Jury Town

by Stephen Frey

  Racine grinned as he sat back down. “I don’t imagine it’s too hard for you to meet the men. The women I get, but not the men.” He regretted the remark when a self-conscious expression clouded her face. “I meant that in a nice way. I meant no disrespect.”

  “I know,” she said quietly. “It didn’t occur to me when I ran into you that day that you’d be heading here, too.”

  “Well, here I am.”

  “Yes … here you are.”

  “Are you on a jury yet?” he asked.

  “No. But we’re starting a selection process tomorrow morning.”

  “Jury Room Nine?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve been called to that one, too. That’s an interesting little monitor on the desk, lots of information.”

  “Including Victoria’s quote of the day and one thing at the bottom of the screen that I don’t—”

  “Hopefully, we’ll be on that jury together,” Racine interrupted gently.

  “I’d like that.”

  Their relationship was in its infancy, but he could always tell when he’d made a connection with someone. He definitely had with Sofia. It was all in those glistening eyes.

  She still had that dark halo of sadness to her, though the fear he’d noticed that day outside Victoria’s office seemed to have eased. Maybe she still needed a strong shoulder. Victoria had offered him no details as to what she’d meant by the remark.

  “It is difficult coming in after everyone else. I had a hard time making up my mind if I would. You?”

  “Mine was a last-minute thing,” Sofia answered. “I didn’t go through quite the same process you did.”

  She seemed to be struggling with how much to say. Was her sadness connected to whatever personal reason had led her in here? “Look, um, you don’t … you don’t have to—”

  Before he could fumble anymore, she cut in, her voice a whisper just loud enough for him to hear.

  “See those two?” She nodded at a pair of women who’d just passed by, holding their dinner trays. “They’re both on a jury involving Commonwealth Electric Power. I overheard one of them say that she can’t wait to find CEP guilty because she’s got a personal vendetta.”

  Racine glanced at the women who’d sat down a few tables away, his pulse ticking up. Victoria was savvy, obviously, but he hadn’t expected to find the sorts of flaws in the system she was looking for so quickly. “Which one?”

  Felicity smiled as she breezed into her room to change for the marathon round-robin pool tournament she, Kate, and Wilson were waging tonight. The room smelled fresh and clean. She loved it.

  So far she loved everything about Jury Town. And then there was that four million dollars at the end of the rainbow. That would be the best thing of all.

  Her smile widened as she headed for the bureau. She loved playing pool. She kept her arrogance controlled in front of others. But, deep down, she thrived on the attention she won for putting ball after ball into those pockets.

  She laughed softly. She was going to start taking a dive tonight—a big one—to let Wilson win a chain of games and make him think he was better than he was, and that she wasn’t nearly as good as she’d played the other night. She wanted to walk out of Jury Town in two years with more than four million dollars.

  And Hal Wilson was the mark.

  He was quiet, but intensely competitive beneath his unassuming surface. He thought men were naturally superior to women, though he would never say so, of course. And he believed himself a much better pool player than he really was.

  He wasn’t the type to ever have shown up at her door to be dominated, just the opposite, in fact—which made him the perfect kind of man to take money from on the pool table. She’d play this out for two years, but in the end work Wilson for at least ten grand.

  She was about to pull the flashy top she’d chosen out of the drawer when she noticed what looked like the corner of a piece of paper sticking out from beneath her pillow.

  She moved slowly to the bed, slid the paper out from its hiding place, and read. Halfway through it she eased onto the bed as the words on the page blurred before her.

  Suddenly she hated Jury Town.

  DARIEN, CONNECTICUT

  Rockwell glanced away from the computer monitor in his Connecticut study to his phone when it rang shrilly. “Hello.”

  “Hello, Mr. Rockwell.”

  “Jesus,” he hissed, “why are you using names?”

  “What’s the problem?” the Gray asked calmly. “Are you worried someone might be trying to find you?”

  That sounded strange, Rockwell thought. Maybe it was because he’d been hard at work on the Internet again, trying to find the fourth Gray, when the call had interrupted him.

  “No.”

  “Don’t worry,” the man said confidently. “For the next ninety seconds, we’re on a secure line.”

  “Oh,” Rockwell muttered, relieved. Of course, it made sense given that this man was so senior at NSA. Still, the remark had unnerved him.

  “Is the intruder ready?” the Gray asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Everything prepared?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then she may fire at will.”

  As Rockwell hung up, he heard a shuffling sound in the hallway outside his study—strange because he was the only one here.

  He stood up quickly, grabbed his pistol from a credenza drawer, and hurried for the door. He hesitated a moment, then burst into the hallway, swinging the gun quickly in both directions.

  “Good Lord,” he whispered as he lowered the gun, and his shoulders sagged when he spotted his black Lab. “I thought you were outside, Drexel.”

  JURY TOWN

  Racine remained in the hallway after Sofia unlocked the door to her room and moved inside. He’d enjoyed her company so much at dinner, he wasn’t looking forward to being alone again, but he didn’t want to push this. “It was great seeing you,” he called.

