The Fall (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series) - Hardcover

John Lescroart is the author of twenty-five previous novels (sixteen New York Times bestsellers), including the 13th Juror, Damage, The Hunter, The Ophelia Cut, and The Keeper. His books have sold more than ten million copies and have been translated into twenty-two languages in seventy-five countries. He lives in Northern California.

The Fall 1

THE BODY FELL straight out of the sky.

Those were the words in her original statement, and that was exactly how it had appeared to Robyn Owen. No foreshadowing, no warning. She had just turned right out of the Sutter-Stockton garage and was about to enter the tunnel when all at once the body fell out of the sky and landed on the hood of her brand-new Subaru. The head bounced against the windshield, shattering the safety glass into a spiderweb. Robyn had slammed on her brakes as she screamed. She’d been going fast enough to send the body flying, rag doll–fashion, what seemed an impossibly long distance in front of her.

The time was exactly 11:03 P.M. on her dashboard clock. She was leaving the parking garage after a nice dinner at Campton Place—and no, she was not drunk!, as she’d told the police officers about a hundred times, blowing into a breathalyzer twice to prove it.

Before turning, she had checked to her left for oncoming traffic in her lane and noted the car about a block down, coming toward her. This turned out to be the BMW that had tried to stop after Robyn had slammed on her own brakes, but still plowed into her after the impact. Robyn hadn’t been speeding. The Beemer had not been speeding, either: It hadn’t forced her to super-accelerate out into her lane; it was a normal safe distance from her when she had turned. Robyn did not lay rubber coming out of the garage. She couldn’t have stopped or slowed to keep from hitting the woman, because she never saw her, never had even a hint of her existence, until she landed on the Subaru’s hood. There hadn’t been anything she could have done that would have led to a different outcome.

And who was going to pay for the repair to her car? Did insurance cover bodies that fell out of the sky? She suspected it did not.