Free Shadows Everywhere by John Lutz

for an automobile manufacturer. "We have, Your Honor," he said in a steady voice that belied his appearance.
    "And what is your verdict?"
    Seabold held his breath, aware that people were watching him, waiting."
    "We the jury find the defendant, Frank Seabold, not guilty."
    Seabold let out a long sigh, ignoring the buzz of voices, the pop of flashbulbs.
    He was free.
    Seabold went directly home and showered and shaved before going out again. Then he ordered a steak dinner in one of his favorite restaurants and went to call Gracie on the pay phone while the steak was being broiled.
    "It's over," he said when she answered the phone. "I was acquitted."
    "I know," she said. "I heard it on the radio. It's wonderful!" "Two more days," Seabold said, "to be on the safe side."
    "If that's what you want, darling."
    "You're what I want," Seabold said, and hung up.
    Two days later, after driving around for a while to make sure he wasn't being followed, Seabold headed the car for Gracie's cabin high in the wooded hills. There, after waking from the effects of the powerful sedative Seabold had secretly given her before bedtime, Nina Seabold had been held captive for the past month and a half in a small, escape proof room. The only person she'd seen during that time had been Gracie, and Nina had never seen Gracie before.
    No, if Seabold had been found guilty and sentenced to death or life imprisonment Gracie simply would have released Nina and up she would turn, the victim of mysterious abductors. Seabold would have been released with apologies.
    But it was better this way. This was how Seabold had planned it, from Gracie's anonymous phone call to the police to his acquittal. He had hedged his bet, and the jury had decided Nina's fate.
    Now that he had been tried and acquitted for his wife's death, it was perfectly safe to kill her. He couldn't be tried twice for the same crime, so in a way the state had given him license to murder. Not that they'd ever find Nina, buried deep, deep in the woods.
    Nina was surprised and overjoyed when Seabold entered the room where she was held captive. She was even more surprised, though not nearly so overjoyed, when he struck her with the hammer.

ALL OF A SUDDEN
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    D etective Sergeant Sam Day stood near the swinging partition that gave access to the area behind the long, scarred wooden counter. The faint odor of sweat and varnish rose from the counter, a familiar odor to Day. He shifted his weight to his other leg and felt a trickle of perspiration down his back. It was hot outside, almost ninety, and the old Eighth Precinct air conditioner just wasn't doing it. Off to one side the switchboard operator sat, marking his chart to keep track of the Eighth Precinct cars, his ears alert to calls for those cars and those cars only, picking them out almost automatically from the constant stream of static-filled chatter that blared from the metal speaker near him.
    Day saw that the door to the lieutenant's office was open about quarter way, and he heard voices from inside. Laughter, loud talking, silence, then "Oh, sure, sure, Harry," somebody said with emphasis, and there was another laugh.
    Sighing with impatience, Day leaned against the counter. The desk sergeant, old Hap Kramer, continued bringing his records up to date, hunched over the long counter as if he were oblivious to anyone else's presence. Near the other end of the room several younger, uniformed officers lounged, talking while one of them finished a report to give the clerk to type. Behind them was the door to the holdover, about half full now, because the night had barely begun.
    The Eighth Precinct house was a crummy place, Day reflected. It was really an old converted four-family flat, in a crummy neighborhood among crummy people. Some of the people he had to work with were crummy too.
    Day caught himself and made his mind take some other tack. It was no good thinking that way. He'd chosen this for his career, and he was a