She fled.

She tried not to run, afraid of attracting attention. She pulled her jacket close around her to conceal her ripped blouse. Four blocks from the house Tracy tried to hail a taxi. Half a dozen sped past her, filled with happy, laughing pa.s.sengers. In the distance Tracy heard the sound of an approaching siren, and seconds later an ambulance raced past her, headed in the direction of Joe Romano's house. I've got to get away from here, Tracy thought. Ahead of her, a taxi pulled to the curb and discharged its pa.s.sengers. Tracy ran toward it, afraid of losing it. "Are you free?"

"That depends. Where you goin'?"

"The airport." She held her breath.

"Get in."

On the way to the airport, Tracy thought about the ambulance. What if they were too late and Joe Romano was dead? She would be a murderess. She had left the gun back at the house, and her fingerprints were on it. She could tell the police that Romano had tried to rape her and that the gun had gone off accidentally, but they would never believe her. She had purchased the gun that was lying on the floor beside Joe Romano. How much time had pa.s.sed? Half an hour? An hour? She had to get out of New Orleans as quickly as possible.

"Enjoy the carnival?" the driver asked.

Tracy swallowed. "I--- yes." She pulled out her hand mirror and did what she could to make herself presentable. She had been stupid to try to make Joe Romano confess. Everything had gone wrong. How can I tell Charles what happened? She knew how shocked he would be, but after she explained, he would understand. Charles would know what to do.

When the taxi arrived at New Orleans International Airport, Tracy wondered, Was it only this morning that I was here? Did all this happen in just one day? Her mother's suicide... the horror of being swept up in the carnival... the man snarling, "You shot me... you b.i.t.c.h...."

When Tracy walked into the terminal, it seemed to her that everyone was staring at her accusingly. That's what a guilty conscience does, she thought. She wished there were some way she could learn about Joe Romano's condition, but she had no idea what hospital he would be taken to or whom she could call. He's going to be all right. Charles and I will come back for Mother's funeral, and Joe Romano will be fine. She tried to push from her mind the vision of the man lying on the white rug, his blood staining it red. She had to hurry home to Charles.

Tracy approached the Delta Airlines counter. "I'd like a one-way ticket on the next flight to Philadelphia, please. Tourist."

The pa.s.senger representative consulted his computer. "That will be Flight three-o-four. You're in luck. I have one seat left."

"What time does the plane leave?"

"In twenty minutes. You just have time to board."

As Tracy reached into her purse, she sensed rather than saw two uniformed police officers step up on either side of her. One of them said, "Tracy Whitney?"

Her heart stopped beating for an instant. It would be stupid to deny my ident.i.ty. "Yes..."

"You're under arrest."

And Tracy felt the cold steel of handcuffs snapped on her wrists.

Everything was happening in slow motion to someone else. Tracy watched herself being led through the airport, manacled to one of the policemen, while pa.s.sersby turned to stare. She was shoved into the back of a black-and-white squad car with steel mesh separating the front seat from the rear. The police car sped away from the curb with red lights flashing and sirens screaming. She huddled in the backseat, trying to become invisible. She was a murderess. Joseph Romano had died. But it had been an accident. She would explain how it had happened. They had to believe her. They had to.

The police station Tracy was taken to was in the Algiers district, on the west bank of New Orleans, a grim and foreboding building with a look of hopelessness about it. The booking room was crowded with seedy-looking characters--- prost.i.tutes, pimps, muggers, and their victims. Tracy was marched to the desk of the sergeant-on-watch.

One of her captors said, "The Whitney woman, Sarge. We caught her at the airport tryin' to escape."

"I wasn't---"

"Take the cuffs off."

The handcuffs were removed. Tracy found her voice. "It was an accident. I didn't mean to kill him. He tried to rape me and---" She could not control the hysteria in her voice.

The desk sergeant said curtly, "Are you Tracy Whitney?"

"Yes. I---"

"Lock her up."

