“I’ve been reviewing your case for a while now. You have plenty of evidence, but the problem is the human element. It doesn’t matter how many facts you throw at a jury. People are always willing to trust other humans before they are willing to trust emotionless numbers and facts.”
I opened my briefcase and had halfway pulled out the stack of files I’d brought, when a hand pushed the lid of the briefcase closed again.
“No, I’m not asking about the case,” Damien said, pushing my briefcase farther away. “I mean, why are you here? The DA won’t say it, but none of their lawyers will touch our case with a ten-foot pole. Someone is obviously putting pressure on them to bury the case. So, what does that make you? Because I can only think of two reasons for you to be here. Either you’re extremely altruistic, or you’re here to sabotage us, and I don’t really believe in altruism.”
After the way my colleagues at the DA had already treated them, I wasn’t surprised that they were skeptical. I’d hoped to avoid this, but I was also prepared. Pulling out a smaller file that I’d stored in the inner pocket of my suit, I handed it over to the brothers.
Damien hesitated, but after a nudge from the redhead, Sebastian at least accepted it.
“What is… oh.” It seemed Sebastian had been ready to dismiss me, at first, but upon seeing the contents of the file, I obviously had his interest. He started flipping through the information more carefully.
“Five years ago, I worked for an independent law firm. I ended up representing a case of attempted kidnapping. The child’s parents were divorced, and full custody was given to the mother, so it was assumed that the father had been the one to try and take the child in revenge. It seemed like a domestic affair, and no one took it seriously enough. Including me.”
Damien took the file from Sebastian, also looking through the information I’d brought them. “Let me guess, it wasn’t so simple.”
I’d had five years to get over my failure, but admitting to it out loud still pricked at the back of my throat like a swarm of bees trying to escape my stomach.
“No, it wasn’t that simple, but I didn’t catch it soon enough. In fact, I was the one who convinced our client to drop the charges, as it didn’t seem worth the cost and effort to pursue a case that wasn’t going anywhere.”
Over the years, I’d retold this story several times before. However, no matter how many times I repeated the same words, I always hesitated at the end of the story.
“Shortly after the case was dropped… both the mother and father turned up dead. It was labeled as a random mugging, but the details didn’t add up. They weren’t living in a dangerous area, and nothing was stolen from them. I don’t have any evidence to prove it, but I’m certain now that it was the bell ringers who tried to kidnap the child the first time, and once the case was dropped and they were in the clear, they came back to finish the job.”
The file I’d given them wasn’t very large, yet the paper made an impressive sound when Damien tossed it onto the desk beside me.
“So, in the end, you failed your client, and the bell ringers got what they wanted.”
Picking up the file, I tapped the pages back into perfect order and stored them inside my laptop case. In the process, I accidentally disturbed a nameplate sitting on the desk.
Gabriel Long.
I recognized the name but couldn’t immediately place it. That bothered me. I was usually very good with names.
“I won’t try to argue my failure, but miraculously the child in question was saved before they were taken. The bell ringers didn’t get what they wanted in the end, but that doesn’t change the fact that the child will still have to grow up as an orphan. If I’d handled the case differently, maybe it would have turned out differently, but there’s nothing I can do about it, now. Now, all I can do is try to make up for my mistakes.”
The Roth brothers shared a look, and Sebastian even leaned down to whisper with the redheaded young man at his side. If I wanted, I could have read their lips to figure out what they were saying, but I turned my attention away to give them their privacy.
“All right,” Sebastian eventually declared, and nodded toward the empty desk. “If you’re looking for some sort of redemption, we’ll give you a chance. You can take Gabe’s desk. He’s out and won’t be using it for a while.”
As I sat down, I glanced at the name place again.
Gabe Long. Now I remembered the man. He never went by his full name, so I hadn’t recognized it at first, but I’d met the man before back when he worked for the FBI. I’d heard that he’d left to a private detective agency instead, but I hadn’t realized he was working for Alias Investigations.
“Where is your third partner? I’m assuming he’s involved with this case as well.”
Sebastian and Damien both took seats behind their respective desks, while the redhead—who’s name turned out to be Newt—leaned against the arm of Sebastian’s chair. I watched as Sebastian’s hand idly rested on Newt’s hip, and an ember of jealousy ignited in my chest. Not over Newt specifically. The man may be my type, but I had no interest in someone who was already taken. However, the familiarity and the easy intimacy between them was like dangling a cup of water in front of a man who was lost in the desert.
It had been so long since I’d truly connected with another person, that I was starting to forget what companionship felt like. Forget sex. I’d have happy with just a hug, but unfortunately, the naturally stern look of my face usually intimidated people before I could even approach them. It was great in the courtroom, but not so great for dating.
“You’re right about the human element of our case,” Damien said, drawing my attention away from the couple. “We have evidence, but if we want any chance of winning over a jury, we’re going to need more witnesses. Gabe and another associate of ours, Logan, have gone out to try and track down more witnesses.”
Popping open my briefcase, I scanned through the information about the case that I already had. “You’re talking about Logan Hollingsworth, right? The detective from the Federal Protection Agency taskforce responsible for bringing down the bell ringers?”
Damien pulled a file from the drawer of his desk and tossed it to me.
“Yes. Here’s the info about the witnesses they’re tracking down. We’re not sure about all of them, but there’s at least one that’s promising.”
Inside the file was a list of five names along with the background info for each person. Two were secondhand witnesses, but three of the names were surviving victims of the bell ringers who could give a firsthand account. Their testimony could be invaluable to the case, assuming we could get them to testify. That was always the hardest part in cases like this. The witnesses were so fragile and had to be handled with care.
