“What are they saying out there?”
“Half the county thinks the podcasts solved it. The other half thinks we’re crucifying a man for clicks.”
Reid sat down slowly. “How sure are you?”
Burke didn’t rush. “Sure enough he needs to answer in a courtroom. Not sure enough I can sleep if we never ask the question.”
Reid pulled a yellow pad toward him and capped his pen. The click sounded final in the quiet office. “I can’t not move on this because of who his lawyer is,” he said quietly.
He thought of Eleanor—how quickly she’d find every weak place in this case. How hard she’d fight for Mercer.
And God help him, Reid was starting to think she was wrong.
Burke nodded once. “And because of who you’re seeing,” he added.
Reid’s expression hardened. “No. I can’t let that matter. I’ll prepare it for the next grand jury panel.”
“That’s all I can ask,” Burke said. He paused at the door. “If we’re wrong, I’d rather know now than twenty years from now when some podcast makes a season out of how we failed her twice.”
The door clicked closed. Reid sat alone with the files. He picked up the phone.
“Hey, Marla,” he said when his assistant answered. “Check when the next grand jury meets and block time. Pull everything we have on State v. Mercer into a trial book.”
“Are we charging him?”
“We’re asking the grand jury to decide.”
He hung up and looked at Caroline’s name one more time.
The decision was made. The fallout hadn’t even started, but when it did, it was going to land squarely between him and Eleanor.
45
Harper & Associates — Late Morning
The email hit her inbox at 10:17 a.m.
Eleanor was halfway through a motion in limine when the subject line flashed across her screen.
State v. Mercer — Grand Jury Return
Outside her glass office wall, the loft hummed with its usual weekday sounds—phones ringing, Frannie’s low, steady voice, Lucy’s keyboard clacking too fast for anyone not half her age.
Inside her office, the air went thin.
She clicked the email open.
The clerk’s message was short, clinical.
Counsel:
Please be advised that a true bill of indictment has been returned by the Jackson County Grand Jury against David Mercer in State v. David Mercer (17CR5068). Formal arraignment and calendar call are set for Monday at 9:00 a.m. in Superior Court, Courtroom 1.
Thank you,
Marla Givens, Superior Court Criminal Clerk
Eleanor read it twice.
