Foreword

Hi everyone, welcome to this sidebar story to Intersecting Lines Book 3.

For the casual reader

This story is an addendum to the Intersecting Lines 'verse, covering a major thread running through the first two books and into the third; the hunting down of a group of corrupt LAPD officers who were acting as paid assassins for a Mexican cartel.

Jane and Maura, initially on secondment to the LAPD to escape the relentless scrutiny of their relationship in Boston, were instrumental in closing the case against the corrupt officers, together with Jane's boss, Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, and her friend, later partner, Commander Sharon Raydor (The Closer), and the FBI liaison officer to the LAPD Anastasia Romanov and her partner Natalie Dearing, the LAPDs media spokesperson.

With the suspects arrested, Maura and Jane have now permanently moved to Los Angeles to build a life there with their friends, while the case has come to trial and will be prosecuted by Andrea Hobbs of the LA District Attorney's office and Jane and Maura's close friend Alex Cabot (Law & Order SVU) who, together with her lover Olivia Benson, have recently taken a secondment in Los Angeles from New York.

While part of the larger Intersecting Lines universe and referring back to events that happened in that story, this story does stand somewhat apart from the rest and can be read alone and, I hope, can be enjoyed in isolation.

For regular readers

This originally formed part of Intersecting Lines Book 3 but grew rapidly, to the point that it was overshadowing the first half of that story and chewing up a huge amount of chapters which I will need later to properly tell that tale.

In the interests of making sure Book 3 delivers a satisfying story I have therefore decided to split this off to one side where it can grow as necessary to bring the whole Witsec case to a conclusion.

This basically picks up around Chapter 28 of Intersecting Lines Book 3 and runs parallel to that story.

I hope you enjoy it.

Author's Note: As I'm neither a lawyer nor a legal expert nor a resident of either California or the US my understanding of US trial law is at best a layman's one, so please excuse any legal lapses. As for how the cast behaves, well this is a story based on television shows, with television cops, television lawyers and television trials. Their aim is entertainment, not authenticity and the same applies here.

Intersecting Lines The Trial

01 The Prosecution Opens

In Court

Alex's viewpoint

We'd taken particular care with our appearance, this first day of the WitSec trial, the better to give the jurors a positive impression, plus keep Judge Craven off our backs, given his well-known and quite deplorably sexist attitudes.

Andrea was wearing a elegant deep blue skirt suit with matching three-inch heel pumps and a crisp white blouse, her pale ash-blonde hair flowing loosely over her shoulders, while I'd gone with one of my nicest suits, a tailored knee-length charcoal pin stripe skirt suit and a flowing white blouse that sat carefully in the v of the jacket. My hair was nicely waved following a session with my new stylist on the weekend, courtesy of a recommendation from Natalie, and I'd gone with a pair of dark-rimmed glasses. The ensemble was set off by a patent leather set of matching charcoal stilettoes that had met with Liv's enthusiastic approval when I'd walked out in them this morning.

Speaking of Liv, she and Mikki Mendoza were in the hall outside the office we were currently waiting in; they'd been assigned as our protectors for the duration of the case, with us when we were outside the court and watching over the public gallery behind us while court was in session. I'd thought it a bit extreme but Brenda had insisted and I'd acquiesced, not that I had any choice in the matter, she'd put her foot down and that was that. So we'd be watched over by our respective lovers for the duration.

In a way it would be interesting; like Andrea I'd never had my better half in to watch me through a whole case before, something Liv had commented on as we drove in this morning, she was looking forward to me turning on a 'good show' as she put it. I'd just rolled my eyes at her teasing but honestly I was just glad to have her with me through what was likely to be a stressful trial. As I smiled to myself in the aftermath of that thought that there was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal our gorgeous protectors standing in the hall outside with a court officer; obviously it was time to get this show on the road.

"It's time" Mikki said, gesturing down the hall towards the lift and the courtroom two levels down as Liv nodded.

"They're ready for you" I smiled at Liv's comment and made an 'after you' gesture to Andrea, getting a lovely smile in return before we grabbed our files and made our way out and down to the courtroom. I didn't miss that both Liv and Mikki were on alert; they took their duties protecting us very seriously, even here in the centre of the court complex, making me feel a little better, a little safer already. We made our way downstairs and into the courtroom, through the public gallery and passed through the barrier to the court proper to get set up on the prosecution table while Mikki and Liv took up places standing at each end of the front row, the better to watch everyone.

We were planning to act as equal co-prosecutors, hoping it would put Peterson and his team a little off balance, something to be desired given our suspicions about their potential tactics. Speaking of the devil, as the thought occurred to me the door opened and in they filed, we turned and watched as Conrad Peterson and his team of attorneys got spread out and set up across three tables where they'd be sitting with their six clients, Peterson was backed up by Callum Cox and Jacinta Ling and three juniors, making up a team of six, one for each of his clients though I didn't doubt that Peterson, Cox and Ling would do the hard yards, the juniors basically there to chase documents and make up the numbers.

