Checkmate

13

"Is this all?"

Manon nodded and I sighed as I handed her back the Ipad. 

"Figure out what restaurant this is. I need to know its popularity and clientele. Figure out if there's any more footage if they were filmed going in or getting out from different angles."

"What about the other stuff we found?" Akira asked.

"Hold on to that. Right now we need to focus on this."

They all hesitated.

They knew as well as I that things were not looking good, but I couldn't allow that to weigh us down. 

Akira was the first one to move. She pulled Miki with her and Bruce then went back to his desk.

In front of me, Manon still stood, gently nibbling on her bottom lip. She might as well have put up a banner that read "I wanna say something but how 'bout I bled myself to death by biting my tongue."

"What's your take on this?"

She blinked in surprise, clutching the tablet harder against her chest. 

She stared at me quizzically, almost shocked that I was asking for her opinion. With a single nod, I motioned for her to go ahead. She took in a calming breath and moved closer.

"This case has been going on for nearly three weeks now. Ella's public appearances were already limited before but since all this, they're pretty much nonexistent. Now she goes out for the first time in forever and paparazzi magically show up?"

"Sounds like the perfect setup," I whisper, as I complete her thoughts.

Slowly, she nods and I cross my arms over my chest.

   It cant be a coincidence. Mr. Smith has been silent this whole time, yet barely a week since we began to suspect him, suddenly he's a furious husband eager to get his wife justice. Seems pretty clear that the press may have not been the only one tipped off. 

"Focus on her husband," I tell her and then turn my attention to the rest of the group.

It's no surprise when I find them all staring in our direction.

"We're not letting her off the hook. Keep looking. I'll check whatever you found later, but now more than ever, y'all gotta start putting in that over time. This isn't just about discrediting her, Mr. Pavelka took a major hit to his public image. The only way to come back from that is to have irrefutable reason to claim she had probable cause."

I paused to make sure they got the message. 

"Things are about to get heated. If he hasn't seen it yet, expect him to be breathing down our necks the moment he does."

I was actually shocked to not have run into my client when I came in this morning. 

   Satan must've thought I didn't have enough stress on me as of five minutes ago because just as my mind wandered to his pain in the best friend, the door was flung open. Dressed to the nines, Colton seemed to sniff the air as if searching for something. When his eyes stelled in my direction, he pointed at me, "We need to talk." 

And just like that, a bright summer day was turned into a heavy rainstorm, with the winds of blame and thunderbolts of entitlement. 

"We need to talk, now!" 

   Everybody has an act. Some of us are blessed with the ability to comfortably present ourselves to the world and be accepted as they come. I played many characters in my lifetime. A shy orphan girl with underlying autophobia, a troubled teen with trust issues, a naive young woman who didn't know her worth, and a single mother with obstacles on all sides yet someway, somehow, she must overcome them all.