Page 45 of Trial Run

He looked at the floor. “You know I can’t talk to you about stuff that goes on in chambers.”

“Leroy, if it isn’t about the facts of the case, I don’t understand why you can’t tell me. Brooke Dawson hasn’t shown up yet. Can you at least tell me if she’s okay?”

He stared at her for a moment, and then his shoulders sagged to signal he couldn’t resist her plea. “I don’t know. No one canreach her. Could be she checked out due to all the stuff that’s been happening, but we’ve got another one missing too. Judge Hunt is trying to reach the alternate, but he’s gone AWOL too. Bad coincidence.”

Unless it wasn’t. Reggie’s mind whirred with the possibilities. She’d had a weird feeling about Mark from the moment they’d met, but she’d written it off to the clash between his busybody nature and her desire for privacy. But what if her instincts were signaling more than that? Could Benton have influenced someone else on the jury to shore up his plan?

While she digested the distasteful idea, she composed a text to Brooke.Just checking to make sure you’re okay. Not like you to be this late.She added a zany face emoji to soften any accusatory tone in the last phrase and hit send before she could overthink the message. She stared at the screen, hoping for a quick response, but nothing appeared. While she continued to stare, the door opened, and Mark walked into the room. He nodded to Leroy and murmured that he’d run home for lunch and when he started to head back, his car wouldn’t start, and he’d had to call for a ride. Reggie watched the exchange, noting the relief on Leroy’s face that at least one of the wayward jurors had shown up, but the churning in her gut only accelerated. She fired off a quick text to Lennox.

Brooke is missing. Who is Mark Landon—juror? Need to know ASAP.

She didn’t wait for a response and instead started googling on her own. It didn’t take long to find a Mark Landon who lived in Oak Cliff and worked for a local IT company. According to his LinkedIn page, he had worked there for about five years. The house he lived in previously belonged to a woman who shared his last name—probably his mother based on the date of purchase and her best guess about Mark’s age. She ran another search and confirmed Dorothy Landon, resident of Oak Cliff, had died last year and was survived by her sons, including Mark.

She stared at the screen and realized she’d found out a bunch of facts, but not a single one implied Mark would have anything to do with Brooke being a no-show. She was being overly dramatic. Anything could’ve made Brooke late and the simplest explanation was probably spot-on. She started to shove her phone into her pocket when it buzzed with a new text. She scanned the screen hoping it was Brooke, but it was Lennox instead.

Come see me. Now.

She looked across the room at Leroy who was still frowning, likely because Brooke hadn’t turned up yet. Ducking out now would only sour his mood further, but she had no choice. She lied and told him she was going to the bathroom, but when the door shut behind her, she jogged down the back hallway and out the door on the far side that spilled into the seventh-floor hallway. Lennox’s office was on the twelfth floor and she risked the elevator rather than the stairs since her heart was already racing. When she finally reached the reception desk for the DA’s office, Lennox was waiting for her, car keys in hand.

“Where are you going? You told me to come see you,” Reggie said, knowing she sounded annoyed, but not caring.

“Change in plans,” Lennox said, already on the move. “Come on.”

Reggie followed her to the back elevator that no one except the DA and judges and anyone accompanying them used. The doors opened right after Lennox pushed the button, and Reggie barely waited until the doors closed before launching in. “Tell me what’s going on or I’m going to come unhinged.”

Lennox stared hard at her for a moment. “You like this woman.”

Reggie wanted to scream. “Are you really going to tease me right now?”

“No, but I want to warn you that I think Mark Landon is Benton’s inside source and people saw Brooke leave with him at the lunch break.”

Reggie’s racing heart slammed still at Lennox’s words. She replayed them a few times in her head, trying to make sense of the revelation. “Wait, what? Who saw Brooke leave with him? And he just came back, late, with some excuse about how he went home for lunch and then his car wouldn’t start.”

The elevator stopped and Lennox stepped out. “It must’ve started just fine because it’s in the parking garage right now. Are you coming?”

Reggie followed Lennox out of the elevator, but she wasn’t done asking questions. “Again, how do you know this?”

“Because Sarah has undercover agents watching all of the jurors right now.”

“Including me?”

“Of course, including you. Mostly for protection, but also in case anyone started acting weird. There aren’t enough agents for continuous surveillance, but they’re keeping tabs on things. I figured Benton isn’t the type of guy to put all his trust in one intimidated juror.”

Reggie blew past dwelling on the fact she’d likely been followed and focused on Lennox’s last sentence. “I don’t get it. Was Mark being threatened too?” She turned the idea over in her mind, but couldn’t make it work. “Wait, you think he’s working for Benton.”

“Bingo. His brother is a programmer who works for one of Benton’s companies. Mark works freelance in IT, but Sarah did a little digging and guess where most of his contracts come from?”

“Benton Enterprises.”

“You’re brilliant.” Lennox stopped at her car and motioned for Reggie to get in.

Reggie started to ask why nobody had caught that Mark did work for Benton during jury selection, but she knew better. The attorneys for each side only had a few minutes to review the cursory questionnaire completed by each juror and she waswilling to bet Mark listed his profession, but there would’ve been no reason to ask about his clientele unless his work had direct bearing on the case. Add in the fact he wasn’t on Benton’s jury and there’d been no reason to connect Benton with the charges against Mitchell and it was easy to see how the oversight had happened.

“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

Lennox took the bridge toward Oak Cliff. “Guess.”

She didn’t have to guess. “Benton’s house. Do you think Brooke is there? Do you really think he would be that stupid?” she asked, while praying it was true because if Brooke wasn’t there, then where was she?

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