The 7th Canon
Authors: Robert Dugoni
Tags: #Thrillers & Suspense, #Crime Fiction, #Mystery, #Thriller & Suspense, #Legal, #Thrillers, #Murder, #Thriller
The 7th Canon
Robert Dugoni
Thomas & Mercer (2016)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense, Legal, Crime Fiction, Murder, Thrillers, Mystery, Thriller
Mystery; Thriller & Suspensettt Thrillers & Suspensettt Legalttt Crime Fictionttt Murderttt Thrillersttt Mysteryttt Thrillerttt
A riveting new legal thriller from the bestselling author of
My Sister’s Grave
.
In San Francisco’s seamy Tenderloin district, a teenage street hustler has been murdered in a shelter for boys. And the dedicated priest who runs the struggling home stands accused. But despite damning evidence that he’s a killer—and worse—Father Thomas Martin stands by his innocence. And attorney Peter Donley stands with him.
For three years Donley has cut his legal teeth in his uncle’s tiny, no-frills firm, where people come before profits. Just as Donley is poised to move on to a lucrative dream job, the shocking case lands in his lap, and he must put his future on hold while putting his courtroom skills to the test. But a ruthless DA seeking headlines and a brutal homicide cop bent on vengeance have their own agendas. Now, as he unearths the dirty secrets surrounding the case, Donley must risk his neck to save his client’s life…and expose the face of true evil.
**
Review
“Dugoni has given the reader another gem of a story, full of action-packed scenes, intelligent plotlines, and very real characters.”
—*Suspense Magazine
*
“Robert Dugoni delivers plenty of mystery and courtroom antics in his latest high-stakes legal thriller. The courtroom scenes are top-notch, but even better are the pages dedicated to the investigation.”
—*Book Spy
*
Praise for Robert Dugoni:
“John Grisham move over.”
—*Seattle Times
*
“Dugoni has put the thrills back in the genre.”
—Nelson DeMille
“Dugoni [is] the undisputed king of the legal thriller.”
—*Providence Journal
*
“Scott Turow fans should add Dugoni to their list of must-reads.”
—*Library Journal
*
About the Author
Robert Dugoni is the author of the bestselling Tracy Crosswhite series (
My Sister’s Grave
,
Her Final Breath
, and
In the Clearing
) as well as the critically acclaimed David Sloane series (
The Jury Master
,
Wrongful Death
,
Bodily Harm
,
Murder One
, and
The Conviction
). He’s been ranked number one on Amazon’s list of most popular authors in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Italy, and he has been a
New York Times
,
Wall Street Journal
, and Amazon bestseller multiple times. Dugoni was nominated twice for the Harper Lee Award for Legal Fiction and for the International Thriller Award.
My Sister’s Grave
won the 2015 Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and was named one of the best thrillers of 2014 by
Library Journal
and
Suspense Magazine
. Dugoni’s nonfiction exposé,
The Cyanide Canary
, was a
Washington Post
Best Book of the Year, and the
Providence Journal
referred to him as “the undisputed king of the legal thriller” and “heir to Grisham’s literary throne.” Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com and follow him on Twitter at @robertdugoni and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni.
ALSO BY ROBERT DUGONI
Damage Control
The Tracy Crosswhite Series
My Sister’s Grave
Her Final Breath
In the Clearing
The Academy
(a short story)
Third Watch
(a short story)
The David Sloane Series
The Jury Master
Wrongful Death
Bodily Harm
Murder One
The Conviction
Nonfiction with Joseph Hilldorfer
The Cyanide Canary
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2016 by Robert Dugoni
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of
Amazon.com
, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503939424
ISBN-10: 1503939421
Cover design by Rex Bonomelli
To Sam Goldman. People always said you were a character, and I’d hoped to make you one before you passed, but I know you’re up there in Heaven still calling everyone hero, chief, and friend. You were one of a kind—a teacher, a mentor, a friend. I’ll miss you.
And no dedication to you, Sam, would be complete without mentioning your bride, Adele. She was always there with you for all those many adventures of the Wildest Journalism Teacher in the West!
