Get Charlie Noah

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

The lawyer slicked back his short brown hair and adjusted his tie. It was evening in Sydney and the streets of the Central Business District were almost choked with people trying to scramble for trains, buses and taxies. Everyone wanted to go home and everyone knew it was going to be as much of a nightmare struggling home on this night as any other night of the working week. 'Would you like a coffee Reg?' asked the lawyer.

'No I don't want a bloody coffee. I really just need to know why you want me to plead guilty to these charges. They said you were the best and I hired you to get me off these bloody charges!'

'Because we're going to have a dickens of a job beating them old boy. They've got your balls on the chopping board.'

'But you said there might be a slim chance...'

'I've changed my mind,' said the lawyer.

'Charlie will never give evidence against me.'

'She doesn't have to,' said the lawyer. 'I've seen the police brief and you might as well have pinned a target on your arse and asked them to shoot you.'

Reginald Noah sat back in the plush leather chair. He didn't speak.

The lawyer leaned forward and put his hands palm down on the desk. 'Why do you think that your wife won't give evidence against you anyway? The police might have her tucked away as a last minute witness.'

'No.'

'It was her after all that dobbed you in,' said the lawyer.

'Yes, she did.'

'And your allegations of her being a conspirator or an accessory have no weight now that the money has been returned and she has offered a formal explanation as to why she took it away from you.'

'She won't give evidence against me!' Reginald Noah was becoming very agitated.

'You haven't done anything really silly...have you?' asked the lawyer.

'I don't understand.'

'She won't be harmed in any way, will she?'

Reginald Noah looked out the window at the dying rays of the setting sun. 'Of course not.'

'The thing is Reg...no one gives a shit about someone defrauding an insurance company. They are experts at ripping off their clients from time to time and the average person in the street loves to see them cop a bit of stick if you know what I mean.'

Reginald nodded.

'So we plead guilty and you pay back the money and look remorseful and we get a psychiatrist to say that you are suffering stress and the pressures of having to work for an insurer with bullying tendencies. They all treat their staff like crap. It won't be hard.'

'I'm not the only one who put their hand in the money jar,' said Reginald. 'I could name names.'

'There you go. We could crank up pressure on the insurer and they might even withdraw the complaint.'

'I don't think so,' said Reginald.

'Well I do,' said the lawyer. 'At the very least we might be able to work a deal that will get you a good behaviour bond and a smack on the wrist. We need to talk more.'

'I'm not comfortable with this,' said Reginald.

'You're not comfortable because you got caught. It wasn't doing the wrong thing that made you uncomfortable. It was getting caught. That's what happens with high corporate flyers and especially politicians.'