Canaan?"
"Just like you told me, boss."
Michael looked at Jennifer. "The trial's over."
He rose to his feet and walked over to where Jennifer was sitting. He
grabbed her blouse and pulled her to her feet.
"I loved you," he whispered. He hit her hard across the face. Jennifer did
not flinch. He hit her again, harder, then a third time, and she fell to
the floor.
"Get up. We're taking a trip."
Jennifer lay there, dizzy from the blows, trying to clear her head. Michael
hauled her roughly to her feet.
"You want me to take care of her?" Gino Gallo asked.
"No. Bring the car around the back."
"Right, boss." He hurried out of the room.
Jennifer and Michael were alone.
"Why?" he asked. "We owned the world, and you threw it away. Why?"
She did not answer.
"You want me to fuck you once more for old times' sake?" Michael moved
toward her and grabbed her arm. "Would you like that?" Jennifer did not
respond. "You're never going to
498 RAGE OF ANGELS
fuck anyone again, you hear? I'm going to put you in the river with your
lover! You can keep each other company."
Gino Gallo came back into the room, his face white. "Boss! There's a='
There was a crashing sound from outside the room. Michael dived for the gun
in his desk drawer. He had it in his hand when the door burst open. Two
federal agents came through the door, guns drawn.
"Freeze!"
In that split second, Michael made his decision. He raised the gun and
turned and fired at Jennifer. He saw the bullets go into her a second
before the agents started shooting. He watched the blood spurt out of her
chest, then he felt a bullet tear into him, and then another. He saw
Jennifer lying on the floor, and Michael did not know which was the greater
agony, her death or his. He felt the hammer blow of another bullet, and
then he felt nothing.
Two interns were wheeling Jennifer out of the operating room and into
Intensive Care. A uniformed policeman followed at Jennifer's side. The
hospital corridor was a bedlam of policemen, detectives and reporters.
A man walked up to the reception desk and said, "I want to see Jennifer
Parker."
"Are you a member of her family?"
"No. I'm a friend."
"Tm sorry. No visitors. She's in Intensive Care."
"I'll wait."
"It could be a long time."
"That doesn't matter," Ken Bailey said.
A side door opened and Adam Warner, gaunt and haggard, entered, flanked
by a team of secret service men.
A doctor was waiting to greet him. "This way, Senator Warner." He led
Adam into a small office.
"How is she?" Adam asked.
500 RAGE OF ANGELS
I'm not optimistic. We removed three bullets from her."
The door opened and District Attorney Robert Di Silva hurried in. He looked
at Adam Warner and said, "rm sure glad you're okay."
Adam said, "I understand I owe my thanks to you. How did you know?"
"Jennifer Parker called me. She told me they were setting you up in New
Canaan. I figured it was probably some kind of diversionary ploy, but I
couldn't take a chance, so I covered it. Meanwhile, I got hold of the route
you were taking and we sent some choppers after you to protect you. My
hunch is that Parker tried to set you up."
"No," Adam said. "No."
Robert Di Silva shrugged. "Have it your way, Senator. The important thing
is that you're alive." As an afterthought he turned to the doctor. "Is she
going to live?"
"Her chances are not very good."
The District Attorney saw the look on Adam Warner's face and misinterpreted
it. "Don't worry. If she makes it, we've got her nailed down tight."
He looked at Adam more closely. "You look like hell. Why don't you go home
and get some rest?"
"I want to see Jennifer Parker first"
The doctor said, "She's in a coma. She may not come out of it"
"I would like to see her, please."
"Of course, Senator. This way."
The doctor led the way out of the room, with Adam following and Di Silva
behind him. They walked a few feet down the corridor to a sign that said
INTENSIVE CARE UNIT -KEEP OUT.
The doctor opened the door and held it for the two men. "She's in the first
room."
There was a policeman in front of the door, guarding it. He came to
attention as he saw the District Attorney.
SIDNEY SHELDON 501
"No one gets near that room without written authorization from me. You
understand?" Di Silva asked.
"Yes, sir."
