2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

Connelly wrote an alternate ending for this book where Marco confronts Lankford on the stand and they shoot it out in the courtroom, both killing each other. Did he choose the better ending?

Hmmmm. Both endings are interesting. I don't know which I liked better.

Jonetta, Did you get to read the alternate ending?

Yes, here it is, from where it went in a new direction (while Lankford was testifying):

(view spoiler)[
"I asked him point-blank if he killed her, because I didn’t want that on my conscience. He said no. He said he went to the apartment, but when he got there she was already dead. He said he set the fire because he didn’t know if she had anything that would link him to her. But he claimed she was already dead.”

“Did you believe him?”

Lankford paused before answering.

“No,” he finally said. “I didn’t.”

I paused. I wanted to hold the moment for the rest of my life. I became aware of the soft sound of the courtroom door closing behind me. I had been hearing it every day of the trial and I didn’t bother to turn around. I should have, because the next voice I heard was not Lankford’s or the judge’s. It came from behind me and it carried hatred across the courtroom.

“You fucking liar!”

I turned to see Agent Marco standing in the center aisle, his arms raised to brace a two-handed grip on a handgun. His shout was followed by shrieks across the courtroom. Marco’s aim was past me and on the witness box. I stepped back, banging into the prosecution table and losing my balance.

I started falling backward across the table, my body turning away from Marco and my eyes coming to Lankford. He had risen in his seat and was raising his right hand from the paneled enclosure.

It was impossible to count the shots in real time. Later it would be determined that the two men fired a total of nine shots: six from Marco and three from Lankford.

Lankford was more accurate. All three of his shots struck Marco in the upper body. One bullet pierced the DEA agent’s heart, and it was said that he was dead by the time he fell to the tiled floor of the courtroom.

Marco’s shots were scattered. Three hit the wall behind the witness stand, and one hit the stand itself. His aim zeroed in on Lankford and the fifth shot hit the DA investigator in the left shoulder. Marco’s last shot found a lethal destination when it clipped the left side of Lankford’s neck and tore through the carotid artery.

Lankford fell back down into the witness seat, dropped his gun, and brought his right hand up to his damaged neck. He tried to cup the wound, but blood leaked between his fingers and down his chest. After a few seconds he slumped and dropped his hand from his neck.

I ended up on the floor in front of the prosecution table. I looked up at the bench and Judge Leggoe was nowhere to be seen. She had ducked beneath the bench, taking what cover was available, just as almost everyone else in the courtroom had done.

Screams of horror and fear came from all over the courtroom. As I rose to my feet, I saw Jennifer Aronson seated at the defense table, a frozen look on her face. Of everyone in the courtroom, she was the only one who had not moved or jumped for cover.

I moved toward her and saw others starting to peek up over tables and benches and desks. The judge started shouting for the courtroom to be cleared, though even her high-pitched and panicked tenor drifted into the background for me. Soon it was as though I couldn’t hear a thing.

I looked over at the jury box and saw my alpha, Mallory Gladwell, standing with her eyes closed, hands pressed against her open mouth. Behind her and to either side of her, other jurors were reacting to the horror of what they had just witnessed. I will always remember the composition of that scene. Twelve people—the gods of guilt—trying to unsee what they all had just seen. (hide spoiler)]

Here’s what Connelly had to say about it:

(view spoiler)[
I don’t use an outline when I write. I fly by the seat of my pants. But I almost never take off without knowing the destination. I know how my stories begin and I know where they are going to end up. I usually have a pretty strong visual conception of where and how the stories come to a close. Sometimes I’m flat-out wrong or end up slightly off.

The ending you just read was not what I initially envisioned for The Gods of Guilt. I had the idea of “death in a courtroom” in my head as the final destination, but I pictured it as more of a shoot-out between two mortal enemies. Almost an Old West sort of thing.

I tried it when I got to the penultimate chapter of the book but didn’t like it. It was high action, which was good, but with it came a greater suspension of disbelief, which was bad. I wrestled with it and wrote it a couple of different ways but ultimately abandoned the vision I’d had way back on page one and wrote the ending that you have just read. I think I made the write (right) choice.

Starting below is one of the efforts at the original idea. See what you think. I call this the movie version because I think in a movie—where the action goes by in split seconds—this ending would succeed. But in a novel you have to be more real, truer, believable. This picks up halfway through the chapter, so you don’t have to read too much that you have already read.

And here’s a hint: In this version the judge does not ask Investigator Lankford to turn his weapon over to the courtroom deputy. (hide spoiler)]

I think Connelly is right in that the ending he put in the book is more believable than the shoot-out in the courtroom. But, both of them make for good reading.

I thought so, too. It was more believable and I like that Marco got his due in Mexico.