AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I hear the door of their meeting room open. I move away from the shared wall between the rooms and into the corner, so they won’t see me in here as they walk by.
Once they’ve left the hallway, I quickly walk back to my desk. I toss Ethan’s notepad on his desk. He’s still on the phone, but he moves the mouthpiece away from his face to thank me.
“I have to run out for a moment,” I tell him as I grab my purse from my desk.
“I’ll cover for you,” Ethan says to me. He has a serious look on his face. For a moment, I think that he wanted me to overhear that meeting. I can’t think about that now. One more thing that doesn’t make sense anymore.
I make my way out of the office building as quickly as possible. I feel like I can’t breathe until I’m outside. Even then, it’s hard to control. I feel the panic rising in my chest.
I take out my phone and call Mateo. I have to warn him. The phone rings and rings. There’s no answer.
He must have left his phone behind again. I know he was planning to do surveillance on Castille. He probably wanted to make sure he couldn’t be tracked by it.
I run toward Castille’s offices. Maybe I can find Mateo. If he’s watching Castille, maybe he’s somewhere nearby. I run down the sidewalks, watching for any car that might look like Mateo’s. Or even any car that has someone sitting in it who might be Mateo.
I’ve almost run around the whole block outside of Castille’s office, when I hear his voice.
“Klein!” Mateo yells at me from across the street.
He looks concerned. He must have seen me running around frantically and realized something is wrong.
The street between us is too busy for me to run across. I want to yell a warning to him, but it’s too risky.
I approach the street, looking for an opening to sprint across and warn him. To tell him he’s got to disappear, or hide, or something.
Then three police cars speed around the corner. They’ve somehow found him almost as quickly as I have.
Mateo looks to the police cars approaching and then back to me.
Before I can do anything, the first police car has pulled up and the officers already have their guns drawn on Mateo. I’m afraid that he’s going to run or even fight back. Instead, he raises his hands in the air. He turns his back to the police and puts his hands behind his head. He gets down on his knees.
The police officers swarm around him. They cuff him, search him, and roughly haul him into the back of his car.
They take Mateo away, and I’m left standing there trying not to give in to my fears of what might happen next.
22
MATEO
I don’t saya single word when I’m arrested. I wish I had gotten to talk to Klein before the police showed up. She obviously had something to tell me, but it’s more than that. It was probably for the best that she wasn’t with me when the police arrived, but that doesn’t stop me wanting it.
When they give me my phone call, I desperately want to call Klein. I play it safe and call my lawyer, Maurizio Trevisi, instead. He’s worked for my family for years, and he knows what he’s doing. He’ll also be able to call my father and let him know what’s happened. He comes to see me in jail to go over the charges and plan my defense.
“You’re being accused of shooting one of the lawyers outside of the courthouse,” he says. “They haven’t officially tied you to the actual taking of the prisoners, but it’s obviously what they’re aiming for.”
I nod.
“It’s exactly what it looks like,” he continues. “They need a scapegoat. To pin anything from that day on anyone. If they can’t get the guys who actually shot up the courthouse and took Elio, they’ll settle for someone who was there. As long as a witness is willing to say they saw you fire a gun.”
The charges are obviously bullshit. But you can’t underestimate the system’s desperation to look like it works. I wouldn’t be the first person to be locked up for something they didn’t do.
My arraignment is quick. Bail is denied. About the only thing I remember from it is that Klein wasn’t there. My trial is scheduled to start in just a few days. The legal system doesn’t usually move this fast, but they’re eager to have something to show. They’re willing to fast-track a result of any kind, especially with such a public case and an election looming.
I wasn’t expecting any of this, but the weirdest thing of all is that someone I’ve barely met comes to visit me while I’m in jail. It’s the man that was with Klein the night I met her. Her friend, Andre.
23
KLEIN
