Sean Black - Deadlock

‘Lady, it’s like that Brad Pitt movie: the first rule of the AB is you don’t talk about the AB. Least not with outsiders.’

‘So it does exist?’

Reaper looked over to where the six defendants were watching him intently. ‘Oh yeah, it exists.’

‘And you were a commissioner in the AB?’

Reaper’s head swiveled to the jury again. ‘You just promoted me. There’s only three commissioners, all sitting over there. I was what they call a shot caller.’

‘Thank you, Mr Hays, I stand corrected. But while incarcerated in Pelican Bay Supermax, you were the Aryan Brotherhood shot caller for that institution.’

‘Yeah, I called the shots.’

‘And what does that mean in reality?’

‘It’s like being one of the head honchos at one of those Fortune 500 companies. Any major decisions that had to be made went through me.’

Jalicia angled her body towards the jury. Predominantly white, with a sprinkling of blacks and Hispanics, they still looked drained by what had happened in San Francisco but now they were all leaning forward slightly, taking in everything Reaper was saying.

She turned back to him. ‘What kind of decisions? Could you give me a for instance?’

Reaper studied the ceiling as if he was dredging up an example. ‘Like, say, if someone wanted to attack one of the toads. By which I mean the blacks.’

There was an audible shuffle of discomfort in the courtroom. Reaper looked at Lock.

‘That would have to be sanctioned by you first?’ Jalicia asked.

Reaper smiled, still looking in Lock’s direction. ‘Exactly.’

‘And what about decisions made elsewhere in the organisation? Would you be apprised of those?’

‘The big ones, sure.’

‘Such as the decision to have someone killed?’

Reaper shrugged, super-nonchalant, like he and Jalicia were discussing what to pick up from the store for dinner. ‘I’d get to hear about it.’

Jalicia could feel the defense attorneys tense in anticipation of the next question. She took the decision to back off a little, go round the block one more time, make sure the jury were in no doubt about the nature of the Aryan Brotherhood.

‘What was the term used by this organisation for giving the go-ahead to have someone murdered?’

‘Someone was going to get killed, they had to be green-lit.’

‘Green-lit? Like the Hollywood term for deciding to put a movie into production.’

‘Except we usually tried not to make a big production out of it.’ Reaper smirked.

‘And these killings would take place inside prisons?’

‘Sure. And on the outside too.’

Jalicia allowed her face to register a degree of surprise, even though she knew where this was leading. ‘But how would that even be possible if the members of this gang, yourself included, were all incarcerated?’

‘You don’t have to actually pull the trigger yourself, you know. Ain’t that what this whole deal’s about?’

Jalicia took a breath, and stepped towards him. ‘If you could just answer the question.’

‘Let me see how to explain this to you.’ Reaper put the palms of his hands together, the tips of his fingers resting against his lips. ‘OK, so say we decide someone who’s on the outside needs some killing. We look at who is about to be paroled, or who we already have on the outside. We get a message to them and that’s how it’s done.’

‘And this would be a member of the organisation or an associate?’

‘Usually an associate.’

‘And why would someone who had recently been released from prison commit murder in the first degree, risking further incarceration, possibly a capital or life sentence, merely on your say-so, or the say-so of the Aryan Brotherhood?’

Reaper clasped his hands together. ‘Real simple. The one thing we can be sure of is that this person is headed back into prison at some point. If they haven’t carried out their mission, then next time they step on the yard we kill ’em.’

Jalicia wanted to hammer this one home so that even the slowest member of the jury would be able to grasp it. ‘So, if they don’t commit the murder, as soon as they step back inside a jail or penitentiary, you’ll have them killed.’

Reaper looked over at the jury, and smiled. ‘Yeah, that’s about it.’

The lights were dimmed in the courtroom as Jalicia played the jury the DVD recording of Prager’s forced mutilation at the hands of his son. She kept a close eye on them as they watched it. At certain points a couple of the female jurors covered their eyes. In the dock, two of the AB members nudged each other and snickered. To Jalicia’s disappointment, the jury didn’t catch it.

When it had ended and the lights rose again, she got out of her chair and approached Reaper.

‘As far as you’re aware, Mr Hays, none of the men in the dock today were present during what we just saw?’

‘Them being in prison, I guess not.’

‘As we established before the recess, though, the Aryan Brotherhood have contracted out murders to people on the outside. That’s correct, isn’t it?’

‘We outsource stuff like that, yeah,’ Reaper replied.

‘And is it your belief that the murder of Agent Kenneth Prager and his family was a task outsourced by the men here today?’

A mis-step. Gross was on his feet before she hit the word ‘task’. ‘Objection. It’s not a matter of what the witness believes. We’re supposed to be dealing in facts here.’

Before the judge could overrule, Jalicia switched into damage limitation mode. ‘Mr Gross is quite correct. I withdraw the question.’

Gross looked deflated that she hadn’t put up more of a fight.

‘Thank you, Ms Jones,’ the judge said.

Jalicia stepped towards Reaper again, noticing how his dark grey eyes tracked her every move. ‘Mr Hays, until you decided to testify in this case, you were a member in good standing of the Aryan Brotherhood, is that fair to say?’

‘Yes, I was.’

‘But when you heard about the death of Agent Prager and his family you were sufficiently troubled by it to contact my office.’

‘That’s correct.’

‘And why was that?’

‘Listen, don’t get me wrong, Prager was a federal agent. And he was undercover, which makes it ten times worse. He was an enemy combatant — I believe that’s the phrase these days, ain’t it?’ Reaper looked at the jury. ‘But his wife, and their boy…’ He turned back so that he was facing the public gallery, Lock included. ‘No one in this court might understand this, ’cept maybe those six over there, but I joined the Aryan Brotherhood because we lived by a code. It wasn’t much, but it was something. You folks out there, living your little suburban lives, paying your taxes, saving up for that big-screen TV so you have even less excuse to talk to your wife or the miserable brats you’re raising to be good little consumers, none of you might understand this, but to join the Aryan Brotherhood meant something. The code of the Aryan Brotherhood meant something.’

Jalicia could sense that Reaper was rapidly losing the sympathy of the jury.

‘And that code included not harming women and children?’ she interrupted.

Reaper shifted on his seat. ‘Excuse me, but I was speaking. Isn’t that why I’m here?’

‘I’m sorry for interrupting you, Mr Hays, but if you could focus on the questions you’re being asked.’

Reaper shifted his attention to the window, where sunlight streamed in. ‘Pretty day. Don’t get to see much of the sun up in the Bay. Good place for a prison though. What’s that saying, “out of sight, out of mind”? You can’t get much more out of sight than Crescent City.’

Gross leaned over to one of his junior counsel and stage-whispered, loudly enough so that the jury would catch it, ‘Or out of mind, apparently.’