She reached back to unzip the jumpsuit. The judge stopped her hand.
“Listen to me. This is not illegal per se. I’m not asking you to carry drugs or anything. Is it risky? Yes. Could you go to jail? Let me remind you, that possibility also exists if I decide to turn you in. Think carefully before you walk out on me. I’m desperate, and as much as I would hate to destroy your very promising career, I will.”
“You should think carefully, too. If you turn me in, not only will you lose an ally. You’ll gain an opponent. You know things about me, but I know about you, too. If you force me, I’ll have no choice but to defend myself.”
“You’d cooperate against me?”
“Not by choice. But if you report me, what else can I do?”
The judge crumpled at the knees, sitting down hard on the vanity chair.
“Please, Madison. I’m in a very tough spot. I’m appealing to our friendship. Can’t you help me out?”
“Can I ask you something? If our friendship is important to you, then why, when I told you that my brother was missing, did you refuse to help me? And don’t say it’s because of ethical rules. I won’t believe that.”
“I did try. I tried to locate your brother.”
“You’re a federal judge. He’s a defendant in a case before you. How is it possible that you can’t find him?”
“Because they have him squirreled away somewhere.”
“Who, they?”
“The people investigating me for corruption.”
Madison took a step back, hand going to her heart. She wasn’t surprised at the bare fact, just shocked that the judge would admit to it, after all the cover-ups and lies.
“You’re being investigated? For what, fixing cases?”
“Something like that. Anyway, it’s not true. I’m innocent, just like your brother.”
“If you’re innocent, why are they hiding Danny from you?”
At a loss, the judge shook her head, her mouth open but no words coming out.
“They’re trying to protect him, aren’t they?” Madison said with dawning horror. “They think you’d silence him if you could get to him.”
The judge’s eyes burned into Madison’s.
“I wouldn’t hurt anyone, and certainly not your brother. You have to believe that. I want justice for him as much as you do.”
Despite everything, she did believe her. And yet—
“If that’s true, why are you mixed up with the people who framed him?”
“I hate them. They put me in this position. They forced me.”
“Then why not turn them in?”
“It wouldn’t work. They’d kill me first.”
Judge Conroy’s eyes glittered with unshed tears. As her words hit home, Madison fully grasped an idea that had been forming in her mind these past days. Wallace, Logue, whoever else they worked with—they were probably the ones behind the murder of the judge’s husband. If that was true, it put everything in a different light. Then Kathryn Conroy was indeed a victim, and yet the stakes were higher than she’d imagined, because the enemy was that much more dangerous.
“I want to help you. I really do,” Madison said. “The risk just feels too great.”
“Too great for the reward I’m offering. I understand. You’re not willing to do it to save your career. But would you do it to save your brother?”
“You said you don’t know where he is.”
“I don’t. But I can sign an order vacating his guilty plea and dismissing the charges against him. Then it won’t matter where they’re hiding him. With no pending charges, they’d have to let him go.”
“Won’t the authorities stop you from doing that?”
“I don’t see how they could. I may be under investigation, but I’m still a judge in good standing with full powers. I’ll make you a promise. I’ll sign that order first thing tomorrow morning, as soon as I get to chambers. Family is everything, Madison. I think you and I agree about that. You’d be taking a risk, but your brother would be safe. Now, is it worth it to you? What do you say?”
As she considered Judge Conroy’s offer, the face that flashed before her eyes was not Danny’s, but Mom’s, hollow-eyed and wan in the ER yesterday. After her father’s death, her mother had had a breakdown. With the stress of Danny’s disappearance, the symptoms were recurring. The consequences of turning down Judge Conroy’s offer went beyond Danny. She feared that her mother would not survive her brother’s death.