By Reason of Insanity (David Brunelle Legal Thriller Series Book 3)

by Stephen Penner

  Brunelle grinned and took his own sip of his drink. “That was the best part. With no jury verdict, Fargas will actually have to prove up his own case. We didn’t get in his way, but we didn’t do his work for him either. And after everything that happened, there was no way anyone was going to fire me.”

  “Oh yeah?” Kat asked. “How come?”

  “Because I’m crazy, remember?” he laughed. “If they fire me now, it’s discrimination. I’ll hire Fargas and sue the shit out of the county.”

  “Very nice,” Kat raised her wine glass in a toast. Brunelle clinked it and they both drank. Then she looked around. “Are you starving, David?”

  Brunelle assessed his gut. “No, I guess not. Why?”

  Kat rubbed the back of her neck. “We’ve had a rash of bodies lately. I’m doing six autopsies a day easy. I’m pretty stressed.”

  Brunelle grinned. “You need some stress relief?”

  She batted her eyelashes at him. “Would you mind?”

  “Of course not.” He stood up and placed some money on the bar. “If I don’t take care of you, someone else will.”

  Second Epilogue

  It was two weeks later when Robyn tracked Brunelle down at his office. Almost quitting time again, but not quite. When the receptionist buzzed him to tell him that a Robyn Dunn had come by to see him, he dropped what he was doing like a hot potato and hurried to the lobby.

  “Robyn,” he said smoothly as he opened the door to the sitting area. “What a nice surprise. What brings you by?”

  He hoped it was something that might take a while. It wasn’t.

  “I finally found your phone,” she said, pulling the device from her small purse. She held it out to him. “Here.”

  “Oh.” Brunelle took it. “Great. Thanks.”

  Robyn smiled. “I added my number to your contacts.”

  That’s more like it, he thought. “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She grinned. “I wanted you to know who the text was from.”

  Brunelle cocked his head at her, not immediately understanding the comment.

  “Bye, Mr. B,” she said with a wave. “Hope to see you again soon.”

  Then she walked out of the lobby and toward the elevators.

  Brunelle watched after her, then looked down at the phone. He touched the screen to light it up. He had one new text. From ‘Rrrobyn D.’

  When he read it, his heart raced almost as fast as his mind.

  ‘I’ll never say no.’

  THE END

  The following is a preview of the next David Brunelle legal thriller:

  A PROSECUTOR FOR THE DEFENSE

  Seattle homicide D.A. David Brunelle has spent his entire career prosecuting criminals. But when his girlfriend, medical examiner Kat Anderson, asks him to go to California to defend her ex-husband on a murder charge, he just can’t say no to her. Brunelle has to fight not only his prosecutorial instincts, but also a smooth-talking D.A., an unhelpful detective, and—worst of all—a client who won’t give him a straight answer. As the evidence piles up and the case unfolds, Brunelle waits for the other shoe to drop, but this time the shoe is on the other foot.

  Chapter 1

  King County homicide prosecutor David Brunelle sat at his computer, trying to read the police reports to his latest homicide directly off the screen. His boss, Matt Duncan, had decided the office need to move toward ‘paperless’ prosecution. Lawyers without paper were like birds without wings, but Brunelle knew who his boss was, and more importantly, he respected him. So he agreed to do his part. He’d read the reports off the screen for as long as he could stand. But when trial time came, he was printing them out and putting them in damn binder.

  “David!”

  Brunelle was jarred by the sudden appearance of Kat Anderson in his doorway. She was the best assistant medical examiner in the county. She was also his girlfriend.

  “Kat.” He stood up and started around his desk for her. “What are you doing here?”

  She wasn’t one to drop in unannounced. He always got a call or a text before she stopped by his office. Hell, she did that before she stopped by his apartment for the night. So he thought something might be wrong. When he got up to her, he was sure of it.

  Her eyes were glistening at the corners. Kat Anderson didn’t cry. Not in front of him anyway. It was, selfishly he knew, one of the things he liked about her. No drama. But looking down at her just then, the tears welling in her eyes, his heart felt sick.

  “What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

  “I need your help, David,” she said. Her voice broke just a little. Not much though. She was a strong woman.

  “Help with what?”

  “Promise me,” she avoided the question. “Promise you’ll help me.”

  “With what?” he repeated.

  “Promise me,” she insisted.

  So he did. “Of course. Whatever it is, I promise.”

  She finally exhaled. She closed her eyes and wiped them, then nodded and looked up at Brunelle. “Thank you.”

  She stepped around him into his office. He trailed behind.

  “So what did I just promise to do?” he asked.

  She nodded and turned around. “It’s Jeremy.”

  Brunelle felt his expression harden. ‘Jeremy’ was Kat’s ex-husband. They didn’t say his name a lot. He was usually referred to as ‘Lizzy’s dad.’ He lived in California with his second wife. Or maybe it was his third. Brunelle knew he was a doctor too. And that was about all he wanted to know about him.

  But apparently, there was more.

  “What about him?” he asked.

  “He’s in trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?” Brunelle was getting tired of the vagaries. He’d just promised to help his girlfriend’s ex-husband somehow. He was already irritated by that. The guessing games weren’t helping. “Come on, tell me what’s going on.”

  Kat took a deep sigh, then sat down on the edge of Brunelle’s desk. “Jeremy’s been arrested.”

  “Arrested?” Brunelle tried to give a concerned expression, devoid of the jealous joy he got out of the information. “For what?”

