• Complain

William Bernhardt - Death Row

Here you can read online William Bernhardt - Death Row full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

William Bernhardt Death Row

Death Row: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Death Row" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

William Bernhardt: author's other books


Who wrote Death Row? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Death Row — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Death Row" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Annotation
" Oklahoma attorney Ben Kincaid put his reputation on the line when he represented Ray Goldman. The seemingly mild-mannered industrial chemist was charged with a staggeringly brutal crime: the torture and massacre of an entire suburban Tulsa family. But in spite of the grisly, tabloid-ready details of the sensational case, Ben's deft defense against a lack of hard evidence and improper police procedure made an acquittal all but certain. Until the prosecution's star witness - the lone survivor of the slaughter - took the stand and sealed Ray Goldman's fate." "Seven years later, Goldman's date with the death chamber is at hand. But seconds before the lethal injection, an eleventh-hour reprieve halts the execution - and launches Ben on a race against time to overturn Ray Goldman's conviction. Erin Faulkner, the young woman who narrowly escaped the carnage that claimed her family, has abruptly recanted her testimony after years of silence, desperate to keep an innocent man from dying. Just as suddenly, this near-miraculous turn of events turns tragic: Erin is discovered dead, an apparent suicide. And Ben Kincaid is the only witness to her stunning confession." Ben is certain Erin didn't commit suicide. She was a victim of murder - silenced by the same killer who butchered her family. All Ben has to do is prove it. But his unseen enemy is determined to cover his tracks once and for all... with blood.


William Bernhardt Death Row Book 12 in the Ben Kincaid series 2003 To Arlene - photo 1
William Bernhardt
Death Row
Book 12 in the Ben Kincaid series, 2003
To Arlene Joplin
with gratitude
Rosalind: I'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal...
Orlando: Who stays it still withal?
Rosalind: With lawyers in the vacation; for they sleep between term and term, and then they perceive not how time moves.
- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It (III, ii)
Prologue. Seven Years Earlier
Chapter 1
She didn't know how long she had been in the darkness when her family finally stopped screaming. She had forgotten where she was and how she had gotten there. She didn't know how long she had been trapped, chained down like an animal, dirty, helpless. She didn't know why she was naked. All she knew was that she was in great pain, that her whole body ached and her kneecap felt as if it had been shattered. That she was alone. And that something horrible was happening to her family.
Erin Faulkner couldn't see anything, not in any direction. Only the impenetrable black. All she could feel was the stone floor beneath her, hard, rough, cold to the touch. She could hear a dripping sound, not too far away, steady, with a slight echo, making this place seem even more like a medieval torture chamber, filling her with foreboding. Maybe the man in the ski mask would come back for her when he finished with the others. Maybe that was why he had taken her clothing. Maybe that was why he had chained her to the floor.
She could hear her family-her mother and father, her brothers and sister, the baby. The words were indistinct, but she could tell they belonged to the people she loved most in all the world. She could tell that they were in immense agony, that they were begging for mercy. And not receiving any.
The screams of her father had been particularly loud. He had always had a deep voice. It carried. Despite all that had happened between them, her father was perhaps the one person she loved more than anyone else in the world. His anguished cries had reverberated, had penetrated her and rattled her skull. Her father's distress pained her more profoundly than her own injuries.
She had begged the man not to hurt her, especially not on her legs. She played soccer on her high-school team, and it was one of the few things in her short life she had ever done well. But with one swift kick to her kneecap, he had taken it all away. She had crumpled to the carpet like a boneless sack of flesh, her body electrified by the lightning flashes that coursed through her. She remembered seeing the man draw back his foot for another blow. And then she remembered nothing, until she woke up here.
And that had been-how long ago? All she knew was that she wanted it to be over. The pain. The hunger. The fear for her family. Herself. She wanted it to end. If she could have made it end-any way-she would surely have done so. But she was denied even that fundamental right. All she could do was lie on the floor, unclothed and miserable. And wait. Until something finally brought an end to her suffering. Until someone-God, the man in the ski mask, someone-granted her mercy. Something she wasn't sure existed anymore.
She found herself missing the screams. Not that she had enjoyed listening to them. But at least it was something. Something to disrupt the horrid void that surrounded her. Something to give her a foothold on reality. A connection. A sense that she still existed.
She had no way of knowing how long it had been since the screams had died. Since all traces of others had faded away. It seemed as if it had been days, weeks, an eternity. Time didn't exist here, in this private hell in which she was the sole occupant. Only misery existed here. Misery and hunger and the hideous awful agony of not knowing. That was her life now. That was all she had left.
It had begun so innocently. Her mother had decided to take everyone out for ice cream, and had insisted that Erin come along. Being a teenager, she tried to avoid these family outings whenever possible. But once it was under way, once she had resigned herself to the ignominy of it all, she found herself enjoying it-Bernie's clowning, Louise's pathetic attempts to be just like Erin, even the baby. She would never have told them, but secretly she found herself warmed by the pleasure of being part of a larger circle, one that didn't fluctuate with the latest wave of popularity or peer pressure. Of feeling that she belonged to something that mattered a good deal more than who was on the starting team or who got picked for soccer princess.
And then they came home. The man in the mask seemed surprised when they poured through the entryway from the garage. Didn't take him long to adapt, though. Before Erin knew what was happening, her mother was crying out, her arm twisted behind her back. He forced the rest of them into the living room, where her father lay on the floor, beaten, bleeding. He was cruel to all of them, but he paid special attention to Erin, or so it seemed to her. She could barely see his eyes in that mask. She had thought that if she resisted, if she was strong, he might back off. She had been wrong. And now she had a shattered kneecap to prove it.
And she was still chained down, the pain increasing while her strength faded. Why had he done this to her? Why had he hurt her and stripped her and left her here? It made no sense, but she realized her mind was probably not working at its best. The chains that bound her, the physical anguish that crushed her, the fear that immobilized her-all took precedence over the feeble fumblings of her brain. Why did no one come to help? Why had this happened? And why could she not just die? Why wouldn't someone show her some mercy and please just let her die?
She knew it would be over soon. She had been far too long without food, without water. This imprisonment would kill a healthy person, much less one with a broken leg. Her eyelids fluttered with the sweetness of the thought. Soon all this misery would be replaced with the blissful sensation of not knowing, not caring anymore...
Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Death Row»

Look at similar books to Death Row. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


No cover
No cover
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Capitol offence
Capitol offence
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Capitol Murder
Capitol Murder
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Capitol Betrayal
Capitol Betrayal
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Capitol Offense
Capitol Offense
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Strip Search
Strip Search
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Dark Eye
Dark Eye
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Hate Crime
Hate Crime
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Final Round
Final Round
William Bernhardt
William Bernhardt - Capitol Conspiracy
Capitol Conspiracy
William Bernhardt
Reviews about «Death Row»

Discussion, reviews of the book Death Row and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.