back,’ he says.
They quickly leave the restaurant, the meal finished, and drive the short way to the courthouse. They take their seats as the jury files in.
The judge asks the foreperson if they have reached a verdict. They have.
Stephanie feels like she’s going to pass out.
‘What is your verdict?’ the judge asks.
‘Undetermined, your honour.’
Stephanie looks at Patrick; she sees him actually flinch. She glances at Lange. His expression is grim.
The ensuing silence is one laden with terror. It’s not over, not at all. It might be just beginning. Stephanie stares at her husband. He’s gone bloodless. She realizes, watching him, that he expected a different finding. He expected to be exonerated.
Finally Patrick says to his attorney, his voice quaking, ‘What do we do now?’
‘It’s up to the sheriff,’ the lawyer says quietly, ‘and the district attorney. You go home and wait.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
THAT EVENING, SHERIFF Bastedo sits at his desk in his office, in the dark, deep in thought. He’s not particularly happy that this mess has landed on his desk. He knows it’s an opportunity. And that’s what worries him. It’s an opportunity that could make or break him, and he would rather keep his head low. He’s steady and methodical – that works for him – but he can already tell that this case has all the makings of a circus. But he can’t just turn a blind eye. That’s what the last sheriff did, and it might have resulted in Patrick Kilgour getting away with murder.
He had watched the inquest with great attention, taking careful notes. When it was over, he was just as unsure as the jurors. He’s cautious by nature, but he’s aware of the pressure on him to do something. He must talk to the district attorney first thing in the morning.
Patrick struggles to wake the next morning when his phone alarm goes off at 5.30 a.m. He’d only got to sleep after 3 a.m. He feels like shit. Stephanie stirs beside him.
‘Come on, we have to catch a plane,’ he says and gets up and pads to the bathroom of their hotel room. He steps into the shower, letting the hot water wash away the cobwebs. But clarity is worse. He’s terrified of what might happen next. He tries to remember what his attorney said last night, but he was so distraught that some of it hadn’t really sunk in. His mind starts to spin out of control. If he’s arrested, and the case goes to trial, he probably won’t be able to get out on bail. He might have to spend months in prison, away from his wife and children. At trial, they would have to prove he murdered his wife beyond a reasonable doubt. But there is a lot of doubt in this case. There’s no dispute about the facts; they don’t have to worry about forensics. They know his wife got into the running car and that the exhaust was blocked with snow. ‘They can’t prove you stuffed the exhaust pipe yourself,’ the attorney said bluntly, ‘or that you let her sit in the running car knowing that it was blocked and that it would kill her.’ This is all about his intention, and surely there’s no way they can prove his intention beyond a reasonable doubt. This is what Lange told him last night, trying to reassure him as he felt his once-comfortable life slipping away from him on a tidal wave of fear. ‘They might feel they have to bring you in,’ Lange said. ‘But it shouldn’t go to trial. They haven’t got sufficient evidence.’
But the stigma – everyone will think he did it. He will be tainted by this for the rest of his life. There is no way for him to prove he didn’t mean to kill her.
No way to prove it – even to his wife.
This was not the result they’d hoped for. Stephanie won’t be able to go home now and put it all out of her mind – she’ll be waiting for the next thing to happen. There will be no chance for her to recover her equilibrium.
And Niall – his partner had been supportive when he heard about the coming inquest, but he hadn’t liked the optics. Patrick told him that he understood. But there has been a deepening rift between the two men since Patrick had told him.
Patrick knows that anything less than a complete exoneration won’t be good enough for Niall. And he didn’t get that.
Now – will Niall want to