Chapter 3

Julie, Morgan, and Sara tried not to race through the lab when they returned but their nerves were all on edge. Russell was sitting in his office reviewing case files when he was suddenly bombarded by the girls in their weekend outfits and shopping bags.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" he asked them leaning back in his chair alarmed.

"Uh- small fire," Sara said pulling out the book from her bag "we were out shopping and we stumbled upon this"

She lay the book down on his desk with the front cover of Winthrop's face upwards for him to see properly. Russell sat up now, concerned, the title jumping out at him, the cold lifeless eyes staring at him, sending an icy chill through him and the entire office. Immediately he looked at Julie who was swaying from side to side, arms crossed defensively, staring at him, silently begging him to do something to fix this.

"Where did you find this?" Russell asked.

"Bookstore in the mall," Sara explained "any idea who D.L is?"

Russell stared at the author's initials but no spark of recognition came to him. There was no author photo or description either which was odd for a published book these days. He flipped through the book, turning unfortunately to the chapter on Julie and her coma.

"No," he said feeling a rush of anger towards this author who remained anonymous while the chapters containing information on Julie were so detailed and personal it seemed to border on the obsessive.

"What are we gonna do D.B?" Julie asked meekly, speaking for the first time "they have case notes, they have notes on me, on my life, my coma-"

She had to stop talking because her words got caught in her throat and she was afraid to speak for fear of sounding weak in front of everyone. Russell knew she was scared, they all did; this was the forensic conference shooting all over again.

Russell flipped the book over so that Winthrop's face was no longer staring up at them.

"This is a crime scene," he said "that's all, we have to process this book as our only evidence and find out who wrote it and who allowed it to be published."

But as he spoke, he knew the laws and rules about free speech and how technically this book was not illegal even though it hurt Julie which was a crime to him that needed to be punished severely for. But as her friend, he couldn't let this mysterious "D.L" get away with it without at least confronting them for information on how they knew so many intimate personal details of her survival and recovery. He opened the cover again and found the publishing companies name and logo, it was a Las Vegas based company and their logo was a small sun, very original.

"Sara, Morgan," Russell said now "get Greg and Hodges and see if you can track down this company, the editor might be able to give us more information but tread carefully, we don't have a plausible reason for investigating and if we ask too many questions they might shut us out."

"On it," Sara said copying down the name of the company and racing off with Morgan out of the office.

"What about me?" Julie asked "what can I do?"

"You are staying off this case," he said "this is getting too personal Jules"

"But I have to help," she insisted as usual "it's my life."

"Yeah and I want you to stick around for a long time Jules," Russell said "I almost lost you once, if this book is part of Winthrop's sick game and something else happens to you-

But he let that sentence hang in the air, unable to fathom a world without her having had to do so once already when she was in the coma. Her glare of disappointment and her stubborn stance made no difference in his decision as he told her blankly "Go home Jules."