The Advocate's Conviction
The Advocate's Conviction
The Advocate [3]
Teresa Burrell
Silent Thunder Publishing (2011)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: Mystery, legal suspense
Mysteryttt legal suspensettt
Sabre Orin Brown's clients keep disappearing. A young boy and a teenage girl are both missing from foster care. With seemingly no connection between the two cases, Sabre enlists the help of her southern PI friend, JP, and her best friend, Bob, to find each of them - before it's too late. When her search seems to land her in a hotbed of Satanic ritual, everything points to the occult. But Sabre doesn't believe in the dark forces, and the pieces just aren't adding up. In her race against the clock, Sabre must determine whether contemporary horrors are being buried in the shadow of dark traditions - or if it's something else at work. A conspiracy years in the making, secrets hidden for decades, and the twisted work of a mysterious society have all come together in the ultimate test of the strength of Sabre's conviction.
### About the Author
AUTHOR. ATTORNEY. ADVOCATE. Teresa Burrell has dedicated her life to helping children and their families. As an attorney, Ms. Burrell has spent countless hours working pro bono in the family court system. Ms. Burrell continues to advocate for children's issues while writing novels, many of which are inspired by actual legal cases.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Note to Author
THE ADVOCATE’S CONVICTION
By Teresa Burrell
Published by Silent Thunder Publishing
Copyright © 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.
SECOND EDITION
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons (except celebrities with an incidental role), living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
The Advocate’s Conviction/ Teresa Burrell — 2nd. Ed. ISBN 978-1-938680-01-4
Published by Silent Thunder Publishing
San Diego, CA 92111
To all mothers everywhere and in particular to both of mine, Clara and Virginia, who each in their own way provided me with guidance, clarity, and love. Clara, for her spiritual guidance, protection, and her selfless devotion to her nine children until she left this earth way too early. And to my stepmother, Virginia, who came into my life at a time when I needed her most, teaching me the importance of independence, developing my self esteem, and affording me unconditional love and encouragement. May they both rest in peace.
A special thanks to my friends for their help with research and for making this book possible; Bob Pullman, Jerry Leahy, Richard Arroyo, Eric Orloff, Chris Broesel, Ron and Kim Vincent, and especially Marilee Wood.
Prologue
The fourteen-year-old girl struggled to break free from the bindings on her hands and feet. One woman on each arm held her as she fought. Her feet were in stirrups, and the unbearable pain shot through her abdomen. Her blonde hair was wet with sweat. She yanked her right arm away but the heavy-set woman holding her arm threw her body across the teenager, pinning her down on the hospital bed.
“No,” the teen screamed. “No! Don’t take my baby.”
“Push,” the body-blocker said. “Just push.”
The tall, thin woman holding the teen’s left arm spoke calmly. “You need to stop fighting and breathe. Your baby is coming. You need to push.”
The girl looked around the small, dirty room for help, but all she saw was a man wearing a surgical mask sitting at the end of the bed between her legs, waiting for her to give birth. He would be no help. After all, she had agreed to this. The candles flickered around her, casting soft shadows around the room. The oak tree painted on the wall and the circle around her bed would protect her, or so she was told. But she hurt so badly and no one seemed to care.
The heavy-set woman was face to face with her. The girl could feel her breathing and smell her garlicky lunch. “Just push,” she said again.
The girl screamed.
“This is your child’s fate. Your baby must be sacrificed. Are you a believer?”
The girl wanted to say no. She didn’t know what to believe, but fear won out. “Yes,” she said.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, I believe. I believe in the power of the oak. I believe in the power of the oak.” She was chanting now and the two women joined her.
“I believe in the power of the oak. I believe in the power of the oak.”
The young girl screamed again as another contraction shot through her. She pushed as hard as she could, then stopped.
“Again!” the man at her feet yelled. “Push!”
She pushed and screamed in agony until she felt the mass exit her womb. Her body lay limp on the bed as she heard the baby cry. The heavy-set woman continued to hold her in place while the tall woman took the baby to the back of the room and out of sight. The baby’s cries still filled the room.
Then, silence.
A few minutes later the woman returned without the child.
The girl turned her head away and closed her eyes.
What have I done?
1
Attorney Sabre Orin Brown hurried through the crowd at San Diego Juvenile Court toward the clerk’s office. She thought about the newspaper article that reported child abuse was down. Where were they getting their statistics? The halls were so crowded she had to squeeze through. The construction in the lobby didn’t help, either. The powers that be had decided it would be a good time to move the information desk from the middle of the room up against the wall. It wouldn’t provide any more space and it didn’t really look any better, but it might make it a little easier for the clerks to go from the work room to the desk. She was on calendar for detentions this morning and she was running late. It was the first morning she could remember that she hadn’t arrived at court an hour early.
“You okay, Sobs?” Bob, Sabre’s best friend, asked. Sobs had become her juvenile court nickname. S.O.B. were Sabre Orin Brown’s initials and her colleagues were quick to tease her about the nickame. At first it was only Bob that called her Sobs, but the name had caught on and some of the other attorneys used it as well. Bob had nicknames for a lot of his co-workers, most not as lovingly applied as hers. “I can’t believe I beat you to court.”
“I just had a little trouble getting rolling this morning, but I’m fine now.” Sabre gave a half smile. “How many detentions are on calendar?”
“We have three. And there’s just you and me on detentions. There’s an out-of-control teenager, a drug baby, and …” Bob stood there in his gray suit and Marshall- bought Florsheims, shuffling through the blue petitions. A quirky smile came over his face.
“What is it?”
“Heh, heh,” Bob made a strange sound with his throat. “I’m not sure, but it looks like one of those ritual cases.”
“Another one? There was one last week and I’m pretty sure Wagner had one last month. Why are they filing this stuff? Most of it is just ludicrous. I wonder how many more there are that we don’t know about.”
“It’s about time we got something interesting. I’m bored with broken arms, tox babies, and creepy guys who molest little children.” Bob picked up the social worker’s report and started to read through it.
Sabre shook her head. She knew Bob cared as much about the children as she did. She watched his expression turn from grin to grimace as he read through the report. Although he was in his early thirties, his full head of hair had already started to gray. She figured hers would too if she continued in this line of work. “So what is it?”
Bob leaned in closer to her and in a deep, creepy voice said, “Goat blood and chicken feet.”
“No.” Sabre said in disbelief, grabbing the report out of his hand. “Give me that.”
Bob laughed as he picked up another copy from the box on the desk.
“Ewww. It does say goat blood and chicken feet were found in the home.”
“You take the kids.” Bob said “I want the mom on this one. I can win this. It’ll be another win for the king.” He threw his fist in the air.
“You’re sick, but you are the king of juvenile court. You have more jurisdictional wins than anyone.” Sabre separated the other petitions, glancing at the potential appointments. “Do you want the tox baby or the teenager?”
Bob tilted his head down and looked over his glasses. “You can have the teenager. I hate working with teenagers. For that matter, you can have the tox baby, too, if you want.”
“No, that’s fine. I’ll take mom. If they all go to trial, you’ll have too much prep to do. Not that there’s that much to do on the drug baby cases, but still …”
“Fine. You have the kids on Johnson and Lecy and I have the baby on Hernandez. There’s no appointments for the fathers, right?”