Why did you do it?” Jill’s monotone question dripped with suspicion, and Celia knew she was close to losing Jill’s trust.
“Because I wanted to see him.” The tears were gone. She had cried enough to fill a bayou, and now she was empty, dead, numb. She leaned on the table in the interrogation room where she’d been drilled just a few days before, and set her dull eyes on her lawyer and friend. “I wanted to tell him about the baby.”
Jill’s face changed. “Baby? What baby?”
“I’m pregnant, Jill.”
Jill stared at her for a moment, as if not sure what to believe. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. This morning the hospital called. The blood they took the other night? It was negative for arsenic poisoning, but it was positive for pregnancy. That’s why I’ve been sick.”
The merest hint of a smile tugged at Jill’s lips, and she drew in a breath. “Oh, Celia.”
“That’s why I went, Jill. I had to tell him. He had a right to know, and I didn’t want him to hear it from the police or newspapers. It’s our baby, and we’ve wanted it so much.” Though she hadn’t thought it was possible, tears stung her eyes again.
Jill contemplated that for a moment, staring at her, either assessing her sanity or her honesty. She was definitely losing her, Celia thought.
“Celia, someone poisoned Stan tonight. His IV bag had arsenic again.”
Celia’s heart jolted, and she straightened. “I was afraid of that. The nurse said the bag had been changed…”
“They think you did it.”
Her face twisted as she tried to grasp some logical train of thought. “How is he? Did it get into his bloodstream? Is he all right?”
“He’s okay. They don’t think much got in, and they’re doing what they can. He’s still conscious, so that’s a good sign.”
“Thank God,” she whispered. Then, shaking herself out of her shock, she focused on Jill again. “Did they ask him if I did it? He would tell them. I didn’t touch his bag. I wasn’t there long enough. Somebody else—”
“He claims there was an orderly there before you who switched the bags, but Sid isn’t buying. He thinks he’s trying to cover for you.”
She got to her feet in the small room and looked down at her lawyer. “Why would a man cover for someone who was trying to kill him? Stan knows I didn’t do it!”
Jill looked away. There was something else, and Celia could see her wrestling with it.
“What is it, Jill?”
Jill stood up, picked up the pencil on the table, and began tapping it on the palm of her hand. Finally, she stopped and looked her dead in the eye. “Celia, why didn’t you tell me that you went to see Lee Barnett today?”
Celia wilted. “You would have gotten angry, told me it was stupid. Same reason I didn’t tell you I was going to the hospital.”
“I would have been right.”
“I know.” She dropped her face into her hands.
“They have a picture.”
Celia looked up at her without much interest. “What kind of picture?”
“They had someone following you, Celia. They followed you to Barnett’s apartment. They took pictures.”
The fact that she’d been followed irritated her, but it didn’t surprise her greatly. They had seen someone sitting outside Aunt Aggie’s house when they’d left for the hospital. “So they got pictures,” she said. “All I did was stand outside his door and ask him questions. There wasn’t anything incriminating, except the fact that I slapped him. I guess I could be guilty of assault. But I don’t think I was there for more than ten minutes.”
“They have a picture of you in his arms.”
“In his arms?” she shouted, springing to her feet. “What?”
Jill was silent, watching her, waiting for an explanation.
Celia didn’t have one. “Jill, you’ve got to believe me. I was never in his arms. They faked the picture…doctored it somehow. I want to see it.”
Jill nodded. “I can get it for you.”
“Do it!” Celia cried.
Jill opened the door and stuck her head out, and Celia heard her talking to someone. She sank down at the table and dropped her face into her hands. There was no way…no way…anyone had gotten a picture of her in Lee Barnett’s arms. She had been yelling at him, had slapped him…
Jill came back into the room, holding the snapshot. “Here it is, Celia,” she said, and tossed it down in front of her on the table.
Celia picked it up and felt the heat fevering across her face. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. After a moment, she brought her hand to her forehead. “Jill…you’ve got to believe me…I was so full of rage…I hit him, and he grabbed me and shook me, and I told him to let me go…He had his hands on me maybe five seconds…Not an embrace! What about the other pictures? Didn’t they get me slapping him? Is this all they got?”
“It’s the only one they’re using for evidence.”
“I don’t believe this.” She sucked in a sob. “Did they show Stan?”
“I’m not sure.”
She dropped her head into the circle of her arms. “What is he thinking about me? Oh, why is this happening?”
Jill sat down next to her and touched her hand, but when Celia looked up she could see the confusion in her lawyer’s eyes. “Celia, I don’t think they’re going to let you back out. I’m going to do what I can, but I don’t think they’re going to set bond this time.”
“You wouldn’t, if you were the judge, would you?” Celia asked bitterly.
Jill didn’t answer.
She raised up and wiped her eyes. “Look, Jill, if you don’t want to represent me, I understand. I mean, the evidence is insurmountable. You’re not even sure you know who I am.”
Jill stared at her, and for a moment, Celia was sure she would take her chance to give up the case. But Jill surprised her.
“I know who you are.” Tears came to her eyes, and she shook her head. “I’m confused, Celia. I don’t know who’s doing this, or how they’re doing it. I don’t know why there’s been so much evidence against you. I don’t know why someone would want to kill your husbands and not you—and to put you through such a nightmare yourself. I can’t imagine. I don’t know what Lee Barnett’s part was in this. I don’t know who else to trust, because I think whoever it is might be right under our nose. It scares me. But there is one thing I do know for sure. I believe you.”
Celia accepted that with tearful relief. “Thank you.” She tried to pull herself together. “No one else will, you know. They’ll alienate you, too, just for representing me. You’ll be as popular in this town as Oswald’s lawyer. Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“I’m up to it,” Jill said. “But you might need a more experienced criminal lawyer than I. If you’d rather hire someone else, I’ll understand.”
“With what?” Celia asked. “I don’t have any money.”
“Aunt Aggie would pay.”
“No, I want you. You know me. No one else does.”
“Okay, then.” She squeezed her hand. “Celia, are you going to be all right in jail?”
“Oh, yeah,” Celia said. “No problem. Been there, done that. I can handle jail, as long as I know it’s temporary. ’Course, it might not be.”
The look on Jill’s face told Celia that this was the first time that she’d faced such a serious case…a case that really would decide someone’s lifelong fate. She hated to give her that burden. Then she thought of Aunt Aggie, and David…
“Where are my aunt and brother?” she asked quietly.
Jill nodded toward the door. “They’re being questioned.”
“Are they going to be charged with anything?”
“Not if I can help it. Something was said about accessory to attempted murder, but I think it was just a threat. Don’t worry about them. I’ll take care of it.”
“I don’t know how much more Aunt Aggie can take. She’s hardly gotten any sleep lately. She’s too old for this.”
“She’s stronger than both of us put together,” Jill said with a slight smile. “And as for their putting her in jail, they’d have such a protest by the fire department that they’d have to let her back out in time for lunch tomorrow.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Just hold on, Celia. I’m doing everything I can, okay? You may have to stay here a night or two, but maybe we can get you out before much more time passes.”
Celia had heard that before.