Over the next few minutes the public gallery filled up, as did the jury, all waiting for the judge and the defendants.

Speaking of which here they came; Anthony Di Marco, Luke Farrar, Gerry Kennedy, Joan Hammond and Aiden Powell with Tony Osmond bringing up the rear, led in by a group of the County Sheriff's Deputies who provided security in the court, each defendant wearing a nice suit while Hammond wore a dress that looked like something you'd wear in church, obviously they were trying to look like good, law-abiding citizens to the jury, not that I cared one whit; I'd sent countless well-dressed criminal swine to prison, this lot would be no different. They got themselves sorted out with Osmond sitting at the end, trying for a little distance from his co-conspirators maybe. Andrea leaned in and made that exact comment as I smiled quietly, something about great minds thinking alike.

Before I could mention that thought though the doors opened again and the last of our defendants strolled in, Julia Humphries. She was stylishly dressed in a tightly-tailored short red skirt suit and matching peep toe stilettoes, She'd obviously spent a lot of time on her appearance and looked very good with her makeup setting off her dead-straight collar-length blonde hair. Escorted in by a deputy, by her side was the state-assigned public defender who'd be trying to keep her off death row; 'good luck with that' I thought. As Andrea and I watched they made their way to their own separate table, Humphries having made it very clear that she wanted nothing to do with the others.

If one thing worried me it was Humphries, she was the wild card here. She'd refused to cooperate, to say anything in fact; she'd sat through repeated interrogation sessions with Brenda, refusing to say a word. It had frustrated Brenda something fierce, to the point that in her final attempt to get her to open up she'd told Humphries that if that was the way she wanted to play it, she could go to death row without a word spoken, they had enough evidence to send her there without her saying a word. Humphries had apparently just sat there, a half-smile on her face before turning to her lawyer and asking to go back to her cell.

The more I came to know her and what she'd done the more I realised that the woman, underneath the attractive exterior, was an amoral monster; according to the psyche profile that the LAPD's best consulting shrink had pulled together after her arrest Humphries was out for herself and the psychologist's opinion was that in Humphries' worldview the rest of the world seemed to divide itself up into two camps, things and people that could be of some use to Humphries somehow and thus were temporarily valuable and the rest, who she saw as useless impediments, without value, unworthy of her attention and to be discarded as necessary.

Be that as it may we had her for arranging that attack on the convoy carrying our friends, circumstantially for the drive-by on Sharon and Brenda and the abortive attack on Maura and could tie her to not one but two separate murders of young women that the Cartel wasn't paying her for. I didn't care how she saw the world, I knew that the world was going to see her for the homicidal maniac she was and she'd end up in a cell right alongside Joan Hammond for as long as it took for Humphries to die of old age.

She'd been in solitary almost since being arrested. Initially for her protection, it turned out to be needed for the protection of the women around her; the woman was apparently an unemotional stone killer, one inmate at the prison hospital where Humphries was being treated for her cocaine addiction had threatened her, promising to cut up Humphries 'pretty face nice and slow'. Before anyone could intervene Humphries had abruptly stood and thrust her thumb right through the prisoner's right eye, pulping it in its socket, before turning away and asking to go back to her cell. When another inmate had threatened her, she'd calmly turned back and stated that the woman was lucky, she still had one eye, the next one wouldn't be so fortunate.

She seemed to not give a damn about what she'd done; once she'd been shown the evidence Brenda's team had on her for the deaths of Shaylene Phillips and Cristina Rocha she'd smiled and shrugged, obviously unconcerned beyond some obvious chagrin at being caught. I may be no shrink but in my opinion the woman was a complete psychopath and that made her both unpredictable and dangerous.

Fifteen minutes later and the trial was off to the usual start, Judge Craven had entered, given the expected opening remarks to the jurors about not seeking out additional information or commentary by the media, then admonished the public gallery about how they should comport themselves, basically he wanted them quiet as church mice.

I looked him over with interest, this was the first time I'd seen the man, he was a late fifties or early sixties WASP, his greying brown hair starting to thin over a narrow face notable for his sharp brown eyes and slightly oversized nose. Nothing there to suggest that he was a somewhat bigoted old fart, though that was the reputation that he had amongst the female attorneys in the LA County District Attorney's office, even to the point of sanctioning female lawyers for wearing slacks for god's sake, in this day and age. That said, we had to deal with the man, hopefully he'd keep his prejudices under control for the length of this trial.

