Above The Law

CHAPTER 29

EARRINGS THE SIZE OF FISHING LURES WERE A FEMININE COUNTER-balance to the steely gray in Judge Remy's short spiked hair. Her bright green eyes rested in her sagging gray face like two jewels. Around the judge's neck silver reading glasses hung from a pewter chain. When Casey finished the story, the judge used her glasses to examine some of the documents in Casey's file.

"Where is the DA on this?" she asked in a gentle Texas drawl that belied her reputation for harsh sentences.

"I presume he'll be behind it one hundred percent," Casey said.

"Presume?"

"We aren't drinking buddies," Casey said.

"Neither are we," the judge said, removing the glasses from her nose and waving them between Casey and herself before she let them fall into the folds of her robe, "but I get it."

Casey smiled.

"You like skydiving?" the judge asked.

"I haven't," Casey said, "but I would. If I had a parachute."

"You ever packed a chute?" the judge asked.

"No."

"You don't pack the chute just right, you end up mush. You don't just jump out of a plane unless you're really ready."

"I'm not the one who needs to be ready," Casey said, edging forward in her chair. "I think Chase is the one who's going to take a fall here."

"Really?" the judge asked, narrowing her eyes.

Casey nodded.

Judge Remy compressed her lips into a frown, took a pen from her desk, and with a flourish signed the order. She held it out, but when Casey took hold, the judge didn't let go. Casey felt the tension running like a current through the taut sheet of paper. Casey met the judge's eyes, the glint now shadowed by something dire.

"This man knows how to pack a chute," the judge said quietly. "I see the son of a bitch on FOX News about every other week talking about shutting down the borders. He'll play the sympathetic, persecuted public figure, a victim of the rabid liberal media and an ambitious glory hound. That's you. And after his opening move, he'll come after you with everything he has, every mistake you've ever made. They'll dig and they'll pry and they'll worm their way underneath your skin until they find something unpleasant and they'll bring it to the surface and spit it up for everyone to see.

"And they will see, because the whores with the cameras and the microphones will be like locusts on this one. You think Lifetime made you look like an ass? This'll be a Hollywood double feature."

The judge let go of the order and Casey nearly fell back into her chair.

"You'll be tangled in your lines with the earth coming up at you like a hammer," the judge said. "And he'll be floating to the ground."

Casey set her jaw.

"That said? I'm behind you," the judge said, then poked her chin at the order in Casey's hands. "Obviously."