Then she caught a good look through the glass. Saw that one of the signs said Dr. Gaines’s name. It was the doctor they wanted to lock up. Not Nova, after all. That made her almost as sick as when she thought they meant her.
She stared at the pushing, shouting people. Wondered what they were doing to Dr. Bria. The doctor helped Nova. Nobody else helped her. Nobody except for the school nurse.
And she was dead.
Somebody killed Nurse Bass.
The sheriff stopped the car right in front of the courthouse. Nova’s mama opened her own door, on the street side. Mama got out and disappeared into the crowd.
Nova tried to unbuckle her seat belt. But her hands felt unreal. So did her arms. Her legs were jelly.
The sheriff’s face appeared in her window. It surprised her, almost made her pee her pants. He opened the car door. Not talking, didn’t say a word. She couldn’t tell if the man even saw her, not with his sunglasses. Just held the door open.
Mama was behind him, on the sidewalk. Mama still wouldn’t look at her.
The crowd of people edged closer to the car, still yelling, chanting. The screaming and shouting made Nova feel like she’d go deaf. Her face felt like it was on fire.
She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t even move, couldn’t get out of the back seat. Too scared of what was outside.
Mama finally looked at her. Then Mama stepped over, scooted in front of the sheriff. She reached into the car and took Nova’s hand.
“C’mon, baby girl. We have to go inside. We going to court.”
CHAPTER
59
Bria Gaines
BULLOCK COUNTY COURTHOUSE UNION SPRINGS, ALABAMA
On Thursday morning, Bria was watching for Ben Meyers through her living room window. When she spotted his car coming down the street, she locked up the house and hurried down her front walk.
As she slid into the front seat, she looked over at him. “Thanks so much for the ride, Ben. It’s really not necessary.”
Meyers’s face was grim. “I’d say it’sabsolutelynecessary.”
Bria knew he was right. She was just putting on a brave front. After the first day of the trial, she’d returned to her car to find it dripping and smelling from rotten eggs. Someone had scrawledMURDERERon the front window andBURN IN HELLon the back.
After that, she’d steeled herself so that no one could hurt her.
That was the plan, anyway.
Meyers put some music on the radio to relax her. By now, he knew how much she loved Brandi Carlile. He cranked it up loud. They made the ten-minute drive without exchanging another word.
When they got into town, it was total chaos. There was no parking anywhere near the courthouse. Too many spectators. Too much press. Meyers took the first space he could find, in the parking lot of LuLu’s Diner.CUSTOMERS ONLY, the sign said. Sorry. Not today, LuLu.
As Bria walked with Meyers down Prairie Street toward the courthouse, she could see that a crowd had gathered, filling the sidewalk and spilling over onto the street. Babbling voices were raised—some excited, some angry. The atmosphere was charged with a dangerous kind of energy. The trial hadn’t even commenced for the day, and downtown Union Springs was already a zoo.
Bria heard the chant. People were calling “Lock her up!”
She froze for a second on the sidewalk. That was when someone spotted her.
“There she is!”
Meyers grabbed her hand. “Run!”
They took off around the nearest corner, but a few people in the crowd took up the chase. Meyers kept a firm grip on her hand as they managed to dodge their pursuers, running down narrow alleys and then back up the hill to the rear of the courthouse.