  “Are you leaving?” she asked, disappointed. She tossed her keys on the desk and turned back to face him.

  “I guess.”

  “You don’t have to be anywhere until nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Why are you leaving me?”

  “Well, I—”

  “Don’t be rude. Come in.”

  “I like what you’ve done with the place,” he offered, sitting in the desk chair.

  “You’re funny, too. I like that.”

  “Funny?”

  “It’s a refurbished prison cell,” she said, sitting on the bed after closing the door. “There’s only so much a girl can do with it.”

  “Well, it looks a lot better than mine.”

  “So … I’m sorry I dodged your question while we were eating.”

  He wanted to ask Sofia what she meant by funny, too, but held back. “Which question?”

  “How I got here.”

  “I didn’t mean to pry.”

  She took a deep breath, then put a hand on her chest, emotion catching up. “Sorry.”

  “Are you okay?”

  She took several seconds to answer. “My husband was murdered. That’s why I’m here.”

  “My God,” Racine murmured.

  “Raul was head of security for the Virginia Supreme Court.”

  “I read about that, about him. It happened close to where I live. That was your husband?”

  She nodded. “Chief Justice Eldridge felt very guilty about it. He arranged for me to come here so I could …”

  “Earn the money,” Racine finished. “I get it.”

  “It’s a lot of money, but now I won’t see my kids for two years.”

  “I get that, too,” he said quietly. “I’m in the same boat with my daughter. I put her on a plane to Los Angeles earlier today. I don’t even know if she got there safely.”

  “Los Angeles?”

  “Her mother and I are separated. Tess moved to Los Angeles, so Claire will live with her.”

  “How old is Claire?”

&
nbsp; “Fourteen. How old are your children?” he asked.

  “Daniel is ten and … Maria, my baby, is eight.” Sofia shook her head hard. “This conversation’s too real. Let’s talk about something else, okay?”

  Racine nodded. “Sure.”

  “What should we—”

  “What’s the name of the woman who’s on the Commonwealth trial? The woman with the vendetta you pointed out earlier.”

  PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA

  The young woman had been probing the company’s firewall all night from her laptop, testing spots that would be easy to penetrate. And, equally important, spots that would leave no trace of her crime after she’d dropped her bomb on the network, no electronic footprints that would be discernible.

  A smug smile creased her face when she finally located what she’d been searching for. In a few seconds, she’d be into the network, able to travel around—and leave—like a ghost through an old castle. With no one ever knowing she’d been there.

  This castle was Gaynor Construction, Inc.

  Her eyes narrowed as she finished her work. Leaving zero footprints was impossible. But, like tracks in old snow covered by a fresh blizzard, the electronic trail she’d just created was all but invisible. Only a handful of people in the world were skilled enough to detect her work at this point.

  The woman who’d just been hacked would have no idea who those people were—nor would the lawyers she was about to need.

  RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

  Dez sat down on the edge of the bed beside Victoria. He’d nixed her return to her secluded house in the country and was having her stay in a guest bedroom of the place he’d rented in Richmond. This house was surrounded by his crew 24-7. If someone tried to kill her here, they’d need an army.

  “You okay?” he asked softly.

  “I’m responsible for Cameron’s death,” she murmured. “I might as well have killed him myself.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Dez said firmly, shaking his head, “you are not responsible.”

  “He was my best friend.”

  “We all lose good friends in fights like these. That’s just the way it goes.” He pulled her gently to her feet, drew the covers down, guided her back down onto the mattress, and then pulled the covers up over her. “Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Dez,” she called when he reached the door.

  “Yeah?”

  “Will you stay with me a little longer? Just talk to me.”

  “What about?”

  “I really don’t care. I don’t want to cry alone.”

  CHAPTER 33

  RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

  “Mitch?”

  Mitch froze at the sound of Eldridge’s voice. He’d scoured his uncle’s Supreme Court office for several minutes—desktop, cabinets, and credenzas—before finally locating the file he’d been seeking. The file covering the real estate case he intended on seducing Salvatore Celino with.

  “What are you doing?”

  Mitch glanced up calmly. “I wanted to review that wetlands appeal,” he answered in his most convincing, all-business tone, “the one involving the thousand acres beside the James, a few miles downriver from here. I want to make sure I’ve studied it thoroughly so the staff can prepare the best brief possible.”

  The chief justice glanced at his watch. “I appreciate your commitment, Mitch, but it’s almost nine o’clock, and the date for that case is still a ways off.” He moved to the desk, opened the top drawer with a key, and removed an envelope. “I was having dinner in the city tonight, and I almost forgot this,” he said, holding up the envelope as he relocked the drawer. He pointed at the file Mitch was reviewing. “Make sure you put that back in the credenza where you found it, and make certain it’s locked. Anybody gets a look at that thing, they could make a lot of money fast, based on the notes I’ve made.” The old man put his hand on Mitch’s shoulder and smiled wanly. “I implore you to take time for your children, son, even if you aren’t so fond of your wife. Life goes by very, very fast. Not giving enough attention to my children is my one regret.”