"No! Wait a minute," she pleaded. "I have to call someone. I--- I'm ent.i.tled to make a phone call."

The desk sergeant grunted, "You know the routine, huh? How many times you been in the stammer, honey?"

"None. This is---"

"You get one call. Three minutes. What number do you want?"

She was so nervous that she could not remember Charles's telephone number. She could not even recall the area code for Philadelphia. Was it two-five-one? No. That was not right. She was trembling.

"Come on. I haven't got all night."

Two-one-five. That was it! "Two-one-five-five-five-five-nine-three-zero-one."

The desk sergeant dialed the number and handed the phone to Tracy. She could hear the phone ringing. And ringing. There was no answer. Charles had to be home.

The desk sergeant said, "Time's up." He started to take the phone from her.

"Please wait!" she cried. But she suddenly remembered that Charles shut off his phone at night so that he would not be disturbed. She listened to the hollow ringing and realized there was no way she could reach him.

The desk sergeant asked, "You through?"

Tracy looked up at him and said dully, "I'm through."

A policeman in shirt-sleeves took Tracy. into a room where she was booked and fingerprinted, then led down a corridor and locked in a holding cell, by herself.

"You'll have a hearing in the morning," the policeman told her. He walked away, leaving her alone.

None of this is happening, Tracy thought. This is all a terrible dream. Oh, please, G.o.d, don't let any of this be real.

But the stinking cot in the cell was real, and the seatless toilet in the corner was real, and the bars were real.

The hours of the night dragged by endlessly. If only I could have reached Charles. She needed him now more than she had ever needed anyone in her life. I should have confided in him in the first place. If I had, none of this would have happened.

At 6:00 A.M. a bored guard brought Tracy a breakfast of tepid coffee and cold oatmeal. She could not touch it. Her stomach was in knots. At 9:00 a matron came for her.

"Time to go, sweetie." She unlocked the cell door.

"I must make a call," Tracy said. "It's very---"

"Later," the matron told her. "You don't want to keep the judge waiting. He's a mean son of a b.i.t.c.h."

She escorted Tracy down a corridor and through a door that led into a courtroom. An elderly judge was seated on the bench. His head and hands kept moving in small, quick jerks. In front of him stood the district attorney, Ed Topper, a slight man in his forties, with crinkly salt-and-pepper hair cut en brosse, and cold, black eyes.

Tracy was led to a seat, and a moment later the bailiff called out, "People against Tracy Whitney," and Tracy found herself moving toward the bench. The judge was scanning a sheet of paper in front of him, his head bobbing up and down.

Now. Now was Tracy's moment to explain to someone in authority the truth about what had happened. She pressed her hands together to keep them from trembling. "Your Honor, it wasn't murder. I shot him, but it was an accident. I only meant to frighten him. He tried to rape me and---"

The district attorney interrupted. "Your Honor, I see no point in wasting the court's time. This woman broke into Mr. Romano's home, armed with a thirty-two-caliber revolver, stole a Renoir painting worth half a million dollars, and when Mr. Romano caught her in the act, she shot him in cold blood and left him for dead."

Tracy felt the color draining from her face. "What--- what are you talking about?"

None of this was making any sense.

The district attorney rapped out, "We have the gun with which she wounded Mr. Romano. Her fingerprints are on it."

Wounded! Then Joseph Romano was alive! She had not killed anyone.

"She escaped with the painting. Your Honor. It's probably in the hands of a fence by now. For that reason, the state is requesting that Tracy Whitney be held for attempted murder and armed robbery and that bail be set at half a million dollars."

The judge turned to Tracy, who stood there in shock. "Are you represented by counsel?"

She did not even hear him.

He raised his voice. "Do you have an attorney?"

Tracy shook her head. "No. I--- what--- what this man said isn't true. I never---"

"Do you have money for an attorney?"

