Conviction
Page 26
Over the years, he sent his letter and the photocopies of his case file to hundreds of lawyers, hoping somebody would take his case. In 2012, he watched a program on TV about a group of journalism students in Chicago who got people exonerated. So he started sending letters to reporters.
The lady from the Trib was the first person who wrote back, and just a few months later the whole world looked different. He had a lawyer with a Manhattan office, and what everybody in the kitchen thought was a damn good chance of eventually getting out. As soon as the shit went down in Crown Heights, he started getting letters himself. LaToya wrote, and Dorothy Norris, and Pastor Green. There were apologies, and explanations, and promises. He wasn’t sure what to do with it all. Ontario was the only one who actually came to see him. The nine-year-old DeShawn remembered was now six inches taller and a hundred pounds bigger than his older foster brother, but he cried like a baby in the visiting room. Poor kid didn’t know what to think. He blamed himself, sure he must have pointed the finger in some way. DeShawn let him get it out, and when he composed himself they started talking food. Ontario said that he might be able to get him a job at a restaurant. Once that was in the air, DeShawn couldn’t help but hope. He’d never really been able to see himself outside again. Where would he fit? In a kitchen, of course.
As he followed the CO up to the phones, DeShawn reminded himself that even if the judge said no now, it wasn’t the end. This was only their first try, his attorney had assured him. There were always other motions and other strategies. With all the new evidence, it was just a matter of time.
He picked up the receiver in the counselor’s office. It was his attorney, Harry Blum.
“DeShawn, you ready for some good news?”
“Sure.”
“The judge reversed your conviction. And I just got off the phone with Sandra Michaels. Her office isn’t going to re-try your case. They sent a messenger to Albany with the judge’s order this morning. The paperwork should be at the prison tomorrow. You can spend Thanksgiving with your family.”
* * *
Ontario, Tammy, and the two girls were waiting in the parking lot. DeShawn felt all kinds of terrible making them battle holiday weekend traffic, and even worse that the situation all but forced them to invite him to Thanksgiving dinner. He started to apologize but Tammy shook her head.
“It’s like I told Ontario and the girls. Either you’re family or you’re not. If you’re family, you’re family. And Ontario says you’re family.”
Tammy insisted DeShawn ride up front. She squeezed herself between the carseats in the back of the Maxima, and all three females quickly fell asleep.
They merged onto the Palisades south. It was a clear day, and many of the trees still held their leaves.
“You got a beautiful family,” said DeShawn.
“We try,” said Ontario. And then a moment later: “I do. I know.”
From the George Washington Bridge, DeShawn caught his first glimpse of the city. The city he’d never left until he left in shackles. The towers downtown were gone, he knew that. But what else was no longer there? And what had replaced it? Cars sped by and DeShawn rolled his shoulders back, straightening his posture to face his new life. He wasn’t yet forty. He had living to do.
“Kenya’s birthday is tomorrow,” said Ontario as they crept onto the Brooklyn Bridge from the FDR. “It always gets lost in Thanksgiving. I’m counting on you to surprise her with a cake.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my agent, Stephanie Kip Rostan. Your belief in my abilities and ideas has allowed me to live this dream of being a novelist. Thank you to Gillian Flynn for introducing us, and thank you to the entire team at Levine Greenberg Rostan for your hard work and cheerful attitudes.
Thank you to my editor, Kelley Ragland, for being patient while I learned to be a mom this past year. Thank you to Andy Martin, Elizabeth Lacks, Sarah Melnyk, and the entire Minotaur gang for your constant support and encouragement.
Thank you to my friends and colleagues at CBS News: Erin Donaghue, Graham Kates, Michael Roppolo, Susan Zirinsky, Nancy Lane, Dan Carty, and Paula Cohen.
Thank you to Mordechai Lightstone, Shabaka Shakur, Maurice Possley, Eugene O’Donnell, Michelle Harris, and Shulem Deen for sharing your insight and expertise.
Thank you to all the amazing people with the Jewish Book Council, Jewish Federations, and Hadassah for hosting me in your communities and providing the opportunity to meet with and learn from readers across the country.
Thank you to my Fresno, California, public school teachers: Gordon Funk and Bill Greene at Manchester Elementary; Marty Mazzoni at Edison-Computech Junior High; and especially Robert Jarnagin at Bullard High School who taught me, in the words of Harold Bloom, “how to read, and why.”
Thank you, as always, to my family: my father, Bill Dahl, for inspiring me to get interested in the law, but to avoid becoming a lawyer; my mother, Barbara Dahl, for telling me to “bring a book” wherever I go; my sister, Susan Sharer, for being my tireless publicist; my sister-in-law, Lori Bukiewicz, for taking such good care of me and my son while I finished this book; and my husband, Joel Bukiewicz, for everything, but especially for making me laugh every single day. This book is dedicated to my son, Mick, the sweetest soul I know.
Also by Julia Dahl
Run You Down
Invisible City
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JULIA DAHL is a journalist specializing in crime and criminal justice. Her first novel, Invisible City, was named one of The Boston Globe’s Best Books of 2014 and was a finalist for an Edgar Award and a Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Part 1
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Part 2
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Part 3
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Acknowledgments
Also by Julia Dahl
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
CONVICTION. Copyright © 2017 by Julia Dahl. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.mi
notaurbooks.com
Cover photographs: woman and bridge © Clement Chouks / Arcangel Images; bridge cables © Christopher Penler / Shutterstock.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dahl, Julia, 1977– author.
Title: Conviction: a novel / Julia Dahl.
Description: First edition. | New York: Minotaur Books, 2017. | Series: Rebekah Roberts novels; 3
Identifiers: LCCN 2016047069 | ISBN 9781250083692 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250083715 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Jewish women—Fiction. | Women journalists—Fiction. | Families—Crimes against—Fiction. | Cold cases (Criminal investigation)—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General. | FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. | GSAFD: Suspense fiction. | Mystery fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3604.A339 C66 2017 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016047069
e-ISBN 9781250083715
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First Edition: March 2017