Read Natural Suspect (2001) for Free Online Page B

few, draping them over Julias shoulders so maybe she wouldn't catch a chill. She took the nearly empty gin pitcher and, thinking about it for a beat, replaced it in the freezer. It wasn't hers to throw away. Maybe, she thought, Julia would come to that on her own.
    And then maybe Devin would flap her arms and fly to Tahiti.
    The snow was anything but inviting, and Devin was really in no hurry to be out in it. And here she was, in one of Long Island's grandest houses. It wouldn't hurt to look around a little, she told herself, get a more personal sense of her client and the life she lived, give the blizzard another half hour or so to blow itself out.
    The other half lived this way, and she burned to know what it was like. She'd bet nobody here worried about being lovable or pretty. The Hightowers were glamorous. The jet set. Rich and famous. All those cliches. Devin couldn't help but think that though the Hightowers had problems of their own, they were somehow more important than she'd ever be. People who lived in homes like this made a difference; that's all there was to it.
    And Devin didn't make any difference, not to anybody. She wanted acceptance here so badly she could taste it. She wanted all these folks to like her. If she could just get their mother off. . .
    Well, she reminded herself, it shouldn't be all that hard. After all, what she'd said today in her opening statement wasn't all false. There was almost no physical evidence tying Julia to the crime--certainly the prosecution (Trent Ballard!) couldn't convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that there was. Plus, Devin hadn't even mentioned her client's alibi for November second. She wanted to give Trent Ballard a long enough rope to hang himself on the exact time of Arthur Hightowers death--then, if she had to, Devin would trot out the alibi.
    By the front door, she stood in a foyer as large as her apartment. High over her head, a huge chandelier glowed with a bright elegance. A majestic staircase curled around behind her, leading to the upper floor. Here on ground level, she pushed the door nearest her and it opened into a dark-paneled library--floor-to-ceiling books with one of those great, old-fashioned sliding ladders to get to the top shelf, a large working desk, a four-foot globe, a fireplace. It was the perfect room, Devin decided. But she dared not stay in it for long.
    Across the way, off the opposite side of the foyer, the hardwood floors in the living room made her steps echo deliciously. There seemed to be three or four separate sitting areas, a grand piano, more books in built-in bookshelves . . .
    A noise.
    She froze, completely still, and listened.
    Upstairs.
    Male and female voices. Whoever it was, it sounded as if they were having a serious fight. She imagined she could hear punches being thrown, garbled human sounds.
    She had to move. If someone were getting hurt, she couldn't let it go on. Out in the foyer, she waited again, heard more commotion, and began climbing the stairs as fast as she could, two at a time.
    When she reached the upper landing, she heard a heavy slamming sound coming from one of the rooms off the long hallway. "Hey!" she yelled, poking into the first room. "What's going on?" She was back out in the hallway, going to the next room.
    The noises had stopped.
    "Stay back!" A woman's voice, ringing with authority. "Stay where you are. Who's out there?"
    "It's me. Devin McGee." Her voice seemed to have swallowed her as--too late!--she realized what she had interrupted.
    An instant later, the truth was borne out. Marilyn Hightower, disheveled but regally gorgeous in a pale blue silken peignoir appeared. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.
    "I, uh, I drove your mother ..."
    "I see. And now she's done her passing out routine and you're snooping, aren't you?"
    "No, I ... I heard noises. I thought somebody might be getting hurt."
    Marilyn's expression indicated that on the evolutionary scale she considered Devin about