Chapters (64)
- PART ONE
- One
- Two
- Three
- PART TWO
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- PART THREE
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- PART FOUR
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Forty
- Forty-one
- Forty-two
- Forty-three
- Forty-four
- Forty-five
- Forty-six
- PART FIVE
- Forty-seven
- Forty-eight
- Forty-nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-one
- Fifty-two
- Fifty-three
- PART SIX
- Fifty-four
- Fifty-five
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- ALSO BY MICHAEL CONNELLY
I reluctantly nodded. Cops stealing from cops. Why didn’t that surprise me?
“All right,” I said. “What else?”
“Well, for one thing, he’s got an arrest record and he checked the box on the sheet that said he’d never been popped before.”
“What was the arrest for?”
“Two arrests. ADW in ’ninety-seven and conspiracy to commit fraud in ’ninety-nine. No convictions but that is all I know for right now. When the court opens I can get more if you want.”
I wanted to know more, especially about how arrests for fraud and assault with a deadly weapon could result in no convictions, but if Cisco pulled records on the case, then he’d have to show ID and that would leave a trail.
“Not if you have to sign out the files. Let it go for now. You got anything else?”
“Yeah, I’m telling you, I think it’s all phony. On the sheet he says he’s an engineer with Lockheed. As far as I can tell, that’s not true. I called Lockheed and they don’t have a David McSweeney in the phone directory. So unless the guy’s got a job with no phone, then…”
He raised his hands palm up, as if to say there was no explanation but deception.
“I’ve only had t’night on this, but everything’s coming up phony and that probably includes the guy’s name.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we don’t officially know his name, do we? It was blacked out on the J-sheet.”
“Right.”
“So I followed juror number seven and IDed him as David McSweeney, but who’s to say that’s the same name that was blacked out on the sheet. Know what I mean?”
I thought for a moment and then nodded.
“You’re saying that McSweeney could’ve hijacked a legitimate juror’s name and maybe even his jury summons and is masquerading as that person in the courthouse.”
“Exactly. When you get a summons and show up at the juror check-in window, all they do is check your DL against the list. These are minimum-wage court clerks, Mick. It would not be difficult to get a dummy DL by one of them, and we both know how easy it is to get a dummy.”
I nodded. Most people want to get out of jury duty. This was a scheme to get into it. Civic duty taken to extreme.
Cisco said, “If you can somehow get me the name the court has for number seven, I would check it, and I’m betting I find out there is a guy at Lockheed with that name.”
I shook my head.
“There’s no way I can get it without leaving a trail.”
Cisco shrugged.
“So what’s going on with this, Mick? Don’t tell me that fucking prosecutor put a sleeper on the jury.”
I thought a moment about telling him but decided against it.