Once the jury was settled the accused were introduced and the charges read out, I could see the jurors were a little stunned by the extent of the charges while the journalists in the media area were all busy taking down everything and tweeting, blogging and posting it online as fast as they could.

Speaking of the media it was well known that Craven wasn't a fan, he'd apparently objected to the presence of the media and in particular the three cameras inside the court which together covered the whole room, however it'd been explained to us that due to the public interest in this case the media had petitioned the court to attend. When Craven had turned them down flat, much as Nat had suggested they would, the combined media had immediately appealed to the Governor, the Mayor, the California Attorney General and the California Supreme Court.

Given the fact that we were in the city that had allowed the televising of the OJ Simpson case and the inquiry into Michael Jackson's death I didn't doubt that the Supreme Court would agree with the networks, but as it turned out they didn't have to. While the Supreme Court hadn't ruled yet the Governor had rolled over in the face of the network's complaints and had directed the Attorney General that they should be allowed to cover the case.

So now we had three unblinking eyes following everything we were doing, beaming it across the nation for later dissection by the on air 'experts', plus at least one of the cable networks was planning on running the case live with legal experts critiquing the case in real time; lucky, lucky us.

Craven looked our way and called on us to lay out our case, so as agreed we stood together, then turned to each other as Andrea smiled and made an 'after you' gesture. I smiled and made the same gesture, getting a smile in return, all as we'd planned, we wanted the jury to see a confident, coordinated prosecution, all to help our case. In the end Craven interrupted grumpily and asked us to make a decision, at which I pulled out a coin and we tossed, again as planned, I made a show of losing gracefully, though in fact I'd won the toss, sitting back down as Andrea stepped forward to deliver our opening address, all just as we'd planned a few days prior.

Andrea opened for us, outlining the State's case in broad brush strokes; we'd have plenty of time to get into the details, after outlining the basics of the charges and the nature of the accused's crimes she was starting to get into the initial nuts and bolts of their crimes and our case against them.

"The People will conclusively demonstrate the defendant's culpability, that they were directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of not only eight victims within the Witness Protection program, but the many, many more people outside that program that died at the hands of these individuals" She waved at the assembled defendants as she pressed on.

"It will be proved beyond any reasonable doubt that there existed a chain of criminality that led from the group's informant in the Justice Department, Joan Hammond, through to Gerry Kennedy, then to Aiden Powell, and in time to their fellow officers Anthony Di Marco and Julia Humphries, then finally Tony Ormond and Luke Farrar, all of them enmeshed in a web of criminal activity that saw the death of over three dozen people over the course of more than two years"

I saw the juror's eyes react again at that number, plus a few murmurs from the public gallery behind us, the total number of their victim's hadn't been officially released to the public before today though the media had speculated it was high, to be honest I'd been shocked when we'd first seen the list. They'd been busy little murderous scum, now though justice had caught up with them and it was time to pay the piper; meanwhile Andrea was on a roll.

"We will clearly tie the defendants to their crimes, from how they located their victims within the Justice Department's Witness Protection program to the manner in which they conveyed that information to the Cartel and how in turn they negotiated payment for the deaths of their numerous victims"

I glanced over at the defence tables and saw Peterson seemingly calm, as were his team and the accused; Powell and Kennedy were watching Andrea as were Di Marco and Hammond, Farrar was staring off into the distance while Osmond's gaze was fixed on the desk in front of him. Humphries however was looking round the court, her eyes flitting from person to person, they came to rest on me and she smiled, it wasn't a particularly nice sensation having a psychopath smiling at you but I didn't react beyond a slightly raised eyebrow. We locked eyes for a few seconds before her gaze moved on, leaving me uneasy. She was the unknown element here; she'd refused to talk to anyone, apparently hadn't cooperated with the other's defence team or the public defender assigned to her and kept to her isolation, making me wonder about what was going on inside that head of hers. Andrea meanwhile had pressed on.

"The People will demonstrate conclusively that Joan Hammond used her privileged access to the Justice Department's Witness Protection database here in Los Angeles to identify former members of the Sinaloa Cartel and then passed that information on to her step-brother, Detective Sergeant Gerry Kennedy, in return for a part of the proceeds of his activities"

"Evidence will be presented that will prove beyond doubt the actions of the defendant Hammond in accessing the Justice Department databases to identify and locate victims for their murder on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel" Andrea paused and stretched out an arm, pointing at Hammond. "The defendant became her step-brother's mole within the Justice Department, passing classified information to him for money" Andrea paused and sipped from a glass of water for a moment before proceeding.

