Charged by Jay Crownover

Author:Jay Crownover
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2016-05-23T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Quaid

I exited the courtroom with another not-guilty verdict secured and another very satisfied client. This guy was lucky that the jury bought his innocent and confused act, because I would bet everything I owned that he was indeed guilty of luring the prostitute, who was the complainant, into his home and keeping her there against her will for several days. The court of public opinion held a lot of weight with the average person and the jury took exactly three hours to deliberate and decide that the young woman deserved the horrors she suffered through simply because she made her money on her back and took the risk of advertising her services on Craigslist. It didn’t matter that my client had crazy eyes, a previous history of violence against women, and zero remorse on the stand when he was cross-examined. He looked like a soccer dad and drove a minivan. He worked for the local cable company and had an established 401(k), so he was perceptibly the more upstanding and believable of the two of them on the stand. My job was done. I had kicked legal ass and dragged the poor woman even deeper into the mud, and where I would normally want to celebrate a job well done with an expensive Scotch and a more expensive woman, today all I wanted to do was brave the madness of a tiny, pink-haired hurricane and scrub off the film of distaste that covered me in the shower for a hundred hours.

I was sending a text to Avett to tell her I was on my way to get her from her parents’ house when I noticed the detective who was in charge of Avett’s ex’s case waiting for me by the elevators. I slipped my phone back in my pocket without waiting for her response and tilted my chin at the cop in greeting.

“What’s up? Do you have any new information on the fire?”

The detective gave a sharp nod and blew out a deep sigh. He lifted a hand to his face and rubbed his chin. “The fire investigator is calling it arson. There was accelerant poured all over the house and the gas line that ran to the stove was cut. The house was purposely burned down.”

I wasn’t surprised, but I was furious. I hated that Avett and Brite were going through this. I hated that someone was capable of doing something so horrible to another human being.

“That’s what we figured. Did the boyfriend offer up any insight as to why someone would be interested in burning down the Walkers’ home?”

The cop sighed again. “We questioned him. The kid’s a punk. He’s the low man on the totem pole and completely willing to sell anyone and everyone out to cover his own ass. We thought maybe he had one of his tweaker buddies go after the girl in order to keep her from testifying, but he hasn’t had any contact with the outside since his arrest.”

I swore and shoved my hand roughly through my hair, making it stand up wild on the top of my head.

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