Judges regularly must read between the lines. In April, many of Cook County’s circuit judges wrote between them. The judges received ballots with 26 names to fill 13 associate judge vacancies. Then-Circuit Judge Peter J. Vilkelis, fresh off a March primary defeat for his appointed seat, was not one of those names. But Vilkelis’ colleagues on the bench weren’t quite ready to see him pack up his office in the court’s Child Protection Division. “I started getting text messages and phone …