Mistress of Justice

"This whole thing," Taylor whispered, "it was fake. You lied about everything. Your mother, in the hospital? You weren't going to see her at all. You were going to Scarsdale – to take flowers to Linda's grave." Reece nodded.

The nail of Taylor's index finger touched the marble. "Oh, Mitchell, it's so fucking clear now." She looked at Burdick. "Don't you see what he's done?" She turned to face Reece, who leaned against the dark, dried-blood-red conference table, looking gaunt and pale. "You got one of your criminal clients from the pro bono program – what? A hit man, a killer, a mercenary soldier? You got him to break into your own file cabinet, steal the Hanover note and hide it in Wendall's office. Then you had him bug your own office so you'd look as i

She thought for a moment. "Then, at Clayton's party, I found the receipt from the security service upstairs, where you sent me to search – after you planted it there. Finally I found the note in Claytons office." She laughed bitterly. "And after the Hanover trial your hit man killed him right away – because he couldn't very well be accused of something he hadn't done."

The lawyer made no effort to deny any of this.

She continued, "And his suicide note. It was fake, wasn't it? Who forged it? Another criminal client?"

The associate lifted his eyebrow, conceding the accuracy of her deduction.

She laughed bitterly, glancing at the partner.

Men of most renowned virtue.

Reece was gazing at her, impassive as a statue.

Eyes still on Reece, locked on his, Taylor said, "And Donald was a big help, wasn't he?" She turned to the partner. "Nothing personal, Donald, but you laid a pretty damn good smoke screen." Her hands were shaking now. The tears started. "And as for me, well, you were keeping pretty close tabs on your pawn. All you had to do was look across the pillow."

A bit of emotion blossomed in his face at this – like the first cracks in spring ice. Reece took a Kleenex from his pocket and began rubbing the trigger guard and grip and frame of the gun. He nodded. "You won't believe me if I tell you that what happened between us wasn't part of the plan."

"Bullshit! You tried to kill me."

His eyes grew wide. "I didn't want to hurt you! You should have stopped when you were supposed to!"

Burdick said, "But Mitchell, how could you risk it? You love the law. You'd risk everything for this, for revenge?"

He smiled with a look as bleak as a hunting field in December. "But there was no risk, Donald. Don't you know me by now? I knew I'd get away with it. Every nuance was pla

"You used me!"

Donald Burdick sat heavily in a chair, his head dipping. "Oh, Mitchell, all you had to do was go to the police. Clayton would've been arrested for the girl's death."

The young lawyer gave a harsh laugh. "You think so? And what would've happened, Donald? Nothing. Any half-assed criminal lawyer could've gotten him off. There was no witness, no physical evidence. Besides, you of all people ought to know how many favors Clayton could've called in. The case wouldn't've even gotten to the grand jury."

His attention dipped for a moment to the gun. He flipped it open expertly and saw six cartridges in the cylinder. Then from his pocket he took the note that Taylor Lockwood had written to him, the note about going to confront a killer. He folded it into a tight square, stepped forward and stuffed it into her breast pocket.

She whispered, nodding at it, "I wrote my own suicide note, didn't I? I kill Donald and then myself. Oh, my God."

"It's your fault," he muttered. "You should've just moved on, Taylor. You should've let Clayton stay in hell and let the rest of us get on with our business."

"My fault?" She leaned forward. "What the hell happened to you? Has it all caught up? Finally? Pushing, pushing, pushing years and years of it. Win the case, win the goddamn case – that's all you see, all you care about! You don't know what justice is anymore. You've turned it inside out."

"Don't lecture me," he said wearily. "Don't talk to me about things you can't understand. I live with the law, I've made it a part of me."

Burdick said, "There's no way you can justify it, Mitchell. You killed a man."

Reece rubbed his eyes. After a moment, he said, "You get asked a lot why you go to law school. Did you go because you wanted to help society, to make money, to further justice? That's what people always want to know. Justice? There's so little of it in the world, so little justice in our lives. Maybe on the whole it balances out, maybe God looks down from someplace and says, 'Yeah, pretty good, I'll let it go at that'. But you know the law as well as I do, both of you. I

Taylor said, "The suicide note – Claytons 'Men of most renowned virtue…' How does it go?"

Reece said, '"Have sometimes by transgressing most truly kept the law.'"

"You meant it about you, then, not Clayton."

Reece nodded solemnly. "It's about me."

"Mitchell," Burdick whispered, "just put the gun down. We'll go to the police. If you talk to them -"

But Reece walked slowly over to Taylor. He stood two feet away. She didn't move.

"No!" Burdick shouted. "Don't worry about the police. We can forget what happened. There's no need for this to go beyond this room. There's no need.

Reece glanced at the partner briefly but didn't speak. His whole attention was on Taylor. He touched her hair, then her cheek. He nestled the muzzle of the gun against her breast.

"I wish." He cocked the gun. "I wish…"

Taylor wiped the thick tears. "But it's me, Mitchell. Me. Think about what you're going to do."

"Please, Mitchell," Burdick said. "Money, do you want money? A fresh start somewhere?"

But it was Taylor who raised her hand to silence the partner. "No. He's come too far. There's nothing more to say."

At last there were tears on Reece's face. The gun wavered and rose. For a moment it seemed to be levitating, maybe he intended to touch the chill muzzle to his own temple and pull the trigger.

But his deeper will won and he lowered the black weapon to her once more.

Alice, in this dreadful world on the other side of the looking glass, remained completely still. There was no place to go. All she could do was close her eyes, which is what she now did.

Mitchell Reece, practical as ever, held his left hand to his face to protect himself from the blast – and her spattered blood -and then he pulled the trigger.