"Doc, you're up," Hank said.
"Marie did a masterful job convincing Eldreadth to tell her what has happened in her life with the judge after he put her into an empty mansion. Eldreadth cannot help us directly. She would not be a credible witness and could offer no proof. But she did reveal that the judge likes to brag. He told Eldreadth about the murders that he committed in the basement of the courthouse. We already knew about the murders, but knowing that he shared that information with Eldreadth may help us. I don't know how yet, but it's a side to him that we haven't seen before. Also, he may have some feelings for his sister. He has put her into a comfortable life, he's footing the household bills, and he's helping her with her painting hobby. Reese, did you see any sign of him caring about her?"
"All I saw was solid black, Doc. But I'm still learning about these colours."
"That's where we are, folks. We still have nothing that will stick. The floor is open for suggestions."
# # # # # # # #
Not much of any substance came until the second half hour. "What about taping the judge and the prosecutor in their cells in case they let something slip?" Yollie asked this from the home compound.
"We're already doing that."
"What about trying to turn one against the other?" Yollie tried another idea.
"We’ll be trying to do that in the trial," Stu revealed. "We're putting them in the same courtroom at the same time so that they can hear what the other person is saying. If one of them tries to separate himself from the other, we can try to exploit that. But if that's the only thing we can think of, we may as well not go to trial."
"Who TiTr 'd back to Lucas' court case and taped it for us. Was that you, TG?" Mac was visible only from her face up. Sucking sounds accompanied her voice. She wasn't the one making them.
"Wolf, William, and I were all in that courtroom, Mac. I was operating the equipment."
"William likes to ask this question. Was there something that you should have seen in that trial, but didn't?"
"Mac, I'll answer that," William said. "It looked like an ordinary trial. Everything that should have been there was there. The judge, the bailiff, the court recorder, everything."
"Is it possible that Mavis taped something that she should not have taped? Like the judge pretending that he had been assaulted?" Mac was pursing a thought.
"I was watching her closely. When the judge said that they were in recess, she definitely clicked the pause button in. When he re-convened, she clicked the pause button out. No help there, I'm afraid." TG – with the bad news.
"I'm confused," Nary said. "Why were they taping the trial if it was supposed to be a secret?"
"Good question," Hank responded. "The tape could be incriminating evidence if it fell into the wrong hands."
"Unless they omitted the illegal bits, which is what they did." TG – with the logic.
"But still, why tape any of it at all?" Dreamer was also confused about the whole point of taping the trial.
"So that Mavis would be there to give me poisoned hot chocolate?"
"Perhaps, Lucas. But if so, why did she continue to use the machine after you had been paralyzed?"
"So that the judge could brag?" Doc said with some confidence. "He'd visit Eldreadth and tell her about the trial."
"He wouldn't need the record of the trial to do that, Doc." TG still couldn't see anything useful coming out of this line of questioning.
...
"Ow, ow," Nary said.
"What?" Winnie asked.
"My hair got snagged. It really hurt!"
"Oh."
"I was going to say," Nary continued, "that there's a machine like the one we're using to record the interrogations in a storeroom in the basement of the court house. It was where Mavis kept her coffee supplies."
"I saw that when we were looking for Mavis' poison," William said. "It's a stenographer machine, no question."
"Why don't we look at that machine?" Winnie continued. "It has to be the one Mavis used."
"To what end? She only recorded the innocent parts."
"How can it hurt, TG?" Winnie with the winning argument. "I'll get it."
# # # # # # # #
Winnie came back not only with the machine, but with Lucas' pinky ring as well. It was hidden inside the machine's battery compartment.
While Lucas was happily looking through the files on his ring, TG connected the machine to a display unit and fired it up.
The Wilizy were silent after Mavis' recording ended.
"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Dreamer reacted first.
"I'll second that. Holy kangahoopdedoodle!" This from Theo.
What's a kangahoopdedoodle, Granny?
I don't know, Doc. A kangaroo that jumps through a hoop while it's doodling?
"Can we see the part right near the end? Freeze when I say to?" Wizard asked.
...
"Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Dreamer said. "Great eyes, Wiz." The two gave each other high fives.
"I don't believe it. Holy kangahoopdedoodle," Lucas joined in the prayer meeting.
Did the three of them join a church or something, Doc? Holy this. Holy that.
I hope it's not one of those churches where you pray to a beer god.
Is there a god I can pray to who will give me better eyes?
Me too. Do you have any idea what's going on?
No, do you?
Melissa did. "OK folks. We have to find the bot of the trial that Mavis just handed to the judge. Mavis was recording the trial because he's keeping souvenirs."
"Why can't we just bring the machine into court and play it?" Dreamer asked.
"How would we explain finding it," Mac answered. "The storage closet is locked. The judge would know that."
"Could we put the file on a bot and find that?"
"Sorry, Reese," TG answered. "Copies are date stamped. If the file didn't have the date of the trial, the judge could claim that it wasn't the real record."
"We have to find Mavis' copy," Mac repeated. "Here's what we'll do."
