Amanda Stoll Legal Thriller 01-Tears of Innocence Read online

  TEARS OF INNOCENCE

  An Amanda Stoll Legal Thriller

  FREYA ATWOOD

  Edited by

  ERIS HYRKAS

  Contents

  About the book

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Extended Story

  Also by Freya Atwood

  Loved this book so far?

  About the Author

  Two Exciting Gifts Await You

  Thank you for purchasing my book! It means so much to me and it strongly encourages me to keep writing.

  As a gift for your loyalty, I have written a book for you called “The Price of Justice”. It’s only available to people who have downloaded one of my books and you can get it for free by clicking this link here.

  * * *

  And let me not forget about a second gift that you can get for free on Amazon!

  “Pursuit of Justice” is available for all of you by clicking this link here.

  Freya Atwood

  About the book

  TO FIND OUT THE TRUTH, she must expose powerful leaders and politicians…

  Highly reputable lawyer, Amanda Stoll, is returning to her hometown. Having to meet with her family was a given, but having to defend them against a murder case was more than she bargained for…

  Caught in the crossfire, she finds herself face to face with one of the most horrifying cases of her career. Her cousin is accused of terrorism and Amanda has to find the truth before it’s too late. Until someone tries to stop her for good…

  Prologue

  Back to Twin Peaks

  THE HILLS LOOM in the distance, my lights only just managing to light my way. It always feels darker out here… it always felt darker out here. It’s been so long since I have been back, that I can’t tell if that is true anymore. When I lived in Twin Peaks, the lack of lights at night meant that you could see all of the stars in the sky, and not only the brightest ones that were visible amid the city lights.

  * * *

  A funeral brought me back the last time. It was only a couple of days, and I got to see some people, but that was over a decade ago, and twenty years since I actually called the place home. The one thing that did stick with me when I was pulled back into the town briefly was how nothing at all had changed. It was comforting and sad all at the same time.

  * * *

  I turned up the radio, switching between channels until I found some classical music, something to make me less afraid. Is it the fact that I’m coming back to the place I swore I would never visit? Or is it the pitch black outside the car that threatens to hide something terrifying? In the daylight, everything seems so tame, but driving alone in the middle of the night is scary.

  * * *

  The music helped to distract me, some Bach rising and falling in soft crescendos. But I still had to concentrate on the road. It was miles ago that the lights were lost and everything was shrouded in black. My high beams did okay at lighting some of the way ahead, but I am still driving into the unknown—toward the void.

  * * *

  All because of Harry.

  * * *

  He didn’t ask me to come back, and he never would, but the frequency of his phone calls became more regular, and his tone shifted. He’s always had anger and sadness lurking inside, and it feels like it is bubbling now. Maybe it was fate.

  * * *

  He always hated that I left town when I was eighteen, and I know that he will never leave. He was born in Twin Peaks, and he will die there too. I might die there if I have to stay for too long. But I can’t help but worry about my older brother. He displays contentment, but I know he isn’t satisfied, and the more he called, the more worried I became.

  * * *

  I didn’t actively seek out a new job; yet, I found myself applying for the law job when I saw it pop up. Before I could think about my decision, it was done, and I was returning to the place I did all that I could to leave. A place I left twenty years ago—a place that is still stuck twenty years in the past. Maybe. I shouldn’t assume, but I get that sense from speaking with Harry.

  * * *

  Mom and Dad died in Twin Peaks. Harry is going to die there too. Am I fated to live out the rest of my days in the town? I already feel myself wanting to get out of there. I’m eighteen again, planning how to get out of that place before it saps the life from me. Have I made the biggest mistake of my life by coming back here?

  * * *

  I feel like turning the car around, but I’m almost there, and I don’t want to drive anymore in the darkness. I turn up the volume another couple of notches, gaining confidence as Bach gives way to Verdi, and my head bobs along to the violins. If I take deep breaths, I can almost convince myself that everything is going to be okay. The rain had been drizzling for most of my drive, but the skies open up a little more as if in response to the music being played, and I can hear the pattering of rain on the hood, roof and trunk. It is almost in time to the percussion that enters the music every now and then.

