Deadlock

P R O L O G U EThe girl heard herself scream.Oh, God, don''t let them do it!Her words were only in her mind. Her mouth was open, but only sputtering gasps came out, issuing an awful ak ak ak sound.Her eyes felt puffy, raw. Where was she?A bed. She was in a bed. Hers.She put a hand on her stomach.Don''t let them!Hand on stomach and head spinning. Warm sweat on her face. She had been sleeping.And she knew she''d had the nightmare again, the same one, the one where they were dressed in black. Not white smocks. Black robes. They had her tied down on the cold, hard ground. Her wrists, in the dream, were fastened to stakes. She could not move. One of the robed ones laughed at her.It always seemed like an image from a horror film, one of those devil movies where the devil actually comes to life.Life. That was what she''d had inside her. A life, a baby. She knew that now. They hadn''t told her. In the dream she had seenBut in that second the hurt inside took over and she remembered the dreams and knew this was the only way.Once she looked back and thought she saw something, a scary something. The people in black robes. Only this time there were hundreds of them and they were running behind her, almost pushing her. She thought she heard them whispering in unison, do it, do it, do it.She would do it. She reached the bridge and saw it outlined against the moon. She could hear the rush of the river below, deep in the gorge, sloshing over sharp rocks. When she started over the bridge, the waters sounded like they were singing.Singing . . .No, it was voices singing. Real voices. Somewhere close. There was a campground on the other side of the bridge. That meant people.She stopped for a moment. What were they singing? Something about . . . Jesus. A church camp maybe? A bunch of kids singing church songs. She''d done that once, a long time ago, before Mama stopped going to church. She had once sung songs about Jesus. No more. Jesus hated her.She thought of God then, and wondered why God hadn''t stopped them from doing it, hadn''t stopped her from letting them. If God was real he would reach down right now and make it all better, bring her baby back.God should have stopped it before it happened. He gave the laws, didn''t he? She thought about the law that was supposed to protect her. Wasn''t that why they''d made her sign the paper? She didn''t understand it, but they said to sign it, so she did. They said it was the law, and the law was good and it would protect her.It didn''t.And if the law didn''t protect her, and God didn''t, nothing else would either. She moved to the middle of the bridge.There was a narrow strip of asphalt road across the bridge with small steel rails on either side. She''d be able to hop it, no trouble.The singing got louder. They were praising Jesus. He hadn''t reached down to help her either, any more than God had.She hesitated. One second between life and death. It wouldn''t be so bad. And then she wouldn''t have the dreams anymore, and everybody''d be sorry, and they''d know they killed her and her baby, and they''d cry. All of them.She thought she heard something. Someone coming. A voice said, "Hey . . ."She jumped up on the rail.PART ONEWe are very quiet on the Supreme Court, but it is the quiet of a storm center.JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMESC H A P T E R O N E 1Millicent Mannings Hollander could not stop looking at evil.She sat, along with her eight colleagues, on the raised dais facing the marble frieze over the main entrance to the United States Supreme Court. The frieze depicted the forces of evil- deceit and corruption-overcome by good: security, charity, and peace. The scene was dominated by the triumphant figure of justice, an enduring testament to the greatest virtue of the law.As a ten-year veteran of the Court, Millie Hollander had seen that artwork hundreds of times. Why should it jump out at her now? Was it simple judicial fatigue? Though in relatively good shape at fifty-two (she liked to shoot hoops in the Supreme Court gBell, James Scott is the author of 'Deadlock' with ISBN 9780310243885 and ISBN 0310243882.