PROLOGUE

The nearly endless downpour hadn't eased even for a minute, the reflections of lightening flashed across the wall, through her open window, bangs and claps of thunder danced in the damp clouds, illuminating the sky for the seconds they appeared, Grace had been on her laptop since she returned from the office, had thrown down her expensive suit on the nearest sofa, then gulped up a quickie, a peanut butter sandwich had been her favourite, but today she could hardly savor the sweetest, she had barely realized how fast it had gone into her mouth, down her throat and into her stomach, there wasn't time to lose, the next second she brought out her apple laptop from the drawer under her table, and pressed a finger on the powerbutton, while she waited for it to come on, at the waking sound followed by a modest brightness of the brand that came up, she inputted her password, and clocked enter, the home page opened in minutes, then she really adjusted her seat and inched closer to the table.

Her eyes fixed on the laptop in an unmistakenly intentional stare, clicking at the mouse, as her gaze trailed the cursor to stop at a page she tagged as ghost, it hadn't been tagged that way for no reason, something was bothering her, in fact it had been bothering her ever since that day in court ten years ago, the evidences then had all proven the accused guilty of the crime, but she couldn't help the lingering kick in her gut that told her otherwise, placing the cursor on the page, she took a short pause, a deep breath and clicked, immediately the screen flooded with different images, some more disturbing than others, they were images of accused offenders, some young, some old, and some a little older, making one certain that crime had no age limit, she scrolled up, rubbing at one side on the mouse, the cursor finally stopped at one of the the photos, undoubtedly the one she wanted, clicking on it, the picture filled the screen, the face of a middle aged man came into clear view, he held a board that carried his name, surname, age, and photograph on it, wearing a customized orange uniform stunningly resembling that of inmates.

His name was Cassady green, he had been one of her early cases, back when she had only scratched the surface of her carrier, an over zealous lawyer looking forward to solving a mystery, Cassady wasn't a man with big build, he had naturally big eyes that most often intimidated those he came in contact with, but looking again it could have also been because of the fact that he was black, he had held a spot at the local high school, Berrington high, as a janitor, but that had all ended when he had been accused of the crime of child assault, a crime he was convicted of by her ten years ago, but something had happened in these last past days, and unlike then it stirred her up, forget stirred, it practically ate her up, that was the suspicions that brought her back to this case file, looking back at the case, she stirred at his picture one more time relaxing in her seat, a curious stare, even if she decided to unearth this case, it wouldn't just be difficult, it would be down right dangerous, but if there was even the slightest chance that Cassady was innocent, she had to find out for herself, she would need his help, shifting her gaze to a photographe of her much younger self, hugging at a descently brown haired handsome man, she picked the picture frame from the table, the look on her face said it, the bright warm laughter she had in the photo was no where to be seen now, she inhaled deeply, and fixed her eyes on the monitor one more time, it was no news that the man in the picture had been a part of her life, even though it was a long time ago, but despite her not wanting to see him, she couldn't ignore the fact that he was in the best position to help her.