HOW TO MARRY A DOCTOR… The gossip around town was that Dr. Sam Lawford would rather swallow his stethoscope than marry, but woman after woman faked sore throats and got stung by bumblebees just to have Sam's hands on their bodies! So what was an honest woman in love with Dr. Sam to do? When his fiancée ran off with a married man, Sam Lawford vowed he's never be betrayed by the fairer sex again. The folks of Cooper Canyon could buzz all they wanted to about him and newcomer Kirsten Reinhold—he'd never propose marriage, not in a million years. So how had a woman who believed in a church wedding, a white gown and forever gotten Dr. Sam down that aisle?

The real-life murder that became known as “The Fugitive” case began before dawn on July 4, 1954, in a Cleveland suburb, when Marilyn Sheppard was viciously beaten to death in her bed. After an inadequate investigation, her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, was charged with the crime, and a chain of events was set in motion that has caused more speculation, more publicity, and more cultural myth than any other American murder. James Neff is an award-winning investigative journalist who, over the past ten years, has assembled the most compete set of Sheppard records in existence, including DNA analyses and interviews with every living person central to the case. He has also gained unprecedented access to crime-scene evidence that shows conclusively that Sham Sheppard did not murder his wife–and points to the man who did. Peeling away the layers of fiction surrounding the case, Neff uncovers the factual events and the key players in a story that until now has been shrouded in mystery. The Wrong Man is a landmark work, a gripping narrative, and indeed the final verdict on America’s most famous unsolved murder From the Hardcover edition.

The new prosecutor faces an old controversy -- An unlikely setting for murder -- Did Sam murder Marilyn? -- Putting the pieces of the puzzle together -- Final trial preparation : the emergence of the prosecutor's strategy -- Opening statements : setting the stage -- The Sheppard team presents its case -- The prosecutors speak -- Closing arguments and a verdict : the end of a legal era.

This short story is excerpted from the upcoming collection of stories Damage Control by Amber Dermont, to be published in March 2013. One by one, the wives of Portsmouth, Rhode Island are disappearing from Darling Vista Park. Detective Mitchell Landry searches for the rhyme, reason, and meaning behind each of these disappearances by investigating their husbands and trying to find the missing connections between them. But are there connections to be made, or are these random similarities merely coincidences? Who had the means, motive, and opportunity to steal the wives of Portsmouth? What happened to them, and more importantly, why? As Detective Landry delves deeper into the lives of these women, he tries to makes sense of his own wife's suicide, and wonders why some questions simply have no answer.