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.Then the lights went out and the air conditioner stopped.The room was completely still but for the rush of wind and rain against the window.“Diana!” Maureen called.“Diana is here! God bless you, Diana!”Chaos erupted.Judith’s raucous voice was clearly heard now in the general tumult.“Get him! Don’t let him out!”Smalley raised his badge above his head and added his voice to the increasing pandemonium.“Police! Stay away from that man.”In the darkness, someone tried to wrestle away his gun.He pulled it back.“Police,” he called again.“Remain calm!”New screams filled the room as guests tried to get to the exit.David was caught in a crush of women reaching toward him with their outstretched hands.Some scratched or slapped at him.Others grabbed his coat and ripped it away.“Stop them!” he screamed in a voice that Jane barely recognized as she herself was pushed toward the door.The darkness was broken by the lightning through the window and the rhythmic flashes of David’s camera, which Heather set on automatic and held up high, snapping picture after picture.“Stop them!” David screamed again.“Oh my God, I’m stabbed!”Chapter Twenty-Five“Are you feeling any better?” Maggie asked.They were driving north on the Taconic Parkway and soon they would exit and start upon the succession of roads, increasingly narrow, hilly, curved and rutted, until they reached Maggie’s long dirt driveway.As soon as they had set out, Maggie had turned off the radio and the silence had been a balm.The only light inside the car came from the instrument panel’s faint glow, which made Jane’s moist cheeks glisten as she turned to Maggie and smiled slightly.“I’m okay,” Jane said.“Just a little dazed, that’s all.And tired.Really tired.”It was late and there were few other cars on the highway.The headlights were like a personal aura or the tail of a comet, always just ahead of the speeding vehicle.Jane focused on the solid white at the edge of the pavement to her right and the broken line to her left as black pavement sped beneath the car.“Why don’t you sleep?” Maggie asked.“It’ll be another 45 minutes before we get there.”Jane shook her head.“I don’t think I can right now,” she said.“Are you worried about David?”“No!” Jane replied quickly, with an unintended sharpness to her voice.After a moment, she reached over and put her hand on top of Maggie’s and squeezed it, asking wordlessly for something—she wasn’t quite sure what—not forgiveness, perhaps understanding.She knew David would be fine.An ambulance had arrived within minutes and EMS workers had soon determined that the knife wound in his side was not life threatening, although he would be hospitalized overnight.Heather stayed with him until he was loaded into the back of the ambulance, and then at his direction she had headed for The Portal’s offices with the camera.Jane was sure that Heather hadn’t lied to her earlier that day.She probably hadn’t really been interested in David at that point.And yet Jane was equally sure from watching them tonight that they were a couple now, even if they weren’t quite aware of it themselves.She envied them the connection, that growing sense of belonging.* * * *Jane and Maggie had exited the gallery along with everyone else, urged on by Detective Smalley and the other officers.Once calm had been restored, Maggie had gone back into the gallery to see if Ellen needed help cleaning up.Jane had stayed across the street and watched blankly as the remnants of the crowd dispersed and the Eumenides and Judith Frazier loaded their van.As that group was about to leave, Judith walked over to Jane and hugged her, pausing with her hands on Jane’s arms for a moment, peering into Jane’s face in the strange way she had, as though searching for some unknown truth.Jane had remembered what Glaser said about Judith’s childhood and tried to imagine what it must have been like, but she was unable to get past the image of a man stealing up to her bed at night and the sense of helplessness, betrayal, and shame.How much of the hardness on Judith’s face would not be there today if she had never suffered that abuse? What might love do for her even now?“You were on the wrong side tonight,” Judith said.“But Diana loves you.” She hesitated, bobbing her head solemnly.“And so do I.”Then she got in the driver’s side of the van and it accelerated up Madison as Maggie returned.“What did Judith have to say?” Maggie had asked.“Nonsense,” Jane replied, her eyes following the van’s tail lights until it disappeared in the distance.“Just nonsense.”She and Maggie had gotten into a cab and headed up Madison, planning to drop off Jane at 92nd Street before the driver swung through the Park to the West Side.As the cab began to slow on 92nd, Jane let out a groan at the thought of returning alone to her apartment, trying to sleep, rising in the morning to make coffee and go about the routine of her life.Maggie had linked her arm in Jane’s and pulled her close.“I have an idea,” Maggie said then.“If you still want to come up to my house this weekend.”“You know I’ve been looking forward to it since we left on Sunday.”“Then why don’t we go now? We’ll just get in my car tonight and start driving.”“I can’t—”“Of course you can.You can call in for your messages tomorrow.You can use my computer to check your e-mail.”“Clothes?”“I have a closet full of stuff.And, of course, we don’t need bathing suits.Right?”Jane had smiled at the thought of their swim together and at the prospect of waking up in a different place, sitting on the porch in the morning, the light on the hills as the sun goes down.“Do you promise to wake me up so I can help make the muffins this time?”“I swear [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]