Jury of One

43

Shelly’s phone was ringing when she walked into her office after eight o’clock. She picked it up before it went to voice mail.

“Jerod Romero, Shelly. From the U.S. Attorney’s office.”

“Jerod. Your ears must have been burning.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, I have to disclose my witnesses for trial. Should I just use your work address?”

The prosecutor’s laugh was less than sincere. “It goes without saying, I assume, that you will not be listing me as a witness just yet. Which brings me to the reason I’m calling. Are we abiding by our agreement, Ms. Trotter?”

“You mean, am I running around telling people about your undercover operation?”

“Yes.”

“No, Jerod, I’m not. Why do you ask?”

“Because it occurred to me that, in proving self-defense, you have to show that Miroballi was part of a drug scheme. And if you start asking around about cops selling drugs, you are touching on our operation. See what I mean?”

“Yeah, I see that.”

“So?”

“So. I have managed to provide Alex his constitutional right to adequate representation while at the same time preserving our plea agreement, such as it is.”

“People’s lives could be at stake, Counselor.”

“That’s been true for the last two months. What prompts the call now, Jerod?”

“Just making sure.”

“You can tell your goons I didn’t mention your operation to Eddie Todavia. He’s the guy who supplied Alex the cocaine, if you didn’t recall.”

“I do.”

“You’re not denying that you’re having me followed.”

“As long as you understand how seriously we’re taking this,” he said, which was not quite the same thing as an admission. “We’ll violate your client, and if I have the slightest indication that you’re jeopardizing undercover agents out there, I’ll have a half-dozen agents at your door, too.”

“That must be fun,” Shelly opined. “Saying things like that.”

“You’re on notice, Counselor. The F.B.I. doesn’t have a sense of humor about this.”

“Duly noted.”

“One more thing, Shelly. About your case. Obviously, there is going to be a point in time when you are going to discuss our operation in open court.”

“Yes.” Which meant that the federal government would have to make their arrests within the next month or so, before Alex’s trial began. Shelly sensed that it irked Jerod Romero that Shelly knew this, that the prosecutor enjoyed having the element of surprise.

“My question to you is, do you plan on doing it right away? With the voir dire? An opening statement?”

She had had the same question. As she had begun to develop her trial strategy, she was leaning toward postponing her opening statement until the beginning of the defense’s case, which the state’s criminal procedure rules allowed. Her thought was to ambush Dan Morphew with the information. But she might need to ask certain questions of the state’s witnesses that touched on the subject.

“I probably wouldn’t mention it to the jurors,” she said. “But beyond that, Jerod, I can’t guarantee anything. The state will have to try to disprove self-defense because I’ve pleaded it. So I expect it to come up.”

“And you won’t consider moving the trial date.”

“I won’t. You really need more time, huh?”

“Well, obviously. We weren’t planning on ending this operation so soon. We will probably miss the chance to put away a number of people.”

“I’m sorry about that,” she said. “Really. I hate to think that we’re messing with an operation that takes down dirty cops. But I have to do right by Alex. I think a quick trial date is what we need here.”

Romero sighed. He understood, of course, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

She hung up the phone. She was not entirely sure why she had been so glib initially with the prosecutor. She was going with her gut. She had the feeling that she had to keep everyone on edge and wait for something to happen. She had the feeling that a lot would happen between now and the trial date.