MINA [#Wattys2014]

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It took two weeks to screen then to select the Jury so Tanya did not exactly have to face off with Peterson and the prosecuting lawyer so soon. She still was yet to receive a copy of the autopsy since Peterson had the lawyer file for and be awarded a signed stay order from the court that allowed them to refrain from handing over a copy of the autopsy until absolutely necessary. His excuse was that his only intention and the sole purpose for requesting the order was to prevent leakage to the press which would compromise the case.

The sly son of a bitch had used the vast media coverage Mina had received upon her unexpected release as the grounds to acquire the order. Tanya had rolled her eyes, 'press my ass' but unfortunately the way it looked it would seem that Tanya’s side had a rat, though she alone knew otherwise. But that couldn’t be helped, not now anyway and they had to make do with what they had, which sadly wasn’t enough.

As a result Tanya had to call up an old colleague of hers to dig up as much information as he possibly could on Carrie and her family, going back as far as possible into her early life up to her disappearance; what her best friends through the years had to say about her social and her personal life; the people in her community, acquaintances, as well as every news print that was ever published with a Carrie story.

It was much the same request she had made to him regarding Mina, the only difference this time was that then there had not been much to tell that she hadn’t already suspected. This time she expected the information to be coming in by the bucket loads. Because despite how normal the girl’s parents tried to make her out to be on the surface she knew they were hiding something. And whatever it was she was confident he’d find it.

"Tanya Hun, that's a lot of stuff you're asking for there...how soon do you want this stuff by anyway?"

"Yesterday..."

"Shit!"

"Bless you."

"Tanya baby what you need is a miracle, I need minimum two weeks to get all those stuff together..."

"I don't have two weeks. One week tops."

"You’re pushing you’re luck and I for one am making no promises; I'll see what I can do. But seriously can’t you just accept that everything is as it seems with that poor dead girl. What difference does it make? She’s dead."

"Because Jerry nothing is ever as it seems. And right now her death may just be the deciding factor whether another’s life is in jeopardy.” Tanya listened to her friend sigh in the background and knew that he hadn’t meant any harm by his comment, “Thanks Jerry. I owe you."

"Yeah well, I'll just add it to your ever growing tab..." Jerry chuckled as he hung up.

Tanya groaned as she slumped behind her desk. With the D.A not even throwing her a bone and the trial officially starting in only a few days, her hands weren’t just tied, she felt like a pig in a Hog-knot. The only God send was that the prosecutor was having first go at the jury to plead his case against Mina, however long it may take and she planned to use that time wisely...then after that...she'd need a miracle.

Without a copy of the autopsy report Mina's case was definitely touch and go. All she could do was try to dig up an alibi for Mina's whereabouts the night Carrie disappeared...that in itself was nearly impossible to do without breaking her promise; and then try to build her case around it.

But hey, she’d had to work with a lot worse and a whole lot less before and to look on the bright side, she was absolutely positive that Mina Santra was innocent. So if she was sure about that fact then it only meant to say that she would work her butt off, twice as hard proving it to the jury. Peterson had requested the whole nine yards; with a twelve person jury. The good thing about that situation was that she’d made sure to exercise her right to oversee the selection of every single one of them.