AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The anxiety my mother had picked up on increased on the half-hour drive from Cambria into downtown San Luis Obispo. The closer I got, the more worried I became over what DA Cooley would say when I told him I was leaving.
I parked Beau’s Audi in my assigned space and walked the short distance to the elevator.
“Miss Seraphina, welcome back,” said one of the guys at the security checkpoint inside the main door of the courthouse.
“Thanks, Tom,” I said when he waved me through.
I took another elevator up to the tenth floor, where my office was.
“Seraphina! We didn’t expect you,” said the receptionist, Ruth.
“I won’t be here long today. Is Mr. Cooley in?”
She started to nod but picked up her phone. “Hello, sir. Ms. Reeve has arrived.” She paused. “Yes, sir. I’ll send her back.”
“He wants to see you.”
“Okay, I’ll drop my stuff in my office first, then head in.”
“You, uh, should go to his office first.”
I cocked my head and went left rather than right, ignoring her suggestion. I pulled out my keys to unlock my door, but it wouldn’t open.
“The lock has been changed, Ms. Reeve.” I nearly jumped when Cooley walked up beside me.
“Why?”
“I asked you to come to my office first.”
“Yes, sir,” I muttered, following him in the opposite direction and feeling more nauseated with every step I took. He’d obviously been informed I’d gone to Los Caballeros for help to find my sister. I wasn’t surprised.
“Take a seat.”
The chairs in front of the man’s desk were so low I often felt as though my chin fell at his desk’s height. It reminded me of being in the principal’s office, back when I used to go in to report the other kids bullying Luisa.
“Some disturbing news has been brought to my attention, Ms. Reeve.” He paused as if to let me ask about it, but I remained silent. “Very well,” he continued.
I watched as he opened a manila envelope on the desk in front of him and pulled out photographs. He spread them out. Not that I could see them from where I sat.
“I’d ask for an explanation, but these speak for themselves.”
I stood, and he turned one of the photos around so it faced me. It was of Noah and me at the restaurant in London.
“I wonder what your sister would think, seeing these.”
I glanced at the other images spread out on his desk. In each, Noah and I appeared as a happy couple out on a date. In the ones taken on our short walk from the restaurant to the apartment, my arm was tucked in his, and we were both smiling.
When I sat down, he smirked. “I know everything, Seraphina. How you went to them for help, traveled by private plane first to Mexico then to England. How the ‘cowboy vigilantes’ superseded law enforcement in both countries, and your role in facilitating the crimes they committed.”
Everything he’d said was taken out of context, twisted, and misrepresented. I knew better than to speak, though. Not without the attorney I’d be hiring present.
I took the envelope containing my letter of resignation and set it in front of him.
“You should be aware a judge approved a search warrant two days ago for the Los Caballeros property. Further warrants, along with indictments, will be issued in the coming days.”
I had nothing to say, so I turned to leave. He had my resignation. There was nothing left to be said. I didn’t keep personal things in my office anyway, so there was no need to ask to access it. The only things I’d hung on the wall were my degrees. I could easily obtain copies.
“Before you walk out, you should know I’ve started proceedings to have you disbarred.”
I spun around. “Disbarred? On what grounds?”
He smiled. He’d gotten the exact reaction he wanted from me. “You might want to sit back down, Seraphina, and listen to the deal I’m prepared to offer.”
