Chapter Text
Kari Grey walked into the courthouse, adjusting her pale pink button down top. She'd been following the Adam Cain case on television and online. Even though her "Twenty-five Acts" book was disgusting, Jocelyn Paley didn't deserve what had happened to her. She remembered hearing of the ADA, Rafael Barba, back in Brooklyn when she was working for the police department there. She pulled her long, curly, black hair into a low ponytail.
Rafael Barba was a severe man. She'd never met him officially, but he seemed like the kind of man you wouldn't want to cross. He wasn't unattractive. Kari would go as far to say as he was handsome. But he made her nervous.
Kari wasn't shocked to find out Jocelyn Paley had lied about writing the book. Kari thought she seemed too docile and innocent to be into the BDSM described in the book, despite all her attempts at lying. Kari had always been good at reading people, or so she had been told.
Kari fidgeted in her seat watching Counselor Barba interrogate Adam Cain on the stand. His green eyes were hard, even as he tried to be friendly with the defendant.
"As a regular Joe, I am curious how this belt around the neck thing is exciting. I am sure that the jury is curious as well." Kari's mouth opened slightly as she watched the ADA wrap his belt around his own neck. She covered her mouth as he goaded the defendant, forcing him to incriminate himself there on the witness stand. She jumped to her feet when Cain choked Barba right there in the courtroom.
"Not a mark. People's exhibit 20. Jocelyn Paley's neck." Kari couldn't help but respect the extreme means Barba went to to prove his case.
She didn't need to stick around to know this case was closed. She slipped out of the courtroom as quietly as possible.
It was a short subway ride to her small apartment. Kari tossed her bag and jacket onto the couch and took off her shoes. Her large black cat Valo ran up to her, slinking between her feet.
"Hey, bubba. You miss me?" She knelt and lifted the hefty feline to her chest. He rubbed his head against her chin and mewed. "Yeah, I missed you, too."
Kari looked around her new Manhattan apartment, boxes still scattered everywhere. It was a studio, but of decent size. It was just her and Valo in the apartment, so it worked for her. Kari sighed and decided to rummage through the boxes, putting things away. She grabbed her knife from the coffee table and slid it across the tape on the top of the box. It was her college stuff. Diplomas, yearbooks, memorabilia. She sighed and pulled her Yale degrees from the box.
Kari had always been smart. She was in college shortly after puberty. Early admission, dual majors and then a third. Computer science, law and psychology, and she never really used any of them. She was a skilled hacker, could work computers like she was born one.
She had joined the police force on a whim, deciding it was the best shot to try and use all her skills, but she usually ended up as a glorified IT girl.
She'd been called in to work a case with homeland security here in Manhattan, hence the move from Brooklyn. A terrorist cell using counterfeit visas through a guy in Bosnia. They'd picked up word that a terrorist was coming in to meet with someone already in the country using the guy, so she was, once again, a glorified techie. But, she told herself, it's for the good of the country, so it was helping people.
Kari walked to the terrace door, taking in the cooling night air. She pulled a cigarette from the pack on the table and lit it, letting the smoke swirl around her face. Her life felt at a stand still, and it irked her. She needed to shake things up, but she wasn't sure how.
She watched the bustling city below her for a few moments, listening to the chatter of life below. Everyone going on with their lives, and she just barely treading water. She was going to be 30 sooner rather than later, and she lived alone with her cat.
"Ugh, I'm pathetic." Kari sighed, snuffing out her cigarette. She rubbed the back of her neck and walked back inside