Grain of Truth

By V. J. Chambers

They have the power to overturn wrongful convictions... and a target on their backs.

Elke Lawrence welcomes the long hours and relocation her “promotion” requires. She hopes leading the new Conviction Review Unit, an experimental investigation team, means leaving her wrecked marriage and troubled past behind.

Their first case challenges that notion.

Twenty-five years ago, someone sat Dr. Abeer Mukherjee and his wife Tempest on their couch and shot them in the head, execution style. Their eighteen-year-old daughter and her boyfriend were sentenced to life in prison. They insist they are innocent.

The evidence suggests they’re telling the truth.

But as Elke and her team delve deeper into the case, it becomes clear there are those determined to keep the truth buried... even if that means burying the team with it. Is this all somehow tied to her murky past?

Will the CRU's first case be its last?

• Language: English
• Publisher: V. J. Chambers
• Release date: Jun 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463810897

V. J. Chambers

USA Today bestselling author V. J. Chambers writes about obsession, addiction, and agonized attraction. She pens dark romance and thrillers in varied settings, from contemporary to futuristic to paranormal.She writes fantasy and sci fi under the name Val St. Crowe.She lives in Shepherdstown, WV, with her boyfriend Aaron, their new baby son, and their cat.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

When Elke Lawrence was called in to the office of her boss, the district attorney of Gathopolis, she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it wasn’t good news.

The way things had been going for Elke lately, she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to get good news again. She was the laughingstock of the entire community, and she didn’t know how she was going to overcome the stigma when she tried to convince jurors to convict in her next case. It wasn’t going to be easy.

But she’d do it. She’d been a prosecuting attorney for her entire career, and she wasn’t going to stop now. She couldn’t stop now. She didn’t know anything else.

Everything else in her life, everything that she’d held dear, was crumbling around her. Her career was the one thing that she had left. She needed it. So, she would make it work. But that didn’t mean when she got the summons to go see Bernadette, that she didn’t start to feel queasy.

Bernadette Lane was the district attorney. She and Elke were friendly enough to call each other by their first names. They’d been working together for nearly a decade. But that didn’t mean that Elke would necessarily call Bernadette a friend. She didn’t socialize with her after hours. She wasn’t friends with her on social media.

She didn’t call Bernadette after she found out the truth about Felix. No, that honor had been reserved for her longtime best friend from undergrad, Lily, who now lived on the other side of the country and had three kids. Despite the time difference and her obvious exhaustion, Lily had stayed on the phone with her for three hours, bless her. Elke had sobbed and raged and wondered how she would ever keep going.

She hadn’t figured out how to move forward, but it was happening anyway. At least, the world was going ahead, like a gigantic push broom, and Elke was caught up in it with the rest of the dust and trash.

Elke walked down the hallway towards Bernadette’s office, and she tried to calm herself down.

Maybe it’s nothing, she said to herself. Maybe she’s just going to express sympathy.

Maybe. Or maybe Bernadette was going to tell Elke to take some time off. Without pay. She’d say it in a sympathetic way, like she was just looking out for the other woman, but it would be devastating. Elke needed this job.

She squared her shoulders. She wouldn’t let Bernadette take her job. She’d fight for it. She’d bargain. She’d beg. If it came to that, she would do whatever it took to keep it.

And now she’d reached the end of the hallway. There was a large window in front of her. It looked out on James Street in town. Cars were driving by at the staid pace demanded by the speed limits downtown. Silver cars. Blue cars. Green cars.

Elke looked out the window and chewed on her bottom lip.

She had almost gotten a silver car. She liked the way they looked. Apparently, a lot of people did, because there were a lot of silver cars out there. She noticed that after she had almost purchased one. Well, the thing was, it hadn’t actually been her purchasing the car. Felix would have done it for her, because Felix always handled all the big purchases, and her salary was just there for extra niceties.

But now…

She let out a breath and it came out shaky.

Oh, hell.

