There were others. Four women, killed in the same manner, all within two years. Grace and Pakula were still convinced that Jared Barnett was the killer in each case. But other than circumstantial evidence, Rebecca's case was the only one they could actually connect to Barnett. That connection was Danny Ramerez and his eyewitness testimony, testimony that he saw Rebecca getting into a black pickup being driven by Jared Barnett the afternoon she disappeared. It had been testimony so convincing, so descriptive, that the jury hadn't hesitated to convict him. Then suddenly, after five years, Danny Ramerez confessed he hadn't even been out that afternoon. Without his testimony, Barnett was free. It was as simple as that.

What wasn't simple was the amount of criticism leveled at the police department and the prosecutor's office. So much so that even a recent string of convenience-store robberies had the media impatient for a resolution.

Grace glanced at the defense table, noticing that Penn and Richey had started to make their way out the door, taking a good portion of the crowd with them. That's when she saw him.

Jared Barnett stood in the back row, waiting his turn to get out the door-standing and waiting as if he were just one of the spectators.

"Speak of the devil," she said to Pakula and he followed her gaze.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered. "I saw him outside on the steps one day last week, too. Just can't stay away, can he?"

Grace had seen him, too, only it was in the coffee shop across the street from the courthouse, and then again right outside her dry cleaner's. She tried to convince herself it was Jared Barnett's way of thumbing his nose at them, at them all. Not that he had singled her out. But just as he got to the door he looked over at her, and he smiled.