Death by Trial and Error (A Legal Suspense Short) Read Online Free PDF Page B

warned him, wrapping
her legs around his waist. "Don't stop, darling."
    Sheldon couldn't even if he wanted to. He
heard a muffled cry as Maxine seemed to feed off his orgasm to
release her own. His chest heaved against her flattened breasts and
they climaxed together and loudly, as the sounds of sexual
gratification took center stage.
    Afterwards Sheldon collapsed onto Maxine's
body, keeping most of his weight on his knees so as not to crush
her. He was exhausted, but gratified in the knowledge that he had
pleased her. As a judge, he wanted only to please himself and his
brand of justice. Sometimes he would bend the rules, if called for
in the name of law and order—or the preservation of his career and
satisfying certain obligations.
    But as a man, he wanted to feel needed and
loved. Maxine gave that to him. More than anyone had before. So the
least he could do was provide her the financial and physical
comforts she deserved.
    Sheldon had barely felt her warm breath upon
his cheek when a sharp pop rang through the air like a firecracker.
A millisecond later he experienced a dull pain in his back. There
was a piercing scream, which almost sounded as though it were
coming from a distant place. Then he realized that it had come from
the person beneath him.
    Sheldon Crawford had been shot before, back
in Vietnam. It was an experience you never forgot. He had been
caught in an ambush and took two bullets in the chest. Both had
missed his heart by scant inches. He had considered it divine
intervention, and promised himself that he would make something out
of the second life he had been given.
    That life had carried him to the judicial
bench, where he had presided over the scum who threatened to one
day become free to wreak havoc on the lives of other innocent
victims. Not if he could help it. He didn't believe violent
criminals could ever be rehabilitated. Not in his court. They
needed to be kept behind bars as long as possible to ensure public
safety. And be punished severely for their crimes.
    But even with the best of intentions in his
heart, Sheldon knew that these desires sometimes came into conflict
with powerful forces beyond his control.
    In the process of passing judgment over
others, Sheldon Crawford had come to believe he was somehow secure
from the very dangers he devoted his life to fighting.
    He was wrong.
    The second scream roared into his ear like a
siren gone out of control even as Sheldon felt another sharp pain
explode into his body. He kept a loaded .357 Magnum in the
nightstand, but had never had to use it before. And though now in
excruciating pain, he knew that it was the only chance he or Maxine
had to survive this night.
    But his assailant, seemingly toying with him,
allowed the judge to crawl halfway out of bed and lunge for the
nightstand, before firing another bullet at point blank range. This
one hit Sheldon Crawford in the face, killing him instantly.
    * * *
    Maxine Crawford, immobilized by fear, watched
incredulously as half her husband's head separated from his body in
something akin to a horror movie. Without time to even contemplate
the terror she had just witnessed or the fact that she was now
fully exposed for the shooter to see, Maxine could only think that
she was next to die. She was utterly powerless to do anything about
her seemingly unchangeable fate as a witness to an execution, but
pray like she never had before.
    Through a shaft of diminishing sunlight
filtering through the window, Maxine was afforded a surprisingly
clear look at the killer, lessened somewhat by the tearful haze of
her eyes.
    She took an instant to study the person that
stood at the foot of the bed like he was standing guard. He was a
Hispanic male in his early thirties, powerfully built, and short.
He had coarse black hair; dark, frightful eyes that never took
themselves off her nakedness, and a scowl that almost seemed to be
a wicked smile.
    Wearing gloves, he held the gun at his side
like in an old Western movie and