“Huh, that’s weird. I never heard of them making interns sign that before,” Imani said.
“It must be post-Olivia syndrome,” Sean said, and Imani nodded.
“Olivia?”
“Your predecessor. And yes, to answer your question, she was let go.”
“Which Olivia? There are at least three in my year.”
“She wasn’t from Harvard.”
“Really? I thought Judge Conroy only hired from Harvard.”
“We thought so, too. But I’m pretty sure she said she went to BC Law. Imani thinks it was BU.”
“And yes, it’s weird that we don’t know, and that we had different impressions of which school she was from,” Imani said. “That’s bizarre, in fact. We don’t know what she did to get fired, but we think it had to do with misrepresenting herself. Which is a significant security violation, as well as an ethical issue. Obviously, you’re not misrepresenting yourself, Madison. So, in that sense, you have nothing to worry about.”
Shit. Little do they know.
“On the other hand, we wanted to warn you, because ever since the Olivia fiasco, Nancy has gotten very strict. Which, look, we get it. She takes any threat to the judge’s safety seriously,” Sean said.
“The intern threatened the judge’s safety?”
“Not that we know of specifically. But obviously anyone who’d lie about their identity raises security flags, don’t you think?”
And if they lied about their brother being a defendant in a drug case? Even worse.
“I guess. Though, if it was a matter of padding her résumé to try to get the job, maybe that’s not really a security threat, per se?”
Madison’s palms were sweaty, and her heart hammered inside her chest. Could they tell she was hiding something? Though she hadn’t lied on the background form yet, if only because she hadn’t finished filling the damn thing out.
“Maybe, but you can’t be too careful. At least, Judge Conroy can’t. I don’t know if you’re aware, but she was targeted before,” Imani said.
“Are you talking about what happened to her husband? What I saw online says his murder is unsolved.”
“They never were able to verify a connection to her cases,” Sean said. “And she never speaks of him. We assume it was connected because of how security conscious she is. Anyway, it was years ago. I don’t want you to worry about working here. I mean, security-wise.”
“I’m not worried.”
“Good. We don’t want to scare you. Just to explain why Nancy made you sign an NDA. She wants to protect the judge.”
She should ask them about the background form. Maybe they’d have an idea for how she could delay completing it. If she could just put off submitting it until next week, she could speak to the judge in person after class and explain about Danny.
“Oh, I understand. By the way, that’s not the only form she wants me to fill out. There’s this crazy employment form that could take me days to finish. Is there any way around that?”
The clerks looked at her with blank expressions.
“Employment form?” Sean said.
“You don’t mean the FBI background-check form?” Imani asked.
“Yes, I think that’s it. Nancy did mention the FBI,” Madison said, her stomach tightening. FBI. Jeez.
“That’s strange. Interns never had to fill that out before,” Imani said.
“Wait a minute, that confirms our theory of why Olivia was fired,” Sean said. “Why else would Nancy make an intern fill out that FBI background-check form? The last intern must’ve lied on her résumé, right?”
“We knew that.”
“No we didn’t. Not for sure.”
“Whatever. I feel for you, Madison. That form takes hours,” Imani said.
“And Nancy wants it back right away. I don’t have all those details at my fingertips. Can I get an extension somehow?”
“She wants it in one day?”
“Yes.”
“That’s nuts. What do you think, Sean? What should she do?”
He frowned. “On the one hand, completing that form overnight is not realistic. On the other, Nancy is a stickler for deadlines. She’ll have a cow. And believe me, she can make your life unpleasant.”
“What if Madison hands the form in with the answers she knows, and anything she doesn’t know, she leaves blank and says she’s working on it?”
“Good idea,” Sean said, nodding.
“The FBI won’t mind?” Madison asked.
“Oh, the FBI has nothing to do with this. It’s just for Nancy’s benefit.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They’re not actually going to run an official background check on you. It’s too resource intensive for a job that doesn’t handle classified information.”
“Are you sure? I would hate to submit something incomplete to the FBI.”
“Positive. Nancy made me and Imani fill out the same form. We were never checked by the FBI, and we’re salaried government employees. She just likes to have the information on file for her own peace of mind.”
“Is that normal, for a case manager to ask so many personal questions?”
“It is kind of odd now that you mention it,” Imani said, crooking an eyebrow. “Nancy pretends it’s some official process, when it’s not. It’s just her.”
“Yeah, because she’s the one who handles hiring paperwork,” Sean said. “Naturally, being Nancy, she uses the most ridiculous, burdensome form in the world. You’d expect nothing less. But there’s nothing weird about it.”
“I guess.”
“Anyway, Madison, you have no choice. Suck it up and fill out the form, just like we did. If you’re pressed for time, do what Imani said. Hand it in with some blanks. Stick a Post-it on it saying you’re waiting for more information. But don’t delay. If there’s anything that sets her off, it’s missing a deadline. Speaking of, we should get back,” he said, checking his watch.
They bussed their table.
Madison took the law clerks’ advice, handing the form to Kelsey right after lunch with a yellow Post-it on the front that said “Incomplete, awaiting information.” She even left it unsigned for extra CYA. The plan was: drag her feet for long enough to speak to the judge after class next week and explain that stupid omission about Danny. Then she’d circle back and complete the form. At least in the meantime, there would be no perjury, nothing to blow up her life or destroy her future.
She hoped.
7
Madison spent that afternoon settling into her internship duties under Imani’s watchful eye. It was borderline disturbing how eager the law clerks were to have her avoid the mistakes of the mysterious Olivia. She did her best to put Olivia out of her mind, and Danny, too. There was so much to learn, like Judge Conroy’s preferred format for legal memoranda, how to access the online research databases, how to prepare a binder of cases for the judge to consult on the bench. Hours passed in a blur of excitement and a constant buzz of stress. Imani set her up with a login ID and gave her a lecture about computer security. She wasn’t to use her work computer for personal purposes, which obviously meant she couldn’t research Danny’s case. Not that she would have, though it was kind of a shame, given that she now had full online access to all of Judge Conroy’s case files. All she’d have to do was type in Danny’s name. She resisted the temptation. After all, she’d just dodged a bullet with the employment form. How stupid would it be to turn around and get fired for unauthorized accessing of files? No, just no.