Jury of One

41

Shelly sighed when she returned to her office. She not only had the appeal of Judge Dominici’s ruling on the police investigative file to finish, she had promised to look over a complaint that one of the law firm’s associates was planning to file with the state Human Rights Commission, alleging racial discrimination against a company in town. This extra work was the price of these nice offices and resources-a price that she had insisted on paying, but still, it was keeping her away from full-time concentration on Alex’s case.

Her cell phone buzzed. She recognized Joel’s number.

“We were followed tonight,” he told her. He sounded breathless. He was in the car, she could tell, from hearing the radio in the background.

“Who?”

“Well, I don’t know. My guys picked it up. A pretty good tail, I have to say. I had no idea.”

“You weren’t looking for it,” she said. “But who?”

“Well, I’d assume law enforcement. Probably the feds.”

She didn’t know how to react. There was something creepy about it, no doubt, but she felt a measure of validation. It told her that she was onto something here. Maybe.

“We lost them,” said Joel. “In fairness, we weren’t ready for it.”

“Sure. No problem. What do you suggest?”

“I’ll put a tail on myself,” he said. “If I’m followed again, we’ll get ’em. But I don’t think they’ll make that mistake again, Shelly. They probably know we outed them.”

“Don’t be sure.” If it was the F.B.I., enforcing Shelly’s promise that she would not expose the operation prematurely, they might want to be noticed.

She hung up and noticed the newspaper sitting on the corner of her desk. Paul Riley had written a note from his personal stationery-“FYI”-and she saw the article. The Daily Watch was following the closing days of the state legislative session, in which the Democratic-controlled House and Senate had passed legislation to repeal the ban on abortions funded by public aid. The law banning publicly funded abortions had been passed in the late ’90s, when the G.O.P. controlled the Senate and there were enough conservative Democrats in the House to pass the bill. That law had effectively ended any state funding of abortions-with the necessary exceptions to satisfy the Supreme Court-which meant that it had affected only the indigent, those who needed public aid to pay for the procedure.

The Democrats, now in control of both chambers, had passed a bill two days ago to end the ban, to open up the taxpayers’ wallets once more for this particular procedure. Governor Langdon Trotter had vowed a swift veto. His challenger in the November election, Anne Claire Drummond, bitterly criticized the governor’s response. This was not about abortion, she said, so much as it was about treating the poor differently.

The story accompanied an article that showed a surprisingly strong showing for the Democratic nominee. Anne Claire Drummond was a former state legislator and congresswoman from upstate. She had made a name for herself as a proponent of universal health care, which was probably not the way to endear herself to the state’s voters. Drummond was the liberal among the Democrats vying for the nomination and was not, as far as Shelly could tell, the preferred choice of a party trying desperately to break the G.O.P. stronghold on the governor’s mansion. But she had run a series of snappy television ads that got her out to an early lead, and women crossing over from the G.O.P. had provided the necessary votes for Anne Claire Drummond to hold on against two male opponents.

If the election were held today, the Daily Watch said, Governor Trotter would receive 51 percent of the vote, and Congresswomen Drummond would receive 47. That wasn’t bad. Shelly assumed a lot of that was attributable to Drummond being the new kid on the block. When they went to the polls, most voters in the mainstream voted for comfort, and that usually went in favor of the incumbent. And her father was no lightweight. He seemed to know exactly where to draw the lines in an election year. Short of a major scandal, Governor Trotter could expect to be re-elected by a comfortable margin.

Short of a major scandal, she repeated to herself.

The Daily Watch, in an editorial, agreed with the Democratic nominee Drummond on the governor’s promised veto of the abortion bill. Abortions should be safe and rare, it said, but not based on disparities in income. And didn’t an abortion spare the taxpayers from supporting this child born to a dependent family? Whether from a cost-benefit analysis or an issue of fairness, the governor was wrong.

We will say this much for Governor Trotter: He is at least consistent. He has opposed abortion from the first day he took public office as the Rankin County Attorney. He tried to close women’s health clinics back then; supported protestors as Attorney General; and as Governor, he has quickly signed anything that remotely limits abortion rights and vetoed anything that even hints at supporting the cause. He is wrong, but at least we know where he stands.

Shelly took the newspaper and ripped it in half. She threw it across the room, then went over and retrieved it. She continued to tear at it until it was reduced to tiny rubble. When she was finished, she gathered some material, turned off the light, and went home.