Nancy Grace: Murder in the Courthouse

The car doors flew open on both sides of the car, and Hailey was vaguely aware of loud voices.

“Get 911! Help me! He’s dying! ” Hailey screamed. She could hear the words tearing out of her own throat, but they sounded like somebody else, shrill and wild. Inches from his face, she saw the blood was no longer spurting through her fingers. Just a trickle now came from the sides of her hands and then… it stopped.

Hailey felt hands under her armpits, pulling her out of the car. Someone strong pulled her completely out and lifted her under her shoulders and knees, laying her gently down on the concrete floor of the parking garage.

“Hailey, he’s dead. You’re OK. You’re alive, Hailey. Todd Adams is dead. It’s over, Hailey. It’s all over now.”

Her eyes focused for just a moment, and in that moment she saw the face of Chase Billings, just inches above her own. And suddenly, he was holding her in a tight embrace, a hug as if it would never end.

He held her tight, there on the oil-stained concrete. She opened her eyes just once more, to look back over his shoulder for Will.

He was gone.

The sun shone into the front seat of the car as the green from the trees mixed with their limbs overhead appeared for just a moment, then whizzed past in a green blur. The wind through the window felt good and the air smelled heavy with magnolias.

“So, this isn’t the way to the airport. Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

The sheriff’s cruiser slowed and went off the road down a hard red dirt path and then through an opening between the trees she hadn’t seen from the road. It was cool and dark off the road with the sun dappling through here and there. She spotted a butterfly ahead.

The car stopped. “We’re here.”

“Where’s here?”

He opened her door and she took his outstretched hand, stepping out of the car and into the tall grass on either side of the dirt road. “You’ll like it, you’ll see.” He smiled.

He led her by the hand through the tall, green grass, across the clearing and through the trees just beyond. She could hear the water now, playing against the rocks, ambling by. It seemed happy.

“It’s Moon River, Hailey. I wanted you to see it.”

Hailey looked out onto the water, dotted with sunlight. The leaves in the trees and the Spanish moss swayed in the breeze. It was so beautiful, it didn’t seem real… like a magic spell had taken her away from everything dangerous and evil in her life… like a different world far away from her old world.

“Stay, Hailey. You can stop fighting now. You can stop. You’ve done enough. Have a life here. With me, Hailey. With me. With us. You don’t have to go back to that world anymore, Hailey. It can be over.”

The world stood still. Her New York apartment, her practice, her patients, the courtrooms, the crime, it all seemed a lifetime away. All there was… was this… this moment… this man… the water tripping by… the sun on her face.

“I’ll think about it. I promise.”

Sadness crossed his face before he could hide it. “Then, I’ll be in Manhattan in a few weeks to try and convince you. Can I do that?”

“I hope you do.” She smiled at him, close to his lips, but her eyes filled with tears. She didn’t know why.

“I’ve dreaded the moment, Hailey, the moment you wave from the plane. But Hailey, I’ll dream of you. You won’t be waving goodbye, you’ll be waving hello.”

When her fiancé was murdered just before their wedding day, Nancy Graceabandoned plans to become a Shakespearean literature professor to enter the world of crime and justice; she attended Mercer Law School, graduating Law Review . She then obtained her LLM in Criminal and Constitutional Law at NYU. Grace spent a decade in inner-city Atlanta prosecuting violent crimes, compiling a perfect record of more than 100 felony prosecution victories at trial with no losses. Grace joined Court TV and, for eleven years, covered major trials after cohosting Cochran & Grace with famed defense attorney Johnnie Cochran. One of television’s most respected legal analysts, Grace starred in the top-rated HLN show Nancy Grace and serves as a legal expert for ABC’s Nightline, 20/20 , and Good Morning America . Grace lives in both New York City and Atlanta with her husband and beloved twins, a boy and a girl (and a dog and a cat, both pound pets).