Halfway to Half Way Read Online Free

You'd think they would be, considering the ratio of clients in need of defending rose in proportion to the increase in arrest warrants since David took the oath of office.
     
     
Then again, the son of one of the firm's partners was awaiting trial for arson and related charges. The fifteen-year-old and two buddies celebrated the Fourth of July by torching a fireworks stand. No one was hurt, but David refused to write it off as a prank in exchange for their fathers' paying restitution.
     
     
He said, "You'll have a press release about the suit ready for next week's paper."
     
     
"Absolutely. A full-blown feature, if I can swing it. It won't be as splashy as Wingate's headline story when Quince filed it against you, but I'll push for every inch I can."
     
     
Trusting your instincts was a law enforcement officer's stock in trade. David's weren't infallible, but he'd regretted ignoring them far more often than he'd regretted following them. "One of my dad's favorite sayings is 'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.' Maybe that applies here."
     
     
"How?"
     
     
"What if all that story does is remind undecided voters that I was suspended from duty and a tick away from a grand jury indictment for second-degree homicide?"
     
     
To his credit, rather than responding with a knee-jerk argument, Luke mulled the possibility at length. "I'm afraid that's a risk we have to take. If we don't go public, what's to stop Jessup Knox from continuing to use it as a campaign issue?"
     
     
"Who says he won't, anyway?"
     
     
"If he does and constituents know it's been dropped, they'll know he's slandering you outright." Luke noted the look on David's face. "I hear ya. That's his entire strategy. Let me think about it. We have almost a week before Wingate puts the next Examiner to bed."
     
     
He sat back in the chair. "Which reminds me, did you talk to Hannah about my idea?"
     
     
David rolled his eyes. "No."
     
     
"Why not? I promise you, a boxed come-one, come-all wedding invitation in the paper the week before the election would bring people out in droves."
     
     
"I am not —"
     
     
"Then front and center in the August 3 edition, there'll be photos of the sheriff and his lovely bride." Luke bracketed his fingers like a picture frame. "Even if we had it, money can't buy that kind of warm fuzzy publicity. I don't have to tell you, we need it."
     
     
Rather than grab his enthusiastic but occasionally insane campaign manager by the belt and throw him out the nearest window, David groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands.
     
     
"Unless you and Hannah elope, you'll have to invite half the county to the wedding, anyway," Luke said. "So what's the difference? Elvis can lie till he's blue, but he can't steal thunder from a romantic Sunday-afternoon wedding in the park."
     
     
The nickname for David's opponent derived from Knox's slicked-back pompadour and muttonchop sideburns. Elvis's wannabe twin also had less law-enforcement experience than his idol. The late King of Rock 'n' Roll never wore a badge but did serve two years' active duty in the military. Jessup Knox hadn't even rung a bell at Christmas for the Salvation Army.
     
     
"Sauers, I'm telling you for the last time. Hannah's stuck at Valhalla Springs until she hires her own replacement. But even if that happened tomorrow, there isn't going to be a wedding until I can count on more than three weeks' worth of job security."
     
     
Luke crossed his arms. "Worst case scenario, it'd be next January before Knox is sworn into office. That's more like six months' job security."
     
     
"Good plan," David shot back. "Then me and Hannah will both be unemployed."
     
     
His loan payments on the new house and the cost of hiring contractors to finish it, had already put the hurt on his checkbook. If he lost the election, alternative job prospects were nil. Bump down to deputy with Knox in the sheriff's seat? Elvis probably wouldn't hire him and David had serious