CHAPTER TEN

Makayla woke up to what she thought were banging sounds. When her eyes were able to focus, she realized she was still in that hotel suite at The Hayton after leaving Brent and his family at that restaurant. She remembered walking into that suite, finding nobody in there, and then yelling out Jake Dalenti’s name, who happened to be a DA informant she was meeting in that hotel room. She remembered Jake yelling back that he was in the back room when she knew he had no business being back there, and then suddenly she was attacked from behind. She remembered fighting for her life with all she had within her. But then somebody else intervened, and not on her behalf. She remembered calling Brent’s name. Crying for Brent. But that was the last thing she remembered.

Now she was seated on the sofa. She looked down. Her clothes didn’t appear touched. A little wrinkled from the struggle, but nothing that noticeable at all. Everything was still intact. Even her briefcase was sitting by her side. What happened to her?

And that banging wouldn’t quit. Until she heard the doorknob turning. And then the hotel’s manager, two uniformed policemen, and one plainclothes detective from the JPD walked in. She knew Phil Baronski and knew the faces of the uniforms. All three had testified at some point in cases her office were involved with. And all three were just as shocked to see their boss’s wife, the county’s district attorney no less, sitting in that hotel suite as she was to see them.

“MaKayla?” Phil asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Who called you?” she asked them.

Which was strange too. “Excuse me?”

“I was attacked. Brutally attacked. I fought for my life. But I don’t recall phoning the police. We nearly tore this room apart.”

All three cops and the manager looked around the suite. Nothing, not even a piece of paper, was out of place. Then the two uniforms glanced at the sergeant before looking at Makayla again. The sergeant motioned for one of the two uniforms to look around.

As he did, Phil addressed Makayla again. “You said you fought for your life?”

“Yes! I think he drugged me. That’s why I don’t remember how I got on this sofa or how . . . I just don’t remember.”

“Who attacked you?”

But MaKayla was already shaking her head. “I don’t know. He came from behind. I almost got the better of him, but he had a partner that helped him. They . . . I don’t even know what they did, but I know I fought for my life.”

It sounded crazy to the sergeant given the look at least in the front of the suite. But then he heard a loud call. “Sarge! Sarge! Back here!”

Phil ordered the other uniformed officer and the manager to remain up front with MaKayla as he hurried to the bedroom.

When he walked into the bedroom, he immediately saw why his officer’s voice sounded hysterical. There was a man, a big black man, naked and lying on his side in the bed. Although he was lying on top of the sheets, the covers were in a bunch on the opposite side of the bed. A pool of blood was around the back of his head as if he’d been struck back there, or shot. “Is he alive?” Sarge asked as he hurried to the bed.

“I took his pulse,” said one of the two uniformed officers, “but I didn’t feel anything.”

Sarge quickly took his pulse too. He felt nothing either.

“Isn’t that Judge Clayton, Sarge?” another one of the cops asked.

The sergeant opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips. He didn’t know the judge that well, but he recognized him. “That’s him,” he said. “ Got dammit.”

“Who would wanna harm a nice guy like him?” the officer asked. Then he looked at his sergeant again. “You know there’s been rumors.”

The sergeant looked at his officer. “Rumors about what?”

“About Chief’s wife and the judge.”

Phil had heard those rumors too, but it was just gossip to him.

“You’re gonna tell the chief?” the uniform asked him.

Phil frowned. “No, you are! What do you think?” Then he exhaled. “Just call an ambulance and Forensics and shut the fuck up.”

The officer didn’t like his tone, but he understood it. Even he knew this was a major scandal. Even he knew their department was going to be under the microscope once again. He did as he was told.

And the sergeant exhaled again. Looking at all the blood on the wall and all over those sheets was crazy to him. He couldn’t wrap his brain around what could have happened here. But with the chief’s wife sitting up front acting as if she was some innocent when all the evidence pointed to her being everything but, he knew the chief wasn’t going to like it no matter what the scenario was. That much he knew.