  * * *

  Up ahead, the very faint glow of the town appears. I slow a little, subconsciously hesitant to get there any faster than I need to. I’m traveling under cover of night, and a town like Twin Peaks is fast asleep at a time like this, but I still worry that someone is going to see me—that they are going to flag me down and talk to me; not that there would be anything wrong with that, I just want to get settled first and get some sleep.

  * * *

  Two days until I start my new job. Well, one-and-a-half days. Enough time to unpack my meager belongings and see Harry. Not enough time to change my mind once I am there.

  * * *

  I turn down the music a little as the light increases. I’m not as afraid now that I have some light to guide me. If someone is awake in the town, they will see me coming from a mile away. The law office arranged my accommodation, and the key will be under the mat. Only in a small town. I can’t imagine that happening in Seattle, but I guess there is a lot of difference and change if you really explore Washington.

  * * *

  The trees, even in the darkness, look familiar. I was never one to climb the trees—not a rambunctious kid. They would shade me as I read or wrote. I laughed to myself. It was the kind of small town where you were made fun of for doing things like that—as if learning was dangerous. I really do hope that has changed.

  * * *

  The sign comes into view, light flashing over it as I round the curve. It sits at the top of the hill before you descend into the town, displaying the two mountains that give the place its name, along with a group of people standing arm in arm—perhaps the founders of the town, but no one has ever been sure.

  * * *

  Below, the town rests in the valley, the tips of trees and the tops of houses visible. It is beautiful, there is no denying that, and when the snow falls in the winter, the bl
anket of white makes it one of the most picturesque places in all of America.

  * * *

  I pass the sign, and the emotion throttles me. I had managed to control it on the long drive, but as soon as I officially enter the town, I feel hands around my neck, slowly choking me. I can’t turn around now—the vice-like grip on my neck pulls me deeper into the belly of the town.

  * * *

  My parents died here, my brother leads a lonely existence, everything is backward, and I never really had any friends. I knew at an early age that I had to get out or I would rot, and I managed to do that, and not I am betraying my younger self. What would she make of me?

  * * *

  The tears stream down my cheeks as I can’t hold them in any longer. I wiped them away with one hand as they blurred my vision. I have to hope that I am doing the right thing, but I can’t help but feel that my life is over.

  Chapter 1

  Small Town Problems Can Also Be Big

  I WOKE the following day to the sun streaming in through the small window in my bedroom. When I looked at the clock on the bedside table, it showed me that it is a little after nine. That is a lot later than I usually wake, but the sun was starting to rise when I went to sleep. I can get some more rest tonight, but, for now, I jumped out of bed and into the shower.

  * * *

  When I stepped out of the shower, I feel more revived. It’s going to be a long day, but I have nothing that I need to do—nothing to prepare for my new job until I get in there tomorrow. That leaves me a full day to settle into the town, and see my brother. I know that I will put it off as long as possible, but I have to see him sooner or later.

  * * *

  My stomach grumbled, forcing me to venture out and find something to eat. Harry is important to me, but no one really understood me as a child as well as Koen did. John Koen, but everyone called him Koen back then. He was a couple of years older than me, but he felt the same way about the town as I did. I left when I was eighteen, and he stayed to try and make it a better place.

  * * *

  No better place to get the lay of the land before seeing Harry than by talking with a local cop. I’m going to need to befriend the cops here if I’m going to do my job properly, and there is no better place to start than Koen.

  * * *

  Food first, and then the local police station. I’ve been in contact with Koen a little over the years, but more so since I knew I was coming back here. He’s working the desk today, and in a small town like this, there is usually not a lot to contend with on a daily basis—nothing major, anyway.

  * * *

  The local cafe provides a breakfast muffin with egg and bacon, and I vaguely remember the server, though there is no hint of recognition from her. I eat half the sandwich before I get back to my car, and I finish the rest of it as I drive to the police station.

  * * *

  Harry was in there a lot more than I was, but I spent my fair share of time in a cell after making one too many mistakes. Now, I’m on the other side of the law, but I’m still hesitant to step inside. I take a deep breath and venture forth.