There was her employees' fund at the bank. There was Charles. "I... no, Your Honor, but I don't understand---"

"The court will appoint one for you. You are ordered held in jail, in lieu of five hundred thousand dollars bail. Next case."

"Wait! This is all a mistake! I'm not---"

She had no recollection of being led from the courtroom.

The name of the attorney appointed by the court was Perry Pope. He was in his late thirties, with a craggy, intelligent face and sympathetic blue eyes. Tracy liked him immediately.

He walked into her cell, sat on the cot, and said, "Well! You've created quite a sensation for a lady who's been in town only twenty-four hours." He grinned. "But you're lucky. You're a lousy shot. It's only a flesh wound. Romano's going to live." He took out a pipe. "Mind?"

"No."

He filled his pipe with tobacco, lit it, and studied Tracy. "You don't look like the average desperate criminal. Miss Whitney."

"I'm not. I swear I'm not."

"Convince me," he said. "Tell me what happened. From the beginning. Take your time."

Tracy told him. Everything. Perry Pope sat quietly listening to her story, not speaking until Tracy was finished. Then he leaned back against the wall of the cell, a grim expression on his face. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d," Pope said softly.

"I don't understand what they were talking about." There was confusion in Tracy's eyes. "I don't know anything about a painting."

"It's really very simple. Joe Romano used you as a patsy, the same way he used your mother. You walked right into a setup."

"I still don't understand."

"Then let me lay it out for you. Romano will put in an insurance claim for half a million dollars for the Renoir he's hidden away somewhere, and he'll collect. The insurance company will be after you, not him. When things cool down, he'll sell the painting to a private patty and make another half million, thanks to your do-it-yourself approach. Didn't you realize that a confession obtained at the point of a gun is worthless?"

"I--- I suppose so. I just thought that if I could get the truth out of him, someone would start an investigation."

His pipe had gone out. He relit it. "How did you enter his house?"

"I rang the front doorbell, and Mr. Romano let me in."

"That's not his story. There's a smashed window at the back of the house, where he says you broke in. He told the police he caught you sneaking out with the Renoir, and when he tried to stop you, you shot him and ran."

"That's a lie! I---"

"But it's his lie, and his house, and your gun. Do you have any idea with whom you're dealing?"

Tracy shook her head mutely.

"Then let me tell you the facts of life, Miss Whitney. This town is sewn up tight by the Orsatti Family. Nothing goes down here without Anthony Orsatti's okay. If you want a permit to put up a building, pave a highway, run girls, numbers, or dope, you see Orsatti. Joe Romano started out as his. .h.i.t man. Now he's the top man in Orsatti's organization." He looked at her in wonder. "And you walked into Romano's house and pulled a gun on him."

Tracy sat there, numb and exhausted. Finally she asked, "Do you believe my story?"

He smiled. "You're d.a.m.ned right. It's so dumb it has to be true."

"Can you help me?"

He said slowly, "I'm going to try. I'd give anything to put them all behind bars. They own this town and most of the judges in it. If you go to trial, they'll bury you so deep you'll sever see daylight again."

Tracy looked at him, puzzled. "If I go to trial?"

Pope stood and paced up and down in the small cell. "I don't want to put you in front of a jury, because, believe me, it will be his jury. There's only one judge Orsatti has never been able to buy. His name is Henry Lawrence. If I can arrange for him to hear this case, I'm pretty sure I can make a deal for you. It's not strictly ethical, but I'm going to speak to him privately. He hates Orsatti and Romano as much as I do. Now all we've got to do is get to Judge Lawrence."

Perry Pope arranged for Tracy to place a telephone call to Charles. Tracy heard the familiar voice of Charles's secretary. "Mr. Stanhope's office."

"Harriet. This is Tracy Whitney. Is---?"

"Oh! He's been trying to reach you, Miss Whitney, but we didn't have a telephone number for you. Mrs. Stanhope is most anxious to discuss the wedding arrangements with you. If you could call her as soon as possible---"