"It will be conclusively proven that Gerry Kennedy in turn sold that information to the Sinaloa Cartel. Worse, he sold that information and then on their orders carried out the murder of those individuals in return for payment; in short he became the Cartel's paid executioner here in Los Angeles" I noticed Peterson making occasional notes on a pad in front of him while I wondered exactly how he was going to defend his clients, the mass of evidence we had was pretty damning; no doubt he'd try and throw everyone off their stride by attempting to undermine our evidence, the thought drawing a slight smile and a wry thought; 'kind of defines the term pushing shit uphill', leaving me frowning inwardly at the crudity; Liv really was a bad influence.

"The defendant's killed multiple people here in Los Angeles for the Sinaloa Cartel, at thirty thousand dollars a time. A small enough amount for a life you might say, but one that bought Kennedy's compliance and in time, the compliance of each of the other accused" Andrea turned again and faced the defence table, gesturing in their direction as she continued with the summary. "We will further prove that each of the defendants was guilty of actions which led to the death of their victims, some indirectly but the majority at their hands, resulting in the deaths of eight people hidden within the Witness Protection program right here in Los Angeles"

"The people will further provide evidence that conclusively ties the accused to the murder of their victims and how they were then in turn paid their blood money" I saw several jurors looking from Andrea to the defendant's and back, as if trying to reconcile their appearance with her words, not that I was worried; by the time we were done here we'd make it clear beyond doubt they were guilty as sin. I had no worries there, the evidence the Major Crimes team had pulled together was outstanding and we'd use it all to send them to death row.

"As if the eight victims within the Witness Protection program were not enough to convict the defendants, the people will prove beyond doubt their involvement in the many other deaths that they carried out at the Cartel's bidding, spreading their reign of terror across this city" Peterson didn't let that go, standing and objecting.

"Objection Your Honour, Prosecution is suggesting an impact on the people of Los Angeles completely at odds with the truth" He glanced at Andrea and continued. "These alleged crimes were not known to anyone, how then could there be a 'reign of terror' as the Prosecution claims" Craven looked at Andrea and spoke up.

"Well?" She ignored Peterson, directing her response at Craven.

"A figure of speech, one which accurately describes the accused's actions Your Honour" Andrea shrugged. "While their crimes were not front page news before their arrest, their actions were known within the team of LAPD and Bureau investigators who were closing in on them"

"Really, you're going with that?" It was Peterson, Andrea shook her head as I caught her eye, raising an eyebrow and getting a slight nod; I stood and addressed Craven and the jury.

"Your Honour, I will point out that it will be shown that the accused were behind a number of attempts on the lives of the team closing in on their activities, to the point that attempts were made on their lives at their homes, leaving the LAPD's headquarters and on the streets of Los Angeles, culminating in a major fire fight, one of the largest and most intense ever seen in this city" I turned to Peterson and spread my hands. "Reign of terror seems to cover it pretty accurately, don't you think?" My point made I sat down as Andrea smoothly took over.

"Of course Mister Peterson is probably not accustomed to have to rely on the protection of armed guards to stay alive long enough to do his job, so perhaps he doesn't have a complete grasp of the subject he's objecting too" She shrugged and looked back at Judge Craven. "Your Honour…?" Craven frowned at her for a moment before glancing at Peterson.

"Objection overruled. Counsellor, continue" Andrea smiled and nodded

"Thank you Your Honour" I smiled quietly to myself; round one to us, but there'd be plenty more to come.

New York State Supreme Court Building

Liz Donnelly smiled quietly to herself in her chambers, exchanging a glance with her fellow judge Lena Petrovski who shook her head as they sat watching the coverage, then spoke.

"That defence counsel's going to need something a lot stronger than that if he expects to get anywhere" Liz nodded.

"Even if he did, Cabot's going to tear him apart" Lena nodded slowly.

"True, we trained her well" Liz chuckled a little at that, remembering some of their shared history.

"I doubt she'd thank us for it, probably grumble about how we enjoyed making her life hell" Lena cackled for a moment before replying.

"Like I said, training" They traded smug smiles for a moment before returning to the televised case coming live from Los Angeles.

In Court

"Finally we come to some of the most recent crimes which the accused have undertaken, the attempted murder of six law enforcement personnel; four LAPD members, the head of the City of Los Angeles Coroner's Office and a Federal Bureau of investigation Special Agent" Andrea looked across the jury before continuing. "We will prove beyond a doubt that the accused arranged several attempts on the lives of these law enforcement personnel when they became aware that their actions were being investigated, each attempt more blatant than the last, starting with assassins sent to their homes, then attempted drive-by shootings before culminating in an ambush and fire fight on the streets of Los Angeles"

Boston BPD Division 1 Homicide

In the Boston Regional Information Centre the room was quiet, pretty much anyone who could be there was, together standing and watching as the case was laid out on the massive wall screens, there'd been low whistles and muttered comments when the prosecutor spelled out the numbers of dead. As the prosecutor mentioned the ambush the network cut to some cell phone footage showing the fire fight, a low murmur ran through the room as they recognised Jane standing up and taking a shot.

