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Chapter One

For the weekly docket the court jester jester wore his standard garb of well-used and deeply faded maroon pajamas and lavender terry-cloth shower shoes with no socks He wasn't the only inmate ent about his daily business in his pajamas, but no one else dared wear lavender shoes His name was T Karl, and he'd once owned banks in Boston

The paja It parted at the ht curls coiling off into three directions, and fell heavily onto his shoulders It was a bright gray, alistrate's wigs from centuries earlier A friend on the outside had found it at a secondhand costue

T Karl wore it to court with great pride, and, odd as it was, it had, with time, become part of the show The other in or not

He stood behind his fli table in the prison cafeteria, tapped a plastic avel, cleared his squeaky throat, and announced with great dignity: "Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye The Inferior Federal Court of North Florida is now in session Please rise"

No one moved, or at least no one ed in various stages of repose in plastic cafeteria chairs, so away as if he didn't exist

T Karl continued: "Let all ye who search for justice draw nigh and get screwed"

No laughs It had been funny months earlier when T Karl first tried it Noas just another part of the show He sat down carefully,upon his shoulders were given ample chance to be seen, then he opened a thick red leather book which served as the official record for the court He took his work very seriously

Three men entered the roo a saltine The one with no shoes was also bare-legged up to his knees, so that below his robe his spindly legs could be seen They were se tattoo had been applied to his left calf He was from California

All three wore old church robes froold tri, and had been presented by hiifts at ChristmasThat was how he kept his job as the court's official clerk

There were a few hisses and jeers froes aalia, their robes flowing They took their places behind a long folding table, near T Karl but not too near,and faced the weekly gathering The short round one sat in the middle Joe Roy Spicer was his name, and by default he acted as the Chief Justice of the tribunal In his previous life, judge Spicer had been a justice of the Peace in Mississippi, duly elected by the people of his little county, and sent ahen the feds caught hio profits from a Shriners club

"Please be seated;" he said Not a soul was standing

The judges adjusted their folding chairs and shook their robes until they fell properly around thenored by the inuard in uniform ith him The Brethren met once a ith the prison's approval They heard cases,the boys, and had generally proved to be a stabilizing factor amid the population

Spicer looked at the docket, a neat hand-printed sheet of paper prepared by T Karl, and said, "Court shall come to order"

To his right was the Californian, the Honorable Finn Yarber, age sixty, in for two years noith five to go for income tax evasion A vendetta, he still maintained to anyone ould listen A crusade by a Republican governor who'd ed to rally the voters in a recall drive to remove Chief Justice Yarber fro point had been Yarber's opposition to the death penalty, and his high-handedness in delaying every execution Folks wanted blood, Yarber prevented it, the Republicans whipped up a frenzy, and the recall was a s success They pitched him onto the street, where he floundered for a while until the IRS began asking questions Educated at Stanford, indicted in Sacra his time at a federal prison in Florida

In for two years and Finn was still struggling with the bitterness He still believed in his own innocence, still drea He spent a lot of ti in the sun and -drea of another life

"First case is Schneiter versus Magruder," Spicer announced as if a major antitrust trial was about to start

"Schneiter's not here;" Beech said

"Where is he?"

"Infirain I just left there"

Hatlee Beech was the third member of the tribunal He spent most of his time in the infirlands Beech was fifty-six, the youngest of the three, and with nine years to go he was convinced he would die in prison He'd been a federal judge in East Texas, a hardfisted conservative who knew lots of Scripture and liked to quote it during trials He'd had political ambitions, a nice family, money fro problem which no one knew about until he ran over two hikers in Yellowstone Both died The car Beech had been driving ned by a young lady he was not married to She was found naked in the front seat, too drunk to walk

They sent him away for twelve years

Jo Roy Spicer, Finn Yarber, Hatlee Beech The Inferior Court of North Florida, better known as the Brethren around Truuard towers, no razor wire If you had to do time, do it the federal way, and do it in a place like Trumble

"Should we default him?" Spicer asked Beech

"No, just continue it until next week"

"Okay I don't suppose he's going anywhere"

"I object to a continuance," Magruder said from the crowd

"Too bad," said Spicer "It's continued until next week"