Keep smiling, hero.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
December 21, 1987
Peter Donley had run out of time. Behind the elevated bench at the front of the courtroom, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Franklin Jefferson Barnes peered at Donley over the top of his reading glasses.
“If counsel is prepared to submit this matter, I am prepared to issue my ruling,” Barnes said, adjusting his considerable girth hidden beneath the pleated black robe.
Opposing counsel Rebecca Rattigan shot from her chair, its legs screeching on the worn tiles, though the sound was still not nearly as grating as her voice. “Submitted, Your Honor.”
And why wouldn’t she? Possession being nine-tenths of the law, and her client being the possessor, Rattigan figured she’d won, and rightfully so.
Judge Barnes shifted his gaze to Donley. “Mr. Donley, is the plaintiff prepared to submit?”
Donley looked down at his seventy-eight-year-old client. Victor Russo sat slumped beside him at counsel table, as forlorn as a man who had just lost his best friend. In some respects, Russo had. Since the death of his wife, Russo had shared an apartment above Victor’s, Russo’s North Beach restaurant, with Albert, an African gray parrot. That is, until Russo’s cleaning lady opened Albert’s cage without closing the apartment window. Russo spent two weeks calling animal shelters and pet shops. A store on Divisadero said they’d sold an African gray that matched Albert’s description, but when Russo offered the twenty-four-year-old, tattooed, punk-rock drummer twice what he’d paid the pet store, the man had refused. Russo called Donley’s Uncle Lou for help.
Donley gently scooted back his chair and slowly stood, prepared to submit the matter, but when he opened his mouth to speak, he just couldn’t bring himself to do so. Instead, he heard one of his Uncle Lou’s favorite adages.
You only go around once in life, kid. You might as well have some fun.
At twenty-eight, just three years out of law school, Donley already felt like he’d gone around in life more than once. He looked at his client. The tears that had pooled in Russo’s eyes throughout the afternoon began to slide down the man’s cheeks.
“Mr. Donley?” Judge Barnes asked, now sounding impatient.
What the hell,
Donley thought. He straightened and faced Barnes. “Your Honor, the plaintiff wishes to call one more witness.”
Rattigan’s smug expression turned to exasperation. Throughout the trial, her inexperience had been on display like a bad actress overacting her scenes. “Your Honor, the defense objects. Mr. Donley has called every witness disclosed on his witness list.”
Donley tried to sound conciliatory. “I apologize to Ms. Rattigan and to the court, but this witness’s possible testimony just recently came to my attention, and it is germane to the issue of ownership.”
Rattigan shook the witness list Donley had submitted to the court. “If this
surprise
witness is not on the list, he cannot testify. Code of Civil Procedure, Section—”
Judge Barnes held up a hand as thick as a catcher’s mitt. “Ms. Rattigan, why don’t you concentrate on making the objections and allow me to worry about ruling on them,” he said, a hint of his Louisiana dialect slipping into his baritone voice.
“I apologize,” Rattigan replied, “but this is highly prejudicial—”
Barnes again raised his hand, this time with the index finger extended. “Unless you’re going to tell me that your client has transformed himself into Rosa Parks and been asked to sit in the back of an Alabama bus, I don’t think it’s possible for him to have suffered any further
prejudice
than you’ve already opined during this three-hour trial.”
Rattigan’s face flushed, but for once she had the good sense to remain silent.
“Now,” Barnes said, slowly turning his attention to Donley, “who is this
surprise
witness, Mr. Donley?”
Donley steeled himself. “The plaintiff wishes to call Albert to the stand.”
The reading glasses that had been perched on the bridge of Judge Barnes’s nose fell, dangling by a chain. “Say what?” Barnes asked.
“I know this request is unusual—”
“Unusual?” Barnes drew out the word like a worked-up Southern Baptist preacher. “Unusual? Mr. Donley, you just asked me to call a
bird
to the witness stand.”
“Actually, Judge, Alfred is an African gray parrot.”
“I know what he is, Mr. Donley. And if I recall from my simple southern education, I do believe a parrot is a
bird
.”
“What I mean,” Donley continued, “is that, well, being a parrot, Albert is . . . for lack of a better word, he is able to ‘parrot’ back certain phrases he’s been taught or has learned on his own.”