  Kat shook her head. “Murder.”

  Okay, now that wasn’t funny. “Murder?” he repeated.

  “His wife was found murdered in their beach house,” Kat explained. “He got arrested yesterday.” She stood up and grabbed Brunelle’s suit coat. “But he’s innocent, David. He didn’t do it. He can be a complete asshole, but he’s not a killer.”

  Brunelle nodded. He understood Kat’s emotions, if only because he’d dealt with a lot of distraught family over the years. The victim’s family was often in denial about the loss of their loved one, but the killer’s family was usually in denial too—about what their family member was capable of. That Nile was a pretty big river.

  “Okay,” he said noncommittally. “You want me to call down to the California prosecutor and see what’s going on?”

  Kat gave a half-smile and shook her head. “No, David. I want you to be his lawyer.”

  Brunelle’s eyebrows shot up. “His lawyer? I can’t be his lawyer. I’m a prosecutor.”

  “Only in Washington,” Kat pointed out. “You’re not a prosecutor in California.”

  “I’m not even a lawyer in California,” Brunelle retorted. “I’m only licensed in Washington.”

  “But you can get a limited admission for a particular case, can’t you?” Kat asked. “I’ve seen that before. Sometimes we get lawyers from other states who get a ‘pro hack’ admission or something to deal with the legal issues around what to do with the body.”

  “It’s pro hac vice,” Brunelle
corrected. “And yes, I suppose that’s possible. I mean, I’d have to ask the California bar for special permission.”

  “They’ll give it to you.”

  “And get time off from Matt.”

  “He’ll do it.”

  “I don’t know their court system,” Brunelle continued to protest. “Their evidence rules are totally different.”

  “You’ll figure it out. You’ll learn it. You can do it, David. You know you can.”

  Brunelle sighed. “Kat, this is crazy. I can’t do this.”

  “It’s Lizzy’s dad,” she reminded him.

  He shook his head, “Kat…”

  She grabbed his chin and locked eyes with him. “You promised.”

  He stared into her eyes. She was smart to have come to his office. He couldn’t look her in the eye and say no.

  “Okay,” he relented. “I’ll do it.”

  End of Chapter 1

  …to read more, get your copy of A Prosecutor for the Defense today!

  Other David Brunelle Legal Thrillers

  NOVELS

  Presumption of Innocence

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #1)

  Homicide prosecutor David Brunelle faces the most difficult case of his career. An innocent young girl is murdered in a heinous, unforgivable way. The only evidence against the killer is the full confession of his accomplice—another young girl he also victimized. But the accomplice is charged with the murder as well, which means she has the right to remain silent. And she’s so scared of the killer, she refuses to take a deal to testify against him. Brunelle can’t just let the murderer walk, but how can he get a conviction when he has no admissible evidence and the killer is protected by the Presumption of Innocence?

  Tribal Court

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #2)

  A man is murdered in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. The killer is caught just blocks away, blood still on his hands. When it’s discovered that both killer and victim belong to the same Native American tribe, the tribe asserts jurisdiction and homicide D.A. Dave Brunelle has to prosecute the case in their Tribal Court. It’s bad enough when the defense attorney claims the killing was justified under the ancient custom of ‘blood revenge.’ It gets worse when blood revenge turns into a blood feud. The bodies start piling up and it looks like Brunelle may be next. Can he stay alive long enough to win the case?

  A Prosecutor for the Defense

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #4)

  Seattle homicide D.A. David Brunelle has spent his entire career prosecuting criminals. But when his girlfriend, medical examiner Kat Anderson, asks him to go to California to defend her ex-husband on a murder charge, he just can’t say no to her. Brunelle has to fight not only his prosecutorial instincts, but also a smooth-talking D.A., an unhelpful detective, and—worst of all—a client who won’t give him a straight answer. As the evidence piles up and the case unfolds, Brunelle waits for the other shoe to drop, but this time the shoe is on the other foot.

  Substantial Risk

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #5)

  A sex club. A dead “submissive.” A “dominant” in custody.

  Homicide D.A. Dave Brunelle barely understands the terms. How can he ever hope to understand the bondage subculture well enough to hold a killer responsible for the apparently accidental death of his own girlfriend? Brunelle embarks on a voyage of discovery, both of himself and of things he never even knew existed. In so doing, however, he risks losing not only his case, but everything—and everyone—dear to him.

  SHORT STORIES

  (available exclusively for Amazon Kindle)

  Case Theory

  District attorney David Brunelle has a problem: a woman and her child have been murdered, a killer is in custody, but something doesn’t add up. Namely, the bullets. Either the cops botched the crime scene, or there’s more going on than Brunelle knows. He’ll need to figure it out quick, before the defense attorney walks a murderer out the door.

  Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

  A woman is brutally murdered, and it’s district attorney David Brunelle’s job to put the killer away. The defendant fled barefoot, abandoning her shoes in the pool of blood under the victim. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but Brunelle should know better. If he doesn’t figure out the truth—and fast—it’s his blood that might be spilled next.

  About the Author

  Stephen Penner is an attorney, author, and artist from Seattle. He writes a variety of fiction, including thrillers, mysteries, and children’s books.

  His other works include the Maggie Devereaux paranormal mystery series, starting with Scottish Rite. He also wrote and illustrated the children’s books Katie Carpenter, Fourth Grade Genius and Professor Barrister’s Dinosaur Mysteries.

  For more information, please visit www.stephenpenner.com.

  www.ringoffirebooks.com