Charlotte was no longer in a fetal position, but was still on the floor, kicking at Angela’s arms. Laurie managed to stagger back onto her feet. She stepped hard on Angela’s wrist, careful not to let her bare skin near the shimmering blade. She dug her weight hard against Angela’s bones until she saw her grip loosen. “Get the knife,” Laurie yelled. “Get it!”
Charlotte kicked the knife away from Angela’s hand, and Laurie lunged across the floor to grab it. “I got it,” she cried. She rushed toward Charlotte and cut her wrists free.
Angela had scrambled to her feet and was rushing toward them. She stopped when Laurie held up the box cutter. “Don’t make me do it, Angela!”
Angela’s shoulders slumped, as the reality of what had happened set in. She was out of options. Laurie heard the shriek of approaching sirens. When she turned to look out the window, Angela began running toward the staircase. She was halfway across the room when Leo, gun in hand, raced out from the staircase.
“Freeze. Down on the ground. Put your hands behind your head,” he shouted as he advanced toward Angela.
Moments later, there was a pounding on the stairs as several police officers rushed up and into the room. Leo held up his shield. “I’m Deputy Commissioner Farley.” He pointed at Angela. “Cuff her!”
73
When Paula had returned to the hotel and told Casey that Laurie was going forward with the show, she finished with the anguished cry “I begged you not to do this to yourself, do this to us. I warned you not to do this. I told you-”
“ALL RIGHT! Stop it. Don’t you think I know I made a mistake? Now everybody will think that even though I served fifteen years in prison, I got off easy. I should be serving a life sentence. And that’s probably what you think.”
They drove back to Connecticut in stony silence. Paula’s few attempts at conversation went nowhere. It was six o’clock. She went into the living room and turned on the news. She heard the anchor say, “This just in. There has been a stunning new development in the case of the fifteen-year-old murder of philanthropist Hunter Raleigh. We’re going to our reporter on the scene, Jaclyn Kimball.”
Oh God, Paula thought. What now?
Stunned, she watched as Angela was led out of the warehouse in handcuffs, a police officer on each arm.
“Casey,” she shrieked. “Come here. Come here.”
Casey rushed in. “What’s going on?”
Then she heard Angela’s voice. Her eyes froze on the screen.
Reporters were pushing microphones toward Angela as she was hustled toward a squad car. One could be heard shouting, “Angela, why did you kill Hunter Raleigh?”
Angela’s face was twisted with rage. “Because he deserved it,” she snarled. “He was supposed to be mine and Casey stole him. She deserved to go to prison.” A police officer pushed her into the backseat of a squad car and slammed the door shut.
Several seconds passed before either of them could speak.
“How could she have done this to you?” Paula cried. “Oh, Casey, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for not believing you.” Tears streaming down her face, she turned to her daughter. “Can you ever, ever forgive me?”
As Casey felt an immense burden fall from her shoulders, she reached out and enveloped her mother in her arms. “Even if you didn’t believe me, you always stood by me. Yes, I forgive you. It’s over. It’s over for both of us.”
74
At two o’clock the next day Laurie stood on the stoop outside General James Raleigh’s townhouse and rang the bell. She was surprised when the General himself answered the door immediately.
He led her up to the library. She sat in the same chair she had used when she interviewed Andrew two and a half weeks earlier.
“Ms. Moran, as you can imagine, I’m stunned. The woman who my son loved so dearly spent fifteen years in prison for a murder she did not commit. I turned a deaf ear to all her protestations of innocence. After she was convicted, I introduced Jason Gardner to my publisher. I wanted him to write a book that would further destroy her.
“I made a promise to appear on your television show, and then broke that promise.
“I have been wrong from the very beginning. I tried to convince my son to break his engagement to Casey Carter. Then after she served all those years in prison, I was pleased to see that even after she was released, her torment would continue.
“Now, if you will have me, I would like to appear on your program and offer my profound apology to her on national television.
“I want to tie off a loose end you were interested in. Hunter was concerned that my assistant, Mary Jane, had been fired from her previous position. Here’s what happened. She was the executive assistant to the husband of her best friend. When she inadvertently stumbled across his travel plans with his mistress, he fired her. He told her he would make her life miserable and ruin her own reputation if she breathed a word of it. In these twenty years with me, she has been a superb employee and confidante.”
“General, all this has been so terrible for you. Please know that I understand that.”
“I phoned Casey this morning.” He choked back a sob. “I told her that I was sorry I hadn’t welcomed her into our family with open arms. She was remarkably forgiving. I understand now what my son saw in her.”
A few minutes later General Raleigh walked Laurie to the front door. “I want to thank you again for everything your program has done. Nothing can bring back Hunter. But it has made me think. In the years I have remaining, I am going to try to be a better father to Andrew.”
Laurie kissed his cheek and wordlessly went down the steps. She stepped into the waiting car and gave Alex’s address.
75
Alex answered the door himself. She saw no sign of Ramon. He gave her a quick hug but it felt chilly.
“Thanks for seeing me,” she said.
“Of course,” he said briskly, leading the way to the living room. “Can I get you something?”
She shook her head and took a seat on the sofa, leaving a spot next to her. He sat on a chair across from her instead.
“Alex, I know you said you needed time to think, but the silence is driving me crazy. They say never go to sleep angry. We haven’t spoken in two days.”
“They say that about couples who are married, Laurie. We’re far from that, aren’t we?”
She swallowed. This was going to be even harder than she’d expected. “No, but I thought-”
“You thought that I’d wait for you, however long it took. That’s what I thought, too. But when I needed time-just a few days to think about how you and I might fit together, with our work, with our lives-you couldn’t let me have it. Instead, you’re here, demanding something I’m not sure you even want.”
“I’m not demanding anything, Alex. I’m sorry I pressed so hard about Mark Templeton. You’re right; I should have trusted you when you said to leave it alone. I just want things to go back to how they were before this case.”
“To how they were? And how exactly was that? Where were we, Laurie? What are we now that I’m no longer your host? I’m your dad’s sports buddy, your son’s pal. But what am I to you?”
“You’re-you’re Alex. You’re the only man I’ve met since Greg died who actually makes me wish I could move on.”
“I know this sounds cold, Laurie, but it’s been six years.”
“Please understand that for five of those, I woke up every day in limbo. To even have dinner with another man without knowing who killed Greg would have felt like a betrayal. That’s the space I lived in when you first met me. I’m still learning how to move out of it. But I will, I know I will. I feel myself waking up again. And you’re the one-the only one-who makes me want to do that.”