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I’m not going to pull teeth. You’re my husband, I’m your wife. You need to open up and tell me what’s really on your heart.”
    â€œAnd how would I do that?” he said curtly. “Okay, here goes—I feel like somebody has just kicked me in the gut. I feel like somebody has taken a butcher knife and stuck it into my heart. That’s how I feel. That’s where I’m at. So—what good is it going to do to lay all that out in front of you? Let’s just leave it alone.”
    â€œIt’s called marriage,” she said with passion and a little catch in her voice. “I’m just…stupefied.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œThat you—an attorney whose profession requires him to argue the fine points of the law, a lawyer who has vindicated the downtrodden and has righted the injustices in cases around the nation, a man who has escaped death several times, a man who is apparently fearless about everything—has neither the desire, nor the courage, to look his wife in the face and tell her the truth about how he is really feeling about this news from the police.”
    Will pushed himself back from the table with a wry chuckle.
    â€œYou know, we’ve got this mixed up…you’re the one who ought to be the trial lawyer.”
    â€œPlease don’t patronize me.” Fiona continued to probe. “I want to really hear what’s going on in your heart.”
    â€œYou sure about that?” he asked with some hesitation.
    â€œI’m absolutely sure, darling.” She laid her hand on his.
    â€œOkay—how about this? I feel like I’m living in two dimensions. A parallel universe. I’m here in this house with you. I love you madly. But it was here, on top of this very hill, in that one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old mansion Audra and I were fixing up, where we were loving and trying to make a life for ourselves. Yes, she did leave me. But I was convinced—maybe I’m still convinced—that if the murder wouldn’t have happened, she would have come back and we would have patched things up and stayed together. So I guess what I’m saying is…if it makes any sense…I feel like I’m living out multiple personalities—like I’m walking through a house of mirrors in some twisted carnival.”
    His wife was silent and cocked her head. And then she spoke.
    â€œWill…I love you. But you need to listen to me on this. No matter how large this big log house is, it’s not big enough for the three of us. Audra doesn’t fit in this house—or our lives. You’re married to me . Whatever you need to do to come to grips with that…you’re goingto have to do it. I will not share my house, or my marriage, or my bed with some phantom.”
    Fiona stood up and turned to walk away, but then she looked back.
    â€œJust let me know when you choose our life together as the life you want to live.”

7
    C OLONEL C ALEB M ARLOWE’S VOICE at the other end of the telephone was direct and unemotional.
    â€œMr. Chambers, where do we stand—about your representing me?”
    â€œWell, Colonel Marlowe, I may need time to think about it. I’m not really clear on why you called me. These are military charges, under the court-martial jurisdiction of the military.”
    â€œYes, that’s correct. Mr. Chambers, how many military cases have you handled before?”
    â€œWell, Colonel, just one,” Will replied.
    â€œAnd what was that case about?”
    â€œIt was a long time ago. I represented a naval officer in San Diego. I think the charges were ‘conduct injurious to the good order of the military’—something like that.”
    â€œWhy was he charged?”
    â€œBecause he had made some statements critical of the military.”
    â€œHow did the case end up?”
    â€œWell, we won. Beginner’s luck, I guess.”
    â€œHow did you get the