  * * *

  John Koen is sitting behind the desk and he catches my eye as soon as I enter. A smile appears on his face, and I can’t help the smile that crosses my own face. He strides out from behind the desk, coming through the small door that connects the entranceway to the back, and he strides straight for me with arms wide open. He looks almost the same as he did when I last saw him—he wasn’t at the funeral—except for a wispy mustache that adorns his upper lip. He was always tall, and he looks even taller than I remember him and just as gangly as ever.

  * * *

  “Amanda,” he booms as reaches me. He grabs me in his arms, and I hug him back. He always looked out for me when I was a kid, but we never had the kind of relationship where we would hug each other. He was like my big brother, and he feels even more like that now. The hug feels natural, completely different from the awkward hugs that I have always shared with Harry, never really connecting with him.

  * * *

  “How are you, Koen?” I asked when we moved apart. “Koen? Officer Koen? Do I need to address you properly in the station?”

  * * *

  “Come on,” he said. “You’ve always called me Koen, so don’t stop now. I can’t believe that you are back here. The girl who wanted to leave the town and never come back. You were pretty good at that for a while, but you’ve failed miserably. How is it being here again?”

  * * *

  “I don’t really know,” I said. “It feels weird to be back in the town, but I’m glad that I came to see you first. This…” I gesture between the two of is, “feels just like it used to. Some things don’t change, I guess.”

  * * *

  “Yeah, that much is true,” he said. “Come on, sit down for a bit. It’s not like I’m run off my feet, and I should get to know any newcomers. So, what do you want to know? Let’s start with what has changed around here since you left.”

  * * *

  We both sit down in the waiting area. A sly smile appears on Koen’s face. “What has changed? What has changed? Absolutely nothing. The town is exactly as you remember it, although, aging twenty years will probably give you a different perspective. You were just a little girl back then.”

  * * *

  “Little girl,” I said with a scoff. “You are only two years older than I am, and that mustache doesn’t make you an adult, you know. You were a little boy back then. I might admit that you were the more mature of us.”

  * * *

  “How mature of you,” said Koen.

  * * *

  “And you might have helped me get through… everything when I was living here. I might not have gotten through it all if it were not for you, and I would not have had the courage to run away. I would have stagnated here—you pretty much saved my life, Koen. Though, I could have done with some life saving after that. The city was not all I thought it would be, but that is a story for another time.”

  * * *

  “Have you been to see your brother yet?” asked Koen.

  * * *

  “Straight after this,” I said. “I needed a neutral party first—a friend. Twenty years! I can’t believe that it has been so long. You’re doing well here. Are you making a difference? You always wanted to help this town from the inside out.”

  * * *

  “I think so,” he said. “We both had different visions of the future when we were kids. I thought that I could change this town, but that is easier said than done. I do think that I am helping, but it’s like tossing a small rock in a large pond—it creates some ripples, but it doesn’t really change anything. Still, I toss those rocks over and over.”

  * * *

  “How is Harry?” I asked. “You don’t see him, do you?”

  * * *

  “Not in that way, but I do come face to face with him every so often.” Koen looks back over at the desk.

  * * *

  “What’s he been into?” I asked. “I know he’s at home, so he isn’t locked up.”

  * * *

  “No more than a few days at a time, and nothing that we can’t handle, but we’re keeping an eye on him, that’s all that I’ll say.”

  * * *

  I sighed loudly. That’s all that I need. I’m here to help out my brother, but I don’t want to be bailing him out of jail, and I shudder at the thought of representing him as a lawyer. It’s best to be as impartial as possible when it comes to clients, and family always complicates that.

  * * *

  “He’ll be all right,” added Koen.

  * * *

  “I hope so,” I said.

  * * *

  “So, a big lawyer from the big city. Are you hoping for some high-profile cases while you are here? I don’t think there has been any espionage or treason since nineteen-forty-never. I hope you get a kick out of speeding tickets and drunken behavior. That’s the bread and butter of our small tow
n.”

  * * *

  “I’m not going to lie, I know that it’s going to be a lot different here, and I’m just glad that I have someone I know here—a friend. A brother too, but that could be more a hindrance than a help. He’s supposed to be the older sibling, but it often doesn’t feel like it.”

  * * *

  “So, when are you running away? And what can I do to help?”

  * * *

  “Are you busy right now?” I asked with a sardonic smile.

  * * *

  “Well, I was expecting some crime, but I’m sure I can help you escape.”