by JR Wondra

Created on: January 08, 2009

Joey Ng and I met as freshmen at St. Peter's High School. She was tall and thin and I found her oriental features hypnotic and extremely attractive. We sat across from each other in Sister Agnes' homeroom, and shared a few classes during the day. Like many of the students at the High School, she had gone to the nearby St. Peter's grade school; while I and a handful of others had gone to St. Mary's, on the other side of town. Although I was an "outsider" to the St. Peter's kids, Joey and I hit it off immediately and became good friends.

When I transferred to a public High School as a junior because my parents could no longer afford the tuition, among other things, I was amazed to find that Joey, too, had enrolled at the same school. Although I found her extremely attractive, our relationship had never progressed beyond friendship, as we had both found other people over the years to form closer, more romantic (read: sexual) relationships.

We lost touch when I left to college and law school; and although I stayed close to several of our mutual friends, I lost track of Joey and she only occasionally crossed my mind.

After graduation and passing the bar, I returned home to work as a prosecutor; steadily gaining experience and confidence. After an impressive string of rotations through the misdemeanor courts and support sections of the District Attorney's office, I was able to earn a position as a felony prosecutor in the "Special Crimes" section.

Ostensibly a "white-collar crime" unit, Special Crimes was more like the District Attorney's version of the O.S.I from World War II. We were the D.A.'s troubleshooters, and we were a tight group with our own investigators, accountants and forensics. Our files typically took months and sometimes, years of preparation, and convictions were frequently based solely on "circumstantial" evidence. Most convictions were appealed, and we handled those ourselves, too, of course. We were an entity to ourselves. Our staff spent a lot of time out of the office, but a lot of time in court on high-profile cases as well.

One January morning, I was reviewing pending files and my calendar, when our accountant/investigator Ginnie Moore came in and closed the door. "John we've got a file Skip (our chief prosecutor) wants you to look over. I've gotten records, statements and background on everyone, but Skip says I need to talk to you first."

Normally, files were just assigned out to prosecutors when the intake and investigation were complete, so

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