"Shit she was lucky" It was Frost. "Jane could have been killed standing up there" Before Korsak could reply an irritating voice cut across the room.

"That's Rizzoli, always was a glory hound" At Crowe's words a grumble went through the room, low and angry but before Korsak or Frost or Cooper could say anything another voice cut across the noise.

"That's my sister you're talking about dirt bag" It was an angry Frankie Rizzoli standing there in the doorway, hands on his hips and a fierce, combative look on his face. "She put herself on the line to save her LAPD partners and those civilians; you got a problem with that?" Crowe went to say something then took in the angry and disapproving faces around him; before he could say anything stupid Nina Holiday's voice cut across the room.

"Pipe down Crowe, the rest of us want to hear what's being said" Crowe wanted to say something but the BRIC was Holiday's turf so he contented himself with shaking his head as the rest of the room promptly forgot him and turned their attention back to the screen.

In Court

Andrea finished outlining the scope of the conspirator's crimes; it had taken more than two hours all up, listing each victim, now she was informing the jury that we'd be calling for the death penalty for all the defendants.

"The People will be seeking the imposition of the death penalty for the accused. It will conclusively prove that the accused's crimes warrant this outcome as they have, in accordance with the California Penal Code, undertaken actions that make such a call mandatory" She paused and looked round the jurors, then continued. "The Code calls for the death penalty to be imposed for the crime of first degree murder with special circumstances. Three of those special circumstances apply to this case" She used one hand to tick off the fingers of the other in a small piece of theatre that would play well for the jury and the cameras.

"Firstly; the crime of Murder in the First Degree for financial gain" Conscious of the cameras and the jury watching I carefully smothered a smile at Andrea's words; the way she'd said it you could practically hear the capitalization of the crime in her voice. "The people will prove that the vast majority of crimes undertaken by the accused, including the overwhelming number of murders they stand accused of were undertaken to obtain payment from a Mexican organized crime cartel, which leads us immediately and directly to the second violation of the Penal Code warranting the death penalty" She took a few steps forward and ticked off another finger as the jury and the cameras hung off her words.

"First Degree Murder involving multiple murders; the State will prove that the majority of the accused undertook the wilful, premeditated murder of multiple victims, four of these defendants are accused of multiple murders for financial gain" She threw a glance over at the tables where the seven defendants sat with their lawyers. "Three of the defendants did not directly commit murder for financial gain, nor undertake multiple murders, that however does not obviate them of their crimes" She looked back at the jury and pushed on, ticking off her third finger.

"The third Special Circumstance is Murder in the First Degree that involved the murder of a witness. In this case seven of the accused's direct victims were Federal witnesses that had been placed in the Witness Protection program following their giving evidence against a Mexican drug cartel" She caught the eyes of the jurors as she explained. "The California Penal Code states that if the defendant intended to kill the witness in retaliation for his/her past testimony then that is a Special Circumstance which calls for the imposition of the Death Penalty"

Andrea turned to the table where the disgraced cops sat and held her hand out, pointing at Farrar and then Osmond where he sat at one end.

"Not all the defendants took part in or facilitated these murders, two of the accused, Mister Osmond and Mister Farrar did not, to the best of our knowledge do so. That however is their only saving grace. They are charged with a range of other, significant crimes, including multiple counts of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to kill on-duty Police Officers and conspiracy to kill a Federal law enforcement officer amongst other, lesser crimes" She turned back to the jurors again as she continued.

"While these are all major crimes, all of which attract significant sentences, those crimes are not what have attracted the State's call for the death penalty for these two accused. It will be proved that the defendants undertook multiple kidnappings in return for financial gain, the results of which led to the death of at least one of the kidnapping victims, a member of the Witness Protection program. This, under Sections 207 and 209 of the California Penal Code, is a Special Circumstance which attracts the death penalty and which is why the People have petitioned for that sentence to be applied to all the accused, including Mister Farrar and Mister Osmond"

I nodded in agreement, not just because she was right but also because several of the jurors were looking my way, every little bit helped in the theatre of a courtroom, it helped convince the jurors that the prosecution and the state were certain of the accused's guilt, all of which helped our case.

Once the initial remarks were made, Andrea handed over to me and I walked the jury through our case, outlining the timeline of the murders as best we could, I had to keep referring back to my notes; there were a large number of victims to be identified, more for a single case than I'd ever had before. Peterson objected a few times, nothing major, pretty much pro forma really but we'd taken turns slamming him hard, Craven had denied most of his objections, leaving us to hammer in the nails of the coffin we were building for Kennedy and Powell and the others.