# # # # # # # #
Later that evening, after all the plans had been made, Nary was walking on the ship's deck alone. She appeared to be talking to herself.
"You didn't have to pull my hair so hard!"
"You were going to miss your line, Nary!"
"I said the first one properly though. The one that started with I'm confused."
"You did. You were perfect," the angel spoke into her ear. "So why were you so slow on the second line?"
"I didn't want to lie."
"That's why we changed the line from I saw a machine to There's a machine."
"It still sounded like a lie. I never went near that closet the day that I caught you in the elevator."
"It's bending the truth, that's all."
"Angels do that?"
"When we have to."
"Like tonight?"
"Yes, like tonight. You had to say those lines because that's what actually happened in the meeting. And then Winnie would get the idea about looking at Mavis' machine."
"How did you know what was going to happen before it did."
"Angels know things."
"But you're too modest to brag."
"Exactly."
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 41
Jock was meeting with General Cameron, Hector, and Stu. He wanted to go over what would happen tomorrow when the judge and the prosecutor stood trial. He had already let General Cameron and Chief Justice Rodrigues know that the trials of Foster Lewis and Dennis Lee would have to be somewhat unconventional. Both understood why this was necessary.
"All of the Browns and the Blacks who confessed will be in a B.C. prison by tonight. Mathias is taking them back now under guard. You're not receiving any flack from the B.C. government, are you Douglas?"
"Quite the contrary. They see our cooperation as the beginning of a way to tie the former provinces together. They'd like to see more coopera
tion. Do you think the Wilizy would be in favour of using the WZBN transmission towers as the basis of a network for public communications? Rick has good pinky-ring coverage with his former prison walls, but B.C. has huge gaps in its coverage. What about Saskatchewan, Jock?"
"The Wilizy are giving us help in converting wheat production to peanuts; plus they have plans to start up two big WC&D stores in Regina and Saskatoon. We're working closely with them. I could ask if they'd like to offer a tri-province communications service." (Jock hadn't told General Cameron how close he was with the Wilizy.)
"You don't believe Rick would object?" Douglas raising the topic.
"Alberta's economy is growing faster than the both of our economies combined, Douglas. All because of the Wilizy's industries. He's not likely to do anything to get in their way."
"We could ask them to put a specialized military broadcast capability into their transmission towers, right? That might help us bring law and order to the west."
"We already have links to some U.S. states. Having a military communications capability might be the foundation they need to start expanding what little law and order they have."
"How can Ontario help?" Hector asked.
"Well, you can't do anything until you have a provincial government in place, but Jock will have civic elections in Toronto soon. Perhaps that could be a start."
"Hector, I should tell you about our RADAR group and the agreements that we have with the northern states." (Jock and Stu were getting to the real reason for the meeting.) "It's part of bringing law and order to them. From time to time, some of our electronic surveillance units come across lawlessness. These U.S. states allow us to surveil, capture, and punish such cases of smuggling and potential cross border crime. We have the capabilities to do that and they don't. So they don't mind. In return, they keep us up to speed on the criminals that operate in their jurisdiction in case they move into ours. We could have the same agreements with you. This could lead to more extensive sharing later."
"I could draw up the agreements if you like, Hector. I wrote the original agreements with the other states. Then if you ever needed our help again, all the legalities would be in place."
"I don't see any difficulties with this."
"Good," Jock replied. "Hector, I wanted to ask you what you were planning to do with the judge and his prosecutor if they're found guilty of capital crimes. Now that we have this agreement, why don't you let Saskatchewan deal with them? That way, you won't have to worry about it."
"I can make the agreement retroactive to when you asked for military intervention," Stu offered. "Shall I?"
"You're better able to take care of those two that than we are. Do you think the trial tomorrow will actually stop them?"
"We're tidying up the loose ends today, Hector. Why don't you sit in on the trial as an Ontario law expert? You could help us keep those two crooks from getting free and starting all over again."
# # # # # # # #
Speaking of loose ends, Melissa was desperately looking for a way to tie her own loose ends into a knot. The Wilizy knew what they were looking for. Mavis' bot. The most likely hiding place was the judge's mansion. A single bot could have been hidden in so many places. It was terrible how that Japanese crime family had torn that nice mansion apart. But they had found no bot.
Eldreadth's mansion was the second on the list of places to search. But they couldn't bring in a large team and cause the damage they had in Foster's house. Instead, Doc asked Eldreadth if she minded if two nice teenagers went through Foster's bedroom. Those teenagers turned out to be one teenager and a panther. William's lock pick took care of the locked door. Contrary's nose made for a short search in the mostly empty bedroom. "Nothing," Nary said.
There was one other place in Eldreadth's mansion that Foster liked to go. The basement with all of Eldreadth's art. Framing abstract art did seem to be a little outside Foster's normal interests. Once again, Eldreadth gave the two teenagers access. Contrary found a large stash of evidence inside the bases of those art frames. Theo was learning to get along with the panther a little better now, so he petted Contrary's head and praised her. "Good panther! Good panther!" Contrary rubbed against his legs in a figure eight, almost purring in satisfaction. When a house cat does that, it's a distraction. When a full-grown panther does it, you have to brace yourself or you'll be knocked over.
