STATE'S EVIDENCE
A Beverly Mendoza Legal Thriller
By R. Barri Flowers
Copyright 2006 by R. Barri Flowers at Smashwords. All rights reserved.
Cover Image Copyright 2010 by Junial Enterprises
Used under license from http://www.shutterstock.com
State's Evidence is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, business establishments, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ALSO BY R. BARRI FLOWERS
NOVELS
Justice Served (A Barkley & Parker Thriller)
Killer in The Woods (A Psychological Thriller)
Persuasive Evidence (A Jordan La Fontaine Legal Thriller)
Dead in the Rose City (A Dean Drake Mystery)
Murder in Maui (A Leila Kahana Mystery)
Dark Streets of Whitechapel (A Jack the Ripper Mystery)
Ghost Girl in Shadow Bay (A Young Adult Haunted House Mystery)
Danger in Time (A Young Adult Time Travel Mystery)
Christmas Wishes: Laura's Story (A Teen Fantasy Novel)
TRUE CRIME
The Sex Slave Murders
SHORT STORIES
Gone But Never Forgotten
The Jury Has Spoken
Vandals
RAVE REVIEWS OF STATE’S EVIDENCE
“Flowers once again has written a page-turner legal thriller that begins with a bang and rapidly moves along to its final page. He has filled the novel with believable characters and situations.” — Midwest Book Review
“This legal thriller will have you on the edge of your seats. The courtroom scenes are unforgettable and very believable.... The author gets into the mind of the criminals and you’ll feel privileged to information that the other characters don’t know. State’s Evidence is a must have for any fan of suspense books.” — Shades of Romance Magazine
“R. Barri Flowers’s book STATE’S EVIDENCE is a well-written thriller with an opening scene that would cause anyone to keep turning the pages. STATE’S EVIDENCE will make the top sellers list because it’s fast-paced, intriguing, satisfying, and I highly recommend it to you.” — Romance Reader At Heart
“STATE’S EVIDENCE, the new legal thriller by R. Barri Flowers, is a mixture of murder, mystery, madness and mayhem. The story was well-written and believable, and at times erotic. Flowers inflicted the characters with human flaws, among them the desire for love and revenge.” — RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
“Just when you think you have figured the plot out, R. Barri Flowers throws another curve. One of my suppositions did prove out but was clouded by the red herrings being thrown around... It was well worth the time taken to read it.” — Roundtable Reviews
“STATE’S EVIDENCE has a varied, multicultural cast of interesting characters, both good and evil.... Plot is clever and intriguing with unusual twists, with the suspense escalating rapidly.” — Romance Reviews Today
“An intriguing story of murder, madness and mayhem, with a slight blend of mystery. Flowers depicts believable characters in this suspenseful legal thriller.” — Romantic Times
“R. Barri Flowers has written an electrifying and enthralling legal thriller that will appeal to readers of Nancy Taylor Rosenberg and Barbara Parker. The courtroom scenes are very realistic and the heroine is someone readers will empathize with and admire as a role model for minorities and women. STATE’S EVIDENCE would make a great action packed movie.” — Harriet Klausner
In loving memory of my Dad—Johnnie Henry Flowers, Sr.—who taught me how to become a man and put forth my best efforts in life.
And to Michigan State University’s School of Criminal Justice, where the seeds for becoming a writer of legal and thriller fiction were planted.
* * *
PROLOGUE
She was a real piece of ass...
He could feel his arousal through tight jeans. He had been watching her, following her, getting to know her every move till it was time to do what had to be done.
He could have taken her any time he wanted, crushing her pretty skull between his strong, calloused hands, as easily as one might flatten a piece of dough. But it was more fun and stimulating to bide his time like a shark might before going after a helpless fish. Or even a human. He knew exactly where she was every minute of the day.
And night.
Why rush a good thing?
He considered killing a person a work of art. Like the Mona Lisa. It required skill, finesse, courage, determination, and a vision.
He had been born with these talents thirty-two years ago in East L.A.’s Latino community. Surviving the mean streets there had required every bit of his artistic skills, and then some. With his mama a whore and his daddy a wife-abusing heroin addict, he had literally been left to fend for himself as early as he could remember.
Joining a gang had allowed him to sharpen his skills. He imagined he had taken out or seriously injured maybe a dozen or more rival gang members by the time he was fifteen. He considered it all in a day’s work. It was either them or him. Which was a real no-brainer.
But he knew he was going nowhere fast in L.A.’s war zone. Between the rival Latino gangs and the black gang bangers fighting for territory, respect, or just for the hell of it, he saw no future there. Sooner or later he figured a bullet or blade would have his name written on it in blood—unless he quit while he was ahead.
