A Devilish Deceit: Devil Springs Cozy Mysteries Book 3: Devil Springs Cozy Mysteries, #3 by Jennifer Bramseth

Author:Jennifer Bramseth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jennifer Bramseth

14

After a few sorrowful mumblings of sympathy that I hoped disguised my shock, there was only one thing I could do.

“I’ll be happy to help, Judge Shelton. I loved doing jury instructions. Even kept a few old copies. I’m sure I have something that we can use as a starting point.”

He raised his head and nodded to me. “Thank you. The people here—everyone in the courthouse here in Bain County—you’ve all been great. I know you have a lot of work to do, and this trial certainly hasn’t helped you there. I hope you’re not too behind in your work—all those files you said you had to go through and destroy.”

“Since we’ve had a few days off lately,” I said as I took a step away from the door, “Grace and I have been able to catch up on a lot of things.”

I told him I wouldn’t tell anyone what he had revealed to me, and he thanked me for it. I wasn’t about to ask anything about his condition. It didn’t seem like he was to a point where he could discuss it. He probably hadn’t even accepted it yet. I was touched that he trusted me enough to share his problem.

“That’s good. I was worried that I might mess up your work on getting rid of all those old files. What a thankless task that must be.” With a groan, he pushed himself from his chair. “Our clerk in Garland County had to deal with one of those situations last year. Took so much time, especially for a small clerk’s office.”

“Our experience has been the same, unfortunately. Just out of curiosity, did that clerk manage to get a lot of files to old clients?”

“No, only a few.” He pulled out a handkerchief and blotted his face one section at a time. “I think she told me that out of something like around a hundred or so client files, they only managed to get two or three back to the rightful owners. And despite all her efforts, Judicial Administration still chewed her out. Wanted to fine her for some stupid thing—not getting a form correctly done or something idiotic like that. I actually had to call the clerk of the supreme court to get them off her back. What a piece of work he is. That’s who conducts those audits.”

That was about our rate of success on file return. And if that were the case, we might not be doing enough to satisfy the powers that be.

The judge replaced his handkerchief in his pants pocket and brushed the hair from his face, leaving some strands still sticking to his forehead. “Hey, did you ever manage to get anyone to claim that old Denton file?”

“No, which reminds me—I want to talk about that to Brice.”

“Brice?” the judge asked, looking very confused.

“Yes,” I said, moving to the end of the table, “when we first reviewed the file, we originally overlooked that Brice had the case for a short period of time. We recently figured that out.

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