Chapter Thirty Nine

Stephen

The past few weeks had been a whirlwind of stress and tension. DA Carson and Detective Grounds were given a six-week deadline to hand over the necessary information to the feds, or the deal would be off the table.

Two days had passed since that deadline, and we hadn’t heard a peep from Lachie, who had been our main source of updates. So, when my phone rang at three in the morning, Lachie was the last person I expected to be on the other end. I rolled over, grabbed my phone, and answered it.

“Lachie, you need to learn your time differences, asshole,” I grumbled into the phone.

“I’m sure you’ll forgive me when you hear what I have to say,” Lachie replied.

“If you wake Jay, I won’t be so forgiving,” I warned.

“If you wake Jay, I’ll kill both of you,” Trinity threatened from beside me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see my wife rolling over in bed, pulling her pillow over her head. I rubbed her back soothingly, trying to lull her back to sleep.

“Turn your TV on,” Lachie instructed.

“Lachie, it’s three in the morning here. I’m in bed,” I protested.

“Do you have a TV in your room?”

“Yeah.”

“Then turn your fucking TV on, Stephen,” he laughed.

I reached over, grabbed the TV remote, and turned it on, quickly lowering the volume.

“Stephen, what are you doing? If you wake your son, I’m not getting up with him,” Trinity warned.

“I know, baby, I’m sorry. Blame Lachie, he—holy shit! Babe, look!”

Trinity turned in bed towards the TV and saw what I was seeing. The Feds were taking the Chief and Captain Grounds into custody. Their corruption, racketeering, drug trafficking, bribery—it was all plastered all over prime-time television. They had more charges than you could shake a stick at.

“Wow! Fuck, I never thought I’d see the day,” Trinity murmured.

“Well, I’ll let you go back to sleep, and we’ll be in touch in a few days once we know it’s safe to move you back closer ready for trial. Give me about a week, and I’ll have some answers for you,” Lachie said before hanging up.

I didn’t manage to say much more than that as I hung up and put my phone on the bedside table. I pulled my wife into my arms as we laid in bed, watching it all unfold on our TV.

“I feel like this isn’t real,” Trinity whispered.

“I understand that, baby. It’s been a long fight to get here,” I reassured her.

“Should we be waking the others? They’d want to know, right?”

“Let’s just call them. If they answer, we can tell them. I don’t want to go knocking and wake all the kids up.”

“Okay, babe. I’ll call Flick. You try Clint, then whoever finishes first can try Maddie and Benji.”

We both grabbed our phones, and it didn’t take long for Clint to answer. A few seconds later, I heard Trin talking to Flick. We told them to wake Dave and Mia and turn on the TV. We agreed to talk more in the morning so the kids wouldn’t be woken. I hung up and dialed Benji next, and when he didn’t answer, Trin tried Maddie, who did answer. She explained it to Maddie, who woke Benji.

We lay back down in bed and watched as the story of everything they did started to spill out. I couldn’t help wondering why they would be giving so much information away to the media and letting their defense lawyers see everything they had on them.

It was nagging at me, so I decided to create a group chat and message everyone, figuring if they were like Trinity and I, they would be up watching.

“Hey, Benj, I have a question. Something is bugging me about this,” I texted.

“What’s up?” Benji replied.

“Would the feds have given this much information to the media? And if so, won’t it be harder to make it stick if they know everything they have on them?”

“Tactical,” Maddie chimed in.

“How so?” Clint asked.

“Tainting the jury pool, mate. The more this story carries on in the media, the more of an opinion will be formed by the public on their guilt, making it difficult for a jury to be selected. If a jury can’t be agreed, or if their defense team opts, they will be forced to go trial by judge. The feds will be wanting that,” Benji explained.

“Why is that?” Trinity asked.

“It minimizes the risk. Trial by jury can be unreliable in getting the right verdict. The human element of the jurors always comes into play. Trial by judge comes down to pure legalities,” Maddie explained.

“It will also minimize the damage and backlash from DA Carson’s involvement, making it difficult for the extent of her involvement to be leaked. That will mitigate the damage for her previous convictions and their right to retrial. They will be trying to keep that out of the media as long as possible,” Benji added.

“This is actually insane. I can’t believe all this, and yet I’m watching it,” Mia texted.

“We lived it too, don’t forget,” Dave reminded her.

“It seems like it should be someone else’s lives or a movie, if that makes sense,” Mia replied.

“Yeah, it does, babe,” Felicity agreed.

I snuggled back into my wife as we watched the TV and saw the occasional text still coming through, trying to process everything we were watching. When it got to six in the morning, Trinity and I headed downstairs to get a coffee and put the TV on in the living room while we sat down with our mugs and continued to watch it all unfolding.

We were shocked to see they had taken them in for immediate arraignment, meaning the Feds had already expedited the convictions by seeking the DA approval to proceed prior to arrest. The reporters were live from the courthouse waiting to see the DA who had done this and was prosecuting, as well as the defense team who would be selected to represent two of Chicago’s highest officials.

By the time the arraignment had finished, everyone else had now joined us in the living room and were getting coffees.

“Arraignment has just finished, apparently. They’re due out of the courthouse in the next five to ten minutes,” I announced.

“Thanks, won’t be a minute, just getting coffee,” Benji replied.

“Bro, your little man’s awake,” Clint informed me.

I turned around to see Nathaniel walking down the stairs, still half asleep, and got up to go meet him.

“Hey, pea pod, you still sleepy?” I asked.

He gives a nod and reaches out to me. I scoop him up, carrying him back to sit next to his mother. The moment he spots her, I’m instantly forgotten. He reaches out, practically diving into her arms.

Trinity says, “Hi, baby boy.”

I can’t help but smile as I wrap my arm around my wife. She snuggles into me, our boy burying his head on her shoulder. She gently strokes his hair.

Trinity asks, “You want Mommy to get you some breakfast yet?”

He just shakes his head, his little fingers playing with her hair. It’s a habit both our kids have when they’re tired, finding comfort in their mother’s hair.

We continue to watch the television as the others come in, bringing us another round of coffee. Finally, the courtroom door opens on the screen, and a representative from the US Marshal’s office approaches the media to speak.

The US Marshal announces, “Shortly before six o’clock this morning, a warrant was executed by the US Federal Marshal’s office on the Chief of Police of Chicago, Precinct Captain Grounds, and other members of the Internal Affairs Bureau. All parties have been taken into custody. The warrant was signed by DA Richardson, the Federal Prosecutor. We are pleased to announce the successful indictment of all parties. No further comments at this time.”