“Do not touch this.”
Harper looked down.
There was no case number on the cover.
Only two words.
INTERNAL REVIEW.
Harper looked up.
Judge Cross spoke quietly.
“Six weeks ago, a public defender contacted my office.”
“About Hensley?”
“Not exactly.”
She sat again.
“About Detective Raymond Pike.”
Harper knew the name.
Pike was listed on her arrest report.
“He interrogated me.”
“I know.”
“He also arrested Dawson and Cole.”
“Yes.”
“What about Ruiz?”
“He supervised the officers who did.”
Harper felt the pieces shifting into place.
“Why wasn’t he removed?”
“Because suspicion is not evidence.”
“Neither is a confession with an impossible address.”
“No,” Cross said. “It isn’t.”
The judge’s voice hardened.
“But courts cannot operate on instinct, Miss Freeman. If a police officer fabricated evidence, we need proof. If a prosecutor knew evidence was unreliable and used it anyway, we need proof of that too.”
Harper looked at the folder.
“What’s in there?”
“Enough to make me concerned.”
“But not enough to act.”
“Not publicly.”
Harper understood.
The courthouse had not suddenly become trustworthy because one judge admitted a problem.
Institutions moved cautiously.
Sometimes that caution protected fairness.
Sometimes it protected institutions.
“Why are you showing me this?”
“I’m not.”
Harper looked up.
Cross pushed the folder back into the drawer.
“I explicitly told you not to touch it.”
Harper almost smiled.
Judge Cross did not.
“You have extraordinary ability,” Cross continued. “But ability can create arrogance, particularly when everyone around you starts applauding.”
Harper’s smile disappeared.
“You won today.”
“My case was dismissed.”
“Exactly. Do not confuse a dismissal with proof that you understand the entire system.”
“I don’t.”
“Good.”
Cross leaned forward.
“Then understand this. If someone entered your house because of material related to these cases, you may be dealing with people who are more frightened than embarrassed.”
Harper’s stomach tightened.
“Are you telling me to stop?”
“I am telling you to stop behaving like you are invulnerable.”
Harper looked down at her phone.
Another message from her mother.