The Intern(16)

“Sorry,” Madison said once they were outside.

“Oh, no worries as far as we’re concerned,” Imani said. “But watch your back with Nancy. That woman has nooo sense of humor.”

Outside, it was raining again, with a bitter wind coming from the north. They ran across the street and ducked into an office building that had a takeout salad place. Lunch out wasn’t in her budget, but sometimes you just had to network. She looked forward to the day she was a real lawyer, when money would not be an issue. They got their salads and found a table under a glass atrium streaked with rain, making small talk about the usual subjects as they ate. Which classes Madison was taking, gossip about people they knew in common at the law school, that sort of thing.

“It’s amazing that you’re taking a class from the judge,” Sean said. “What’s she like as a teacher?”

“Very charismatic. Really organized. Lots of inside scoop on the justice system. It’s amazing. I’m lucky to have the chance.”

“I suppose you got a leg up in getting the internship, since you knew her from school.”

“It definitely helped. Although I can’t say I know her. It’s hard to get a word with her after class, and she doesn’t do office hours as much as some of the other professors.”

“Well, she’s got her plate full here. The truth is, we don’t get much face time with her either. It’s not the sort of chambers where the judge socializes with the law clerks.”

“Yeah, Nancy made that clear.”

“She’s pretty possessive of the judge,” Imani said.

“Protective is a better way to put it,” Sean said.

Once the food was gone, Imani pushed aside her miso bowl and looked Madison in the eye.

“About your question from before,” she said, “we do want to give you a heads-up. But anything we say about chambers culture is absolute cone of silence. Agreed?”

“Of course. I know all about the confidentiality requirement. I had to sign that crazy NDA.”

Imani and Sean exchanged glances.

“Huh, that’s weird. I never heard of them making interns sign that before,” Imani said.

“It must be post-Olivia syndrome,” Sean said, and Imani nodded.

“Olivia?”

“Your predecessor. And yes, to answer your question, she was let go.”

“Which Olivia? There are at least three in my year.”

“She wasn’t from Harvard.”

“Really? I thought Judge Conroy only hired from Harvard.”

“We thought so, too. But I’m pretty sure she said she went to BC Law. Imani thinks it was BU.”

“And yes, it’s weird that we don’t know, and that we had different impressions of which school she was from,” Imani said. “That’s bizarre, in fact. We don’t know what she did to get fired, but we think it had to do with misrepresenting herself. Which is a significant security violation, as well as an ethical issue. Obviously, you’re not misrepresenting yourself, Madison. So, in that sense, you have nothing to worry about.”

Shit. Little do they know.

“On the other hand, we wanted to warn you, because ever since the Olivia fiasco, Nancy has gotten very strict. Which, look, we get it. She takes any threat to the judge’s safety seriously,” Sean said.

“The intern threatened the judge’s safety?”

“Not that we know of specifically. But obviously anyone who’d lie about their identity raises security flags, don’t you think?”

And if they lied about their brother being a defendant in a drug case? Even worse.

“I guess. Though, if it was a matter of padding her résumé to try to get the job, maybe that’s not really a security threat, per se?”

Madison’s palms were sweaty, and her heart hammered inside her chest. Could they tell she was hiding something? Though she hadn’t lied on the background form yet, if only because she hadn’t finished filling the damn thing out.

“Maybe, but you can’t be too careful. At least, Judge Conroy can’t. I don’t know if you’re aware, but she was targeted before,” Imani said.

“Are you talking about what happened to her husband? What I saw online says his murder is unsolved.”

“They never were able to verify a connection to her cases,” Sean said. “And she never speaks of him. We assume it was connected because of how security conscious she is. Anyway, it was years ago. I don’t want you to worry about working here. I mean, security-wise.”

“I’m not worried.”

“Good. We don’t want to scare you. Just to explain why Nancy made you sign an NDA. She wants to protect the judge.”

She should ask them about the background form. Maybe they’d have an idea for how she could delay completing it. If she could just put off submitting it until next week, she could speak to the judge in person after class and explain about Danny.

“Oh, I understand. By the way, that’s not the only form she wants me to fill out. There’s this crazy employment form that could take me days to finish. Is there any way around that?”

The clerks looked at her with blank expressions.

“Employment form?” Sean said.

“You don’t mean the FBI background-check form?” Imani asked.