Innocence
Chapter One
Monday, December 10, 2007
MARK DOBSON SAT on the hard wooden bench in the back of the small
courtroom on the twelfth floor of the Suffolk County Courthouse. His
bow tie was tight around his thin thirty-year-old neck, and his wool
double-stitched Oxxford suit was buttoned against the cold of the
outdated building. The courthouse was never comfortable in winter.
The heat was either off, allowing icicles to form on the insides of
the windows, or blasting, leaving those who'd dressed for December
in Boston sweating. On balance, he'd take the cold, he decided.
Sitting several feet away from him in the gallery was an old,
disheveled refugee from the streets. An oily newspaper from the day
before was spread out next to him as he shifted his attention
between the previous day's headlines and the proceedings at the
front of the courtroom.
"Haven't seen you here before," the old man whispered to Dobson
during a break.
"I don't get to court very often," Dobson replied. He was trying to
be polite, but as the old man leaned in toward him, a foul odor
attacked Dobson's nostri ... read full excerpt from: Innocence ebook
