Missing Witness (55 page)

About the Author

Craig Parshall is a highly successful lawyer from the Washington, DC, area who specializes in cases involving civil liberties and religious freedom. He is also the frequent spokesperson for conservative values in mainstream and Christian media.
Missing Witness
follows three other novels in the Chambers of Justice Series—the powerful
Resurrection File,
the harrowing
Custody of the State,
and the gripping
The Accused.

A Note from the Author

Though this novel is part of the continuing saga of lawyer Will Chambers, it is a wholly different one in style and story structure. In a sense, it is current legal thriller wrapped inside an eighteenth-century crime mystery. And because it required a breadth of research—everything from the life and times of pirates like Edward “Blackbeard” Teach, who haunted the 1700s, to modern techniques of ocean archaeology—I depended on the help of many others.

Many thanks go to Marilyn Clifton, who helped with research on such arcane topics as North Carolina probate law and federal maritime regulations, and who typed up my final edits. Also, her son Chris was a great help by retrieving for me the “pirate's song” from
Treasure Island
. My secretary, Sharon Donehey, did a masterful job on the manuscript work, and editor Paul Gossard was insightful, as always.

Because a subplot in this story involves a near-fatal accident in one car and some engine difficulties in another, I greatly appreciated my son Joseph taking time from his university studies to give me the benefit of his certified auto mechanic's knowledge. My good friend Jim Gwinn, president of CRISTA Ministries—and a true Corvette aficionado—helped to ensure accuracy about the “care and feeding” of Will Chamber's classic 1957 Corvette—a vehicle that may have proved to be the unsung hero of this story. And, as always, Jim's personal encouragement is truly appreciated.

Much of what is contained in this fictionalized story is based, loosely, on historical fact. I relied on the painstaking research of many authors of pirate history along the North Carolina coast—too many to mention here. But a few remarks need to be made here about the line between fact and fancy.

The life of Blackbeard, the details in this novel about his chilling crimes, and the battle off Ocracoke Island where he met his just end, are true events. But visitors to the Outer Banks will search in vain for Stony Island…it is entirely a figment of the author's imagination. Many of the sailing ships mentioned in this novel—
Adventure, Good Intent,
and
Queen Anne's Revenge
—really did cruise the oceans…but others, like
Bold Venture,
the vessel so central to Will's pursuit of justice in this story, did not. I tried to make the general history of the Tuscarora Indians as accurate as possible—but the person of Indian chief King Jim Blount and his family is pure fiction.

The references to the transcript of the trial of Captain William Kidd are based, with only minor adaptations, on those found in a book titled
The Tryal
of Capt. William Kidd (for murther & piracy),
Don C. Seitz, editor—first printed in 1936 by Rufus Rockwell Wilson, Inc., New York, New York, and later reprinted in 2001 by Dover Publications, Inc., of Mineola, New York, in an unabridged version.

And, though present-day character Blackjack Morgan is the product of creative imagination, he reflects, I believe, the reality that the so-called “golden age of piracy” is really not dead…rather, the untamed sea still harbors, to this day, terrorists and criminals of all kinds.

Lastly, my wife, Janet, prominently inspired much of what is between the lines of this book—both in the Will–Fiona relationship and its counterpart, the eighteenth-century tale of Isaac Joppa and his beloved Abigail Merriwether. What lies behind the words here may be the most important story of all.

THE CHAMBERS OF JUSTICE SERIES

by Craig Parshall

The Resurrection File 

When Reverend Angus MacCameron asks attorney Will Chambers to defend him against accusations that could discredit the Gospels, Will's unbelieving heart says “run.” But conspiracy and intrigue—and the presence of MacCameron's lovely and successful daughter, Fiona—draw him deep into the case…toward a destination he could never have imagined.

Custody of the State

Attorney Will Chambers reluctantly agrees to defend a young mother from Georgia and her farmer husband, suspected of committing the unthinkable against their own child. Encountering small-town secrets, big-time corruption, and a government system that's destroying the little family, Chambers himself is thrown into the custody of the state.

The Accused

Enjoying a Cancún honeymoon with his wife, Fiona, attorney Will Chambers is ambushed by two unexpected events: a terrorist kidnapping of a U.S. official…and the news that a link has been found to the previously unidentified murderer of Will's first wife. The kidnapping pulls him into the case of Marine colonel Caleb Marlowe. When treachery drags both Will and his client toward vengeance, they must ask—
Is forgiveness real?

Missing Witness 

A relaxing North Carolina vacation for attorney Will Chambers? Not likely. When Will investigates a local inheritance case, the long arm of the law reaches out of the distant past to cast a shadow over his client's life…and the life of his own family. As the attorney's legal battle uncovers corruption, piracy, the deadly grip of greed, and the haunting sins of a man's past, the true question must be faced—
Can a person ever really run away from God?

The Last Judgment

A mysterious religious cult plans to spark an “Armageddon” in the Middle East. Suddenly, a huge explosion blasts the top of the Jerusalem Temple Mount into rubble, with hundreds of Muslim casualities. And attorney Will Chambers' client, Gilead Amahn, a convert to Christianity from Islam, becomes the prime suspect. In his harrowing pursuit of the truth, Will must face the greatest threat yet to his marriage, his family, and his faith, while cataclysmic events plunge the world closer to the Last Judgment.