They slip quickly past reporters who are milling around the courthouse entrance, none of whom were expecting the defendant to ever exit the courthouse through the front doors to freedom. They’re just now organizing their cameras and their mics, harnessing and hefting and aligning their equipment as they get word from inside the courthouse and start looking around for the defendant.

Joey briskly follows Will across the street, ducks into Will’s nondescript Japanese sedan, and they’re gone.

27.

27.

Zack and Emily are nowhere near the courthouse when they learn the verdict. They are at Emily’s apartment.

In fact, as it happens, they’ve just had sex. In fact, they are naked.

Now, naked and exposed.

The call comes on her cell. New York Police Department, says the caller ID. Even naked, you pick up.

“Emily Lane?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sitting down, Ms. Lane?”

She doesn’t answer specifically. She puts it on speaker so they both can hear.

The next few sentences will remain a blur in her head. Where meaning and feeling will collapse together in her, becoming tangled and confused. Prosecution presenting first- and second-degree murder charges only…Jury misconstruing the judge’s instructions…Evidentiary confusion…Acquittal and release pending separate charges…

“We don’t believe you’re in any immediate danger. We’ll be keeping a close watch on him every moment that he’s out. You should live your life, put this news aside if you can,” says the officer gently. “I would have called Zack Yellin but he doesn’t have a cell phone, as you probably know. Will you tell him?”

“Of course, Officer.”

She hangs up.

In the silence of the apartment, Zack can hear the officer perfectly clearly.

Emily and Zack look at one another. Stunned. Wordless.

Something changes in the room. Something subtler, deeper, than just the news of the verdict. Some shift has taken place.

They suddenly feel their nakedness. They cover up. Turn away from each other. Dress quickly.

Emily is shaking her head, unthinking, without processing, side to side. She feels a sudden vertigo. A sickening feeling overwhelms her. She’s close to retching but she holds it in.

Joey is free. So she is not. Cause and effect. Like a switch flipped. Like an hourglass turned.

The fact feels so instantly stark. So transformative. So upside down.

She wants to get out of the apartment. She knows that’s irrational; she knows the police will be keeping an eye on him; she knows her apartment is hardly the place he would head to straight from his release from jail but still, she doesn’t want to be there. She doesn’t want to be anywhere.

She wants to keep Zack here, next to her, holding her, forever.