We used a huge, high definition flat screen television, set up in part of the courtroom where it could be clearly seen by the jury, Craven, the defendants, most of the public gallery including the media and not at all coincidentally, two of the TV cameras. It meant that one of us would often be 'driving' as Andrea had put it while the other was presenting the evidence to the court, though we'd switch back and forth regularly. In this case, as I slowly walked the jury through each of the accused's victims, she'd driven the laptop that contained the imagery of the evidence, revealing a side by side of the victim when alive, usually a DMV shot, and an image from the crime scene, often somewhat messy and gruesome, to get the message across.

Peterson had objected, of course, to the imagery but hadn't got far, especially when Andrea asked if he'd prefer us to hand out leaflets of the victim's names and faces to the jury. When he'd balked at that Craven had told him to sit back down, leaving us to get on with the case.

So far, so good, but it was early days and we had a very long road and a lot of testimony ahead of us before we'd see them convicted and sentenced.

I'd seen Craven frowning a few times as we'd laid out our case; he obviously didn't like the way we were playing to the jury and coincidentally to the media, obviously his issues with women went well beyond what they wore in his court to how they spoke, acted and behaved, leaving me wonder how long he'd sit still. It didn't take long; we were only a couple of hours into our opening remarks when Craven called a short recess while we were called into his chambers.

Judge Craven's Chambers

Peterson had tried calling elements of our case into question and we'd tagged teamed him pretty hard, swapping the lead several times and generally leaving Craven little choice but to rule in our favour most of the time, to Peterson's growing and barely-hidden annoyance. He obviously wasn't the only one though, as Craven dropped into his oversized swivel chair behind the huge desk and peered up at us, obviously annoyed.

"What the hell are you two playing at?" I thought about saying something then deferred to Andrea, she knew him, how far she could push; I didn't. Andrea stayed calm, her voice calmly innocent.

"What do you mean Judge?'

"You're treating this capital crimes trial like you're teaching an acting class. I will remind you this is a court of law counsellor" Andrea stood there and regarded him calmly before she spoke.

"As far as I am aware, theatrics, within limits, are not yet banned in court and, given six members of the LAPD and FBI were going to be killed on the orders of the defendants, we don't see any issue in doing whatever it takes to see them convicted" Craven frowned.

"That's all very well counsellors but this is my court and I don't like it, you understand me" Andrea remained calm in the face of his minor judicial temper tantrum as Craven continued. "Counsellors, I'm telling you to tone down the theatrics, this is a court, not a stage" Andrea and I swapped a glance before she nodded, making it my turn. I looked over at Craven behind his desk and spoke.

"Very well Your Honour, however you need to be aware that Peterson intends to make an issue out of the fact that the two officers who led the investigation are gay" Craven looked up at me and shrugged.

"So what?" Andrea handled that, her voice taking on a slightly harsh tone.

"Your Honour, both of the women in question, Deputy Chief Johnson and Commander Raydor, in addition to being romantically involved, are our friends. We don't appreciate having their personal lives dragged through the court by the defence on spurious fishing expeditions, particularly in a salacious attempt to direct attention away from the defendants and the capital crimes they're charged with" Craven sat back in his high-backed leather chair and regarded her.

"Does it matter if the officers are gay? If it's relevant I see no problem in letting the defence look into it" Unable to stay silent I shook my head, attracting Craven's attention as I spoke.

"Your Honour, we wish to place it on the record that we will strenuously object in the strongest possible terms to the defence's attempt to smear the officers concerned" Craven looked over at my words, tilting his head as he regarded me.

"There's a difference between investigating a witness's testimony and smearing them" I frowned as Andrea replied.

"You and I know that Your Honour, Peterson, I'm not so sure about" Craven shrugged again, patently unconcerned.

"Counsellor, I doubt defence would go down that path" I moved a step closer to Craven's desk, looking down at him and keeping my voice flat and calm.

"Your Honour, we would be extremely unhappy if that line of questioning was pursued. Both Counsellor Hobbs and I are gay and are also involved with police officers" Craven frowned, whether at the thought of Peterson going down that path or my outing both of us to him I didn't know, I mentally shrugged and continued. "We would therefore take it as a very particular, very personal attack if Mister Peterson does indeed choose to drag this trial into an attack on the relationship choices of our friends" Craven looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged as he spoke.

"I doubt he will" Andrea shook her head as she replied.

"I would hope you are right Your Honour, however if he does, then as far as we are concerned, all bets are off" Craven sat forward abruptly, his forearms coming to rest on his desk as he gave her a hard look.

"What exactly do you mean by that statement Counsellor?" Andrea took a breath, standing a fraction straighter, taller.

"That such behaviour will be taken as a declaration of war and we will not be held responsible for what happens then" I looked at her then back at Craven, taking in his suddenly thoughtful expression and spoke.