Which was precisely why he had given up the hood and gang life and fled the city before he turned eighteen. He ended up in Northern California in a town called Eagles Landing. By comparison to the urban jungle he’d left behind, it was fairly laid back and boring as hell.
Still, he didn’t miss his homeboys one bit. No damned way!
He’d hooked up with distant relatives and was cool with a few dudes in Eagles Landing.
But even that was fleeting. It didn’t take long for him to realize he operated much better on his own, apart from keeping a roof over his head in living with a broad. This way he got to keep all the profits and pleasures from doing what he did best—killing people.
It was a rush like no other. Even better than getting off inside a bitch. Or the almost orgasmic feel of cocaine going into his veins. He killed for hire or just plain old desire. It made no difference to him. What counted most was that once he had targeted someone for death, it was just a matter of when, where, how, and sometimes how much.
He contemplated those very things as he studied the nice looking broad through the window of her fancy home. She was maybe thirty, slim, with a big ass and even bigger breasts. Her yellow hair was permed with fluffy curls and she had full red lips. He imagined kissing that mouth, then sticking his tongue inside. Or better yet, having that mouth go down on him and do its thing.
Before he gave her a taste of death.
She was sitting at the dining room table with her husband. He was a few years older than her, dark haired, and seemingly uncomfortable in her presence, as though he didn’t belong.
He looked away from the man back to his wife, watching a while longer, as he devi
sed his strategy for her demise. A rush of adrenalin poured through him at the prospect, knowing the time was getting near to put the plan into action.
But first he wanted to allow her a bit more false sense of security. It was always that much more exhilarating when his victim realized that the perfect little world she or he had created was about to come crashing down around them and there wasn’t a damned thing that could be done to prevent it.
Except maybe hope you got run over by a bus first. Or dropped dead of a heart attack, sparing yourself from meeting up with him.
Short of that, the person was his for the taking. And he fully intended to do just that.
Only a matter of time.
Yes, let her feel secure in her comfortable house. With that husband of hers there to protect her. Wouldn’t do her one bit of good.
She would never live to see the light of day.
CHAPTER ONE
The jury foreman looked tense as she responded to the judge’s terse question, “Have you reached a verdict?”
The juror, an attractive Jordanian professor and mother of five, risked a furtive peek at the other jurors, as if for final confirmation. Then she raised her big brown eyes to the bench. “Yes, we have, Your Honor—”
Judge Sheldon Crawford was in his mid-fifties, but looked younger with a cappuccino-toned face that was without wrinkles save for a barely perceptible crease stretching across his forehead. He had short salt and pepper hair, and deep gray eyes that rarely seemed to blink. Focusing them on the juror, he instructed her to hand the verdict to the bailiff.
Judge Crawford had a reputation as a tough judge, routinely doling out the stiffest penalties the law would allow. Needless to say, prosecutors and their constituents loved him and the justice rendered. Whereas, defense attorneys and their clients feared coming before the judge, often doing all they could to avoid his court, including plea bargaining at virtually every opportunity.
Beverly Mendoza, co-counsel for the State, fidgeted in her seat. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Her intense green eyes studied the faces of the jurors, trying to get a hint as to what direction they had taken. Admittedly she hadn’t a clue and was too smart to make any presumptions.
The case involved a woman accused of murdering her lover by pushing him off a 320-foot cliff. Her defense was that they were just fooling around—love play, she had called it—when he accidentally fell to his death. The fact that she didn’t report him missing for two weeks seemed incidental. As did his million dollar life insurance policy, which had only recently named her as the beneficiary.
Beverly gazed at the thirty-year-old defendant who sat there cool, calm, collected, and incredibly confident.
Does she know something I don’t?
Could this jury have possibly let her off the hook?
Meaning the prosecution would have failed to prove its case. And I’d have a loss on my record that would be hard to swallow and harder to justify.
She snapped her head back, causing her long, straight brunette hair to bounce against the gray jacket of her Anne Klein linen suit. Her eyes landed on her co-counsel, Deputy District Attorney Grant Nunez. His Afro-Latino profile was classic with chiseled, caramel colored features and a round head that was shaven bald. He wore a tailored dark brown suit that fit well on his muscular, tall frame. Grant was forty—eight years older than her—and in line for a judgeship by all indications. Losing this case would not help his chances.
Nor would it bode well for Beverly’s career. Sensationalized cases would always be remembered for the winners and losers, no matter how many other battles were fought and won, especially when lawyers were always looking ahead in their careers. She had aspirations of being a district attorney someday. Or maybe even a judge.
Right now, assistant district attorney for Wilameta County would have to suffice.