She couldn’t be thinking about this right now. She was wanted in Bernadette’s office. The office was just there. To the right. All Elke needed to do was to turn and raise her hand and knock on the door.

Stop looking out the window and thinking about Felix, she told herself. Stop it.

Obediently, she turned away from the window and surveyed the door to Bernadette’s office. It was dark-stained wood with a brass nameplate on the door. The door knob was polished bronze.

But thoughts of Felix didn’t quite leave her. They never did. All she seemed to be able to think about these days was Felix. How could she have been so wrong about him? How could she not have seen the truth? What was wrong with her?

She swallowed, struggling to get herself under control. She was almost on the brink of tears, and she couldn’t go into Bernadette’s office crying. That was out of the question. No, if that was going to happen, better to run off and claim something else, even something embarrassing like the stomach flu.

Of course, if she did run off, then this meeting would simply be hanging over her head. She’d never know what it was about or why she’d been called in. That would be torture. She couldn’t handle that.

She sucked in a breath through her nose, somehow clearing her mind by sheer force of will. And she knocked on the door. Two quick raps that sounded almost casual.

Yes? called Bernadette from within.

It’s Elke, she said.

Oh, come in.

Elke pushed the door open.

Bernadette’s office was not large, although it was larger than Elke’s. It was probably the largest office on the floor, a long and narrow room with one window. They were housed in a building put up in the 1700s, and all the rooms were small. The ceilings were low. The halls were narrow. Elke liked working there, because it felt like she was in touch with the history of her town. She liked to imagine people going up and down the hallways in powdered wigs, liked to think of the drama of the American Revolution and the Civil War raging outside while this building stood tall. It had been a symbol of justice for hundreds of years.

Bernadette sat in a desk that nearly spanned the width of the room. She looked up at Elke and motioned for her to sit down in front of her.

Elke did. She tried a smile and then wondered if she oughtn’t have smiled. Maybe this was a serious meeting.

How are you? said Bernadette.

Good, said Elke.

I mean, under the circumstances…

Elke flinched.

Sorry, said Bernadette.

No, don’t be, said Elke.

It was quiet.

Bernadette leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. I’m just going to come right out with it, I think. No reason to keep you in suspense. You’re being transferred.

Transferred? said Elke.

Just let me finish, said Bernadette. It’s a bit of a promotion, actually. You’ll be heading up the Conviction Review Unit in Haven Hills.

Haven Hills? But I work for you. I work here.

Well, you couldn’t very well head up a CRU here. You’d be reviewing your own convictions, said Bernadette. That would be impossible for you. You couldn’t be objective.

Elke was confused. She’d heard of Conviction Review Units, or Conviction Integrity Units, as they were sometimes called. They were units made up of lawyers and police officers who examined cases for the possibility of mistakes. They set people free who’d been wrongly convicted of crimes. I didn’t think Haven Hills had one of those units.

It’s new, said Bernadette. In the wake of that television documentary all about the case there, they feel the need to do some damage control. They think a CRU is the kind of thing that will help rehabilitate their image, rebuild trust with the people of the community.

Elke had seen the documentary too. It was about a man who’d been in prison for nearly twenty years. He had supposedly raped a woman, but DNA evidence was found that exonerated him, and so he’d been freed. The documentary had painted the entire justice department at Haven Hills as bumbling and inefficient. She licked her lips. So, it’s a publicity stunt, then? I’m supposed to head up a publicity stunt?

It’s not that way at all, said Bernadette. Listen, obviously, no one who works at the DA’s office in Haven Hills can be a part of the unit, considering the inability to be objective and all of that. So Arthur called me and asked if any of my employees might be a good fit. And I thought of you immediately.

Elke’s lips parted. You did?

Yes, said Bernadette.

Elke felt the word burst out of her. Why?

Bernadette sat back in her chair. Well, I thought it would be obvious after what happened with Felix.

