Beyond Justice by Joshua Graham

He couldn’t believe that I'd been arrested.  He asked me to hold the line while he excused himself from the session, then he returned.
    Did I have an attorney?  No.
    Did I want him to get me one?  Yes.
    Did I need him to come to the station?  If possible.
    "Sit tight, Sam.  I'll see you soon."

Chapter Eleven
     
     
    Anita Pearson didn’t believe in luck.   She was good at her job.  Damned good.  She could always spot a domestic within the first hour of investigation.   One problem this time:  No murder weapon.  Sure as hell wasn’t going to hold her back, though.
    As for motive?  Something would rise to the surface.  Always did, given enough time.  Hudson had no known history of conflict in his marriage, no fights, previous violence, or abuse.  Not on record, anyway.  He appeared to be a loving husband who'd never laid a hand on his wife or children.  Didn’t matter.  They all looked like that in the beginning.  This case was all but closed.
    But solving the case was one thing.  Getting a conviction and adequate sentence was another, thanks to those snakes known as defense attorneys.  Almost as annoying were those rookie uniforms, District Attorney Investigators, (DAI’s, they liked to call themselves), and anyone else who might misstep, causing a crucial piece of evidence to be suppressed during trial.  Worse still was having all her hard work undone by a probable cause hearing because of that kind of sloppy work on someone else's part. 
    Thanks to crap like that, three murderers and two rapists had been released back into the very feeding grounds from which she’d yanked them.  All in the past two years.  Hence, her hatred for slimeballs who preyed on innocent women and children.  Hence her need to shut down emotionally and become as cunning as the very psychopaths she hunted.
    No way Sam Hudson would slip through her net.  Sonofabitch repeatedly stabbed his wife, raped his daughter, and bludgeoned his four year old son.  He needed to be exterminated like the vermin he was.  And if Anita had her way, as slowly and painfully as possible.
    When Kenny Dodd left the station without so much as a word from Hudson, she threw her hands up in the air and got Thomas Walden on the phone.  "Three hundred DDA’s and you send Kenny Dodd?   The hell were you thinking?"
    "It’s worked before."
    "It was stupid.  You’re gonna get this whole thing kicked.  What’d you do?  Go to Pacific Beach, pick up a stoned surfer and stick a briefcase under his arm?"
    "Did Hudson confess?"
    "Take a guess."  Anita exhaled and waited for her blood pressure to go down.  "I can’t believe you tried that.  Good thing he didn’t talk, because it’d all be inadmissible."
    "Then relax."
    "I need that search warrant.  Now." 
    "What's your probable cause?"
    "A tip from Hudson’s former employer, George Schmall.  He was instrumental.  So how about that search warrant?"  She waited for him to answer, though she knew what he would say next.
    "What have you—"
    "A buttload of evidence."
    "Statements?  Potential witnesses?" Walden asked.
    "Kiddy porn.  On his work computer.  In a law firm!  Freakin' deviant."
    "Child pornography, eh?"
    "Listen, Tom.  I can only hold him here for so long.  I need to search his car, his home computer."
    Walden grunted.  A good sign.  "All right, you got it."
    "Call you soon as I get back."
    "Anita," Walden said, his voice guarding from enthusiasm.  "This could be a high profile case, as big as Matt Kingsley." 
    It hadn’t even been two months since the Hollywood action hero was convicted of murdering his wife in their Rancho Santa Fe mansion.  Anita wished that she could have been the one to take the bastard down.  "I understand."   But she didn’t give a piss about Walden’s political agenda.
    "Don’t misstep," he said.
    "Same to you."

  
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
    At 4:35, Dave and a slender woman came to see me.  Her complexion made you wonder if she