In Placerville she finally fell asleep, mouth open, taking breaths in soft little gasps. She awoke frequently, jarred loose by any jump of the car or noise on the road. By the time they hit the Oakland Bay Bridge, dawn was at the Mustang’s hoofs.

Paul turned the radio to KQED, counting on news to keep him awake and correctly positioned in the middle lane. When that didn’t work and he almost took out a black Jaguar, he tuned in to AM radio where the blaring ads did the job. They also woke Carol again, who rummaged in her bag for a brush and asked for an immediate pit stop. In the city, they located a diner on Mission with spacious accommodations. She emerged from the rest room briskly, wearing a ton of eyeliner, not that it helped.

He was very tired, and that made him mean. She looked haggard and her peculiar hairdo didn’t help. “You look nice,” he said to counteract his thoughts, thinking, in fact, she looked more like how he felt, as if ragged fingernails were scratching at his pupils. She smiled at the compliment, which made him feel even more degenerate. But he wanted her to feel good. He bought a Chronicle, which they split, and eggs, which they ate in relative peace.

When the time came, they walked the few blocks over to Howard Street and rode up the elevator to the sixth floor.

Nina had not wanted him to confront Carol in any way. She had asked him to bring her to the court and conduct a simple test: Escort Carol into the presence of Angel and Brandy without Carol knowing Brandy and Angel would be there.

“Why not just show Brandy and Angel a photograph of her?” Paul had asked.

“It’s too late for that, even if I had one. If she was there that night, I want her to tell the bar court what she saw, what she knows. If she can back up Cody Stinson’s story that he’s innocent, which I suspect she can, we can prove to the court that he had no reason to attack Brandy, Angel, or Bruce, and that the loss of my file was not damaging in that case. And because of all this, Mario’s out of jail. Maybe they need to arrest him again before he disappears.”

He liked her theory, which fit into his philosophy of successful investigation, demanding equal sprinkles of wishful thinking and genuine possibility. He was only sorry she had not put him on to it during the past six dry-as-dust months.

After they passed through the metal detector and into the reception area, Paul looked around. In the left adjacent, windowed room, the chief trial counsel’s witnesses waited. In the right room, Paul caught a glimpse of Nina and Jack.

He took Carol by the arm and led her into the left room, throwing the door open wide. They entered.

Gayle Nolan, seated at a table, stood. “Who-?”

Brandy set a cup down and stood, too. “Why, what are you doing here?” she said.

“You know this woman?” Paul asked, holding tight to Carol’s arm.

“No. I mean-” Befuddlement blew across Brandy’s face and settled into confusion. “She was in the bathroom at the campground the night Phoebe died. Wasn’t she, Angel?”

Angel, remaining seated, stared. “You,” she said. “I noticed your haircut that night. Update on the old Vidal Sassoon,” she said. “You’re the one who tossed her cookies, right? That was such a mega-bad night.”

By now, Nolan had stepped behind Paul and was motioning the guard at the door for help.

Paul pulled Carol out of the room. “Sorry,” he said to Nolan. “My mistake.”

Nolan shut the door firmly behind them.

Paul touched Carol’s arm but she pushed him off, but not before he had a chance to realize how shocked she was. Her whole body was trembling, and the shadowy sockets of her eyes receded until her eyes were dark holes burnt into charcoal. “You set me up,” she cried.

At this point, they were joined by Nina and Jack, who had taken note of the commotion. Jack motioned them all back into the other witness waiting room.

“You lied to me!” Carol said, looking wildly around. “Where’s Cody?”

“He couldn’t make it after all,” Paul said.

Nina took over. “Look, as you’ve probably figured out from that little scene in there, we know everything.”

“Everything?” Carol asked.

“Everything,” Nina lied. “Now you go into that courtroom when they call your name, and you tell the truth. Tell them Cody didn’t do it, and how you know all about that. He didn’t, did he?”

“No.” Carol looked at her, looked at Paul, looked down at the floor. “I have to think,” she said. “Why don’t you all just leave me alone?”

The clock on the wall ticked and nobody breathed. Tears smeared through Carol Ames’s eyeliner and trickled like glue down her face.

Opening the door to the courtroom, the clerk announced that the judge was ready. Nina and Jack went in, Nina touching Paul on the sleeve as she passed him.

“It won’t take long,” Paul said. “They’re asking the judge to take you out of order. You won’t even have to wait.”

“Do I have to do this?” Carol seemed to be asking herself more than Paul, although he felt he should answer. Saving Paul from evaluating whether the truth would serve or a lie would get him into trouble, the clerk poked her head into the door again.

“Carol Ames?” she said. “Please follow me.” Jack wasn’t giving Carol time to think, Paul realized, assembling the last of his own little gray cells. Bravo, smart move, old buddy, now get Nina off and get the hell out of her life, willya? He handed Carol a tissue, and when she didn’t seem to know what to do with it, he wiped her face.

“I’m afraid.”

“Just tell the truth, Carol. Tell the truth about Cody.”

She hung her head again and followed the clerk into the courtroom. Paul put his head on the table and fell asleep.

Nina watched the young woman slump up to the stand to be sworn and waited impatiently through preliminaries that established her age, her place of residence, and everything else.

“You followed Cody Stinson to the campground the night Phoebe Palladino died, didn’t you?” Jack asked the young woman.

“Yes.”

Nina thought she looked awful, as though a tractor had run over her face.

“Why did you do that?”

“Love,” she said.

Nina felt Jack startle by her side, although his face revealed nothing. “You were in love with Mr. Stinson.”

“I never stopped loving him.”

Jack’s manner grew more elaborately casual, always a bad sign for the witness, Nina thought.

He consulted notes. He cleared his throat. He smiled a sympathetic smile. “You thought that night that he had come back to you, for good this time.”

Carol Ames lowered her head. “Yes. He told me he and Phoebe were history.”

“So when he left in the middle of the night-”

“I didn’t know what to think. I got in my car and I followed him. He parked his bike on Rufus Allen and walked into the campground, so I did, too.” Tears had started down. “He got her out of the tent and they sat down by the fire. He begged her to leave and take off with him, told her how much he loved her-I was out of my mind. Just an hour before that, he made love to me. He said he’d move in again in the morning. But he never stopped thinking about her. Phoebe.”

“You were upset, so-” Jack said.

“I ran to the bathroom. I threw up. I was feeling crazy. Those girls came in while I was cleaning up. I didn’t say a word to them, just went back and stood in the trees. Cody was just leaving.

“I waited. I went to the tent and pulled the flap open. After a couple of minutes, I took a look. The big guy was out cold, and she was, too. So I-I went inside. And I strangled her.”