Elke’s face twisted. She wouldn’t dare say that. That was cruel, a sick irony. Maybe she’d fought to clear Felix’s name, but it wasn’t the same. Not at all.

Bernadette cleared her throat. I’m sorry if I upset you. I know that your efforts were… misguided, but your technique was quite inspired, and perhaps you’d like to try your hand at using it for someone who deserves it. The minute the last words were out of her mouth, she cringed. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m very sorry.

Elke decided to ignore all of that. She couldn’t even begin to respond. Instead, she said, quietly, You want to get rid of me.

No, of course not. This is a good opportunity for you.

I’m an embarrassment to you. To the entire department.

That is not it at all. A pause. Bernadette sighed. All right, well, you must have considered that this wouldn’t go over well in the courtroom. You ask a jury to believe you that the accused is guilty, but you no longer seem as if you’re the best judge of character.

Elke’s face fell.

I’m sorry. Another pause. Bernadette’s voice softened. I can’t seem to stop sticking my foot in my mouth. I truly don’t think you are a bad judge of character, Elke. You did what anyone would in your position. I understand why you fought for him.

Elke was dangerously close to tears again. She concentrated on her breathing.

It was quiet.

Bernadette sighed again. Listen, if you won’t take the job, I suppose I can find someone else to recommend to Arthur. I just thought this would be a good move for you. It will be easier than trying to work here after everything. It will be a fresh start. And there will be a pay raise.

But I don’t want a fresh start, thought Elke. I want one thing to be the same in my life. One tiny thing. I want a foundation, a bedrock. I need it. But that wasn’t going to happen, she realized. There would be no foundation, no comfort, no familiarity. The storm that was Felix’s sins would rip everything away from her. She would be bereft.

Elke?

I don’t have a choice, do I?

You always have a choice.

Elke raised her face to look at Bernadette. I suppose so. In a way.

So, what’s your answer? Will you take the job?

Elke let out a little helpless laugh. Sure.

CHAPTER TWO

Being head of a unit generally meant one got to staff it, at least that was what Elke had always thought. But at the Haven Hills CRU, that didn’t seem to be true at all. When she met with Arthur Andrews, the DA and her new boss, he informed her that her staff was already selected and that they’d all be there when she started on Monday morning.

Haven Hills was a thirty-minute drive from her home. It wasn’t a long commute, but she’d been practically able to walk to work before, not that she ever had, because it wasn’t practical to walk in high heels.

Elke had asked for a key to her office early, but they didn’t have keys ready. They told her that she’d have her key first thing Monday. Which meant she and her staff would all be coming in blind. She didn’t like that. But DA Andrews said that there was no reason to rush into anything. Take your time, settle in, he said. And then he went on and on about finding the right case to start everything off.

She had been right before. It was a publicity stunt.

Andrews was mostly concerned with the image of the DA’s office, and because of that, he said that they wanted to make sure the first case was the kind of case that would send the right message. Andrews wanted the person they exonerated to be the right kind of poster child for the papers. Someone who the average person could identify with. Not a drunk or a deadbeat or a wife beater. A woman would be great, he said.

Of course, it was up to Elke to pick the case.

But it wasn’t really. This was going to be her first test. If she didn’t pick the proper case, then her time here was going to be pretty miserable.

However, the more Elke thought about it, the more she agreed with her new boss that it was a good idea to pick the right case. Because she could use some image rehab herself, and she didn’t want to be associated with a deadbeat or a wife beater either. And the more high profile this case, the more that people would talk about it. And the more that they talked about it, the more that they would forget about Felix and forget about her role in all of that. And the sooner everyone forgot about Felix, the sooner she could go back to being a prosecuting attorney instead of running a circus freak show.

So, that Monday, she arrived early, ready to tackle the cases and find herself someone innocent.

Assuming there were any innocent people locked up in Haven Hills. It was possible that the business with the man on the documentary had been a fluke. She couldn’t believe that there were many innocent people in jail, after all. At least, she was reasonably certain that all the cases she had prosecuted in her career had seen justice served.

