Nancy Grace - Murder in the Courthouse

With sudden clarity, Hailey knew without a doubt Tish Adams was not insane; she was a cold-blooded killer. Nothing and nobody would ruin her life, her social position, her prop of a family.

“Wondering how I got this through the metal detector? Because of the oxygen tank… stashed underneath between the wheels! They never even looked under there. The stupid idiot sheriffs felt sorry for me.”

A numbness crept across Hailey’s face. Enclosed here in the tiny bathroom with her back against a wall, there was nowhere to go.

“In fact, now that I think about it… you’re all stupid. Nobody will ever miss Turner or the whore. And certainly not that moron Snodgrass. Or you, Hailey. Nobody’s going to miss you. You think I can let you go now? Think again.”

Tish Adams, finger on the trigger, raised the gun to Hailey’s face. “Last words? Want to say bye-bye to mommy and daddy? I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”

Quick as a snake when it strikes to kill, in one defining moment, Hailey dove hard and down to miss the roaring bullet and grabbed the only thing she could. The tank.

Tish turned on her, cursing, spittle spewing out of her mouth, full of hate like the devil himself.

Heaving the metal cylinder up over her head, Hailey crashed it down with a loud metallic thud onto Tish’s forehead. Hailey pulled it back again. Blood flew across the bathroom, spattering onto the white sinks, the mirrors, the floor, the metal stalls. Hailey slammed it down on Tish’s face with all her might and then… again and again, Tish Adams’s nose crunching under the tank, blood spurting out onto the floor, onto Hailey in a gush.

Like an animal gone wild, Hailey pulled back the tank again, holding on to both ends as best as she could and thrust it down again as Tish Adams lay on the floor. It careened off her chin and landed hard on her right shoulder. Tish Adams now lay in a pool of blood, creeping out to form a crimson rug underneath her. Like Alton’s body. Teeth were in the blood on the floor beside Adams’s face and her mouth hung open against the cool tile beneath her.

Hailey fell back, sitting on the floor of the ladies bathroom there in the Chatham County Courthouse. It was then she saw deep red blossoming, blooming ever bigger on her own chest.

Hailey Dean was shot.

It was unnaturally cool.

Tish Adams stood, her face a black-and-blue pulp and arm in a sling, directly in front of none other than the imposing figure of Luther Alverson. He stared down from his bench at her. Slowly, he read the charges against her.

The indictments for murder had been handed down by a hastily assembled grand jury, rousted from their beds and called to the courthouse. In a bizarre twist of fate, on the first bench behind her, just beyond the rail, stood her son, Todd Adams, now out on bond thanks to Mikey DelVecchio and his new buddies at All-Night Bonding Company.

Across the aisle, on the front row, stood Garland Fincher. He stood stock-still, staring straight ahead of him directly at Tish Adams. His face looked like thunder. His hands in fists. Beside him, still standing, was Hailey Dean.

Her shoulder sported a thick bandage with stitches underneath where a bullet had grazed her, but otherwise not much worse for the wear. On her other side stood Chase Billings. He glanced occasionally at Tish Adams. For the most part, his eyes remained locked on Hailey beside him. It was hard to take in what happened the night before, that Hailey had somehow managed to literally dodge a bullet… well, almost. Tish Adams aimed the.22 straight at Hailey. If Hailey hadn’t dived onto the floor at that split second, she’d be dead right now.

“Quit staring! Do I look that bad without makeup? It’s your fault! I asked to stop at the drugstore for blush and lipstick but you said we didn’t have time!” Billings checked to make sure she was smiling when she said it. She was. Actually, she was even more beautiful without the distraction of makeup, but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that.

Her crystal green eyes were like pools of tropical ocean water, almost unnaturally green. They were framed by her light brown brows, and her silky blonde hair fell in waves around her face. Her lips were perfectly shaped and pink without lipstick or gloss to enhance them, and even with all Billings knew she had been through in her short life, her face remained unlined except for two light wrinkles on either side of her lips… laugh lines. Hailey Dean seemed to love to laugh and could almost always find something light and funny to say… when she wanted to. He loved that about her. She always made him smile… and she wasn’t the kind of girl that minded laughing out loud, really loud if warranted. And then… there were her half smiles, and he loved those too.

Wham!

The sound of the judge pounding his gavel snapped Billings out of his daze. “So ordered. The defendant Tish Adams is hereby remanded to the Chatham County Jail until said time when she shall be tried for the murders of Alton Turner, Eleanor Odom, and Cecil Snodgrass, and the attempted murder of Hailey Dean. We now await the district attorney’s decision as to whether this will be a death penalty case and at the time that announcement is made, this court will be in recess on this matter. Court adjourned! ” He pounded the gavel again very loudly, shot a look of contempt and loathing at Tish Adams, and left the bench.

“I’ve got to hear the whole thing again, and this time, slowly. I only got the extremely abbreviated version at the hospital this morning. And then, the red tape of getting you out and over to the courthouse in time for the grand jury… I can’t believe the DA moved so fast. He had to have the grand jury in there by 8 AM at the latest to have the indictment handed down and signed in time for the hearing. What time did you testify in front of them, Hailey?”

“The DA swore me in at eight-fifteen, I told my story, and, believe it or not, I was out of there at eight-thirty.”

“No questions?” Billings asked, gently holding the back of her elbow on her good side, the left, as they descended the courthouse steps. Finch stood protectively on her right.

“I never fell for her act… with the oxygen tank and all… the ‘poor me’ look all the way through the trial… always skulking around… she put a bad taste in my mouth from the get-go. No wonder the son is such a loser. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, you know that’s right,” Finch, glancing to the left and the right as if on lookout, was growling the whole way down the steps, having his own conversation by himself that had nothing to do with what Hailey and Billings were talking about.

“Not a single question. I started with me flying down to profile for the state and pick apart Todd Adams’s behavior. I told it just how it unfolded… going to Alton’s home, the murder scene, going back out there and finding the black plastic valve, Elle’s death, and meeting Cecil Snodgrass. Then, I went straight to last night. They didn’t ask any questions, but they were all listening and taking notes. We’d only been outside the grand jury room for two, maybe three minutes when they rang the buzzer that they’d voted. The DA went in, was in there about one minute, and came out with the signed indictment.”

“Then what happened? Oh, and did they get the oxygen cap out of the back of your car?” Chase Billings, still staring at Hailey nonstop, asked the question standing at the crosswalk to the parking deck.

“They did get it. Amazing I hadn’t thrown it out. They got it this morning. Techs got it and took photos. I think they’re back out at Alton’s right now. So anyway, back to this morning… then I walked to the elevator with the DA, we went and filed the indictment at the clerk’s office, and then we came to the courtroom.”