Joel Goldman - The last witness

Mason flashed back to New Year's Eve. He remembered seeing Amy in the mayor's entourage just before Beth found him at the back of the Dream Casino. In the video Ed Fiora had shown him, Beth had left him on the prow of the boat. The next thing he'd seen was the flash from a gun. Though the shooter's face was obscured, he and Fiora had assumed that the shooter had been Beth.

"If it makes you feel any better, you didn't miss."

"Actually, that makes me feel worse. I didn't know what to do about you. I just knew I couldn't let you find out about me. I saw you and Beth Harrell go outside and I took a chance. You should have bled to death and drowned."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"That's all right," she answered as she reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a gun. "I get a second chance."

"Your father's other gun. The one you used to kill Shirley Parker. Harry Ryman matched the ballistics reports. I told Carl Zimmerman where Cullan's files were, and he told you. You knew about the tunnel to Pendergast's office from when you worked at the mayor's campaign headquarters on the other side of the alley behind the barbershop."

"Jack even gave me the tour."

"You ran into Shirley in the tunnel and killed her."

"Kind of makes it your fault, don't you think?"

"Except I didn't pull the trigger. You did."

"Shirley was hysterical. She came at me with a pair of scissors."

Mason shook his head. "Self-defense would have worked when you were fifteen. That story won't sell. There were no scissors where you left Shirley's body. You got your file and part of the mayor's, but you left enough behind to convict him. Why?"

"I just took the parts about me."

"Carl Zimmerman and James Toland were late to the party. They stole the files they wanted and booby-trapped the rest. Did you know about that?"

"No, but I would have helped them if I had known."

"Blaming all this on dear old Dad won't work anymore, Amy. Killing me won't save you. Your car is stuck in the snow. You'll have to leave my body on your parents' graves. That's a pretty big clue. And your sister is an eyewitness. Are you going to kill her too?"

"Amy, I wanna go home," Cheryl said. "I'm cold."

Cheryl had given up making snow angels and was standing only a few feet from Amy. She spoke with a thick-tongued child's singsong whine. Though she was nearly thirty, her mind was trapped in those last moments when she'd been an innocent child, before her father had beaten her future out of her. Her labored speech was a lasting reminder.

"In a minute, Cheryl," Amy said, keeping her eyes and gun firmly on Mason.

"Now! I wanna go now!" Cheryl stomped her feet and hammered her sides with her fists.

"In a minute, I told you!"

Cheryl began to cry, softly at first, then building to a wail that convulsed her. "Now! Right now!"

Cheryl ran toward Amy like a child grabbing for her mother. Mason bolted at Amy in the same instant, knocking the gun from her hand as the three of them collided. Mason and Amy rolled into the headstones, with Amy on top of him howling and scratching his face. He gripped her wrists, and she crashed her forehead into his nose. Mason felt the cartilage crumble and tasted the blood that ran into his mouth. He pulled her toward him, cocked his arms like springs, and threw her off of him.

A shot rang out, stopping Amy for an instant in midflight, before she tumbled to the ground at Mason's side. Cheryl sat on the snow, the gun in her lap.

"I just wanna go home."

Mason always found April a soothing month. Its cool breezes and sun-painted skies made promises the rest of the year could never keep. Though the life cycle continued unaltered, April convinced his soul that life had an edge over death. He thought about that perpetual scorecard as he stood at the foot of Amy White's grave, the sun warming his neck without penetrating to the chilled memories he carried of the past winter.

Patrick Ortiz had ruled that Amy White's death was accidental. It had been his first official act after Leonard Campbell resigned and he was appointed to serve out Campbell's term as prosecuting attorney. Campbell had gone on the offensive, quitting and denying any wrongdoing before he was indicted.

"What happens to Cheryl White?" Mason had asked Ortiz.

"She's a ward of the state for now, but Howard Trimble has started adoption proceedings. What about you? I hear that Campbell tried to hire you."

Mason had laughed. "I took a pass. He and the mayor have been leaving me messages every day. I hear that Donovan Jenkins made a deal for immunity with the U.S. attorney that will put the mayor away."

"So why not defend one of them?"

"I'm too close to what happened. I'll probably be a witness."

Mason hadn't told Ortiz that he was waiting for his own visit from the feds. Galaxy Gaming Company had bought the Dream Casino. Mason figured it was just a matter of time before some Galaxy employee found the tape recording he was certain Fiora had made of Mason conspiring to gain Blues's release. He figured that Galaxy would either turn him in or book a favor. He couldn't decide which alternative he dreaded more-the visit from the feds or the visit from Galaxy.

Beth Harrell had visited him first. He was studying notes he had written on his dry-erase board about his newest case. Mason had agreed to defend a professional wrestler who'd been indicted for involuntary manslaughter when he'd killed his archrival during a match.

"From the ridiculous to the sublime," Beth had said from the open doorway.

Mason had looked up and pointed to the board. "My case or your life?"

"Fair question. I suppose an explanation is in order."

"No. I'd say it's out of order. You don't owe me an explanation. You just need to quit blaming your weaknesses on your past and move on. You may be kinky or just fucked up. I don't know which and it doesn't matter."

Mason cringed inwardly at his coldness toward Beth but shook it off with the realization that it was the only way he could break from her. She had a toxic allure that he couldn't risk.

"Meaning you don't care?"

"Meaning it doesn't matter. I can't help you either way."

Mason had picked up the wrestler's file and started reading. When he looked up a moment later, Beth had gone.

That had been a month ago, when winter was just releasing its grip. Mason bent down and pulled a dandelion from the sod covering Amy's grave. When he stood up, he saw Harry Ryman walking toward him.

"Blues said I might find you here," Harry told him.

"Yeah. I just thought I'd stop by and pull the weeds. What's up?"

"The chief wants to know if I'm coming back to work." Harry had declined a commendation for solving the murders of Jack Cullan and Shirley Parker and had been using up his accumulated vacation and sick leave. "There's a lot of outside pressure on him to bring me back, and a lot of inside pressure the other way."

"What are you going to do?"

"Carl was six months shy of a full pension. The department lets you buy out the time so you can retire, and still collect your full pension. I told the chief if he'd let me buy out Carl's time, I'd retire. What do you think?"

"I think we're both pulling weeds. Maybe that's the best we can do."

Harry looked out over the acres of grave sites. "I suppose so."

"Listen, I'm on my way to a rugby game. You should come along. I promised Rachel I'd take her to a game. You can keep her company while I get beat up."

"Sounds great. I'll pick up Claire and meet you at the game."

Mason thought about Amy's father and his own father, whom he scarcely remembered, as Harry walked away. Mason had pictures of his father, but little else. Jonathan Mason had been a tall, sturdily built man who his aunt Claire said had an easy laugh.