Tracy had been stopping by the apartment, trying to shake him down for money. But then Jack’s underage mistress made the fatal decision of going to Buckley and telling her that her next stop was Malcolm Neeley.
Jack, in typical fashion, had tried to brush it off, telling his daughter that the girl was just troubled. Confused. He’d handle it. But Buckley wasn’t like her father. He was the kind of person who needed to be protected, even if it was by his sixteen-year-old daughter. She, on the other hand, was willing to take care of business.
They both had to go. Killing Malcolm Neeley and Tracy Frankel had allowed the Harris family to maintain the myth. Poor Clifton Hunter just happened to be there.
When you’re a criminal defense lawyer, you get used to trying to understand why people do horrible things. I was still trying to understand Buckley. She was a little kid who made her mother take a later train because she didn’t wake up on time one day—a day that just happened to be the morning a boy named Todd Neeley opened fire in Penn Station. She saw her father become consumed with Malcolm Neeley, because blaming the shooter’s father was easier than blaming his own daughter. And then one day, she realized that if anyone was to be blamed other than her or a mentally ill boy, it was Jack.
She could have left Jack out of it. She knew where to find Neeley on Wednesday mornings. Luring Tracy there would have been easy—a quick call from a blocked number, asking her to meet to pick up her blackmail money. But Buckley was also angry that her father’s infidelity had put them in this position. Maybe she hired the woman in the grass as a test—to see if her father would yet again take the bait of an attractive girl with long, dark hair.
She wanted him to connect enough dots to realize that all of this was his fault. She probably counted on the police to at least question her father, and calling me afterward was almost certainly part of the plan. Forcing Jack to accept help from the woman he’d always loved more than her mother was a nice chunk of the intended punishment. But my best guess is that she never expected him to be arrested, let alone convicted. She thought I’d save him. She pleaded with me to save him.
But four years later, Jack was still in prison, and he knew exactly why. I no longer thought of Jack on a regular basis, but he was in my calendar as an annual event. Every year, I would check.
Author’s Note
THE EX IS set in the real New York City, with very slight modifications. The football field is a larger, fictionalized version of the sports courts south of Pier 40, and Olivia and Melissa had a more classic college dorm than the actual student housing at Columbia University. Though every legal process in Jack’s case is authentic, some of the bumps along the way are not typical of the run-of-the-mill trial. Café Lissa isn’t real, but oh, how I wish it were.
Acknowledgments
Writing is a solitary exercise, but the completion of The Ex was a collective effort. My editor, Jennifer Barth, is a smart and loyal perfectionist with a careful eye and sharp instincts; she forces me to be a better writer. My agent, Philip Spitzer, remains my biggest champion. NYPD Lt. Lucas Miller, Nic Wolff, and Roy Simon generously allowed me to pick their very impressive brains for information.
I am endlessly grateful for the support I receive at the Spitzer Agency from Lukas Ortiz and Jennifer Woodason; at HarperCollins from Amy Baker, Erica Barmash, Jonathan Burnham, Heather Drucker, Michael Morrison, Katie O’Callaghan, Kathy Schneider, Leah Wasielewski, Erin Wicks, and Lydia Weaver; at Faber & Faber from Angus Cargill and Sophie Portas; and from Jody Hotchkiss.
I’d especially like to thank readers. Until a book is read, a story hasn’t really been told. Your imagination is what completes the process, so thank you for sharing it with me. Some of you have gone even further by telling friends about the books, serving as volunteer photographers and tour guides at book events, and acting as informal publicists, advisors, life coaches, and dog trainers in the online “Kitchen Cabinet” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I’m humbled and grateful for the support.
Finally, I don’t know how I’d stay (relatively) sane without the love, support, and patience of my family and friends. And hey you, Sean: Happy tenth anniversary.
About the Author
ALAFAIR BURKE is the New York Times bestselling author of ten previous novels, including the stand-alones Long Gone and If You Were Here, as well as the Ellie Hatcher series: All Day and a Night, Never Tell, 212, Angel’s Tip, and Dead Connection. She is also the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Under Suspicion series with Mary Higgins Clark. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and lives in Manhattan.
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Also by Alafair Burke
Long Gone
If You Were Here
THE ELLIE HATCHER SERIES
Dead Connection
Angel’s Tip
212
Never Tell
All Day and a Night
THE SAMANTHA KINCAID SERIES
Judgment Calls
Missing Justice
Close Case
THE UNDER SUSPICION SERIES (WITH MARY HIGGINS CLARK)
The Cinderella Murder
All Dressed in White
Credits
Cover design by Jimmy Iacobelli
Cover photograph © Magnus Fond/plainpicture/Johner
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE EX. Copyright © 2016 by Alafair Burke. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition JANUARY 2016 ISBN 9780062390509
ISBN: 978-0-06-239048-6
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