Devil in the Dock (A Robin Starling Courtroom Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

business is taking off.” Brooke was an IT specialist who had gone into business shortly before I got fired from my job with a midsize law firm and hung out my shingle. I couldn’t help but be envious of her success sometimes.
    She nodded. “At some point I’m going to have to hire help.”
    “And then you’ll need more space, and I’ll lose you. I kind of have already. I hardly see you since your engagement.”
    She made a face.
    “What? Is that not going well?”
    “It’s going great in the sense that Mike’s a wonderful guy and he’s crazy about me.”
    “That seems like an important sense.” She didn’t say anything. I asked, “Are you not so crazy about him? Is the chemistry fading?”
    “No, the chemistry’s there.”
    “What then?”
    She sighed. “Why did he have to rush it? Engagement is just so . . . final.”
    “No, marriage is final. Engagement is a much more tentative arrangement.”
    “Tentative. ‘Will you marry me?’ ‘Yes. Yes, I will.’ That’s a commitment. I’m committed.”
    “And I guess he’s committed,” I said.
    “What? Of course he’s committed.”
    “He asked you for a commitment, and you gave it. Where’s his commitment? Did he promise to marry you?”
    “He . . .” She trailed off.
    “He asked you a question. You answered it. Did he go on to say, ‘And I promise to marry you’?”
    “I think he just kissed me.”
    I nodded sagely. “Isn’t that the way of it? You make a promise, and the man kisses you in return.”
    “He did give me a ring.”
    We looked at it. The diamond had a squarish sort of cut and looked to be well over a carat. “He did give you a ring,” I said. “And an expensive one.” When I was in law school, I’d read something about the custom of giving engagement rings. “If he backs out of the wedding, you keep the ring as liquidated damages, you know.”
    “What kind of damages?”
    “When you’re engaged to someone, you’re likely to engage in certain improprieties, which lessens your value on the marriage market.”
    Her face flushed. She was a pale-skinned redhead, and it didn’t take a lot to turn her cheeks pink. “Meaning I’m damaged goods.”
    “No need to take it personally. A hundred years ago, if a man broke off an engagement, the woman could sue him for breach of promise and collect damages for the costs she had incurred in preparing for the wedding, emotional distress, and, possibly, her diminished marriage prospects, especially if—”
    “If certain improprieties had occurred.”
    “Exactly. Anyway, the courts stopped allowing the lawsuits for breach of promise, and the custom of the engagement ring took its place. It provides financial security for the woman in case the man breaks it off.”
    “So Mike gave me this ring because he was about to sully me, and he wanted to be able to walk away without further consequences.”
    “It’s a beautiful ring. Don’t let me ruin it for you.”
    “Too late.” She got up and left the office without looking back.
    I hadn’t meant to ruin it for her. Really. I’d just thought that the origins of the engagement ring made for an interesting story.
    “I didn’t mean to ruin anything for anybody,” I said aloud, but there was no one to hear or offer absolution.

Chapter 4
    Bob Shorter’s house didn’t look like the house of a man who could afford to write checks for $30,000. The living room had a worn area rug that was curling up at one corner. The rest of the house consisted of a small kitchen, three bedrooms, and a bathroom, all on one floor. In the master bedroom was a full-size bed and a particleboard dresser with a laminate top that was broken off at the corners.
    His bedroom closet had sliding doors, both of them pushed to one side to reveal shirts and pants all mixed together on the clothes rod. I pushed the doors to the other side and found more of the same. Squatting in the closet doorway, I pushed at the hanging clothes to see the floor all the way