of pain, and then saw blood coat his side. On her hands and knees she’d crawled to him and stripped off her own jacket, pressing it to his side to try to staunch the blood. But it just kept coming.

  The gurney was pushed through double doors that led to an operating room. When Faith would have followed, one of the medics turned to her.

  “This is as far as you go, ma’am. Someone will be out with a report as soon as he’s out of surgery.”

  Faith nodded mechanically and stumbled back against a wall. Her clothes were stained with blood. Over and over, one thought repeated in her mind, Don’t let him die. Don’t let him die.

  “Miss Winston?”

  Faith glanced up. The man addressing her was Sergeant Galbraith. Faith knew him professionally and from her time with Ryan. Galbraith pressed a paper cup of hot chocolate into her ice-cold hands. “Sergeant, what are you doing here?”

  A stupid question, she realized. Though James was in surgery, he was still in custody and under police guard.

  “I’m here for you, ma’am.”

  “Me?”

  “After what happened at the courthouse, Chief Crosby isn’t taking any chances.”

  Looking around, she noticed that uniformed officers had filled the corridor. No, Ryan would not let what happened at the courthouse happen again and she had no doubt that he would take care with her safety. Knowing that was reassuring, but even more so his protectiveness started an ache inside her.

  Galbraith tapped a finger that was as large as a sausage gently against Faith’s cup. “You might want to drink your chocolate while it’s hot, ma’am. Looks like we’re going to be here for a while.”

  * * *

  Ryan nodded to Colson who was waiting for him in the hall outside the interrogation rooms then the two men entered the one that held Timothy Fahey. Ryan was furious at Fahey, at Gaines, and mostly at himself for not preventing what happened at the courthouse. Ryan was still coming down from a fear the likes of which he’d never known before when he’d heard that gun shot and Faith’s scream.

  It had been all too easy for Fahey to take a weapon into the courtroom. Firearms weren’t permitted in there. Lock boxes were provided. Law enforcement, however, was not constitutionally permitted to search people before they entered the courtroom.

  The shooting at the courthouse hadn’t been about Faith. Ryan needed to remember that, to gain some distance, and bring himself back to what it all was really about.

  He didn’t need to be in on this interrogation but Fahey had asked to speak with him. Ryan didn’t normally indulge such requests but something about Fahey drew him. Maybe it was that if he’d been in Fahey’s position, Ryan would have gone after Gaines too.

  Ryan was sworn to uphold the law. He didn’t believe in vigilante justice but he could well imagine Fahey losing it when hearing Gaines’s plea of not guilty. Fahey had found his wife after Gaines had finished with her. If Fahey had killed Gaines, Ryan the man wouldn’t have blamed him. The travesty was that Ryan the cop was going to have to lock Fahey up for the attempt.

  Fahey sat at the rectangular table, his head in his hands, fingers knuckle deep in his jet black hair. He didn’t so much as raise his head at Ryan’s entrance.

  “Mr. Fahey,” Ryan said. “You asked to speak with me.”

  Finally, Fahey raised his head. Ryan noted the wildness that had been present in Fahey’s eyes when he’d pulled the trigger was gone. Instead, Ryan saw soul-deep sadness.

  “I didn’t kill him, did I?” Fahey’s voice was thick with tears. “That son of a bitch is still alive.”

  Not remorse, but disappointment. Ryan met the man’s red-rimmed gaze. “You did not kill him.”

  Fahey nodded slowly. “Then it’s over. He used Sharon to get what he wanted and then repaid her kindness by killing her.” He swallowed convulsively. “He killed Sharon and I blew my chance to make him pay for that.”

  Ryan wanted to tell Fahey it was nowhere near over. There would be a trial. Their system of justice would prevail but Ryan couldn’t offer that guarantee.

  “You shouldn’t have stopped me, Chief!”

  Fahey shot up from his chair, fists clenched. Ryan didn’t even bother to brace for an attack and as quickly as Fahey had sprung from his seated position, he sank back in his chair as if something had been holding him up and dropped him.

  “He won’t stop with Sharon,” Fahey said, again swallowing over and over. “A man like that will kill again. Maybe next time, he’ll kill someone you love, Chief.”

  It sounded like a curse or a prophesy. Ryan didn’t believe in either but at that moment, his heart clutched and something icy trailed down his spine. Fahey’s words weren’t easy to shake off because Ryan had been having those thoughts himself about Faith being hurt by Gaines.

  “Detective Colson will take your statement,” Ryan said. “As I’m sure he’s already told you, you have a right to an attorney. I’d advise you to exercise that right.”

  As Ryan left the interrogation room
, Fahey put his head in his hands and began to sob.

  Fahey’s words returned to Ryan. He rolled his shoulder to relieve a weight that had settled there. But the weight remained.

  * * *

  Hours later, Ryan left the station. The day had been spent in calls and meetings with the mayor and other government officials, and meetings with his own people about what had taken place at the courthouse. Night had fallen. Lights around the building and on the street lit his path to where he’d left his vehicle.

  Ryan had called Galbraith several times, checking on Faith, and learned that Gaines was out of surgery. The bullet had struck a fleshy part in Gaines’s side and though it had bled like a son of a bitch, there wasn’t any permanent damage and the surgery to remove the bullet had not been complicated. Gaines would make a full recovery.

  Galbraith also said that Faith was still at Wade County General. Galbraith had tried to get her to go home, to drive her home himself, but Faith wouldn’t budge.

  Curious to Ryan was Faith’s attachment to Gaines. She’d had other cases, other clients, and while she defended each with all she had, she had not become this involved. Granted none of her other clients had been shot before her eyes, but even before that, Ryan had seen she was different with Gaines. What was going on? What made Gaines so special? What set him apart or even above the others?

  Ryan had heard that she’d gone after this case. To his knowledge, this was the first time she’d actively pursued a case. She cared about all of her clients and worked her ass off for each of them, but what Ryan was seeing with Gaines had him wondering and uneasy.

  Not long after, Ryan pulled into the Wade County General Hospital parking lot. An ambulance was pulling out, sirens blaring, roof lights flashing. Ryan drove around back, away from the media gathered in front of the hospital, and took a spot on the lot. He left his SUV and made his way through a side door.