Free Presumption of Guilt by Marti Green Page A

since he’d heard Sophie laugh. He gave her a kiss on the top of her head, then headed back down to his office.
    Opened on his desk was the newspaper with its story about Dani Trumball. The relief he’d felt moments before dissipated, replaced by a tightening in his stomach. He had to do something for Molly, something he should have done many years ago.

C HAPTER
    14
    T ommy’s face blanched when he saw Dani in the hospital bed, tubes going everywhere into her body, her face and arms covered with bruises. An orange glow from the setting sun streamed through the one window in the single-bedded room and cast its light over her. On every surface in the room stood bouquets of flowers, their sweet fragrance replacing the antiseptic odor of the corridors. He trudged over to Doug, sitting at her bedside, and held out his hand.
    “I’m so sorry. Tell me what I can do for you.” He knew those were empty words, the murmured condolences of everyone when in fact they were helpless to do anything.
    Doug shook his head. His eyes were puffy and rimmed in red.
    “She’ll be all right, won’t she?” Tommy asked.
    Doug looked up at Tommy. “The doctors put her in a coma.” His voice cracked at the word. “Said they had to, because of swelling in her brain.”
    Tommy sat down in the chair next to Doug’s. “I had a cousin they did that to. He came out of it fine. Good as new, at least after a while.”
    “They won’t know whether there will be any impairment until they take her out of it.” Doug picked up Dani’s hand and dropped his head to his chest.
    “She’s a tough broad, Doug.”
    A thin smile stretched Doug’s lips, and he nodded. “She’s got a few broken ribs, too, but that’s all. I saw pictures of the car. It’s a miracle it wasn’t worse.”
    Tommy took in Doug’s rumpled clothes and stubble. “You been home yet?”
    “I don’t want to leave her.”
    “You got to take care of yourself, if not for you, then for Jonah.”
    “Katie’s taking care of Jonah.”
    “How’s Jonah doing with this?”
    “I haven’t let him see Dani yet. It would be too frightening for him. I told him she was traveling for a case.”
    Tommy nodded, and then for a long moment the two of them just looked at Dani, battered and tiny amid her tangle of tubes and wires. “I’m gonna find whoever did this,” Tommy said. “You can count on it.”
    Doug turned to him. “Do you think it’s because of the case she’s working on?”
    “Has to be.”
    “But why? She’s just one of dozens of lawyers at HIPP. If she doesn’t handle it, someone else will. What did whoever did this think he’d accomplish?”
    “You know, Bruce didn’t want to take this case at first. Dani talked him into it.”
    Doug nodded. “She believes in this girl. No, woman. I guess she’s no longer a girl. So what’s Bruce going to do now?”
    “We met this morning. Everyone wants to keep going. Melanie will take over the lead until Dani’s back on her feet.” Tommy looked back at his friend, lying still in her bed. He got up from his chair and leaned over the railing, his face inches from Dani’s. “We’re gonna get her out. I promise you,” he whispered to her. He straightened up to leave and said good-bye. As he got to the door, Doug called out to him.
    “Just be careful, Tommy. Tell everyone to be careful.”
    Always be careful. That had been drummed into the agents at the FBI, and it was no different at HIPP. Be careful. But how do you protect yourself from the unknown? Someone wanted Dani off this case and had sent a strong message; that much was clear. It was the “who” that had him stumped.
    Before Dani had gotten into her car to make the trip back to the city, she’d called him. “We’ve got to look harder at the jail,” she’d said. “See if you can find Joe Singer’s business partner.” There hadn’t been time for much discussion. She’d said she’d fill him in when she got to the office. But she never arrived. If