My Book – False Witness
My novel, False Witness, is available at I Read I Write.com and you can buy it here.
Synopsis: Billy Frayne, a criminology student has a lot of attitude and particularly about the Clarke murder case. Convinced his theory of the case is correct, he takes a sucker bet to prove it. What begins as a sure thing and summer adventure, quickly becomes a mystery within a mystery with Billy’s past at the core of it all.
Excerpt:
PROLOGUE
Oxford, Mississippi – August 9, 1987
“The jury’s in!” echoed through the halls of the old courthouse. The courtroom hummed with murmured voices and shuffling feet. Announcing the arrival of the Honorable Josiah Memphis, the bailiff said, “All rise.”
Like the dinosaur that he was, Memphis moved at a slow and awkward pace. He took his perch above the gallery, arranged his robes and nodded to the bailiff.
“Be seated.” Murmurs melted to a hush.
Overhead fans groaned and squeaked as they fought to move the hot, humid air.
“Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached a verdict?” Memphis looked to Sam Quigley – a hardware store owner who’d never been important until that moment.
“We have, Your Honor,” Quigley struck a solemn pose.
“The defendant will please rise,” Memphis drawled.
Beautiful and beleaguered Rachel Clarke, rose with her attorney, Tommy Hicks. She clutched Tommy’s jacket sleeve with one hand and the gold locket around her neck with the other. Tommy whispered in her ear and smiled at her. Rachel nodded and stared straight ahead.
A collective breath caught in the throats of the gallery spectators. The bailiff, yoked by the heat and old age, lumbered to the jury box and then back to the bench.
Memphis opened the scrap of paper that held Rachel’s fate. His expression conveyed nothing when he folded the paper, gave it to the bailiff and nodded. When Quigley held the verdict in his hand again, Memphis cleared his throat. “How say you?”
Quigley swallowed and answered. “We, the jury, in the above- entitled action, on the sole charge of the indictment of murder in the first degree, find the defendant, Rachel Clarke . . . not guilty.”
Voices, bodies and flashguns exploded like a summer thunderstorm. Arms and legs flailing to get to the exit. Rachel Clarke had beat the odds and the news was exploding on lips, tape recorders, tv cameras and radio stations. The silence came quickly.
Rachel let go of a breath she’d held in for what seemed hours. “We did it, darlin’” Tommy hugged her then let her go. “Now go on out of here and get your life back.”
Rachel nodded and watched as he too left the room that had been her life for so many months.
She turned to the one remaining person, her sister, Bennett. “It’s over.” Tears flooded her vision. “It’s finally over.”
Excerpt #2:
The room was stunning and took Billy’s breath away. It looked like a display room in an exclusive antique shop rather than someone’s bedroom; Heavy, hand-crafted mahogany furniture, velvet drapes at the windows and imported area rugs covered the French oak floors throughout. He wandered through the room and touched things like a child, letting the texture come to his fingertips, the colors absorbed by his eyes, the scent of magnolia and gardenia fill his nostrils.
“Lovely,” he murmured.
Doreen beamed with pride. “Ain’t it, though?” She traipsed about, pointed out things to Billy and Joe, and bragged without shame.
Billy felt faint and flushed and his knees threatened to buckle on him.
“You okay, son?” Enders asked Billy.
“What?” Billy came out of his trance.
Enders looked concerned. “Just asked if you was okay. You’re looking a little spooked.”
Billy didn’t answer him because of the images and sounds roiling in his head. Shrieks of rage, explosions, shots, slaps, feet scuffling and finally, cries in the blackness. Billy’s eyes searched the room as he struggled to understand what he’d heard and seen in his mind.
Doreen came up on him and touched his elbow. “You feel it too, don’t you? The chaos and the pain?”
Billy moved away from her and shook his head. “No, no,” he mumbled. He went to the French doors that led to a small balcony and opened them. The heavy, humid air hit his face. He stepped out and looked at the small, upscale neighborhood below. An ancient oak, taller than the house stood to the right of the balcony. One of its boughs hung over the balustrade and seemed to call to him. Billy leaned on it and ran his hands over the rough bark and it calmed him.
“That’s funny,” Doreen said from behind him. “You sort of look like you belong right there, on that spot. Like you and that old oak tree are long lost friends.”
Doreen became a caricature of evil, as if a black spirit had invaded her body and smiled at him. Fear started at his feet and moved straight through him. The impetus to get out of the room overwhelmed him. ‘Now, now!’ his brained screamed. He rushed out and down the stairs and slammed the door behind him.
Recent Press:
“Best-selling Writers, Ellen Ekstrom and Anita Rodgers have had immediate success within days of releasing their novels. Ekstrom’s Armor of Light is a new take on the classic tale of St. George and the dragon and is generating a loyal following of readers interested in this classic medieval tale. Rodger’s False Witness is an addictive whodunit, leading the reader into this mystery within a mystery. Lisette Brodey’s successful Crooked Moon is a winding story of the history of two friends who are suddenly brought back together after years apart.”
Read the entire release here.
