In Double Jeopardy

by Andrew Neiderman

• ISBN13: 9780671015619
• ISBN10: 0671015613
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-02-28
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

Dead Man Stalking

Shy and reclusive medical student Elaine Ross is warned she might have trouble dating after her only sister is brutally murdered by her brother-in-law, Dirk Stoner. Dirk, a handsome golf pro and the son of

Author Biography

Andrew Neiderman is the author of numerous novels of suspense and terror, including The Dark and The Devil's Advocate -- which was published by Pocket Books, and was made into a major motion picture by Warner Bros. starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. Mr. Neiderman lives in Palm Springs, California, with his wife, Diane.

Excerpts

Chapter 1 Sitting on the bed in what had once been Farah's room, Harry gazed around dumbly, his eyes glassy. Farah had taken most everything with her when she got married, and the room had been used as a guest room, but he had never stopped thinking of it as Farah's room. Memories of her lingered in these walls, in every nook and corner, her laughter caught and held forever and ever. All he had to do was look at the vanity table or the desk on which she used to do her homework and his reservoir of remembrances came rushing forward, now an exquisite torment.Tomorrow, finally, he would get his revenge. Dirk Stoner would be executed, nearly four years after he had been convicted. Harry knew it was happening this soon only because Stoner had stopped the appeals."Mom's right, you know," he heard Elaine say and looked up at his younger daughter leaning against the doorjamb, arms folded, head down. "Attending his execution won't bring Farah back, Dad.""Maybe it will bring me back," he said.She looked up, their eyes meeting."You want to be a doctor, Elaine. Think of what's in here" -- he pressed his fist against his heart -- "as a cancer that tomorrow the state of California will cut out of me.""Operations leave scars, Dad," she said.Harry almost smiled. Elaine had always had a doctor's personality. She could cut to the jugular gracefully, perform the procedure, and retreat unscathed. "I have scars deeper than what I might get tomorrow," he said."We all have scars, Dad. They're not going away, ever." He saw the tears in her eyes and was silent for a moment.For the first time since Farah's death, he seriously considered Elaine's reaction to all this. He had always thought about his own and Lil's sorrow, but what about Elaine's? She had suffered a great loss too."If you insist on going, I'll go with you tomorrow, Dad," she said."You don't have to do that, Elaine.""I won't let you go alone, Dad," she insisted, "even though I hate the thought of looking at him one more time, even to watch him die, even by lethal injection.""Yeah," Harry said. "From what I've been told, it will be just like looking at one of your patients at preop."She nodded. "You're right, Dad. That's what it's like. Pancurium bromide to stop his breathing, potassium chloride for cardiac arrest, sodium pentothal to make him unconscious.""Dr. Ross," he said nodding and contemplating her for a moment. Then he raised his eyebrows. "It should be Dr. Rosenberg, you know.""What?""That's our real name.""I don't understand.""My grandfather changed it to Ross to avoid the ethnic stigma and any possible inference that we were related to the notorious Rosenbergs. I always felt funny going to see my great-uncle Benny because he was my grandfather's brother, but his name was Ben Rosenberg and mine was Harry Ross. He always made fun of the change, too. 'So how is it with you, Mr. Ross?' he would ask me and smile."Elaine laughed. "What other surprises do you have for me, Dad?""Nothing else," he said sadly and gazed at the floor again. "Nothing else.""Don't go, Dad," she said after a moment."I have to go, Elaine.""It will be a circus -- the media, demonstrators...""I have to go," he said again. "Thank God my parents didn't live to see any of this."Lil's parents were still alive and remarkably healthy for people in their late eighties. They had attended only one of the trial sessions. They sat in the rear, listened, and then went home, too shaken by the details to return.Now that the ordeal was truly coming to an end, Lil wanted Harry to put the matter to rest, to accept Farah's death, as she had finally accepted it.Harry refused to accept it. His beautiful, talented daughter had been slaughtered, and even with Dirk Stoner's surprise legal capitulation, retribution had been slow in coming, as far as Harry was concerned. In more primitive times, when men were men, an eye f