Getting home that night was a process for Jaser. Once her manditory time was up, and she had finished getting the warrant on the human trafficers sperm. She had called the lab multiple times, but the waiting list was a 'no exceptions' deal. Rather than piss them off, she figured she might as well call it a night, before Hickey dropped three more case files on her desk, "You want a witness? Here they are, convince them yourself."
Figuring that she was going to have to pull this caseload on her own, she hopped in a cab, and went to the first adress. The woman who opened the door was holding a little baby boy, and she looked nervouse as hell. "Can I help you?"
Jaser nodded, "Ma'am, I'm Agent Jaser Chee. I just got assigned to your case, and I just wanted to talk to you."
The woman got even more nervouse, "I- I already talked to the police, and the Special Victims Unit Detectives, and the FBI."
"I'm the prosecutor for your case." Jaser explained, "Can we talk?"
She looked like she was about to slam the door shut, but the baby started to cry, and she sighed, "Come in, you can wait on the couch while I take care of Aleksander."
Jaser settled down onto the couch, and waited patiently until the baby's cries stopped, and the woman walked back into the room, "What do you want to know?"
She sat down in the chair across from Jaser, not comfortable at all. Jaser cleared her throat, "I need you to testify against him, in court."
She stood up immediatly, "Leave, now. I know you cannot force me, and I am refusing to ever see that man again."
Jaser stood up as well, "Uh, but without your testimoney, no jury will believe the rape charge."
"I will not speak." She insisted. "I've spent the last three months trying to put my life back together. I just want to be alone, with my son. Why can't you people understand that!?"
That tugged on her heart strings, almost enough for her to not even try to talk to the others. Almost.
The next one was at a small flower shop, or rather behind it. Jaser walked up from behind, "Excuse me? Maria Falcorn?"
The woman didn't look up from caressing the petals of a pink rose, "Yes?"
"I'm Agent Chee with the FBI. I need to talk to you about testifying."
The woman dropped the flower, and turned around to fully face Jaser. Jaser couldn't stop the gasp. She was blind, and tragically so. Deep, painful looking scars cracked her beautiful face from her eyes, to her forhead, and cheeck bones.
"That man... did this to me." Maria explained. "I will not testify."
Jaser didn't even bother arguing.
She didn't even care about getting them to testify anymore. She only went to the last victim to see if she could get one more reason to hate this man.
She did, because when she asked for Gertrude Vonmach, the old woman who answered the door invited her in. She gave Jaser a cup of tea, and then brought a little girl into the room.
She sat down next to the old woman, who was probably her grandmother, and said, "I'm Gertrude."
Jaser nodded, numbly. "I... pictured you a bit older."
Gertrude nodded, "Yeah... I got kidnapped when I was going to school. When I was rescued by the FBI, Agent Hickey found me chained to the trafficers bed. He had just... finished up, and I saw Agent Hickey kick that bastard's ass from one end of the warehouse to the other."
Hickey walked in on a grown man raping a teenage girl. No wonder he had been so persistant on pinning the guy for rape.
"Charlotte..." Jaser whispered, "I- I really hate to ask you this, with all you've been through. But, do you think you could find it in yourself to testify against him in court?"
Her grandmother wound her arms around Gertrude in a tight hug as she glared right back at Jaser, "When I was raped, everyone wanted me to talk. The police made me talk. Special Victims Unit detectives made me talk. And now a lawyer is trying to make me talk. The only one who understood was Mr. Hickey."
"Uh, I just-"
"He told me if I didn't want to talk about it anymore, I didn't have too." Her voice cracked, and a few tears gathered in her eyes, "He let me go home. Why can't you people leave me alone?"
Jaser apologised, promised to never bother her, and said she's make sure nobody else did too. "But, just in case you want to, the trial starts this Wednsday. I'm not encouraging you to come, just telling you in case you want to."
She went home that night, feeling incredibly low. Connor was on their couch, watching the O-Rielly Factor. Neither one of them could stand the crooked show, and the extremely biased liberal veiw, they mostly watched the show in hopes that someone would kick Rielly's ass.
Connor greeted her as she tossed her hoodie onto their cheap coffee table. "I didn't know you had to work so late. I got off at five, didn't-"
"Technically, yeah, I got off at five. Our shifts are the same Connor, I checked."
