‘If Dan Erickson was still the county attorney, I’d say yes,’ Archie replied. ‘With Ms. Burns in charge, I think it’s less likely. The evidence works in your favor now. Assuming they can’t ultimately show that you somehow acquired that gun after it left Chicago.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Or that you hid it after the murder. Or sold it. Or gave it away.’

‘I didn’t.’

‘Then I think you’re safe, my dear.’

Janine wasn’t so sure.

She could hear the doubts in Archie’s voice. Not about her legal situation, but about her innocence. Her own attorney had never really believed in her. He’d given her a robust defense, but he thought she was guilty as sin. She’d told him over and over that she hadn’t pulled the trigger on that gun. She’d never so much as held it in her hand. Even so, Archie still suspected that she had simply outsmarted everyone else. Like a magician, she’d killed Jay and made the gun and the jewelry disappear. Until now.

Everyone else would think the same thing. She had no illusions about the public opinion of Dr. Perfect. People would still stare and wonder how she got away with it.

‘Welcome to the next chapter of your life,’ Archie told her. ‘What are you going to do with it?’

That was a good question. She didn’t know the answer.

She was accustomed to thinking day to day and ignoring the future. The thought of walking out into the world with no plan terrified her, because throughout her life, she’d always had a plan for everything.

The media would be waiting for her. She’d be mobbed. The release of Janine Snow would be big news. The surgeon murderer set free. She wasn’t ready for the questions they’d shout at her – What do you think really happened to your husband? Will you sue for wrongful imprisonment? – and she had no answers to give them.

She’d asked Archie if he could buy her some time. Get her past the media horde and hide her somewhere. She needed a few days to get her head around the idea of living outside the walls again, and then she could talk to the reporters. She couldn’t avoid the world forever, but she needed time. She needed to get used to different walls.

She would go back to Duluth. That was still home. For now.

Archie would put her up in a hotel. She’d paid enough to earn that treatment from him, at least for a while. She could stare at the waters of Lake Superior and order room service and drink wine. One day, then the next, then the next, until she figured out whether there was anything left to live for.

However, she had one immediate problem that wouldn’t go away. Howard Marlowe.