by Leonie Gant
Chapter Eight
Sitting around Monique’s desk, having an impromptu picnic, I started to feel better.
“So how do we get out of this?” I asked, helping myself to some Thai food.
Luckily for me, Monique believes in feeding her people something other than salad. She thinks we need the strength.
“On the surface of it, there is nothing we can do,” said Reggie. “According to the letter of the law, you struck a police officer. He now has a black eye so technically he is within his rights to press charges. I’ve seen cops do it for less. You pull out of this deal and he could just charge you. If you get convicted, you lose your visa and you have a felony conviction on your record. I would of course defend you and I am good.” No false modesty there. “But I can’t give you a complete guarantee that you would get off. Sometimes things don’t go the way they are supposed to.”
So, just like I thought. I was screwed.
“Cops use this kind of leverage all the time. They’ll give you a lesser charge if you give them information. This is a little bit unusual but it’s the same concept.”
“My problem,” I said, “is that at this stage they have nothing to say that Ryan Hendricks died of anything other than a heart attack. If that’s true they could be chasing this for ages. How long am I going to be stuck pretending this guy is my boyfriend?”
“That’s where I come in,” said Reggie. “We’ll go back to the station and organize for this deal to be put in writing with full immunity for you if you cooperate. We will put a time limit on it of a few weeks or as little time as we can get.”
Looking at Monique, all I felt was guilt. This was her business and I was royally messing it up.
“I am so sorry, Monique,” I said, with my eyes lowered. “As soon as this is done I will quit and you won’t be hassled by my problems again.”
“Shh, ma petite,” she said, her hand cupping my jaw as she raised my eyes to look at hers. “You think this is the worst situation that any of my people have got themselves into? We work in an industry of temptation. Believe me, you are exactly the kind of person I want to keep. In an environment where anything goes, you have remained true to yourself. You are exactly the person that I saw that first day. A sea of calm in the middle of chaos, doing the right thing. You are still doing the right thing. You are just in a bad situation at the moment.”
“Thanks, Monique,” I said, tears in my eyes again. “I won’t let you down, and the second this causes you any problems, I’ll quit and deal with the consequences myself.”
Once the decision had been made as to what we were doing next, I felt better. I held onto that little piece of happiness when Reggie and I were back in the interrogation room sitting across from Griffin and Ramos. Ramos looked interested in the conversation but I could tell that Griffin was furious. Reggie outlined that I would not be doing anything without an iron clad guarantee that provided me with immunity from the assault charges against me.
“I already told her that I wouldn’t press charges if she helped us,” Griffin ground out.
“Yes I know you did,” said Reggie. “Unfortunately my client’s belief in the justice system in this country has taken quite the knock today. She wants to have this agreement signed off by someone other than the man blackmailing her.”
Ouch, I thought. That’s got to have hurt and I could see from the way Griffin’s face tightened that he wasn’t too impressed with that comment. I was kind of hoping that Reggie’s need to needle Griffin about his tactics weren’t going to get me into more trouble.
“I spoke to the District Attorney when you called and we have an agreement,” Ramos said. “Detective Griffin will take you into another room to finalize negotiations, Mr Goodman. I will stay in here with Miss Eyre until you’re ready to sign it.”
Reggie got up and followed Griffin out of the room, leaving me sitting there with Detective Ramos.
“You know, he’s not happy about having to do this with you,” she said.
“He seems fine with it to me,” I replied, not feeling very sympathetic at the moment.
“He’s a good guy but we’re fighting a losing war at the moment. Between budget cuts and attorneys getting in the way of absolutely everything. In this town, money and prestige talk a lot of the time. We haven’t been able to get near Eleanor Channing and Emily Saunders. How the hell are we supposed to do our job?” She sounded frustrated.
“So victimizing the one person in this picture who is completely innocent but just hasn’t a way to fight back is the way to go? You’re going to try to convince me that that is the right thing to do?” I asked.
“No I’m not,” she sighed. “All I’m saying is give him a chance. He doesn’t deserve to have you hate him.”
“I have no reason not to hate him at the moment,” I replied.
“Did you know we have cameras in the parking area?” she said softly. “We saw you lose it in the car with your lawyer.”
Great, just another humiliation to add to my already lousy day. I sat there stony faced unwilling to answer.
“I know him and I know it hurt him to see you like that. He’s a good man, we’re just in an untenable position right now. I’m kind of hoping that you are strong enough to deal with it.”
The door opened as Reggie and Griffin walked back in. I searched Griffin’s face for any hint of the softness that Ramos was talking about. No, nothing there. When he looked at me all I saw was a granite hard jaw and ice in those green eyes. No nice guy there at all. A piece of paper was placed in front of me. I looked expectantly at Reggie. He didn’t seem as happy as I had hoped he would be.
“Trudie, this agreement provides you with immunity from the police assault charge if you agree to provide Detective Jake Griffin with the cover as your boyfriend for a period of three months,” Reggie said.
“Months,” I spluttered. “But I thought it was only supposed to be a few weeks.”
“The charge is a serious one,” Griffin interrupted. “It was felt this was a more equitable arrangement.”
Definitely no nice guy there. I signed the paperwork reluctantly but I knew I had no options. Once signed I figured Griffin would at least show some sign of his victory but his face gave no indication that he was feeling anything.
As Reggie and I got up to leave, Griffin turned to me. “I want to be invited to everything that you have a plus one invite to,” he said.
“I’ll call when they happen but it is generally last minute,” I said.
“Doesn’t matter, this case is a priority now. I’ll look forward to your call, sweetheart.” He winked at me and sauntered away.
Reggie didn’t even look at me once as we made our way to the car. I didn’t say a word until we were well clear of the station.
“He called me sweetheart, Reggie,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Yes he did,” Reggie replied.
“Are you trying not to smile?” I asked, noting that he seemed to be fighting the curl on the corner of his lips.
“A little,” said Reggie. “I know you’re not happy about this situation but why don’t we chalk it up to a character building exercise.”
“You think I need to work on my character?” I asked.
“I’m not going to win, regardless of what I say today am I?” asked Reggie.
“No you’re not,” I said. “I am in a truly annoyed mood and I don’t need reasonable discussion. I need you to say, ‘you are right, Trudie, he’s an evil lowlife, Trudie, you are by far the better person, Trudie’. If at any time you wish to veer from that script you should just remain silent,” I said, feeling a little bit resentful.
“Silence it is then,” said Reggie, and so it was all the way back home.
