Chapter 109
YUKI CASTELLANO DIDN’T want to look. She knew too many cops who’d been killed in the line of duty. This was worse. This was just an execution.
But as Yuki stared, blood quickly started to pour out of a wound in the young woman’s throat. Anita reached up with her left hand, shaking uncontrollably. She tried to speak. It was garbled. It sounded like she was underwater. Blood leaked out of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head.
Then she toppled over.
Bailiffs rushed into the courtroom from two different doors. Their guns were up as they scanned the room. One of them went directly to the judge. He hurried the judge through the rear door and out of the room.
Another bailiff went directly to the jury box and ushered the hysterical jurors through the closest door.
People were scrambling to get out the main door to the hallway. As soon as they pushed the door open, several uniformed police officers rushed in to help. Even though none of them had guns.
Angela Torres slowly sat up. She looked at the horrendous damage in the courtroom. It was like she suddenly realized who she’d been trying to let back out onto the street. She took a breath and then started to wail. Yuki wrapped her arms around her. It was all she could think to do.
A few minutes later, with the courtroom almost completely cleared, paramedics rushed in with a gurney.
Brady came over and crouched on the floor next to Yuki. He glanced down at the now quiet Angela Torres. He brushed some hair out of Yuki’s face. Then he said, “It’s over.”
That was Yuki’s signal to let all of her stress go. She took an arm away from Torres and wrapped it around her husband’s thick neck.
“You always seem to show up at just the right time.”