Before I Sleep
Chapter One
522 Days
"You just don't get it," Sam from Clearwater said.
Carissa Stover smothered a sigh and leaned back a little from the
microphone. Outside, the night was dark, and on the windowpane
beside her she could see the silvery shimmer of rain. She was
getting very tired of this particular discussion on her show.
"No," she said to the caller, "you don't get it. You can't buy an
acquittal in the criminal-justice system. No way."
The caller wasn't going to surrender that easily. "But a
ten-million-dollar defense-"
"A ten-million-dollar defense comes close to buying a level playing
field," she said forcefully. "So what if the defendant had five
lawyers and six investigators working for him. The state had the
entire city police force, the state police, the state crime lab, a
whole staff of state-paid prosecutors-and a lot more than ten
million dollars to spend on the prosecution. In fact, the state
outspent the defense in this case by two to one."
"But-"
"No," Carissa said flatly. "Jonas Bellows did not buy an acquittal.
He bought a level playing field." She punched the button tha ... read full excerpt from: Before I Sleep ebook
