New from the author of Presumed Innocent, the #1 bestseller that redefined the legal thriller and is the basis for Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series ever.
Read on for an extract from SCOTT TUROW’s third book in the series, Presumed Guilty.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.
Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first degree murder.
Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent – it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.
Chapter 3
Bea passes another restless night. In the morning, I can see that the agony of being the parent of an addict, which she has not felt for close to a year and a half, has returned with its harrowing effect. The numbers say that most teen addicts eventually become productive adults. The problem is keeping them alive long enough; the year after rehab is the most tenuous. Aaron already failed once, after his first arrest while he was a college freshman, but having gotten this far now, he supposedly has a solid chance. Thus there is a special agony in finding that all the hopes raised by months of disciplined behaviour may now be wasted, bringing us to the brink of disaster.
As she’s headed out to school, Bea stops by the garage door. ‘Will you text Aaron, please, and warn him?’ she asks. ‘Tell him you’re going to have to call the judge if we don’t hear from him.’
The point of this is lost on me, since none of her own messages have been delivered, all seemingly pending somewhere in the cloud.
‘I’ll take that under advisement,’ I say, trying to avoid an outright no. ‘But Mansy did make the point that we ought to talk to Joe. If anybody knows anything, your father does. If we haven’t heard from Aaron by tonight, we should probably go over to the VFW to have a word with him.’
‘Me too?’ Bea generally prefers to deal with her father only in Aaron’s company. When they are alone, she sometimes cannot contain her rage. Throughout her childhood, he was an abusive drunk who battered her mother and terrified his children.
‘I just think if he knows where Aaron is, he’d have a harder time looking both of us in the eye and lying.’
Bea seems to accept my logic, but still issues a shudder before heading out the door.
I work until lunch, enjoying a half sandwich of gravlax we cured ourselves with a salmon I caught last week during the spawning run. I’ve just finished when the house phone rings. It’s the landline that comes free with our Internet.
‘It’s Gert,’ the woman says, a voice always enlarged by the rattle of phlegm from years of smoking. Gertrude Gevorgian is Aaron’s probation officer. ‘Where’s Aaron? I’ve been calling his cell for an hour.’ Now I’m in a spot. Addicts often take their families down with them, and so I know better than to lie for Aaron. But saying he’s AWOL will only create a crisis – for him, because that might jeopardise his probation, and also for me, since I’m supposed to be his keeper for the court.
‘He’s camping. Gloria laid him off last week, so I think he’s trying to get some headspace.’
‘Camping? How’d he get there?’
‘I think he went with Mae Potter.’ Gert knows what this means as well as anybody else, but she takes an unexpectedly long time to react.
‘Yeah, someone said that,’ she answers finally. ‘But I need to see him. I want him to come in now.’
That can only mean she wants a random drug test.
‘He knows he has a meeting with you Monday,’ I answer.
‘Before that,’ she responds.
‘He doesn’t seem to have cell coverage right now.’
‘He didn’t leave the county, did he?’
‘He knows the rules, Gert. I’m sure they’re just up north. It’s a black hole when you get close to Marenago County.’
Gert is normally laid-back – too laid-back if you ask a former prosecutor – and so her insistence is strange. I promise I’ll text him.
Afterwards, I sit in the living room, facing the rock fireplace, chunks of local granite that rise impressively to an 18-foot ceiling, while I try to decode this call. In the 16 months since Aaron’s release, this is the first random Gert’s imposed, at least so far as I know. But that fact joins in significance with Gert’s acknowledgment that she had heard that Aaron was with Mae. After another instant for reflection, I realise that Mansy gave me the low end of what I’d asked for yesterday, 24 hours – but not a moment more. Then he told Hardy and Charmaine. And Hardy, even though he supposedly has nothing to do with Aaron’s case, immediately got Gert to jerk Aaron in. I don’t know if by drug-testing Aaron, Hardy means to test his daughter, too, or if, more likely, he’s looking for a way to put Aaron back inside and keep him away from Mae.
But I honour my promise to Gert – and Bea. I pick up my phone.
‘Aaron,’ my text says. ‘Please. If I don’t hear from you today, I’ll have no choice about contacting Judge Sams.’
Unfortunately, this is not an idle threat. Gert will tell the judge shortly what is going on, so I can’t fall far behind her in carrying out the promise I gave him 16 months ago.
Unless Aaron shows up shortly, tomorrow will be a very unhappy day.
.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott Turow, a writer and former practicing lawyer, is the author of thirteen bestselling works of fiction, including Presumed Innocent and most recently, Suspect. Mr. Turow has also published two nonfiction books, including One L, about his experience as a law student. His books have been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and have been adapted into movies and television projects. He has frequently contributed essays and op-ed pieces to publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic.
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