If she had thought otherwise, she couldn’t have prosecuted a case in good conscience.

As she collected the key to her new office, she decided that some people weren’t good at their jobs. Some people didn’t have the moral integrity that she did. She would be going over their cases, and she would be finding their mistakes. This new job had nothing to do with her past performance.

Unlike the offices in Gathopolis, her new office was the fourth floor in a newer building, probably built sometime in the 1970s. It had an open floor plan with abundant windows that let in the cold winter sun. There was a conference room in the center, complete with a long table and various props like white boards, a projector, and a screen. All the other offices surrounded it. But the walls were all constructed of glass. The top half of the glass was clear, but the bottom was marbled and distorted to give the semblance of privacy.

The whole place was bright and airy and unfettered.

Elke missed the claustrophobia of her previous office.

She expected to be the first person to arrive, since she was there quite early. She’d seen the sun come up as she was driving. But instead, as she walked down the glass-lined corridor between the conference room and the offices on the west side of the floor, she came face-to-face with Frankie Hart.

Oh, said Frankie. Hi. She was clutching an armful of file folders, and her hair was falling out of the bun on the top of her head. Her skirt suit seemed somehow askew. But Elke wasn’t surprised by the woman’s appearance. Frankie always looked like that.

Elke and Frankie had gone up against each other on a case about three years ago. Typically, there was a friendly camaraderie amongst lawyers, even if they worked on opposite sides of the fence. After all, most cases came down to defense lawyers and prosecutors sitting down together and haggling out deals. You couldn’t very well do that kind of thing if you weren’t at least a bit friendly with each other.

Frankie never made deals.

Ostensibly, this was because Frankie never took a case unless she was certain the person she was representing was innocent. And innocent people didn’t make deals.

But honestly, that couldn’t be true, at least Elke didn’t believe it. They couldn’t all be innocent. There was no way that the police were arresting the wrong people often enough to keep Frankie paid.

Considering Frankie had come to work for the CRU, that seemed to prove Elke’s theory. Why else would she be here unless she couldn’t pay her bills? Andrews had told her that he’d brought a defense attorney onto the team because it was considered best practice to have someone who’d worked the other side of the fence in the loop. A proper CRU had both prosecutors and defenders on the team. In this case, though, that meant one of each. Elke and Frankie were the only two lawyers on the team.

In fact, the entire CRU was just three members. Four if you counted the executive assistant and paralegal Andrews had hired to answer their phones and get their coffee. The lack of staffing only did more to convince Elke that the unit was a publicity stunt. If Andrews had wanted serious work done, he would have hired more people.

Elke didn’t mind the lack of staff, honestly. A few hardworking people could be just as effective as a larger group. But she was a little annoyed at the addition of Frankie.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like Frankie. Frankie was fine, as far as it went.

Elke had never really… well, the thing was the woman annoyed her. Partly, it was her attitude, as if she was better than everyone else, refusing to come the table for deals. But other little things bothered Elke as well. Her disheveled appearance, for instance. What was that all about? Was she trying to send the message that she was so concerned with her job she didn’t have time to put on lipstick or something?

Not that Elke spent an inordinate amount of time doing her makeup in the morning. She tried to look tidy, though. Put together. She tried to look like a woman that a jury could have confidence in.

And that name. Frankie? Was that really her name? It made her sound like a twelve-year-old with a wad of bubble gum in her mouth. Elke knew it wasn’t fair to dislike the woman’s name. Frankie could hardly help that. Honestly, Elke was probably testy because of the shambles her life was in right now. Before everything with Felix, she’d never have thought such uncharitable thoughts.

Of course, if the business with Felix had never happened, then she wouldn’t be in this position anyway. She’d be back in her old job, doing what she was good at.

But she couldn’t keep thinking about all that. She shook herself and forced herself to smile. Good morning.