"If Mister Peterson does as he has threatened to do and tries to drag our friend's relationship through the mud, I personally guarantee that I will do everything in my power to destroy him and his credibility inside and outside this courtroom" I stopped and held my breath, I'd pushed very hard, we both had. Craven was obviously surprised, his eyes narrowing as they flicked between us both as we stood there in front of him, I tried hard not to flinch under his gaze. Finally he spoke slowly.

"We shall see what happens, until then Counsellors, tone down the theatrics" I nodded as Andrea smiled politely.

"Yes Your Honour"

We left.

In Court

An hour after the lunch recess and I'd finished laying out the killings that the accused had done on Sinaloa's coin and Andrea was up, she had sketched out the attempts on Brenda and Sharon by the assassins, to this point Peterson had made a few objections, seemingly more for appearances sake than anything else, making me wonder what he was up to. I found out soon enough.

Andrea had outlined the drive-by attempt on both Sharon and Brenda, to be followed by the ambush on Maura then moving on to the shoot out on the streets. That would be followed by the case for the murders of Shaylene Phillips and Cristina Rocha by Humphries when I found out what he'd been waiting for. Peterson standing and addressing the court,

"Objection your Honour" Craven looked his way and nodded,

"Yes?"

"I would question the right for these charges to be heard in this court at this time" I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he was playing at; from the similar look on Andrea's face she was thinking the same thing. Craven made it three when he spoke up.

"And why exactly is that Mister Peterson?"

"Your Honour, the defendant Ms Humphries is accused of a number of capital crimes, crimes she carried out alone and apparently without the knowledge of anyone else" He spread his hands wide. "My clients certainly had no idea of the actions she undertook and therefore combining that defendant's crimes with those my innocent clients are accused of is a travesty of justice" Before he could continue he was interrupted by three objections, from Andrea and I and, not surprisingly, from Humphries' public defender who till this point in the trial had remained relatively quiet.

It was obvious to Andrea and I that Peterson wanted the damning attacks on our live witnesses out of the way, that way he'd only be defending against the cases where all the defendants were dead, our evidence was circumstantial and would hinge on the testimony from Hernandez. I was willing to bet every cent of the Cabot family fortune he'd be slinging mud against Hernandez's credibility, trying to taint that as well. Craven looked between the four of us then waved at Humphries' defender.

"Counsellor, as this directly concerns your client perhaps you should be the first to speak" The young guy nodded and leaned forward, one hand resting on the desk.

"Your Honour, this appears to be a blatant attempt to shift blame to my client in an attempt to distance Mister Peterson's clients from the crimes they also stand accused of" He looked along the row of four tables to the other end where Peterson was standing. "Given the fact that all seven accused are charged with similar crimes, should they not have the chance to have their presumed guilt or innocence determined together?" I nodded, hoping the jury saw it; I didn't want Humphries to carry the rap alone for some of the stuff she had done in conjunction with the others, which was all too obviously Peterson's goal. Speaking of whom, he smoothly took up a rebuttal.

"Your Honour, there are ample precedent's in law, in fact…" Peterson reached down and picked up a tablet and started reading from it, quoting numerous precedents in California case law. I glanced at Andrea and saw her frowning slightly, obviously looking for a loophole. I left her too it as I wasn't as familiar with chapter and verse of California law, instead I was wracking my brain through federal law I'd come across in various cases that might be applicable. Finally, having cited numerous precedents Peterson wound down and looked to Craven who in turn looked to Humphries' counsel.

"Well counsellor?" It was obvious that he was frantically dredging for his own precedents to argue the case when he was interrupted by an unusual source, Humphries herself. She reached out and laid a hand on his arm and spoke, her voice carrying easily.

"Let's see how far they're willing to go to save their miserable hides" Her defender frowned and bent over, speaking quietly into her ear, getting a sharp glance before she spoke. ""Let's see what Hobbs and Cabot have to say first" He nodded and looked over at us, drawing Craven's attention to where we were standing.

"Well Counsellors, do you have something to add?" he asked as I looked to Andrea and gave a small shrug, she saw what I was trying to say; 'I got nothing', and nodded, leaving me to sit down as she turned to look towards the bench.

"Your Honour, there are indeed precedents that support Mister Peterson's claim, he did rather exhaustively list them after all" She took a few steps forward and around the table "That said there are also numerous precedents that apply under these circumstances which I note he very carefully did not cite, in particular Fellows vs Hackman vs the State of California in which a very similar situation arose…" She was interrupted by Peterson.

"That's hardly germane to this situation!" Ignoring him Andrea continued laying out her case, quoting several other precedents that supported continuing to try them together. From where I was standing it looked like Craven was uncertain which way to rule, instead looking to Humphries and her defender. I suddenly remembered a case that might help ours and stood.

"Your Honour…" Craven looked my way and nodded.

