Page 117 of In the Shadows
"And then?"
"And then we wait." Sarah looked up. "Go home. Get some rest. The hard part is over."
She walked away, heels clicking on marble.
Lila turned to Ronan.
"Did it work? What Price did?"
"I don't know. That's up to the jury."
She nodded. Didn't ask anything else.
They walked to the parking garage in silence. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, casting everything in flat, shadowless white.
At the car, Lila stopped with her hand on the door.
"I looked at him. At the end. When I said I followed the evidence."
"I saw."
"Did you see his face?"
"Yes."
"Good." She opened the door. "I wanted someone else to see it."
She got in and leaned her head back against the seat.
"Wake me when we get there."
Ronan started the car and pulled out of the garage, into the fading light of a January afternoon. By the time they reached the highway, she was asleep.
He drove in silence, one hand on the wheel, thinking about the look on Warren Caldwell's face.
Fear. It had definitely been fear.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The call came on a Tuesday.
Sarah 's voice was clipped, professional. "The jury's back. Two o'clock."
Lila was still holding the phone when Ronan appeared in the doorway.
"Verdict?"
"Two o'clock."
She went to the bedroom and stood in front of the closet. Her hands were shaking. She pulled out a gray dress, and put it on without looking in the mirror.
The courtroom was fuller than it had been during the trial.
Journalists packed the gallery, notebooks ready. A few Blossom Springs residents had made the drive—Lila spotted Patricia Odom in the third row, Delia in scrubs near the back. Sid and Grace sat by the door, Sid's eyes scanning the room out of old habit.
Lila took her seat in the front row. Ronan beside her. Sarah at the prosecution table.
Warren Caldwell sat at the defense table. His hair was combed, his suit immaculate. But his hands were flat on the table in front of him, and every few seconds his thumb moved—a small, repetitive motion, rubbing against the wood grain. Back and forth. Back and forth.
