“This whole idea of yours was remarkable. You are an amazing woman!” Will declared.
Fiona held up a flyer and pointed to the words “Deputy Hugh Thompson,” and then she grinned, with her dimples showing.
“This man,” she said, “saved the life of my future husband. Are you kidding?”
As she held the sheet up, she couldn’t help noticing the sunlight playing in brilliant flashes off the large diamond on her left hand.
Then she glanced at the last sentence of the flyer—“All Proceeds Will Be Donated for the Treatment and Cure of Methylmalonic Acidemia.”
Suddenly Fiona snapped up her head. “There, Will, turn there—that should be the farm.”
“I was there once, but this doesn’t look like it…” Will replied vaguely.
“Will, dear—the directions say to turn right here.”
Will slowed the Corvette down and pulled onto a gravel road. That was when they noticed the bunch of balloons tied to a post at the opening of the driveway.
“See?” Fiona said, smiling triumphantly.
Up ahead, at the farm, there were two pairs of legs churning at full speed. A man was running through the field.
Joe Fellows slowed down to half speed.
The other set of legs, however, was still running at top speed—but because they were very small legs, they were making little headway despite a heroic effort.
Joe was catching up. Then, when he was right there, he slowed his stride a bit, swooped down, scooped up Joshua as he was running, and took him in his arms, swinging him around like an airplane.
Joshua burst into exuberant laughter, and Joe began belly-laughing himself.
At one of the tables in the yard, Tommy White Arrow was talking politics with a friend of Joe’s from the farm co-op. Under a spreading tree, Andrew White Arrow was sipping lemonade and discussing something with the pastor of the Fellowses’ church.
Mary Sue paused for a minute in the front doorway, surveying the front yard, the friends who had come, and her husband frolicking in the field with their son.
Inside the farmhouse, Katherine White Arrow was helping in the kitchen, and Danny, taking a break from the activity outside, was watching television.
A promotional ad from the National Airline Association, which had been playing since the time of the airplane strike, had just appeared on the screen. It showed a tired man and woman in an airport, checking in their luggage. Then the man called on his cell phone to his son and daughter at home. “Mommy and I are on our way home,” he said. “We’ll be there soon. You can count on that.” As the music in the background swelled, a deep, soothing voice closed the ad by saying,
AMERICA’S AIRLINES ARE HERE TO SERVE YOU
And then, as the voice concluded, Danny lit up in a huge smile and repeated the words by heart along with the ad—
THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO GO HOME
As the Fellows family’s farmhouse came into view, Will and Fiona caught sight of the group that had gathered outside. Pulling to the side, Will came to a stop. He pointed out to Fiona where Andrew was standing under the tree.
Then he said, indicating one of the long tables, “That must be his brother, Tommy.” He also spotted Joe, who by then was carrying Joshua on his shoulders toward the front door—where Mary Sue was wiping her hands on her apron, standing and waiting for them with an expression of quiet peace on her face.
When Will pointed to Joe, and Joshua, and Mary Sue—there on the threshold of their home—that was when Fiona, with the finger of one slender hand, delicately wiped away the tears forming in her eyes. And then, as the car was parked with the motor running, she turned to Will Chambers, placed her hands on both sides of his face, and spoke to him—softly and tenderly.
When the crowd at the house finally noticed the Corvette in the driveway—and the couple in it, embracing—a great cheer rose up. It echoed from the heart of the farm through the fields and hollows, all the way down to the little creek at the very edge of the land.
Book 3 in the Chambers of Justice Series
The Accused
by Craig Parshall
Attorney Will Chambers has fought for justice for his clients in the popular Resurrection File and the harrowing Custody of the State. But now, in The Accused, Will must grapple with the terrifying temptation to execute justice for himself—by avenging the brutal crime that shattered his past.
A honeymoon in Cancún. What could be more romantic? But the happiness of attorney Will Chambers and his wife, Fiona, is ambushed by two unexpected events: a terrorist kidnapping of a U.S. official…and a phone call telling Will that a link has been found to the previously unidentified murderer of his first wife.
As the newly married lawyer struggles with these terrible events, one of them thrusts him into a new legal case. A secret U.S. team had tried to thwart the Cancún kidnapping, and the Marine colonel who led it, Caleb Marlowe, has now been court-martialed for the murder of unarmed civilians—disavowed and hung out to dry by the White House.
At the mercy of international politics, Marlowe is ping-ponged from a military court to both a Senate subcommittee and International Criminal Court, with Will arguing his defense. And when the disguise is ripped away from past treachery and callous betrayal, both Will and his client must ask, Is forgiveness real?—or face a debacle ending in bloody vengeance.
The Accused is a legal thriller that recounts a man’s epic confrontation of evil from his past—and reveals the power of God through forgiveness.
THE RESURRECTION FILE—
The Exciting First Novel in the Chambers of Justice Series
“Powerful… The Resurrection File is one of the most fascinating books I have read in years.”
—Tim LaHaye, coauthor of the bestselling LEFT BEHIND® series
A Respected Professor…
A Take-No-Prisoners Lawyer…
A Small-Time Preacher…
WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH?
Depressed, down on his luck, and dropped by his law partners, Will Chambers is an attorney whose troubles are starting to exceed even his considerable talents.
When Reverend Angus MacCameron asks Chambers to defend him against accusations that might destroy not only the man’s ministry but the very foundation of the Christian faith, everything in Chambers’ nonbelieving heart says “run away.”
But Chambers can’t resist the preacher’s earnest pleas, the presence of his lovely and successful daughter, Fiona, and the chance to go up against high-powered attorney J-Fox Sherman.
Quickly caught in a conspiracy involving terrorism, top-level government intrigue, and wild legal maneuvering, Chambers is in for the ride of his life—a ride whose destination he never could have imagined.
“The Resurrection File has action, adventure, and very good courtroom scenes. The characters are real. The dialogue is compelling. The story situations keep the reader riveted and—it’s a cliché, but I will repeat it—‘I couldn’t put it down.’”
—Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE® (Web site: www.movieguide.org) and Chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission
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