"What was that all about?" he asked Nary when she appeared.
"I dunno. Contrary hasn't been herself lately. She must be trusting you more. She wouldn't do that with a stranger."
# # # # # # # #
With no truth-metering duties required on the battle list today, Winnie was back to TiTr'ng with Marie to find the little girl. They were very happy when they found that Maddy had disappeared from Ranch #4, but it took a lot of time to spot her sneaking into the copter. When they saw that she had been on the same island when Marie and Nary had been taking care of Ranch #4's bosses, they couldn't believe how their paths had crossed so close to each other.
It took them some TiTr'ng before they found the young boss with the bent nose sneaking Maddy to the Canadian side of the rivulet. But they discovered her re-capture, kidnapping, and incarceration in another Safe Haven jail in Watertown quickly. "Did you see what they did to her with those snakes?" Winnie asked in disbelief.
"Those are water snakes," Marie said. "They're not poisonous at all."
"Can you do something about her pretend parents? Like put a curse on them?"
So in mid-February 2086, Marie cursed both Brute and Pissy with a short life, full of hopelessness, desperation, and starvation. "I was thinking of getting some snakes to creep down into their bellies and lay some eggs, but I need the kidney of a young girl to make that work. I figured you wouldn't volunteer."
Even Marie couldn't cheer Winnie up after that scene. "Let's go home. Those two will be beating her senseless soon. I don't want to see that."
Neither Marie nor Winnie returned to Watertown to see how Marie's curses worked out.
# # # # # # # #
Back in real time, Maddy was well away from the Fort Peck Lake dam by now. The further south she walked, the more the land changed. The area around the dam and the village had been relatively flat. But she was moving into wilderness territory now. Except for a narrow stretch of hard dirt next to the water, the land was no longer flat. Gentle hills now swept down to the lake. These hills weren't high yet, but they would become so soon. The lake was over 130 miles long. Nobody lived near that lakeshore. Nobody would see a young girl trudging south, looking for Bainbridge Island.
And trudging was now what Maddy was doing. She had developed a touch of hypothermia from the cold night she had spent in the open. The food that she had packed was gone – she had finished the last of that this morning. Her two bottles of water hadn't even lasted that long. But she did have the empty bottles and she had a lake. In the morning, she took off her shoes and socks, waded into the water, and filled both of her bottles. By late afternoon, she had no bottles. She had left them, forgotten, at places where she had stopped to rest. Now she was just wading into the water and using her hands to lift water to her mouth. She was still walking south, but taking longer and longer rest breaks. It was getting dark. Bainbridge Island would be around the next bend, she was sure of it.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 42
Early Wednesday morning, Dennis Lee and Foster Lewis were given access to shower facilities, shavers, and the like. The previous night, the guards had taken their clothes, leaving them with some ill-fitting bailiff uniforms. The soldiers returned their clothes, washed and pressed, Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Stu was meeting with Jock. He would have met with Hank too, but Hank had excused himself. He didn't want to have any advance look at Stu's case against Lee and Lewis. He wanted everything that happened in the courtroom that morning to be a surprise so that he could be as fair and impartial as possible.
Stu didn't like surprises. Espec
ially not the kind TG had given him an hour earlier. "Jock, the boys couldn't find the bot of Lucas' trial," Stu revealed. "It wasn't in Eldreadth's art frames with the others."
"We saw Mavis slip the bot into the judge's hand," Jock said. "He's had ample time to take it to Eldreadth's house and hide it in one of the frames."
"It's not in the basement. We searched his bedroom again – same result. We had already torn his house apart. We don't know where that bot is."
"What will that do to our case?"
"It weakens it further. We wanted to focus our case on what the judge and prosecutor did to Lucas. He'd be able to challenge everything they said. The bot would prove he was right. We can show any number of fake trials from the bots we did recover, but nobody is alive to support the bot's evidence."
"Still," Jock countered. "It's visual evidence. Strong visual evidence. How could they get themselves out from underneath all those fake trials?"
"I could do it. The question is whether Lewis or Lee can see the hole we have in our case now without Lucas' bot."
"We have a hole? How big of a hole?"
"Did you have a chance to go for a ride through Toronto's underground tunnels yet?"
"Yes."
"That's the size of the hole in our case."
# # # # # # # #
A squad of four armed Saskatchewan soldiers brought two men to Toronto's South Court Building at the corner of Bay Street and Queen Street West. It was at one time the largest municipal building in North America. As the soldiers entered the building, they noticed that the entryway alone was two stories high. It was 8:55 a.m.
The soldiers stared for a minute at the stained glass window, the grand staircase, the mosaic floor, the murals on the wall, and even the doorknobs that had some fancy crest on them. Judge Lewis and Prosecutor Lee didn't stare. They had been here before. The soldiers followed a young aboriginal boy down a lot of hallways and down some stairs. The soldiers took them deep into the building to a room that wasn't even a courtroom; it was just a meeting room.