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lawyers are officers of the Court, I won’t screw anything up.”
    “Oh, hell! But you stay back out of the way.”
    “ Yes sir! ”
    From the background, Ria wa tched the spotlights hit the clearing .
    “Sheriff! Freeze!”
    Handcuffs clicked. “You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you…”
    Justin made one statement. Just one.
    “You tell Dennis Billings he fucked up. Bad. And so did th at bitch lawyer friend of his. Had to be her.”
     
    * * *
     
    Cain paced the sleazy room in the sleazy hotel on Broadway. Something was wrong . Fool had gotten caught. H e felt it. Throughout the course of his extensive career he’d been plagued with fools. And he’d thought this boy had possibilities. Shiiiiiitttt. Well, best check it out. And there were other fools out there. That never changed. He stood in the center of the room, raised his arms, relaxed his thoughts. He disappeared.
     

 
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    The antique hall clock, an office warming gift from her parents, signaled 1:00 a.m. as Ria trudged wearily into the foyer. A good night’s work but damn, she was tired. She started up the steps and stopped. Joshua stood outside her office door holding a tray in his hands. He shifted it to balance it between his arm and his hip while he knocked.
    “Leave me the hell alone!” Paul shouted from behind the door.
    “Mist’ Paul, you gots to come out sometime! You gots to eat!”
    “I don’t gots to do nothing, Josh! Now go away!”
    “Mist’ Paul—”
    “Don’t make me open this door and throw you down the hall!” The voice was r ough and harsh and full of pain.
    “Paul! I ain’t gonna leave!”
    Paul? What? B lack servants in the 1880s did n’t call their e mployers by their first names without the ‘Mist’ or ‘Miss’. They just didn’t.
    Joshua knocked again and looked down both sides of the hall. Checking for listeners?
    “You told me one time, you said, ‘we’ll take care of each other ’ . You remember that, Paul?”
    Ria’s mouth literally fell open as she watched from her spectator mode. Where had the distinctive black cadence gone?
    “Well, I remember that. So I’m tellin’ you now, I’m go in’ to take care of you whether you wa nt me to or not. You been in that room five straight days and nights, Paul! And I’m tellin’ you, Doc Everett t old Sadie you had ‘til tomorrow noon to come out ta there or he’ll take the door down! You want your father to do that? Haul you out and clean you up like a baby?”
    Joshua waited for a response that didn’t come.
    “Fine. You just stay there, then. And I’ll stay right here. I ain’t goin’ nowhere!” Joshua sat down by the door and lean ed his back against the wall. When the door opened , Paul Devlin’s appearance matched his voice , e xhausted and brimming with pain . His clothes were rumpled and stained, his eyes black under the sockets. Ria’s heart twisted. Chloe was dead. For the first time, she regretted her private movies. She really didn’t want to see th is.
    Paul stood in the doorway and glar ed down at Joshua. “Stubborn little bastard, aren’t you?”
    “Well,” said Josh, speech still devoid of any black cadence, “I suppose that’s fair enough. I am stubborn, and we both know I’m a bastard.”
    “Impudent, too.”
    “Door’s open, though, ain’t it?”
    “Not for lon g. G o away. Tell Papa to leave me the hell alone, too. ”
    Josh jumped to his feet and thrust his arm through the open door.
    “No,” he said. “Enough.”
    “Move your arm.”
    “No.”
    “I’ll break it!”
    “Go ahead, I’m real worried about it, ” said Josh .
    “Stubborn bastard,” Paul repeated.
    “So you said. You need a bath. C ’ mon,” Josh said, and pulled Paul’s arm.
    “Where?”
    “Upstairs.”
    “I won’t go back in that room. Not ever.”
    “Don’t have to. We got plenty of rooms.”
    They disappeared. Ria resumed her weary trudge up the