Magruder was on his feet "That's the third time it's been continued I'm the plaintiff: I sued him He runs to the infirmary every time we have a docket"

"What're ya'll fightin over?" Spicer asked

"Seventeen dollars and two azines;" T Karl said helpfully

"That et you sued every time at Trumble

Finn Yarber was already bored With one hand he stroked his shaggy gray beard, and with the other he raked his long fingernails across the table Then he popped his toes, loudly, crunching therated on the nervesIn his other life, when he had titles-Mr Chief Justice of the California Supres, no socks, so that he could exercise his toes during the dull oral arguments "Continue it;" he said

"Justice delayed is justice denied," Magruder said solemnly

"Now that's original;" said Beech "One more week, then we'll default Schneiter"

"So ordered;" Spicer said, with great finality T Karl ruder sat down in a huff He'd filed his coe sue The Brethren didn't tolerate paperwork One page and you got your day in court Schneiter had replied with six pages of invective, all of which had been summarily stricken by T Karl

The rules were kept sis No discovery Quick justice Decisions on the spot, and all decisions were binding if both parties submitted to the jurisdiction of the court No appeals; there was nowhere to take one Witnesses were not given an oath to tell the truth Lying was completely expected It was, after all, a prison

"What's next?" Spicer asked

T Karl hesitated for a second, then said, "It's the Whiz case:'

Things were suddenly still for a moment, then the plastic cafeteria chairs rattled forward in one noisy offensive The inmates scooted and shuffied until T Karl announced, "That's close enough! "They were less than twenty feet away from the bench

"We shall maintain decorum!" he proclaimed

The WhizforWall Street crook who'd bilked some rich clients Four end held that Whiz had stashed it offshore and ed it from inside Trumble He had six years left, and would be almost forty when paroled It idely assulorious day when he would walk free, still a young man, and fly off in a private jet to a beach where-the

Inside, the legend only grew, partly because Whiz kept to hi financials and technical charts and reading impenetrable economic publications Even the warden had tried to cajole hi market tips

An ex lawyer known as Rook had soot next to Whiz, and had somehow convinced him to share a small morsel of advice with an investment club that met once a week in the prison chapel On behalf of the club, Rook was now suing the Whiz for fraud

Rook took the witness chair, and began his narrative The usual rules of procedure and evidence were dispensed with so that the truth could be arrived at quickly, whatever forht take

"So I go to the Whiz and I ask him what he thinks about ValueNow, a new online company I read about in Forbes," Rook explained "It was about to go public, and I liked the idea behind the co So I went back to him and said, `Hey, Whiz, what about ValueNow?'And he said he thought it was a solid coh the roof"

"I did not say that," the Whiz inserted quickly He was seated across the room, by himself, his arms folded over the chair in front

"Yes you did:'

"I did not"

"Anyway, I go back to the club and tell theh on the deal, so we decide ant to buy souys can't buy because the offering is closed I go back to Whiz over there and I say, Look, Whiz, you think you could pull soet us a few shares of ValueNow? And Whiz said he thought he could do that"

"That's a lie;" said Whiz

"Quiet;" said justice Spicer "You'll get your chance"

"He's lying;" Whiz said, as if there was a rule against it

If Whiz had money, you'd never know it, at least not on the inside His eight-by-twelve cell was bare except for stacks of financial publications No stereo, fan, books, cigarettes, none of the usual assets acquired by alend He was considered a miser, a weird littleoffshore

"Anyway;" Rook continued, "we decided to gay was to liquidate our holdings and consolidate"

"Consolidate?" asked justice Beech Rook sounded like a portfolio er who handled billions

"Right, consolidate We borrowed - all we could from friends and family, and had close to a thousand bucks"

"A thousand bucks," repeated justice Spicer Not bad for an inside job "Then what happened?"

"I told Whiz over there that ere ready to et us the stock? This was on a Tuesday The offering was on a Friday Whiz said no problem Said he had a buddy at Goldman Sux or some such place that could take care of us"

"That's a lie; " Whiz shot from across the room

"Anyway, on Wednesday I saw Whiz in the east yard, and I asked him about the stock He said no problem"