  “Uncle Dan,” Mitch spoke up as Eldridge turned away. He just wished not spending more time with his kids was his only regret in life.

  “Yes?”

  Speaking of life, it would never be the same after this—not for him. For a moment he considered making another lame excuse. He could still turn back. There was still time. “I didn’t stay late tonight to study this file.”

  Eldridge’s brows knitted together suspiciously. “What are you saying, Mitch?”

  The guilt was too much. He couldn’t live with it anymore. “I stayed late to copy it.” There was no going back now.

  “What? Why?”

  “We need to talk.”

  JURY TOWN

  Racine eased down into the desk chair in his room and stared at the screen embedded into the desktop. Dinner tomorrow night would be New York strip steaks and baked potatoes with green beans—or a baked-in-butter halibut. And, of course, there was always an option for the health nuts: a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, even some anchovies if you really wanted them.

  His upper lip curled at the thought of anchovies, then he broke into a grin as he scrolled down to Victoria’s quote of the day: “Everything you can imagine is real.”

  “Thank you, Pablo Picasso,” Racine murmured as he continued down to the bottom of the day’s data—the small, seemingly innocuous string of numbers and letters he assumed Sofia had been referring to when she’d mentioned the one thing at the bottom of the screen she didn’t get.

  He pulled out a small piece of paper from his shirt pocket and matched the string to what was on the paper. “I just hope I’m in time,” he muttered, glancing at the red emergency button every room also had.

  The button blurred before Racine as he leaned back in the chair. He wondered what Sofia was doing. He smiled. She’d asked him to knock on her door anytime. He was tempted to take her up on that, even though they’d only said good-bye a few minutes ago.

  His smile faded. He wondered if Claire was okay. This was hell.

  RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

  “I’ve been doing a bad thing,” Mitch spoke up, taking a deep breath. He wondered if his uncle would have him arrested immediately. There might be an alternative that would enable him to right a great wrong—at least start to. “I’ve been providing confidential information about the Supreme Court to a man I know is a member of a New York City crime family operating in the southeast. Information related to Project Archer, to Jury Town.”

  “Mitch.”

  Eldridge’s voice sounded as though he’d just received news he had cancer—and two weeks to live.

  Mitch’s lower lip trembled. “This is not an excuse, Uncle Dan. It’s an explanation.”

  “I’d wondered why you hadn’t installed the camera.”

  “I’m in debt up to my neck, Uncle Dan, even with the money the mob’s paid me for the information. I’m … I’m sorry.”

  “You’ll turn yourself in.”

  There was his answer. “I think I know what the mob’s doing with the information. It was something you said the other day, Your Honor.”

  “What?”

  “I think they’re turning around and selling it to someone or some group, for a profit, of course. Potentially the people who’ve been—”

  “Manipulating my juries.”

  Mitch hadn’t heard that southern drawl of his uncle’s so animated in years. The white whale had been sighted off the starboard bow. “I’ve reviewed a number of the cases you identified as having strange verdicts. I can’t see how the mob would have benefitted directly, in some for sure, but not many.” He hesitated. “I have a plan.”

  “Talk to me,” Eldridge demanded breathlessly.

  When Mitch was finished, Eldridge stared at him for a long time. “There’s a man you need to speak to. His name is Dez Braxton. But I need to speak to Victoria Lewis first.”

  CHAPTER 34


  JURY TOWN

  “Are you ready for this?” Kate asked. “I know I am,” she spoke up again quickly when Felicity didn’t say anything. “I can’t wait to nail these people.”

  Felicity looked away as Kate sat down beside her at the table in the Central Zone with her breakfast tray full of scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast. She’d already grown tired of Kate. The woman smacked her lips obnoxiously the whole time she ate. And she never stopped talking about screwing Commonwealth Electric.

  “I guess,” Felicity answered, pushing her half-finished bowl of grapes and strawberries away. As soon as she’d finished reading the note hidden beneath her pillow—which detailed all the sins that would have her excommunicated from Jury Town … if she voted guilty—she’d ripped it up and flushed it down the toilet.

  “I’m thinking the defense will rest at some point this afternoon,” Kate said, “and, when they do, we’re going to take ten seconds to convict Commonwealth. Then we’ll take another ten seconds to set damages at a billion dollars, at least. Then we’ll celebrate. We’ll be the first jury to render a decision. And we’ll nail these executive suits to the wall while we do it. Two birds with one big stone, and it’s gonna be awesome.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kate demanded, munching on a strip of crisp bacon. “You actually lost a few games of pool last night, you didn’t want to party afterwards, and you’re grumpy this morning. What’s up?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Come on, tell me.”

  “Stop.”

  “Are you switching sides on me?” Kate asked suspiciously.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You told me you had no doubt about Commonwealth being guilty of dumping that coal ash in the river. You told me you had no doubt the senior executives knew all about it, even the CEO. You told me they were all guilty.” Kate pointed at Felicity with what remained of the bacon. “But all of a sudden, I’m not getting the warm and fuzzies.”

  Felicity shook her head. “It’s almost like you’re getting a kickback if there is a big settlement.”