Salem Falls Read online

  "I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm telling you, quite clearly, to take off your goddamned clothes."

  Jack glanced down at his Hanes T-shirt, his striped boxers, and a pair of sweatpants he'd bought with Addie at Kmart. He had no great attachment to this wardrobe beyond the fact that he had been wearing it the moment before Charlie Saxton arrested him.

  Jack set his jaw. "The only way you're going to get those things on me is to do it yourself."

  For a second, the guard seemed to consider this. He was larger than Jack by half a head. But something in Jack's eyes--some bright angry nugget of resolve--made him take a step back. "Shit," he muttered, handcuffing Jack to the desk. "Why does this happen on my shift?"

  He walked out, leaving Jack alone to wonder what avalanche he'd set in motion.

  Roy's eyes were so bloodshot that he was literally seeing red. He watched with astonishment as the orange juice poured crimson into his glass, then frowned at the label and squinted. It said Tropicana. He sniffed at the insides--and realized it was tomato juice, which he'd poured into the empty juice carton last week when the glass container of V8 didn't fit in his fridge. Relieved, he took a sip, then cracked a raw egg inside and added a dollop of whiskey.

  Best hangover remedy he'd ever found, and he should know.

  Behind him the door opened. Roy tried to turn fast, and nearly heaved up his insides. Addie was on the rampage, not that he would have expected any less. "I know, I know," Roy began. "It's completely irresponsible of me to ... Addie?" Now that she was closer, he could see tears on her face. "Honey? What's the matter?"

  "It's Jack. Charlie Saxton arrested him."

  "What?"

  "He said ... oh, Daddy. Charlie said Jack raped Gillian Duncan last night."

  Roy sank onto a chair. "Gillian Duncan," he murmured. "Holy mother of God." There was something tickling the back of his mind, but he couldn't seem to quite reach it. Then it came to him, and he looked up. "Addie, Jack was with me last night."

  Hope broke over her face. "He was?"

  "You're not gonna want to hear it, but we were at the Rooster. Drinking." Roy grimaced. "Still, I guess it's a sight better to be pegged a drunk than a rapist."

  "Jack was with you last night? All last night? And you can tell the police this?"

  "He showed up about ten. I can vouch for him until about eleven-thirty, I guess."

  "What happened then?"

  Roy ducked his head. "I, uh, passed out. Marlon--he's the bartender--he let me sleep it off in the back room. I guess Jack left when the bar closed."

  "Which is when?"

  "Midnight."

  Addie sat down beside him on the couch, thinking. "I didn't see him until one-thirty in the morning. Where was he?"

  Roy turned away so that he would not have to see the ache in his daughter's eyes. "Maybe they made a mistake," he said uncomfortably, when he was really thinking, Maybe we all did.

  You had to pay your dues in jail. If you wanted a candy bar, it meant behaving well enough to be granted the commissary form. If you wanted the freedom of medium security, where you could wander through the common room during any hours except lockdown, you had to prove that you could conduct yourself well in maximum security. If you wanted to run in the courtyard, you had to earn the privilege. Everything was a step, a reckoning, an inch given in the hopes of receiving one in return.

  Conversely, if you made trouble, you were punished.

  And so Jack, who had been in the custody of the Carroll County Jail for less than an hour, found himself being escorted between two correctional officers to the office of the superintendent for a disciplinary review.

  He was a big man with no neck, a silver buzz cut, and glasses from the 1950s. In fact, Jack realized, it was entirely possible the superintendent had been sitting here, pushing papers, for half a century. "Mr. St. Bride," the superintendent said, in a voice so feathery Jack had to strain to hear, "you've been charged with failing to follow the instructions of a correctional officer. Not an auspicious beginning."

  Jack looked at a spot over the man's shoulder. There was a calendar hanging behind the desk, the kind you get free from the bank. It was turned to March 1998, as if time had stopped. "From your past history, Mr. St. Bride, I'm sure you're aware that transgressions that occur in a correctional facility ... even minor ones ... can have a significant effect on the sentence you receive if convicted. For example--this little tantrum of yours could add three to seven years to the time you'll have to serve." The superintendent folded his arms. "Do you have anything to say in your own defense?"

  "I'm not guilty of any crime. I don't want to look like someone who is."

  The superintendent's mouth flattened. "Son," he said quietly, "you don't want to do this, believe me. This freedom-fighter angle doesn't play well here. If you just keep your nose to the wheel and follow the rules, your stay will be a lot more pleasant."

  Jack stared straight ahead.

  The older man sighed. "Mr. St. Bride, I find that you're guilty of violating the rules of this facility by refusing to wear the required clothing, and you're sentenced to spend three days in solitary." He nodded to the two correctional officers. "Take him away."

  *

  The worst part about being a prosecutor, in Matt Houlihan's opinion, was that even when you won, you didn't. The world was too black and white for that. Even if he got Jack St. Bride locked up for twenty years, it didn't take away the fact that this asshole, who'd been convicted before, had committed a crime again. It didn't change the truth that Gillian Duncan would have to live with this memory for the rest of her life. It was like securing the bull after he'd careened through the china shop--yes, you could pen him for a little while, but you still incurred the cost of the mess he'd left in his wake.

  Matt had chosen to meet Amos Duncan and his daughter at their home. Normally, he didn't make house calls, but he was willing to bend the rules. Inviting the girl into his office would only bring to the forefront the legal battle that lay ahead of her. Right now, it was in everyone's best interests to keep Gillian calm, so that when Matt finally needed to call in his chip, she would respond the way he needed her to in front of the jury.

  He reached for a cup of coffee that Gillian handed him, and he took a sip as she sat down beside her father on the couch. "Excellent stuff. Kona?"

  Amos nodded. "Hi-test."

  "The Jamaican blend is just as good. Of course, back at the office, we're lucky to get watered-down Maxwell House."

  "I will personally buy the county attorney's office an espresso machine," Amos vowed, "if you lock up this bastard."

  Latching onto the segue, Matt nodded. "Mr. Duncan, I understand completely. And that's why I'm here today. St. Bride has been charged with aggravated felonious sexual assault, which carries up to twenty years in the state penitentiary. I fully intend to ask for the maximum sentence. That means this case isn't going to go away with a plea."

  "Is he going to get out?"

  Matt did not pretend to misunderstand Amos. "St. Bride is being held without bail, so he'll stay in jail until the trial. After his conviction, he'll serve twenty years and then be on lifetime supervision. A third sexual assault offense will land him in prison for life." He smiled mirthlessly. "So, no, Mr. Duncan. He's not going to get out anytime soon."

  Matt turned to Gillian. "Our office can get you in touch with rape crisis counselors, if you need that kind of support."

  "We've taken care of that already," Amos answered.

  "All right. We're currently in the process of interviewing witnesses. Gillian, are there people that you can think of who would know something about last night?"

  Gillian looked at her father, who'd gotten up to pace. "The others, I guess. Whitney and Chelsea and Meg."

  Matt nodded. "Detective Saxton will be speaking to them."

  "What about the stuff from the hospital?" Amos asked. "Did you find anything?"

  "We won't know for a couple of weeks, Mr. Duncan."

  "