2012-12-24

John Francis had had a very long day. As he sat in his chambers, enjoying a full three fingers of bourbon, he was starting to feel it all just melt away.

            He had sat on the bench a very long time now, almost three full decades. His vigor and lust for justice had long left him. Guilty or innocent did really matter to him anymore. John’s only real concern was how long until the daily docket was completed.

            He took another sip, then let out an annoyed sigh. That last case had taken so long that he had missed the last good tee time. After four meant that there would be high school and colleges kids on the links, as well as the off duty course employees. None of them were people he cared to associate with. If that damn case had wrapped up quicker.

            John thought back again to the people he had seen. The old lady standing beside the one idiot assistant DA, and that weasely looking guy that stood next to the public defender. From the moment both of them had walked into the court room, John Francis already decided that he hated them both.

            The elderly woman might have looked like a grandmotherly type to some. To John, she seemed to be nothing more than a feeble old idiot. The slimeball accused of trespassing on her property didn’t seem much better. In fact, he’d seen far too many guys like him being enabled by women like her. The more he looked between the two of them, the greater his contempt grew.

            The preliminary reading he did on the case made him wish that the public defender would ask for a dismissal of the charges. The case was dismissed due to a lack of evidence, but it still went too slow for his taste.

            John sighed again as he put the empty glass down. Well it was over with. Both of them were out of his courtroom and out of his life. Some little punk delinquent cutting through someone’s yard was not worth his time. She had claimed that there had been a break-in attempt but the police found no such evidence. Regardless, with the case dismissed that meant no deliberation and no sentencing, which meant Joohn was still done with his day sooner.

             As he left the courthouse and made his was across the lot to the far corner where he parked, John felt the warm late spring air envelope him. Maybe he would play a round after all, he started to think to himself. Then he stopped as he came to his car.

            Crouching there, next to the car, was the delinquent from this afternoon. Before John could react the youth grabbed the judge and brought him to the ground next to the car. The youth straddled the old man, quickly placing his hand over John’s mouth.

            John felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest, then he felt himself gasping for air and choking. The warmness was spreading and his vision was already starting to blur when he saw the attacker pull the bloody blade out and wipe it on John’s own coat. The last sensations he felt were his watch being removed and his pockets being rifled through.

            Afterwards, John never had to worry about another tee time ever again.