Murder in the Courthouse Read Free

she could pass up.
    It would only be a few weeks. Hailey could manage her psych practice over the phone and via Skype. She told herself it would be great to be back home again, or at least a few hours’ drive away. She hadn’t been in Savannah in a while and the truth was, the Julie Love Adams case struck a chord with Hailey from the very first time she’d read about it.
    What type of person could take the lives of his own wife and baby? Then wrap a mom-to-be in a tarp and dump the two of them in the choppy waters of the Atlantic? And then go on a date with his new lover that very night like nothing ever happened?
    The last bit of advice Tony Russo blasted into his cell before Hailey took off from LaGuardia hung in the air. “Remember! Most important! I don’t care who you talk to or what you find out, never, ever refer to ‘Global News & Entertainment.’ We’re not that anymore. We’re GNE. The suits will scream if you even breathe the words ‘Global News & Entertainment.’ ”
    â€œWell, if you’re not Global News & Entertainment, then why would I say GNE? GNE stands for Global News & Entertainment.”
    â€œ No it doesn’t! Not anymore!”
    â€œThen what is GNE? What does it stand for?”
    â€œNothing! It stands for absolutely nothing!”
    Hailey had paused to let that thought sink in. He went on in a high-pitched voice. “ We rebranded! That’s just it . . . GNE! That’s the new name of the network. They thought Global News & Entertainment was too long and boring. So now we’re just GNE.”
    â€œYou think four words is too long?” Hailey almost started laughing out loud.
    â€œYes! It’s absolutely too long! And it’s so boring it makes my head hurt! Maybe not for you, Hailey, but four unnecessary words in TV world . . . it’s way too long! It’s practically a novel! Just remember . . . try to wrap your head around this . . . it stands for nothing . . . GNE stands for absolutely nothing.”
    When he realized Hailey wasn’t responding, he went on. “You know, like the Game Show Network is no longer the Game Show Network. It’s just GSN now.”
    â€œRight. GSN stands for Game Show Network and I’ve never seen it. What is it?”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter and it is no longer the Game Show Network ! It’s GSN! That’s all! Just like GNE is just GNE . . . nothing more!”
    Hailey didn’t get the reasoning behind the name “change” or the “rebranding.” “You mean you’re not embarrassed that the letters for your company stand for nothing? They don’t mean anything at all?”
    â€œWe’re not a company. We’re TV, we don’t have to stand for anything.”
    â€œListen, I’m in Savannah to catch a killer, not be in a TV studio, so I can’t promise anything, but if I can get out of court, I’m happy to.”
    â€œI take that as an unequivocal yes ! Love ya! Bye!” He clicked off.
    Hailey resumed rereading the medical examiner’s report, but after just a few words, her eyes filled with tears. “. . . with no evidence of tool marks on the skeletal remains, it is unlikely a saw or butcher knife was used to cut up the body.” Hailey imagined mother and child-in-womb floating in the cool currents of the Atlantic until washingashore. As awful as it was, Hailey made herself read on, years of courtroom training allowing her to block out the real-life implications of what she was reading and, instead, home in on words she could use as hard evidence.
    Hailey looked out the window into the clouds. Funny how a dead body works. Hailey’s tears spilled over the rims of her eyes, trickling down one cheek. Nobody cared if she cried, sitting here tucked away in seat 11A, between the windows and the sky.
    Hailey was wrong.
    â€œMan problems? Husband being an a-hole?” Seeing the tears spill, the guy