Adam and Di Silva walked into the room. There were three beds, two of them
empty. Jennifer lay in the third, tubes running into her nostrils and
wrists. Adam moved close to the bed and stared down at her. Jennifer's face
was very pale against the white pillows, and her eyes were closed. In
repose, her face seemed younger and softer. Adani was looking at the
innocent girl he had met years ago, the girl who had said angrily to him,
If anyone had paid me of, do you think 1'd be living in a place like this?
1 don't care what you do. AU 1 want is to be left alone. He remembered her
courage and idealism and her vulnerability. She had been on the side of the
angels, believing in justice and willing to fight for it. What had gone
wrong? He had loved her and he loved her still, and he had made one wrong
choice that had poisoned all their lives, and he knew he would never feel
free of guilt for as long as he lived
He turned to the doctor. "Let me know when she-" He could not say the
words. `=what happens."
"Of course," the doctor said.
Adam Warner took one long last look at Jennifer and said a silent good-bye.
Then he turned and walked out to face the waiting reporters.
Through a dim, misty haze of semiconsciousness, Jennifer heard the men
leave. She had not understood what they were saying, for their words were
blurred by the pain that gripped her. She thought she had heard Adam's
voice, but she knew that could not be. He was dead. She tried to open her
eyes, but the effort was too great.
Jennifer's thoughts began to drift... Abraham Wilson came running into
the room carrying a box. He stumbled and the box opened and a yellow canary
flew out of it... Robert Di Silva was screaming, Catch it! Don't let it
get away!
502 RAGE OF ANGELS
... and Michael Moretti was holding it and laughing, and Father Ryan said,
Look, everybody! It's a miracle! and Connie Garrett was dancing around the
room and everyone applauded... Mrs. Cooper said, I'm going to give you
Wyoming... Wyoming... Wyoming... and Adam came in with dozens of
red roses and Michael said, They're from me, and Jennifer said, I'll put
them in a vase in water, and they shriveled and died and the water spilled
onto the floor and became a lake, and she and Adam were sailing, and Michael
was chasing them on water skis and he became Joshua and he smiled at
Jennifer and waved and started to lose his balance, and she screamed, Don't
fall... Don't fall... Don't fall... and an enormous wave swept
Joshua into the air and he held out his arms like Jesus and disappeared.
For an instant, Jennifer's mind cleared.
Joshua was gone.
Adam was gone.
Michael was gone.
She was alone. In the end, everyone was alone. Each person had to die his
own death. It would be easy to die now.
A feeling of blessed peace began to steal over her. Soon there was no more
pain.
It was a cold January day in the Capitol when Adam Warner was sworn in as the fortieth President of the United
States. His wife wore a sable hat and
a dark sable coat that did wonderful things for her pale complexion and almost concealed her pregnancy. She stood
next to her daughter and they both
watched proudly as Adam took the oath of office, and the country rejoiced for the three of them. They were the best of
America: decent and honest and
good, and they belonged in the White House.
In a small law office in Kelso, Washington, Jennifer Parker sat alone looking at the inauguration on television. She
watched until the last of the
ceremony was over and Adam and Mary Beth and Samantha had left the podium, surrounded by secret service men.
Then Jennifer turned off the television
set and watched the images fade into nothingness. And it was like turning off the past: shutting out all that had
happened
504 RAGE OF ANGELS
to her, the love and the death and the joy and the pain. Nothing had been able to destroy her. She was a survivor.
She put on her hat and coat and walked outside, pausing for a moment to look at the sign that said: Jennifer Parker,
Attorney at Law. She thought for
an instant of the jury that had acquitted her. She was still a lawyer, as her father had been a lawyer. And she would go
on, searching for the
elusive thing called justice. She turned and headed in the direction of the courthouse. -
Jennifer walked slowly down the deserted, windswept street. A light snow had begun to fall, casting a chiffon veil
over the world. From an apartment
building nearby there came a sudden burst of merriment, and it was such an alien sound that she stopped for a moment
to listen. She pulled her coat
tighter about her and moved on down the street, peering into the curtain of snow ahead, as though she were trying to
see into the future.
But she was looking into the past, trying to understand when it was that all the laughter died.
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