Good morning, said Frankie. When I heard you were going to head up the CRU, I was surprised.

Really. Elke’s voice came out flat.

Well, you never really seemed like the type to be interested in exonerating the innocent, said Frankie.

Elke nodded. Of course. Whereas this job was right up Frankie’s ally. She’d probably lobbied to be in the unit.

But I’m glad you’re here, and I have just piles and piles of cases for us to look into.

Piles? said Elke. There couldn’t be so many. Frankie was delusional.

Yes, but right now, I’ve misplaced a very important file, and I was retracing my steps, trying to find—

A little boy zoomed out of one of the rooms, running into Frankie’s legs and cutting her off.

Thad! screamed Frankie. She stumbled, clutching at the files at her chest.

Elke cringed, expecting them both to go sprawling and the files to fly out everywhere, an explosion of paper.

But the boy nimbly weaved around them and down the hallway.

My son, Thaddeus, said Frankie to Elke. Don’t worry. He’s catching the bus. Actually, I probably need to take him down right now. Can you take these? Frankie handed her armful of files to Elke.

Elke took them awkwardly. Wait a minute, where are you—

But Frankie was already running down the hall after her little boy.

Elke looked around for someplace to set down the files. The door the boy had come out of, that was probably Frankie’s office. She went in there. Yeah, Frankie had already moved right in. The desk was covered in photos of the little boy and of Frankie and her husband. There was even a potted plant in the corner.

Elke dumped the files on the top of the desk, feeling perturbed. She was the head of this unit. She wasn’t a receptacle for files.

She started out of the room.

But someone was at the door. The man was tall, wearing a navy blue suit. His gaze swept her perfunctorily before looking over her shoulder to take in the office behind her. This isn’t your office, he said.

No, she said. It’s not. I’m sorry. You are…?

Oh. He offered his hand. Detective Iain Hudson.

She took his hand. Nice to meet you, Detective. He was the third member of her team, the police officer.

You’re Ms. Lawrence, he said.

Yes, she said. It’s good to meet you. I don’t know much about your background, but I’m sure your ties to the local police will help us with our work.

But you aren’t in your office, he said. I assume you’d take the one on the corner. It’s the largest, and it seems most centrally located. He looked around. Of course, we have a bit more space than we need, don’t we?

I was only putting down some files on Frankie’s desk, said Elke. Ms. Hart, I mean.

Right, said Iain. Of course it’s her office. He scrutinized the place, his gaze darting over everything from the desk to the potted plant. Then, sucking in a breath, he stepped back out into the hallway. I didn’t know we were to choose our own offices.

Well, I suppose you can, said Elke. It doesn’t matter. Do you have one you prefer?

At that point, Frankie came back up the hallway. Elke noticed that her suit jacket was buttoned crookedly. It’s not anywhere, she declared in a distressed voice.

What isn’t? said Elke.

The file I was looking for, said Frankie.

You’re missing a file? said Iain.

Yes, I had it right here, said Frankie. I thought maybe I took it up to the front, to the desk that looks like it’s for the secretary, but there’s nothing there. She turned to Elke. Do we have a secretary?

Executive assistant, said Elke.

Right, said Frankie.

Maybe Thad took the file? said Iain.

Elke groaned inwardly. That was the last thing they needed. A little boy going through sensitive police documentation. She was going to have to speak to Frankie about having her son in the office, even if it was only for a short time before the bus came. Frankie would have to wait downstairs—

But Frankie was looking at Iain with a wide, frightened expression on her face. What do you know about Thad?

Elke furrowed her brow. Iain didn’t know about the little boy, then?

He’s your son? said Iain. Maybe six or eight years old?

Yes, said Frankie, looking even more worried. Why would you—

He’s left his signature on the wall there. Iain pointed behind Frankie’s desk where Elke could now see the words Thad was here written in blue crayon.

Oh, hell! Frankie put her hand to her forehead. She