Abiding Conviction

Dutch Francis is an attorney who accepts the job of defending a judge charged with murdering his wife. Before the trial has settled into its routine, Dutch's own wife, a familiar face on local television, goes missing. Her captor sends fragments of physical evidence to show she is still alive, and the whole ordeal unfolds while the case draws heavy public attention.

Dutch is pulled in two directions. He feels a personal urgency to find his wife, yet he also owes a professional duty to the client who hired him. The story asks whether he can honor both obligations at once, and it places readers inside a courtroom where the stakes run high on both fronts.