Now Elio and his partner were slipping through the gate, dragging poor Angela Torres with them as the attorney sobbed and begged to be let go.
Just then there was movement in the front row of the gallery. The two patrolmen who’d been coming to the trial every day leaped off the bench in unison. They each took one of the armed assailants by surprise. It looked like linebackers hitting an unsuspecting quarterback. The impact was terrific and immediate.
Elio went down under the weight of one patrolman. His head struck the low barrier around the gallery with a sickening sound. The gun dropped out of Huerta’s hand onto the floor.
The second police officer collided with Anita, but instead of flattening her, the force sent her flying to the back of the courtroom. The woman managed to get her feet back under her quickly and stood up with the gun still in her hand.
Yuki left the relative safety of the prosecution’s table and scurried across the short distance to where Angela Torres was on her hands and knees. She guided the defense attorney to the other side of the gallery’s gate and stuffed her under one of the tables. “It’s going to be okay,” she said as she patted the shattered defense attorney’s arm. “It’s going to be okay.” Yuki wished she could believe her own words.
Yuki peered over the low gallery wall. Elio was out of the fight, but Anita was pointing her gun at a patrolman’s head. The girl said, “Nighty night.”
Yuki shouted, “Please don’t do it!”
That broke the girl’s concentration for an instant. She looked over to see who had shouted.
That’s when another gunshot rang out.
CHAPTER109
YUKI CASTELLANO DIDN’Twant to look. She knew too many cops who’d been killed in the line of duty. This was worse. This was just an execution.
But as Yuki stared, blood quickly started to pour out of a wound in the young woman’s throat. Anita reached up with her left hand, shaking uncontrollably. She tried to speak. It was garbled. It sounded like she was underwater. Blood leaked out of her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in her head.
Then she toppled over.
Yuki looked toward the door. Brady stood at the back of the courtroom holding a small .380 automatic pistol in his hand. His backup gun.
Bailiffs rushed into the courtroom from two different doors. Their guns were up as they scanned the room. One of them went directly to the judge. He hurried the judge through the rear door and out of the room.
Another bailiff went directly to the jury box and ushered the hysterical jurors through the closest door.
People were scrambling to get out the main door to the hallway. As soon as they pushed the door open, several uniformed police officers rushed in to help. Even though none of them had guns.
Angela Torres slowly sat up. She looked at the horrendous damage in the courtroom. It was like she suddenly realized who she’d been trying to let back out onto the street. She took a breath and then started to wail. Yuki wrapped her arms around her. It was all she could think to do.
A few minutes later, with the courtroom almost completely cleared, paramedics rushed in with a gurney.
Brady came over and crouched on the floor next to Yuki. He glanced down at the now quiet Angela Torres. He brushed some hair out of Yuki’s face. Then he said, “It’s over.”
That was Yuki’s signal to let all of her stress go. She took an arm away from Torres and wrapped it around her husband’s thick neck.
“You always seem to show up at just the right time.”
CHAPTER110
IT WAS LATEafternoon. Both Rich Conklin and I had wanted to return to the Hall of Justice. We’d heard about the incident at Yuki’s trial. We wanted to help. But the scene was being handled. There was nothing we could do.
After I’d finished a phone call, I turned to Rich. “Did you hear that Frank Hodges was killed in the courtroom?”
Rich nodded slowly. “He was a good dude. I don’t know why he took the bailiff’s job after he retired from the PD. I know he thought he’d be safe at the courthouse. He has two kids in high school.”
We were silent as we contemplated our friend’s death.
After a few seconds, I said, “The woman Brady shot in the throat looks like she’s going to survive. Elio Huerta is in ICU. He broke his neck when the cops jumped on him.”
Rich mumbled, “Hope he ends up in a wheelchair like the poor grocer he shot.”
I didn’t like to say things like that. But I was definitely thinking along the same lines.
