THE JUDGE WAS not having the best of days, even before she got word that her car would be in the shop for the rest of the week. Oahu cabs were expensive and only begrudgingly gave out printed receipts.

     “I want this guy moved to a secure facility and charged with jury tampering, intimidating a sitting judge, acts of terrorism, and anything else that will put him away in a super-max facility for the rest of his natural born days!”

     “We’re working on it, Your Honor,” her clerk said, as he took notes.

     “People just can’t go around scaring the bejesus out of jurors and witnesses and prosecutors.” She was on a roll when he stepped on her lines.

     “And judges,” he interjected.

     She didn’t even notice him. “There’s an appeal in progress. We might have to try this whole thing all over again. This isn’t Chicago, for christsake.” Apparently, she was referring to Chicago’s reputation for using intimidation tactics.

     “We prob’ly can’t make jury tampering stick,” her clerk said, “since we’d be picking all new jurors--”

     The judge ignored him. “I want him to feel the full wrath of this court,” she steamed.

     “I just can’t figure him out. What’s he up to? 

     "He hasn’t appealed to the media. 

     "So far, he hasn’t asked anyone to do anything other than to go on some website, which, by the way, I’m ordering shut down immediately.”

     The clerk wrote that down, then offered, “And since his escape, his motive can’t be to get out of prison.”

     “That was a false alarm,” the judge corrected. “Someone pushed the wrong button that sent out the wrong boiler plate. He actually never escaped and -- ipso facto -- was therefore never recaptured.”

     “I’m talking about the second time--,” her clerk said.

     “What second time?” For the first time in the conversation, the judge looked at him when she was speaking.

     "One day later,” he said, “after all of the hullabaloo.”

     “You mean he’s at large? Right now?” The judge’s demeanor changed dramatically with this news. “And he’s been out for the past two months?” She was animated now. “God, Tony, why didn’t you say something! You’re telling me he’s the one who may have been causing all these accidents all this time! I wondered who leaked the names of the jurors … “