Ties That Bind Read Online Free PDF Page B

prepare and legal briefs to write, but he was too distracted to concentrate. By six, only a few stalwarts were still working. When all of the deputies and secretaries in the area had left, Kerrigan wandered over to Maria Lopez’s desk. The cleaning people were starting to move through the office, but Kerrigan was not concerned about them, and he had a story prepared if another deputy spotted him.
    The loose-leaf binders containing the Dupre case were neatly stacked on one corner of Maria’s desk. Kerrigan’s hand trembled when he opened the top binder. It contained the police reports in the case. He leafed through them until he found what he wanted. Then he wrote Ally Bennett’s address and phone number on a slip of paper and walked back to his office.
    His pulse was pounding when he closed his door. He sat down and stared at the white notepaper with his nervous scrawl. On his desk was a photograph of Cindy and Megan. Kerrigan squeezed his eyes shut. His blood roared in his ears.
    Kerrigan reached for his phone and dialed Ally’s number. The receiver felt hot in his hand. The phone rang twice. Kerrigan’s grip tightened. He started to hang up.
    “Hello?”
    It was a woman. Her voice was husky.
    “Hello?” she repeated.
    Kerrigan replaced the receiver on the cradle, closed his eyes, and leaned his head back. What was he thinking? His heartbeat was rapid enough to alarm him, so he took long, deep breaths. After a moment, he picked up the phone and dialed again. Cindy answered.
    “Hi, hon,” he said. “I caught a break. Tell Megan I’ll be home soon.”

five
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    “Can you take a look at something for me?” Frank Jaffe asked from the doorway of Amanda’s office. Amanda’s father, a solidly built man in his late fifties, had a ruddy complexion and gray-streaked, curly black hair. A nose broken in his youth made him look more like a stevedore than a lawyer.
    Amanda glanced at the clock. “I was wrapping up. I’ve got a date tonight.”
    “This won’t take long.” Frank walked over to her desk and handed her a thick file. “It’s that new case I picked up in Coos Bay, the murder. There was a search at Eldrige’s summer cabin and I want your opinion. I dictated a memo on the points I’m interested in. I’d do it myself, but I’m off to Roseburg for a hearing.”
    “Can’t this wait until the morning?”
    “I have to make some decisions in the case early tomorrow. Come on, help me here.”
    Amanda sighed. “You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.”
    Frank grinned. “Love you, too. I have to be in court at nine in the morning, so call my motel room around seven. The number is clipped to the file.”
    As soon as the door closed, Amanda opened the file. When she pulled out a stack of police reports, some crime-scene photographs fell onto her blotter. One showed a woman’s body sprawled on a beach where the tide had left her. Close-ups of her bloated and ravaged face documented the destruction the sea and its creatures had wreaked on her humanity.
    A horrible memory overwhelmed Amanda. Without warning, she was naked, her hands bound, running in the dark, prodded by the point of a sharp knife. She fought for air, her breath coming in short gasps, just as it had on that terrible night in the tunnel. For a moment she even thought that she smelled damp earth. Amanda jammed her fist into her mouth to keep from screaming. She flung herself out of her chair and huddled on the floor in a corner of her office, bringing her knees to her chest and squeezing her eyes shut. The blood had drained from her face. Her heart was racing.
    Amanda had a very clear memory of the first time she saw an autopsy photograph. She had graduated from New York University School of Law near the top of her class and had been offered a clerkship at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. One morning, Judge Buchwald had asked her to review the file in a death penalty case. From the briefs, Amanda learned that