Read Now and Forever for Free Online

They're talking to him now."
    "About parking tickets?" How ridiculous. Enough was enough. And Jessica had had more than enough already.
    "No, lady. Not about parking tickets. About three counts of rape and a charge of assault." Jessie thought she could feel the ceiling pressing down on her head as the walls rushed in to squeeze the breath out of her lungs.
    "What?"
    "Three counts of rape. And a charge of assault."
    "My God. Can I talk to him?" Her hands shook so hard it took both of them to hold the phone, and she felt her breakfast rise in her throat.
    "No. He can talk to his lawyer, and you can see him tomorrow. Between eleven and two. Bail hasn't been set. The arraignment's on Thursday." The desk sergeant hung up on her then, and she was holding the dead receiver in her hand, with a blank look in her eyes and tears beginning to stream down her face, when Katsuko opened the door and held out a sandwich. It took her a moment to absorb what she saw.
    "My God. What happened?" She stopped in her tracks and stared into the bedlam of Jessica's eyes. Jessica never came apart, never cried, never wavered, never ... At least they never saw mat side of her at the shop.
    "I don't know what happened. But there's been this incredible, horrible, most ridiculous fucking mistake!" She was shouting and she picked up the sandwich Kat had brought in and threw it across the room. Three counts of rape. And one count of assault. What in hell was going on?

Chapter 4

    "Jessie? Where are you going?"
    She brushed past Zina, returning from lunch, as she rushed out the door.
    "Just make believe I never got back from New York. I'm going home. But don't call me." She yanked open the door of her car and got in.
    "Are you sick?" Zina was calling from the top of the steps, but Jessica just shook her head, pulled the choke, turned on the ignition, and roared into reverse.
    Zina walked into the boutique bewildered, but Katsuko could tell her nothing more than what she had seen. Jessie was upset, but Kat didn't know why. It had something to do with the policeman's visit that morning. The two girls were worried, but she had told them not to call her at home, and the afternoon at the boutique was too busy for them to have time to speculate. Katsuko figured it had something to do with Ian, but she didn't know what. Zina was left in the dark.
    When she got home, Jessica grabbed for the phone with one hand and then address book with the other. A cup half filled with coffee sat on the kitchen table. Ian had been in the middle of his breakfast when they'd taken him away, and something in Jessie's heart told her that Houghton had been the one who had taken Ian away. She wondered if the neighbors had seen it.
    A stack of pages from the new book lay near the coffee. Nothing else. No note or message to her. He must have been shocked. And obviously it was an insane accusation. They had the wrong man. In a few hours the nightmare would be over, and he would be home. Her sanity had returned. Now all they needed was an attorney. She simply wouldn't allow herself to panic.
    Her address book yielded the name she wanted, and she was in luck; he was free when she called, and not out to lunch as she'd feared he would be. He was a man she and Ian respected, an attorney with a good reputation, senior partner of his firm. Philip Wald.
    "But Jessica, I don't do criminal work."
    "What difference does that make?"
    "Quite a lot, I'm afraid. What you want is a good criminal defense attorney."
    "But he didn't do it, for Chrissake. We just need someone to straighten things out and get him out of this mess."
    "Have you spoken to him?"
    "No, they wouldn't let me. Look, Philip, please. Just go down there and talk to them. Talk to Ian. This whole thing is absurd." At the other end of the phone, there was silence.
    "I can do that. But I can't take the case. It wouldn't be fair to either of you."
    "What case? This is just a matter of misidentification."
    "Do you know what it's based