He Said, She Said

False Accusations [by] Alan Jacobson

New York; Pocket Books [1999]

0-671-02678-X; $23.00

Two African-American victims are found at the scene of a hit-and-run in a low-rent neighborhood.  An eyewitness identifies the vehicle involved as a dark Mercedes and gives a partial license number.  The police ring the doorbell at Dr. Philip Madison’s house, waking him up.  He denies any knowledge of the accident, or of the victims, but his car does show the appropriate damage for such an accident.  He spends the rest of the night in the county lockup.

When his lawyer comes to get him, the doctor asks him to call Ryan Chandler in New York – he wants him to be the investigator on the case.  He used to be a Sacramento cop.  When he had been hurt on the job, the doctor had operated on him.  He was now working as a forensic specialist in NYC.

When Chandler, the lawyer, Jeffrey Hellman, and Madison get together, Madison relates what has been happening to him in the last couple of months.  Madison is on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, and, because his younger brother is mentally disabled, one of these organizations is the Consortium for Citizens with Mental Retardation.  He has just become its president, when the administrator  took some time off, later quitting due to health problems.  That’s when Dr. Madison came face-to-face with Brittany Harding, the absent woman’s assistant.

To say Ms. Harding was difficult would be to speak mildly.  She proceeded to try to seduce him, both in a restaurant and at his home, where she came to visit because she said she had abdominal pain, and the clinic she had gone to hadn’t taken care of it.  She also accused him of raping her, yelling her accusations all over a grocery store, and later to the police. Madison’s lawyer made a deal with her lawyer so that Madison wouldn’t have his reputation totally destroyed, and he paid the lawyer.  Then Harding sent a photo and a copy of the check to Madison’s wife.  Madison’s wife left him, taking their two kids with her.  The lawyers agree that this is a breach of the contract they had, and Harding’s lawyer sends a new check back as payment, thus denying Harding her money.  She is furious.  Articles appear in the paper with sly innuendos. And at her job, Harding was antagonizing the Consortium’s clientele and creating a bad air about the organization.  She was fired, causing her to attack the doctor even more.

His practice suffered, and finally the hospital, which he had helped financially in the past, revoked his surgical privileges there, when he had been considered the primo orthopedic surgeon in Northern California.  His career had really hit its nadir.  Then, an old girlfriend, whom he had almost married many years ago, called him up, wanting to get together.

She tried to seduce him, too, but he said no – he really wanted to get back with his wife Leeza.  “But she’s left you,” this other woman said.  The doctor explained that he really loved his wife and hoped that she would forgive him.  This woman calls up Leeza, who is staying with her sister in the Bay Area, identifies herself, and tells her to go back to her husband – he’s the real deal and a prize.  Leeza comes home and becomes part of the team supporting her husband.

Meanwhile, the investigator discovers a bunch of witnesses who had either not been interviewed, or not interviewed enough, by the cops. One of the people was a former boss of Harding, who had also been accused of rape, who had taped the payoff with her, in which she admits that she was out for the money.  He also has tests run – almost getting the official Sacramento Lab in hot water for doing the tests (which might have jeopardized the trial).  When his wife discovers a lump in her breast, she asks him to come home to be with her, leaving the rest of the team to carry on with the defense, when Madison finally does get arrested. 

By now, all of the evidence turns to point in a different direction, and it is  Harding who is arrested and taken to trial.  Her lawyer bows out, leaving her in the hands of a Public Defender, who does an excellent job until he can no longer fight the inevitable.  Harding goes down, dragged out of the courtroom screaming her innocence.

But Chandler, at home with his wife, has a random thought.  It might change the outcome.  Or not.  But he doesn’t call it in; leaving the opening for a little twist of surprise at the end.

A riveting page-turner of a book.  Recommended. ~ lss-r

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This is a library book.