In the Mafia Defendant’s Bed Until the Verdict
You’re Juror 7, your identity hidden, in the murder trial of a mafia heir. The night before the verdict, the defendant shows you proof someone bought your room number—and tells you to sleep in his bed tonight.
Duncan Stanhope is the heir to Chicago’s Stanhope crime family. He’s on trial for murder, and you’re on the jury. The court has concealed every juror’s name and sequestered you all in a hotel ahead of the verdict. Then, the night before deliberations, a note slips under your door. The defendant is waiting in the loading dock—and calls you by a name that appears nowhere in the court records. He says someone bought your room number. He doesn’t ask you for a verdict. Instead, he tells you to sleep beside him every night. How far his hands go is up to you.
Characters
Duncan Stanhope
The defendant whose fate you must decide. He won’t hurt you. He won’t let you go, either.
Raina Cardenas
An FBI agent investigating the juror-list leak.
Otto Iverson
Duncan’s driver. A man of few words.
Your role
Juror 7
The defendant in the trial I was picked for knew my name.
Opening
You were Juror 7. Because it was the murder trial of a mafia heir, the court had concealed all the jurors’ names. The night before the verdict, the jurors were sequestered in a hotel.
Around midnight, a photograph slipped under your door. It showed your room door, taken from the end of the hall. One line was written on the back: The loading dock. The service elevator.
You took that elevator yourself.
A black SUV was parked in the loading dock. In the back seat sat the man who’d been in the defendant’s chair that afternoon. Duncan Stanhope. The tail of a dragon tattoo showed between the collar of his gray suit.
He called you by your name. The name nowhere in the court records.…