He saw the judge swallow. “Uh, Mr. Nelson, this is a bond hearing. That’s not the…” He stumbled, tried again. “That’s not the case before-”

Stan Adams was back on his feet. “Your Honor, what is going on here?”

“I’m trying to ascertain that for myself, Mr. Adams. Mr. Nelson, the case you…uh…” As he stammered, his attention was drawn to the rear door of the courtroom. Duncan watched his features turn slack with dismay, then appear to melt as though made of wax, until his entire face was sagging heavily.

Unsteadily he came to his feet and leaned upon the podium for support as Elise made her grand entrance, flanked by Bill Gerard on one side, Worley on the other. Gerard’s countenance, normally affable, was stony with resolve. Worley’s toothpick was at a particularly jaunty angle, like he’d just told the dirtiest joke ever.

As for Elise, she looked confident and poised. “Hello, Cato.”

“Elise!” he cried. “How…This is…My God!”

“Stop pretending, Cato. You’re anything but overjoyed.”

Upon seeing Elise, supposedly a dead woman, astonishment had rendered Stan Adams silent.

Duncan left his seat and stepped into the aisle just ahead of Elise and her escorts. Without breaking stride, he went to the side of the judge’s podium and stepped behind it. Taking the judge by the arm, he literally dethroned him and pulled him from behind his bench.

“Cato Laird, you’re under arrest for the murder of Chet Rollins. You have the right to remain silent.”

“Elise, what…What is this?” He waved his arms in an attempt to throw off Duncan. The wide sleeves of his robe flapped like the wings of a grounded crow. Duncan deliberately articulated his words as he read him his rights.

The judge’s dismay turned to anger. “Gerard, what is going on?”

“Just like Detective Sergeant Hatcher said. You’re being arrested for conspiring to commit murder.”

“This is outrageous!”

Elise stepped up to him. “You had my half brother killed, Cato. He was going to expose you and Savich, so you silenced him.”

He looked beyond her at Gerard. “She’s delusional.”

But Gerard said nothing as Elise went on, undeterred. “At the time, Chet was the only person in my life who loved me. The only person I loved. And he died naked and in fear on a cold shower floor, slowly choking on a bar of soap.”

Cato looked around frantically, seeking an ally. None was to be found. Everyone in the courtroom was riveted by the drama being played out. Some were regarding the judge speculatively. Others had already made up their minds about the truthfulness of Elise’s accusation and were looking at him with contempt.

He shouted, “This woman is unstable! She’s a liar. She killed a man in our home, and I, like a fool, protected her from prosecution. She’s been pretending to be dead, for crissake.”

He pointed a finger at Duncan. “Yesterday, he…he kidnapped and assaulted me. She can tell you,” he said, pointing wildly at DeeDee. “They’ve all turned against me. They hate me. You can’t believe anything they say!”

Elise continued in a calm, clear voice. “For years you’ve been taking money from Savich in exchange for favorable rulings. Lenient sentencing. Sometimes you dismissed cases and declared mistrials.”

She produced the USB key that had been taken from Savich’s computer during the search of his office that had followed his arrest. Despite his claim of having firewalls that couldn’t be cracked, they had been last night by the department’s computer experts.

“All your transactions are recorded on this. Savich was invoiced by your family’s shipping company for its transport services. But he was charged a usurious rate, sometimes twice what other clients were charged for the same service. The overage he paid went into your private account in the Cayman Islands.”

The judge’s face had turned red with fury. He confronted Gerard. “You can’t treat me like this!”

“Yeah, I can.”

“I want my lawyer.”

“You’ll get your phone call, Judge.”

Looking past the others, the judge snarled at Savich, “Did you set me up?”

Savich shouted back, “You were going to feed me to these dogs.”

Stan Adams told him to shut up.

Ignoring the advice of his attorney, Savich said, “It’s her you have to thank for this,” and motioned toward Elise with his head. “Her and her boyfriend Hatcher.”

“Be quiet!” Adams grabbed Savich’s arm and tried to yank him into a chair, but he stumbled on his chains and fell to the floor.

Duncan gave Cato Laird a nudge. “Say good-bye to your bench. You’ve made your last ruling.”

“You son of a bitch,” the judge said, spraying spittle. “You lied to me. You…” He divided a wrathful look between him and Elise. “You are fucking her, aren’t you? Well, have her. You deserve the bitch. You deserve each other.”

Duncan’s eyes drilled into those of the judge and he held his arm in a bone-crunching grip. Lowering his voice to a menacing pitch, he said, “I advise you to leave this courtroom now, before you say something for which I’ll be forced to hold you in contempt.”

Recognizing the words he’d said to Duncan, Cato lunged toward him and Elise. Two uniformed cops rushed to Duncan’s assistance, and it took the three of them to restrain Laird. Feral sounds issued from his throat. The blood vessels in his forehead looked ready to burst.

Elise didn’t recoil. In fact, she stepped closer to him. Suddenly the judge ceased his struggles and became perfectly still except for his raspy breathing.

“What Savich says is true, Cato,” she said. “I set you up. But you have only yourself to blame. From the day you were born, you were handed every advantage that could possibly be granted to a person, and you abused them all. What a sick, selfish individual you are. As well as criminal.

“I’m sure you realize how unpopular you’ll be among the prison population. You’ll have enemies already in place, anticipating your arrival. That means every day for the rest of your life, you’ll be looking over your shoulder, living in fear, like Chet did.

“Fear will be your constant companion, Cato. Every minute of every day, you’ll have to be on guard against ambush, rape, torture. Execution.” She took a deep breath, then added softly, “May God have mercy on you. I have none.”

Duncan admired her restraint. In her situation, he wouldn’t have been nearly that eloquent. But then, she had waited a long time for this day. Maybe she had known exactly what she would say to him if ever given the opportunity.

She turned her back on Cato Laird. Duncan relinquished the judge to the policemen and moved up beside her, taking her elbow. She’d won the respect of Gerard and Worley during the long and detailed telling of the whole story last night. They preceded her and Duncan up the aisle like bodyguards.

They were about halfway to the exit when the shot rang out. Acting on instinct, Duncan dove to his right, knocking Elise to the floor and covering her with his own body.

Screams and warning shouts echoed in the courtroom.

“Stay down!” Duncan yelled at her. Then in one fluid motion, he rolled onto his back and came up into a crouch, aimed and ready to fire his drawn weapon.

But the threat was over. There had been only one casualty.