New York Dead (Stone Barrington 1)

“It says here, you ripped off her underwear, pinned her down with your weight, and fucked her against her will.”

“It wasn’t against her will!”

“So you fucked her, didn’t you?”

“No, I… you’re getting me confused.”

“It says here that when she got back to her dorm, her roommate took a cotton swab and collected a semen sample from her pubic hair and saved it on a glass slide. Her roommate is a biology major. That’s your misfortune.”

Bobby’s eyes widened, and his jaw worked, but nothing came out.

“Do you know what a DNA matching is, Bobby?”

“I… well, I read something in the paper about it.”

“Give me that lab report,” Stone said to Eggers.

Eggers promptly found a sheet of paper on his desk and handed it across to Stone.

Stone looked at the paper, an interoffice memo, and shook his head.

“Listen, I can give you the names of three guys who’ve screwed Janie Byron,” Bobby said. His face was red. “I-”

“I see,” Stone said. “So the guys at the frat house are going to back you, huh? They’re stand-up guys, so they’re all going to go into court and perjure themselves for you and risk going to prison.”

Bobby put his face in his hands for a moment.

Stone turned to Eggers. “You can’t go into court with this guy, Bill. He can’t even convince his own lawyers, how the hell is he going to convince a jury?”

“Bobby,” Eggers said gently, “you see what we’re up against, don’t you? I mean, Mr. Barrington is on your side, and he can’t bring himself to believe you. Now listen, if you’ll just tell us the truth, all of the truth, then we may be able to get you out of this.”

“He’ll never tell you the truth,” Stone said harshly. “He’s a lying little piece of shit.”

Bobby came half off the sofa, but, when Stone stood up, he sank back. “Can I talk to you alone, Mr. Eggers?” he said plaintively.

“Sure you can, kid,” Stone said, heading for the door. “I wouldn’t waste any more of my time.” At the door, he turned back to Eggers. “I’ll tell you one thing, I wish I was prosecuting this one, instead of defending.” He walked out, slamming the door behind him.

In the hall, Stone leaned against the door and took a deep breath. Jesus, it had been awhile. Dino usually played the bad cop.

Chapter 35

Bill Eggers leaned back in his chair and rested his feet on his desk. “That was good work, Stone. The boy has told me everything, I think; I don’t believe he actually screwed the girl, though God knows he meant to. He’s down the hall in an associate’s office right now, writing letters to the girl and the university administration. I think I can negotiate him out of this. The girl wasn’t entirely blameless, and she does have a reputation for sleeping around.”

“I’m glad it worked out,” Stone said.

“Well, you saved his father seventy-five or a hundred thousand in legal fees. Bob Keene will always be grateful to us for that.”

“Frank said you had something else for me.”

“I do, and this one’s sticky. Or, at least, it could be.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m going to have to be a little circumspect in talking even to you about this,” Eggers said. “There’s a lot at stake, and I’m going to have to proceed strictly on a need-to-know basis, all right?”

“All right.”

“I have a client I’ve known since I was in high school, whose wife is a prominent businesswoman. They’ve never had much of a marriage, but there were a couple of kids, and they stuck it out. Trouble is, the wife has had a couple of affairs. In fact, there’ve been other men all along, I think, but he’s finally run out of patience, and, even against my best advice, he’s determined to proceed his own way on this.”