Read Online Amber Morn by Brandilyn Collins - Free Book Online Page A

fingerprints.”
    “You had a few other things to worry about.” Vince pulled on his gloves and took the envelope from John’s fingers. “I need to go read this. An officer will take both of you home. I’m afraid your vehicles are stuck in this cordoned-off area for now.”
    John dragged a hand across his cheek. “I need to take some medication soon, but… can’t I come back here and wait?
Bailey’s
in there, Vince.”
    The man’s fear pierced Vince, and his mind flashed to his own wife. Nancy was on her nursing shift at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane. If she passed a television running breaking news, if somebody coming on shift had heard a bulletin… He needed to call her as soon as possible, tell her he was okay.
    He clasped John’s shoulder. “You can’t be at this location, John. It’s now open only to law enforcement and emergency vehicles. I’ll set an outer perimeter a few blocks down Lakeshore. You can go there if you like. It’ll be the closest you can get.”
    John nodded. Despite his terror over Bailey, he seemed too weak to argue. Saving Frank’s life plus all the stress must have drained the energy right out of him.
    Vince called to an officer to take the men home. Then, amid the swarming police and vehicles, a dozen people calling his name, he blocked out all else to focus on the envelope. The message’s contents would determine what happened from here. How Vince would negotiate with the three hostage takers. And maybe it would give an inkling as to how long this situation could last.
    Taking a deep breath, he pulled out a pocketknife, slid the blade under the envelope flap, and slit it open.

TWENTY-FOUR
     
Chief Vince Edwards,
     
This is Kent Wicksell, father of T.J. Wicksell, who got sent to prison two months ago for SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO. I got my oldest son, Mitch, with me.
T.J. was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s never seen a stranger. Ask anyone — they’ll tell you how much people like him. He’d never hurt anybody. In fact, he’s small for his age. Always has been. Because of that we’ve always watched out for him. Kids used to beat him up on the playground when he was young. Now T.J.’s in prison BECAUSE OF A LYING PROSECUTOR AND A NO-GOOD DEFENSE LAWYER. Even before the trial was over, he was CONVICTED IN THE MEDIA. You saw all the stories that ran about him and what he supposedly did to Marya Whitbey. Once those stories started running, NO ONE WOULD LISTEN to us.
There is evidence that should have come out in court and never did. We tried and TRIED to talk to the lawyers, but no one would listen. T.J. is in prison for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. He’s only eighteen. AND NOW HE’S BEEN BEAT UP. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW SCARED HE IS? HOW SCARED WE ARE FOR HIM?
We want one thing: T.J. gets out of prison NOW.
Part of getting him out means you have to make the prosecutor listen to us and the evidence we have to tell him, and you get that defense lawyer to do his job — INSTEAD OF SHOWING UP TO COURT WITH A HANGOVER. And the judge will have to promise that T.J. gets a new trial so he can prove his innocence.
We wrote this letter to YOU because we’ve read in the papers what you’ve done for your town when things went wrong. You help sort things out. If anybody can make this happen, it’s you.
Blame all this on the two lawyers. This is OUR ONLY CHOICE. We will let our hostages go only when we get what we want. We will kill anybody we have to in order to get it. You can see we mean business. So DON’T take long to answer this letter, or more people will die.
We have taken everybody’s cell phone and disconnected the phones in Java Joint. The only way we will talk to you is through the comments on Scenes and Beans. Write us first and tell us you’re ready to talk. We will answer. The reason for using the blog is simple. Lots of people read it. WE WANT EVERYONE ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO LISTEN TO WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY. Everybody heard about this trial and my son’s supposed