Connor frowned as Jaser kicked her heels off her feet. "Then why come home at-" He checked his watch, "Ten fifteen?"
Jaser sighed, "Let's just say I had to do some overtime for my new partner."
Connor muted the TV, "Just talk to me about it already."
Jaser smiled sadly as she sat down next to him on their fake leather couch. "You know me to well."
"I'm your older brother. If I didn't know you better than anyone else, I wouldn't be doing my job."
"And your job is?"
"Part time FBI field agent, but most of my time I'm dragging my little sister out of range of the shit-fan." Connor smirked.
Jaser laughed, "Alright, I met my new partner, and I'm less than thrilled. He tells me to stick this guy with a rape charge that isn't gonna hold, and when I say I can't, he get's upset. I can however, get him on a human trafficing charge. I mention that we have an option to plea him out to fifty years instead of life in prison, and he goes ballistic on me. Get's right in my face, tells me I should get a different job if i can't stick him with a rape charge as well."
Connor's frown got deeper by the word. "Why can't you get him on the rape charge?"
"More like charges. Three victims, all admitted that this guy raped them. And none of them will get on the witness stand to testify to it. I tried to get Hickey to talk at least one into it, but he snapped on me again. But he gave me their adresses. Said that if I wanted them on the stand, to convince them myself. And that's why I was late coming home... because after I talked to these girls... I considered going on a manhunt for every male in this city."
Connor rolled his eyes, but jaser shook her head, "I'm serious Connor, these girls broke my heart. One of them is barely holding herself together so she can provide for her baby boy, one is blind and looks like Freddy Kruger got to her eyes. And the last one... God, Connor, she's just a kid. She's only fifteen."
Connor wrapped his arms around Jaser, pulling her into a tight hug, "Jaser, look, maybe you should just plea him out, get away from this case immediatly-"
"No." Jaser said firmly, "Connor, I haven't even met this sick bastard yet, and I already know, I want him to get into Nightworld."
Connor raised an eyebrow at her words. Like him, Jaser stuck to the religion of their people. There was no solid belief for their people, it varied tribe to tribe, clan to clan, and family to family. But he and Jaser both believed in the afterlife, to put it specifically, Nightworld. Nightworld was where all the deceased wanted to go, and a successful journey there depended on your actions in life.
Jaser sighed, "I'm going to push for the death penalty."
Connor was silent as Jaser moved away from him, and streched out a little, "So, how was your day?"
Connor seemed to brighten a little, "Great. I got assigned a lawyer to work hand in hand with. He's mostly a deffence lawyer, but he does a little prosecution when he feels the need to."
Jaser nodded, "It's cool that he varries, I guess that'll be more experiance for you."
"He's older, and nearly cripple, but you should see how he talks. It's like he's not even aware how feeble he is, like he thinks he can still fight."
"Sound's like one of those tough old guys who are always saying 'Back in my day!'"
Connor laughed, "No, he served in Vietnam. Went through four tours. Purple heart, medal of honor, and a bunch of other awards I've never even heard of."
"Tough old bastard."
"He signed in as a field agent, and went to college part time to get a law degree. His service record is unquestionable. He's actually encouraging me to do the same."
Jaser stared at Connor for a moment, "You're gonna... go to law school?"
Connor shrugged, "Thinking about it. I mean, no one can be in the field forever, right? Eventually, I'm gonna get old, and I wanna have a degree of somekind to fall back on. Besides, you said law school was the funnest thing you ever did."
"Yeah, cause I got to argue with my fellow classmates, as part of our lesson plan. We got graded on how we argued Connor. I have no doubt you can put up a fight, but as far as a debate goes... you'll need some practice."
Connor nodded, "I am willing to work."
Jase smiled, "I know you are. Hey, what's this guys name anyway?"
"His real name is a mouthful, not as bad as ours, but still a mouthful. So everyone jsut calls him Achilies."
"... Oh no."
Okay, so I look all over the internet to try and find out that they hold religion, EXTREMELY close to home. Not one Native American would talk about what they believed about what happens after death. I had to get that information from people, who were NOT Native American. So if I got something 'wrong' (which is nearly impossible to do because the beliefs vary so much) and one of you is offended, feel free to leave a review, or PM me about your religious beliefs, that way I can be more accurate.