"Councillor, you have something to add?" I stood a little taller as I spoke.

"I would like to cite Federal law as a precedent, in fact the Supreme Court ruled in the hearing into the 911 conspiracy that the actions of multiple conspirators could be heard together as each element of the conspiracy supported the overall objective of the conspirators" I looked to the Defence table, then back to Craven. "That certainly applies here" Peterson sure as hell didn't agree, quickly objecting.

"Your Honour, that was a federal trial under terrorism-related charges, charges which have been subject to question and appeal repeatedly. I fail to see their relevance in this case" I shrugged before answering.

"And yet the precedent still stands" I looked to Craven, he was the one we had to convince. "The acts of the accused were undertaken to allow them to continue their lucrative criminal endeavours, the defendant Kennedy negotiated a price with Sinaloa for the murder of the investigating officers…"

"Your Honour, Counsel is attempting to taint the jury's perceptions of the defendant's" Ling interjected as I kept talking over her.

"…while the defendant Humphries negotiated a price with not one but two criminal gangs here in Los Angeles to achieve the same end" Peterson and Ling both objected before they shared a glance and Ling sat down, leaving Peterson to argue their case.

"Your Honour, a federal terrorism case, one that has been subject to numerous appeals and challenges, hardly qualifies as a suitable precedent under California law, the special circumstances surrounding that case are not applicable to a civil case"

"Criminal case, counsellor" Andrea corrected him, looking back to Craven. "This is a criminal case, not a civil dispute here, a legal nicety and something that the Defence seems eager to avoid admitting" She smiled. "Naturally" I smiled and nodded.

"I'm sure even Mr Peterson here is aware of the difference" Peterson ignored our comments and continued to plead his case to Craven.

"Your Honour, I believe that charges pertaining to the actions Miss Humphries may or may not have carried out are best investigated and determined in a separate trial, one that can concentrate on the guilt of the defendant, rather than clogging up this trial with irrelevancies not germane to the false charges brought against my clients" Craven sat back, obviously thinking about it then looked to Humphries' lawyer.

"Do you have anything else to add?" The young guy was about to rise when Humphries spoke.

"Let me" The defender shook his head but she was insistent as they spoke quietly but with some heat before Humphries rose to her feet and looked to Craven while her defender shook his head. Standing tall she rested one hand on her hip, using the other to gesture with as she spoke.

"Your Honour, my guilt or innocence is yet to be proven, but let me assure you that everything I am accused of, if I indeed did them, would have been discussed with my partner, Lieutenant Di Marco…" she waved his way, the gesture taking in the rest of the defendants. "…who in turn would have discussed it with both Kennedy and Powell" She turned a nasty smile on the rest of the Defence tables as she continued. "Basically they knew precisely what I was doing, when I was doing it, why I was doing it and how I was doing it" Peterson's jaw dropped, a match for mine and Andrea's and from the looks of it most of the court. Finally we all turned our eyes to Craven who was scrutinising Humphries, eventually he nodded once.

"In light of the defendant's testimony your objection is overruled Counsellor. We'll have plenty of opportunity to ascertain exactly who knew what and when during the course of this trial" He looked to Andrea. "Prosecution" We both looked his way. "Continue where you left off" Andrea nodded.

"Yes Your Honour" Craven turned to look at Humphries and waved her down.

"The defendant will return to her seat" Humphries smiled wickedly and turned to look at the other suspects, her voice carrying across the court and far beyond courtesy of the cameras.

"Don't try throwing me under the bus; you won't like the results…" With that she sat back down as the whispers throughout the court started, prompting Craven to tap his gavel once and call for quiet. With the court silent once more he looked to Andrea and nodded.

"Continue"

Las Vegas LVPD Crime Lab

"Cold" At the comment Ray Langstrom, head of the Las Vegas Crime looked over at his lead CSI, Catherine Willows, seeing the blonde woman shaking her head.

"Hmm?" At his querying comment Willows looked to him.

"Something about that woman, Humphries, she sets off my instincts" She shook her head. "I don't know what it is but it's something" Langstrom nodded; Catherine was his most experienced CSI, she'd been doing this for many years and when she said something didn't feel right it was usually a sign they needed to go back over the evidence and assumptions once more. In this case…he looked to the screen once more, seeing one of the prosecutors, the older one, was outlining the background to several additional murders, god knows there were enough in this case already.

"Anything more concrete?" Willows shook her head at his question then replied.

"No, but I wouldn't like to be passing her in a dark alley" She shook her head a little and looked to her boss. "She gives me the creeps" Catherine shrugged. "Just a bad vibe I guess" They exchanged a look as Ray spoke.

"Well, I'm sure, given the charges, we'll have plenty of time to find out just what sort of person she really is" Catherine nodded.

"There is that"