Puss In Boots
by Ed McBain
Prudence Ann Markham was as careful as her name. After she packed up
the film she'd been editing, she checked the studio gear, hit the
three-digit code on the alarm pad, snapped off the lights, and locked
the outer door. Then she headed across the deserted parking lot
to her car. It was 10:40 on the night of November 20. Prudence Ann
never made it to 10:45 -- though her blood continued to flow,
reddening the white gravel of the parking lot for long moments after
she died.
Carlton Barnaby Markham didn't know what his wife had been working on
at the time of her murder. All Carlton knew was that the film was
missing -- and that he was residing in the Calusa County Jail, charged
with first-degree murder.
For Matthew Hope, the months since he'd decided to switch to criminal
law had hardly been a vote of confidence. He'd lost his first case,
refused his second. So when Carlton Markham said he was innocent, Hope
took the case. But as he dug deeper into the eviden the cops amassed,
it soon became clear that it would take more than claims of innocence
to spring his client.
Puss In Boots
Series
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