Chasing The Dead (An Alex Stone Thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page B

by the plea agreement. And I’m more interested in how you handle your next case, not your last one.”
    “I’ve got a stack of cases on my desk. Which one are you talking about?”
    “None of them. You’re going to be assigned to a new case tomorrow. Your client has already confessed to a gruesome murder. All you have to do is go through the motions, get the discovery you’re entitled to from the prosecutor, conduct a limited—and I mean limited—investigation so you can say you did, and when the prosecutor offers to let him plead guilty and be sentenced to life without possibility of parole instead of being executed, you will convince him to take that deal. Now, if you do that, why, then, this photograph will go back to where it came from and it will stay there.”
    First the judge hit her with the photograph and now he was telling her about her next case. She couldn’t imagine how he knew what it would be. All she wanted was to get out of there.
    “My new client, what’s his name?”
    “Jared Bell,” Judge West said.

Chapter Seven
    ALEX JAMMED HER CAR into reverse, turned around, and fishtailed back down the long drive, putting as much distance as she could, as fast as she could, between Judge West and her. She was so angry, her heart was slamming hard enough against her ribs that she was afraid it would explode or her ribs would shatter.
    She’d been angry for much of the last year, though at first she tried to ignore the emotion, cramming her feelings into a dark closet, slamming the door and bracing her back against it. The euphoria that had consumed her after she was acquitted of murdering Dwayne didn’t last. Like any drug, it wore off, and when it did, the door sprang open, leaving her raw inside and quick to lash out. Bonnie took the brunt of her outbursts, giving her time and space, until after a couple of months she’d had enough.
    “You’ve got to see someone,” Bonnie told her. “We can’t keep doing this—you exploding and me picking up the pieces.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m trying. But,” Alex said, shaking her head, “sometimes . . . I don’t know . . . I just feel . . . Shit, I don’t know what I feel except that I just want to scream, I’m so fucking pissed.”
    “About what?”
    Alex ran her fingers through her short, dark hair. “About what? Are you kidding? I’m pissed that I got Dwayne Reed acquitted. I’m pissed that he killed all those people. I’m pissed that I killed him, and I’m pissed that I’m glad he’s dead. I’m pissed that everything got so fucked-up and I can’t stop fucking thinking and dreaming about it.” Her eyes filled and she wiped away her tears. “And I’m pissed that I can’t stop crying about it. It makes me feel so damn weak.”
    Bonnie wrapped her arms around Alex. “The last thing you are is weak, but that doesn’t mean you’re strong enough to deal with this on your own. Post-traumatic stress is a bitch. Nobody can go through what you did and come out on the other side the same person. So do us both a favor and get some help, or I’ll end up more angry than you.”
    Bonnie recommended a psychologist, Dr. Jacob Daniels. Alex saw him for six months. He treated her with a combination of cognitive and exposure therapy, helping her to cope with her anger and guilt, though she couldn’t tell him all the reasons she felt guilty. He taught her to use a type of meditation called mindfulness-based stress reduction, telling her that doing the focused breathing exercises was better than taking drugs.
    The therapy had helped. She still had nightmares, but the boiling anger had cooled, except when something or someone like Judge West unleashed it. And while the tension between her and Bonnie had eased, she sensed that something else was bothering Bonnie, but when Alex pressed her, Bonnie just shook her head, reassuring her that everything was fine. They’d been together long enough that any other life seemed impossible. But she