The Ex by Alafair Burke Read Free Book Online

I’ve got this missed-moment woman on the courthouse steps for her first press conference: Madeline and Jack, love at first sight. Then all of New York will sigh wistfully as she explains how she would have shown up this morning if not for—something at work, or a sick child perhaps. It was all just a misunderstanding,” I added dramatically. “I hear people love that shit.”
    “It’s not going to happen, Olivia. The girl doesn’t exist. You realize that, right?”
    “But if she does? You’ll be apologizing to the Penn Station widower, and the entire country will know that you wasted valuable time that could have been used to find the real shooter.”
    “So you’re just trying to help me out now, huh?”
    “I’m trying to help my client, who did not do this. Saving his ass happens to mean saving yours, too. It’s a win-win. You know me, Scott. I wouldn’t have asked Boyle to call you if this weren’t legit.”
    I held his gaze and then widened my eyes, the facial equivalent ofan exclamation mark. He shook his head. If we were at a bar with martinis, he would have been twirling his toothpick. He was mulling over the evidence and seeing it all disappear, piece by piece. This was good. It meant they didn’t have it wrapped up tight.
    They couldn’t, after all. This was Jack. There was no way he had pulled that trigger.
    I pushed once more. “Come on, you know Boyle doesn’t have this thing locked and loaded. You really ready for this to hit the news? Do you even have the GSR results?”
    “Give me a second.” I could see him pulling out his cell phone as he walked down the hall. He was calling the boss.
    He didn’t reemerge for twenty more minutes. When he did, Detective Boyle was walking beside him toward the squad room. They were whispering intensely and the conversation continued next to a desk that I assumed was Boyle’s. They were arguing.
    As Temple turned in my direction, Boyle slammed himself hard into his chair, rolling backward a foot.
    “We’re going to wait for the GSR results before booking him,” Temple said. “I called for a rush.”
    “If he’s clean, you’ll release him?”
    “No, I didn’t say that. But I told Boyle to hold off on the transport for now. We’ll take it from there, okay? But, I swear to God, Olivia, if you burn me on this, if we release him today, and he flees—”
    “I know, your office will never trust me again.”
    “No. My office will never trust me again, and I’ll devote every moment of my unemployment to making your life a living hell. That’s how much this matters. Now, I’m heading back to the courthouse until we hear back from the lab. A very upset Detective Boyle will be escorting Harris to a holding cell. Try not to gloat, okay?” Once he was out of view, I allowed myself to smile. The gamble had paid off.
    Once those tests were back, Jack could go home. Maybe we’d even sit down and talk after all these years.
    THIRTY MINUTES INTO MY WAIT, I had already ignored three voice mail messages from Don, pleading, imploring, and then pleading once again that I get back to the office immediately. My legs beginning to tire, I finally gave up and assumed a seat on the bench outside the detective squad. By now, the man rambling about the NSA had been led away, and his fragrant neighbor had managed to air out.
    I waited until exactly two PM and then called the main number for the firm. Don would be at the courthouse by now for a pretrial conference he’d been dreading all week.
    “Good afternoon, Ellison and Randall.”
    “Einer, have you looked up that computer stuff I called about?” I turned my back to my fellow bench occupant.
    “Just finished. I think I’ve got diabetes from reading it all. ‘I’m just a girl, sitting in front of a boy, next to the filthy Hudson River, asking him to love her.’ Cue a shirtless Matthew McConaughey before he lost all that weight and won an Oscar.”
    “What’s the gist?”
    “Just like you said, there was a