Capitol Offense
Page 30
“You do?”
“Of course. He’s such a nice man. So spiritual.”
“He told me that after his wife died he was consumed with fury.”
“But he wasn’t a criminal. Shaw was a criminal.”
“But not a murderer. As far as we know. And it was really his boss who wanted Sentz dead, not him.”
Another silence fell upon them. This one lasted even longer.
“I still don’t think it was Dennis.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” She inhaled deeply. “In fact, I’m certain of it.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. Certain.”
Ben nodded. “Good. So am I.”
“My instincts are good.”
“They are.”
“So there. That settles that.”
“That settles it.”
“We did the right thing, Ben. We did.”
“Agreed.”
“I mean it.”
“Sure.”
“Really.”
“Absolutely.”
And they stood in silence for the longest time, arms entwined, staring at the stars.
a cognizant original v5 release october 07 2010
Acknowledgments
As usual, I am indebted to many people for their assistance. First, I want to thank the home team at Ballantine: Gina Centrello, who proves that successful publishers can also be nice people; my editor, Junessa Viloria, who made numerous helpful comments about the manuscript; Cindy Murray and David Moench, who master the murky waters of publicity; Kim Hovey, my longtime friend and an extraordinary talent; and all those in promotions and sales, without whom you would not now be reading this book.
I want to thank Dave Johnson for his help and advice regarding police procedure, specifically with regard to missing persons cases. The Joslyn Thomas horror is based on several true cases, the worst of which differs from this fictional case only in that even more time elapsed before the police finally decided to take action. I want to thank my father, Dr. William Bernhardt, for his help with medical and hospital issues. I want to thank Debbie Newton and James Vance for reading and commenting on an early draft of the manuscript. And I want to thank my children, Harry, Alice, and Ralph, for making my life so rich and interesting, and my dear wife, Marcia, for making every day a joy beyond measure.
Sadly, all the facts and statistics cited herein are accurate as of the time of this writing. The United States does have a higher incarceration rate than any civilized nation and we have more women behind bars than any other nation on earth. We treat all crimes the same: victimless crimes, white-collar crimes, crimes arising from dependency problems (believed by some to be as high as 70 percent of the total), and crimes motivated by need or hunger are in most cases all punished in the same manner, essentially the same way crimes were punished five hundred years ago. The cost to the taxpayer of maintaining this huge, antiquated system is enormous. Meanwhile, DNA evidence proves over and over again how often our criminal justice system gets it wrong. Instead of another “law-and-order” candidate suggesting that stiffer sentences will solve everything, perhaps what we need is someone who will seriously consider alternative approaches to redressing society’s mistakes.
Readers are always welcome to email me at wb@williambernhardt.com or to visit my website: www.williambernhardt.com.
—William Bernhardt
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM BERNHARDT is the author of more than twenty novels, including Primary Justice, Murder One, Criminal Intent, Death Row, Capitol Murder, Capitol Threat, Capitol Conspiracy, and Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness. He is one of fewer than a dozen recipients of the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award, given “in recognition of an outstanding body of work in which we understand ourselves and American society at large.” He is also one of the most in-demand writing instructors, teaching at various conferences throughout the year. A former trial attorney, Bernhardt has received several awards for his public service. He lives in Tulsa with his wife, Marcia, and their children.
Capitol Offense is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by William Bernhardt
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51815-6
www.ballantinebooks.com
v3.0