Trial By Fury

I drove to Harborview first. I went directly to the intensive-care-unit waiting room. Big Al Lindstrom, one of the night-shift homicide detectives, was sitting upright on a couch, his massive arms folded across his chest, apparently sound asleep. His eyes opened, though, as soon as I stepped into the room.

"Hi, there, Beau. Me and Ma

I was glad to see him. "Any word?"

"It's touch and go. He's still heavily sedated. Understand you're looking after his kids." I nodded. "You handle that end of it. We'll take care of this."

"Thanks, Al." I didn't say anything more. I couldn't.

Leaving Harborview, I drove north to University Hospital. Joa

"Come in."

I entered the room. Joa

"Hello, Joa

She didn't look up. "I read about your partner in the paper," she said. "Is he going to be all right?"

"His neck's broken," I told her. "If he lives, he'll probably be paralyzed."

"I'm sorry," Joa

I stood there awkwardly, not knowing quite what to say. "Why did you want to see me?"

She pointed toward the closet. "There's a box over there, in my suitcase. Would you bring it here?"

The box was a shoe box, a red Nike basketball shoe box, size thirteen. I handed the box to her and she motioned for me to sit on the bed. She remained in the chair.

For a time after I handed it to her, she sat looking down at the box in her lap, her hands resting on the cover. When she finally raised her face to look at me, she met my gaze without wavering.

"I never knew it was the same woman," she said softly.

"Who was the same woman? I don't understand."

"Candace Wy

"Joa

"Darwin and Andi Scarborough went together in high school. Actually, they were in grade school when it started, back in those days when blacks and whites didn't mix at all, not socially. Their mothers broke it up, both of them. Darwin wrangled a scholarship to UCLA, a basketball scholarship. That's where I met him."

Slowly, the light began to dawn. "Darwin and Candace Wy

Joa

The lights came on. I began to fill in some of the blanks. "So they met years later and reestablished their relationship."

Joa

"I'm sorry," I said.

She drew her chin up and squared her shoulders. "Don't be," she answered. "I'm glad I found them and read them. It makes it easier to go on. I didn't lose anything. It never existed."

A nurse poked her head in the door. She saw me sitting on the edge of the bed and frowned in disapproval. "You'll have to leave now. We're bringing the babies to nurse."

I started to my feet. Joa

The nurse glared at me. "Are you the baby's father? Fathers can stay."

"He's a father," Joa

The nurse clicked her tongue and shook her head, but eventually she gave in, led Joa

I couldn't help remembering those first few tentative times when Karen had nursed Scott when neither of them had known what they were doing. That wasn't the case here.

When I glanced up at Joa

Without her having to explain, I knew why and was touched. It was a nice gesture toward Peters, one I hoped he'd appreciate someday.

"It's a good name," I said.

It was quiet in the room after that. The only sounds came from the lustily sucking infant. This part of parenthood made sense to me. It seemed straightforward and uncomplicated. Joa

But still there was an undercurrent beneath her placid, motherly surface. I sensed there was more to the story, more she hadn't told me. I didn't know if now was a good time to ask her about it. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

"What was in the letters?" My question broke the long silence between us.

Joa

I nodded. "You told us no."

"I was wrong. There was a lot I didn't know, including an account at the credit union, a joint account with her, with Candace Wy

"A boat?"

"A sailboat. It was supposedly a partnership made up of several people. In actual fact, there were only two partners, Candace and Darwin. They pla

Joa

The quote came unbidden to my mind. I repeated it aloud. "‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' Isn't that what they say?"

Joa

Beautiful and serene, yet she, too, had been scorned, betrayed. Where was her anger, her fury?

"What about you, Joa

She looked up at me and gave me a wry grin. "I wasn't scorned, honey," she drawled with a thick, southern accent I had never heard her use before. "I was suckered. There's a big difference."