Page 112 of The Bargain

There’s a knock at the door, and Sophie calls out, “We’re ready!” without even looking. She doesn’t seem intimidated by the army that’s about to pour back in, by the fight she’s decided to take on. The opposite: her eyes sharpen, and a strange smile is on her face.

“They’ve already made a fatal mistake; they won’t make another one.”

I stare at her.

“What mistake?”

“They tried to come for one of mine.”

I blink. Behind me, I hear the door opening, people pouring back in, murmuring amongst themselves. But my eyes stay on Sophie. Is she talking about the twins, or Ophelia?

My stomach churns. I can’t bear the thought that she might be talking about Desdemona.

“Who?” I force myself to ask.

Her gaze is steady and warm.

“You, of course.”

44

Waging War

Elias

The door opens and the room fills with sound and movement: snapping heels, shuffling papers, murmured voices. The lawyers come back first, then the superintendent, then the Pearsons. The air feels different now, though. It’s heavier, charged, like the voltage has been turned up and we’re all waiting for the current to pass through.

Sophie doesn’t bother to stand or greet them. She sits exactly where she is, calm and poised, a pen resting between her fingers.

“Let’s begin, shall we?” she says when they’re all sat down.

No one answers. I can tell they’re nervous, and my confidence is inversely proportionate to their discomfort. I finally reach for the cup of coffee Sophie brought me, and it tastes as dark and strong as her presence.

Sophie glances at the folder on the table—the one they’d slid towards me earlier. She draws it towards her and opens it, eyes skimming the pages.

“Malicious intent,” she reads aloud. “Grievous bodily harm. Premeditation.” She closes the file again, neatly, as if the words bore her. “The police report, the so-called witness statements, the forensic results—I’ve worked a lot of cases over the course of my long and tiring career, but I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite so flimsy in my life.”

One of the lawyers starts to protest. Sophie glances up over the thick frames of her glasses, and the man’s words die in his throat.

“You realise you’ve got nothing concrete, right?” she continues. Her tone is conversational rather than confrontational, but that somehow makes her sound scarier than if she’d been screaming in rage. “No weapon, no eyewitness, no timeline that holds. What you do have is circumstantial evidence at best, and at worst, prejudice. A convenient scapegoat with a background you think makes him disposable.”

Her gaze drifts to the police superintendent. He shifts uncomfortably.

“Here’s what I would like to know: was there a single moment in this investigation when anyone considered the possibility that my client might be innocent?”

Nobody answers; she doesn’t look like she expected them to.

“I thought not,” she says. “I’ve reviewed the file: you searched a student’s dorm room without legal justification. You leaked his name to the press before the investigation concluded. You held him in custody for seven days without charge, during which time he’s been repeatedly questioned without appropriate legal representation. Every single one of those actions is a breach of protocol, and most are grounds for civil action.”

She pauses, lets the silence stretch. Then she adds, very softly, “Which, rest assured, I will be pursuing fully.”

Sophie rises from her chair. The movement is unhurried and deliberate. The lawyers look up, and there’s genuine fear in their eyes now.

“Now,” she says. “Let’s talk about your client’s son, Birnam Hastings.”

A muscle jumps in her jaw, and I can tell instinctively that she hates him, which means Ophelia did tell her the truth after all.

“He filmed a fifteen-year-old girl without her consent and distributed that footage among his peers. That’s the main charge we’ll be proceeding with, in case you’re wondering. In legal terms, this is what we refer to as possession of child sexual exploitation material. Production, possession, and distribution. In addition to blackmail and harassment.”