Sensing her stare, Grant swiveled his head, slanting his cool sable eyes at her. If he was worried, he didn’t show it. Instead, he gave Beverly a devilish smile that she knew was less about the proceedings than it was about them. They had been dating for four months now, though it had only become sexual in the last four weeks. Both had survived bad previous relationships and, once they had overcome their fears of failure and the unknown, had succumbed to mutual desires that left Beverly shamelessly wanting him every chance she got.
But getting her twelve-year-old son to approve of Grant had proven to be a far more formidable task. Jaime was very protective of her and did not want to see his mother get hurt—again. To him, Grant was someone who threatened the life Jaime had known for most of his young life, where it had pretty much been just the two of them.
Perhaps even more difficult for Beverly to deal with was losing her mother five years ago to breast cancer and now watching her father wasting away with Alzheimer’s disease. It left him but a shell of his former and proud self as a Latino who was used to being a macho man in command of his life and times. Sometimes she wished it would be over with for him so her father wouldn’t suffer anymore; other times Beverly wanted him to hang on for as long as he possibly could. After all, having part of a father and grandfather to her son was preferable to none at all.
Wasn’t it?
Beverly’s mind shifted back to the attention Grant was giving her, as if they were the only ones in the courtroom. She willed herself to avert his lascivious gaze that had managed to cause her temperature to rise, and focus on the important matter at hand. Judge Crawford read the verdict to himself. He passed the slip back to the bailiff, giving no indication by his dignified facial expression as to what it said.
Beverly felt butterflies in her stomach as she usually did whenever a case was about to be decided. It represented weeks or months of hard work and in an instant would culminate for all parties concerned. Later there would be the penalty phase. And then, in all likelihood, appeals, and more decisions to come.
But for the moment it didn’t get any more exciting and tension filled than this.
Once the bailiff had returned the verdict to the jury foreman, the judge faced the defense table and stated levelly, “Will the defendant please rise—”
She obeyed him, springing to her feet and running thin fingers through short crimson hair before taking a breath and awaiting the judge’s words that would change her life for the better or worse. Standing alongside her was her attorney, Cassandra Fielding, a forty-something, ex-prosecutor, who had put up a strong, sympathetic defense. No doubt she had an eye on a hefty percentage of the insurance payments, mused Beverly. Provided they ever came.
Judge Crawford nodded at the jury foreman. “You may read the verdict.”
The woman put on her glasses, almost for effect, took a deep sigh, and looked down at her trembling hands. “We, the jury, find the defendant, Suzanne Landon, to be guilty of murder in the first degree—”
The courtroom erupted in cheers from the family of the victim. Beverly let out a sigh of relief and saw victory spread across Grant’s face in a big grin. The two hugged as co-counsel might be expected, formally and professionally. There would be time later for a much more private celebration.
The newly convicted murderess was led away in handcuffs, tears of disbelief or disappointment flowing down her reddened cheeks. Before leaving the courtroom, she shot Beverly a contemptuous gaze, which the prosecutor dismissed for all it was worth.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but hateful glares won’t hurt me.
Justice was not always blind. Not today anyway.
* * *
“We did it!” Grant Nunez declared magnanimously. He had Beverly cornered in his office, right between two file cabinets. The door was locked and might just as well have had a DO NOT DISTURB sign on it. He certainly had no intentions of being interrupted till they were done.
At six-three, he hovered over Beverly by almost seven inches. But that didn’t detract from the presence she had as a woman. With her Selma Hayek looks and a hot, taut body all her own, it was all Grant could do n
ot to want to be with Beverly 24/7.
He’d settle for twenty-four minutes and seven ways to make love to this woman who turned him on like no other with both her mind and sexuality, inside and out of the courtroom.
“Never thought for a minute we wouldn’t,” Beverly declared between kisses.
“You’re not a very good liar.” Grant put his hands on her firm breasts through her silk blouse, causing Beverly’s nipples to tingle.
“So sue me,” she murmured, “but only after you make me come.”
“Whatever you say, Counselor.” He put his tongue in her mouth. “Never let it be said that I don’t believe in the spirit of cooperation.”
“Maybe that’s why we make such a great team.”
“Maybe.”
Beverly tasted spearmint from his tongue, and gave him hers to play with. She put a hand to his pants, feeling the hardness of Grant’s erection begging to be released. She was only too happy to oblige, unzipping him, even as his hand went under her skirt and began to caress between her legs. She pulled him out and held firmly as if her own, stimulating the shaft.
“Umm...” She heard the sound utter between their mouths, unsure who it had come from.
Her back stiffened when Grant slipped fingers inside her panties and then into her. She spread her legs while leaning against a file cabinet, urging him on and giving back as much in touching his penis. Beverly bit her lip as he began to stimulate her, causing her to nearly scream with pleasure.
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