Bobby continued, “you tell me what you’re looking for, and I’ll use this program to drill down to the specific cases. The drill downs are almost endless. Just give me the criteria you need and I’ll enter it. Then it will tell where in these filing cabinets we can find the public information linked to them. Also, by searching here in this field, you can pull up any news stories that may have been printed about it.” Bobby sat with his fingertips over the keyboard waiting for Piper to direct him. She bit her lip and let her mind run through the possible repercussions of over-sharing here. As long as Bobby was under the impression that she was gathering the work for a friend then it seemed fairly safe. She decided that sitting quietly while he waited looked far more suspicious than having him dig up some old files in the name of research.
“I need to find case files from the last eighteen months where the sitting judge was Judge Lions. Then I need only the cases that were found in favor of the defendant. I’d like to drill down into cases that included special judicial rulings like the suppression of evidence for any reason, technicalities resulting in an acquittal, or petitions by either the defense or prosecution that were ruled in favor of the defense.” Piper pulled her notebook onto her lap and waited as Bobby typed the information into the system.
“Okay, that gave us thirty-nine results. Now we just need to write down the reference numbers and then go dig them out.” Bobby called the numbers off to Piper as she jotted them down.
It took them over an hour to gather all thirty-nine case files and, by the end of it, Piper’s arms were tired and her eyes were strained. Every time they crossed paths Piper felt her body tingle and her face become warm.
“Why exactly do you need all this stuff anyway? Are you trying to site precedence in a case or something?” Bobby asked as he handed Piper another stack of documents.
“It’s not for a case per se. It’s more along the lines of a thesis, something for my friend Michael to publish eventually. He’s a lawyer and you know how gigantic their egos are. Well apparently they like having their names in writing too. He’s trying to show how strict adherence to the letter of the law in our society has prevented the spirit of the law from being enforced.” Piper had spent the last twenty minutes getting that story straight in her head.
“I know all about that. Catching a guy with a box of illegal guns and getting your ass kicked means nothing unless you Mirandize him. If that isn’t bullshit I don’t know what is.” Bobby sat down at the computer again and grimaced. “Let’s not get into that though, what other information do you need about these cases?”
“Well I’ll need a list of the defendants and the charges against them.” Piper rolled her chair back over to his side. She quickly realized another absolute difference between Bobby and Michael—the way they smelled. Michael wore expensive cologne that always made Piper imagine him dressed in a sweater vest, holding a polo mallet and posing for a clothing store ad. Bobby, on the other hand, just smelled clean, like soap and maybe some shaving cream.
“Here’s the list, alphabetized.” He scanned it as Piper read over his shoulder. She noticed a trend immediately.
“That’s odd. Of all these cases, fourteen of them have the same last name—Donavan. And here, five of them have the last name Cheval. That doesn’t seem normal, does it?” If Bobby hadn’t been with her, she’d be running those names through every search engine she could find, frantically looking for more information on them.
“It’s not that odd, really. Donavans are a pretty notorious family in this part of the state. It doesn’t surprise me they’ve had a lot of cases. Duke Cheval is a known associate of theirs. There aren’t too many really bad guys in this area luckily, but they are certainly on the short list. I would have expected to see their names on here.” Bobby passed the list over to Piper.
“What makes them so bad?” asked Piper as she rolled her chair over to the piles of folders on the table. She tried to look as though she were only half listening to what Bobby was saying, when in reality she was hanging on every word.