AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The idea, like with law school, is to ask you a few questions and get an idea of how you process information. As your former professor, I have some idea, but you have legal and world experience now. It will be interesting to see how that maturity has shaped your views over the last fourteen years.” A folder balanced on Retta’s lap. She ran a hand over it but didn’t open it. “Let’s start with general concepts. How far would you go to keep a rapist off the street?”
Jessa wasn’t ready for the question. “How far?”
“Would you accept a jury’s finding? A judge’s finding?”
“Yours, I would.” That seemed like a safe answer.
Retta frowned. “Don’t pander.”
The pressure closed in on Jessa. The walls didn’t move, and the air continued to flow, but a tightness wrapped around her chest. A crushing suffocation that had her fighting for steady breath. The confidence of being picked, of being in contention, gave way to a familiar panicked, out-of-control sensation.
Jessa rubbed her hands together even as theyoucan do thismantra that had been flowing through her head began to fade. “What are the options?”
“Why be limited to a set of possible punishments?” Retta shifted in her chair. The simple act served as a reminder that she wasn’t trapped in this conversation. She could move, even leave, if she wanted to. “Remember, this is a different justicesystem. A private one that benefits the victims and recognizes that many people when faced with confinement would say, or do, anything to avoid punishment. How would you prevent that sort of threat to justice?”
Jessa had no idea. Every answer struck her as wrong or illegal or not strong enough. “I... You could...”
Retta let out a little sigh. “Would you vote to make inculpatory but irrelevant evidence disappear?”
Jessa attached to theirrelevantpart. “Yes.”
“Would you manufacture evidence?”
“What type?” The interrogation technique reminded Jessa of law school. She didn’t love being under fire, but she could handle questions. Those gave her a chance to see where Retta might want her to go. She could fake it... or redirect the questions to ones she could answer.
“Why does that matter?”
“Do I create the evidence? I don’t understand how this would even work.”
Retta stared at her, as if assessing how much information to provide. “We have members, in law enforcement and laboratories, with the power to impact the formal justice system. Scientists, forensic experts, and others who are sympathetic to our cause. Some judges who will make certain rulings or assist in jury selection in a nontraditional way.”
Jesus.That suggested large numbers of people who could be activated to serve the group’s will. A conspiracy that extended into different disciplines.
Jessa weighed the cons of taking a position. Answer wrongand . . . Hell, she didn’t want to think about the consequences. “If I knew someone was guilty, I wouldn’t, in this parallel system, let a technical violation of the law keep a person from being punished.”
Retta frowned. “Tepid.”
“I prefer to think of the strategy as careful.”
“In this case, the same thing.” Before Jessa could respond to that, Retta moved on. “Could you vote to pressure witnesses, pay them off, or evenfindwitnesses you needed to prove your case?”
She knew the answer Retta wanted now and gave it to her. “Yes.”
“Could you, if you saw no other way, look at someone who had engaged in a series of horrible acts, and say that they had forfeited their right to freedom?”
Jessa thought about Darren and his threats. About some of those case files Retta provided, all filled with abusive men. Killers. Pedophiles. The facts made the answer very easy. “Yes.”
“Could you vote that they forfeited the right to continue their behavior?”
Such careful wording. All the blame fell to the person accused of acting in a certain way. No mitigating circumstances, no questions about fairness or evidence. That leap, huge... daunting, tested her resolve. “You mean kill someone? How is that possible?”
“Again, we have people who assist us. Others, for specific acts for which we don’t have a resource, are contacted through sources, are paid, and never know who handed down the sentence or why.”
Hired killers. Could she really mean that? This was more than evening the playing field and eliminating technicalities. This hubris allowed for death sentences. Sitting in judgment of other humans and deciding their fate based on information in a file.
Jessa needed to know more. “But if these other sources get caught—”
“They don’t.”
