“The second a vampire realizes he’s been made, he starts sweating bullets. Having to go through a trial like this is some scary shit for them, because even if they get out, their vampire buddies would be all over them to know if they slipped up even just a bit… and they wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t already slipped, right?
“A jury is twelve more people who know the truth. That’s twelve more screw-ups on the vampire’s part. So usually they waive their right and opt for a bench trial. Lopez argues that the trial isn’t legit, because it violates the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial; Oswalt says the defendant just waived that right by opting for this court over a regular public courthouse, and Castillo agrees, so that settles that. And then we move to the bench trial.”
Not for the first time this month, a small part of her kicked herself for waiting until now to ask all this. It wasn’t as if Keeley or the other agents on the Kowalski case had held anything back. “And if they want a jury?”
“Then we give it to ‘em,” answered Keeley. “Twelve U.S. citizens, fluent and literate in English, with no previous connections to the case, who all hold top secret security clearance. And yes,” he added, “Lopez objects to that wrinkle, too, and points out that this creates a jury that is naturally predisposed toward the government. Castillo overrules and life goes on.”
Amber walked beside him, unsure which question to ask next. That had more or less been the story of her life for these last few weeks. “So is this how it always goes?”
“For the vampires, yeah, pretty much,” said Keeley. “We’ve had a couple curveballs, of course. In the beginning, everything seemed so crazy that there’d never be a normal. But you start to see patterns. The werewolves have their own goofy habits. And then there’re the other weirdoes,” he grunted, “but we haven’t caught enough of those other kinds to establish any baselines.”
Amber’s next question had been on her mind for some time. Amid all the cloak and dagger procedures and the grim confidence of the task force, it had seemed almost naïve, but now she had to ask. “What are you gonna do when one of these cases ends in an acquittal?”
Keeley came to another door. He paused before he opened it to look over his shoulder at the young agent. “I don’t know,” he smiled. “I’ll tell you when it happens. ‘til then, we keep moving on to the next case. And this one’s a bit of a problem.”
Amber followed him into a conference room dominated by a long table and a white projection screen opposite the door. The room’s four occupants had all gone for loosened ties and rolled-up shirtsleeves. She saw Chinese take-out boxes, bottles of soda and a good number of manila file folders. One wall of the room was covered with suspect sketches.
“You ready for us, Joe?” Keeley asked as they entered. “Arraignment’s all pretty much finished anyway.”
Standing taller than the rest was a blond man with football hero shoulders, a square jaw and something just shy of a flat-top. The sight of Keeley and the other man together immediately made Amber think, “Good cop, tackle cop.”
She met Agent Hauser briefly when she was first recruited onto the task force. He hadn’t said much at that meeting. Now, he acknowledged her with much the same grunt as then, but this time he spoke. “Agent Maddox,” he nodded, “it’s good to have you here. Congratulations on your first arrest with the task force.”
“Thank you, sir,” Amber mumbled.
“Everyone,” Hauser said to the others present, “this is Agent Amber Maddox. Received her high school diploma and her Associate’s degree at age 17 through Washington’s Running Start program. Graduated University of Washington with double honors degrees in chemistry and physics, age 20. Worked for three years in the Bureau’s Applied Sciences lab, then went to the Academy in Quantico and served in C.I.D. for a year before she signed on with the task force three weeks ago.”
Amber glanced around at the others: one woman, two men, plus Hauser and Keeley, all staring at her. “That’s a bit more of an introduction than I usually get,” she said. Five minutes from now, she’d come up with something much wittier.
“Everyone here has at least ten years on you, Amber,” Hauser explained. “I don’t want anyone wondering why you’re here, least of all you. You’ve kicked a lot of ass to be here.” He paused. “Plus I needed to see if you’d blush.”
“Did I?”
“No. Have a seat, everyone.”