Jury of One Read Online Free PDF

sold small quantities to some wealthy professionals, not children or junkies. She imagined that Alex had made the same excuses to the federal authorities. The excuses, of course, were no excuses at all. And worse yet, Shelly realized with a shot to her gut, she couldn’t even be sure they were true.
    “You didn’t know,” Peters said to Shelly.
    No, she certainly did not know. She thought back to the time she had spent with Alex over the last year, tried to connectconversations and dinners to specific dates. It all made sense. Beginning of December, end of November—that had been when Alex cut off contact with her. She could recall nothing since December 5, with the exception of her trip to his house in early January this year, after she hadn’t heard from him for six weeks. She could see from the way he had looked at her then—or rather, hadn’t looked at her, had cast his eyes downward, stuffed his hands in his pocket, as he’d stood in the doorway of his house. Something had happened. He wouldn’t tell her what.
Just some things I gotta take care of,
he’d said then.
You shouldn’t be here,
he’d warned. What could Shelly do? She couldn’t make him tell her. All she could do was offer to help.
    “I take it he cut a deal,” she said, realizing that she was exposing her ignorance. But that was the least of her worries. She felt so many things at the moment, including a betrayal that these men seemed to know more about Alex than she did.
    The prosecutor, Jerod Romero, looked stronger with his coat off. He was an intense man. He was standing behind Peters with his arms folded. “He cooperated, yes.”
    That was common enough. Catch a drug dealer and flip him, use him to catch people higher up on the chain. She looked through the file and found it, the letter of cooperation. In a circumstance like this, the U.S. Attorney’s office didn’t usually arrest and charge the suspect, because if they did, they would be required to put him before a judge in less than twenty-four hours for an initial appearance. That would expose the arrestee publicly, which was precisely the opposite of what the federal government wanted if they were going to use the suspect as an undercover informant. Instead, the U.S. Attorney’s office had signed Alex to a letter of cooperation, in which he was informed that he was the target of a federal investigation and that he might later be arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Alex, through the letter, agreed to cooperate and was guaranteed only that such cooperation, if it came to fruition, would be made known to the judge at his sentencing. Alex also had to agree not to violate any local, state, or federal law during this time—except, of course, under circumstances controlled by the feds—and to inform the federal government if he was going to leave the jurisdiction.
    She moved the file away and looked at the men. “Okay. So?”
    Romero began to pace. “So, we are in the midst of an operation that is bearing fruit. We expect to bring dozens of indictments.”
    “But we’re not ready,” said Peters.
    Shelly’s heart raced. Dozens of indictments? That didn’t jibe. Alex only had a couple of contacts at work to whom he sold drugs. Those people, and maybe Alex’s supplier, didn’t add up to
dozens of indictments.
“Okay,” she repeated. “So?”
    Romero leaned onto the table, facing her. “So it’s bad enough that he’s out of operation now. We’ve already lost a valuable asset out there. We were hoping to contain the damage.”
    Shelly nodded. “Okay, I’m a slow learner. You don’t want Alex testifying in open court that he is working for the G. Anyone who’s been in contact with Alex will know they’ve been targets.”
    Peters, the F.B.I. agent, lifted a shoulder, as if Shelly were only half right. “It could endanger the whole operation. It could place the lives of undercover federal agents at risk.”
    “That’s