A Fraudulent Death, Draft 02, CH 02 (Patreon)

Trembor respected lawyers. They had an important job to do; protect the innocent.

His father told him multiple stories where males like Barany, sitting next to him, were all that stood between them and the prosecutor sitting opposite them, like the hippopotamus on the other side of the table. One would bend the laws as far as they went to ensure the male went free, while the other would do the same to cage them, or see them fed to the family of their victims, as Bo had been in danger of only days before.

* * * * * *

Barany had come in only minutes after Trembor had been brought in. The armadillo had demanded privacy and expressed surprise when it had been granted. He wasn’t used to a suspect having friends within the precinct he was caged in. The two of them had been escorted to the interrogation room, the recorders turned off, and the armadillo had set about explaining how he was going to ensure Trembor went free.

“Our strategy is to lean on the unreliability of their witness.” He consulted his pad. “A hacker, Jasber Braid, who you have arrested multiple times.”

“She isn’t a hacker,” he corrected.

The armadillo read more information. “They identify her as the person behind the hack.”

Trembor shrugged and let it go. That wasn’t wrong. She found and employed people. Even back in her early days, Jasber had been more of a manager than a front-row worker.

“With the history you two share, it should be easy to establish this is her way of getting revenge. If we can find some connection between her and the criminals she shifted the blame on for your brother’s crime it will reinforce our case, but that this stage, all we need to do is establish that we know the prosecution’s case isn’t as strong as they want us to believe.”

“Only it is,” Trembor replied. “I’m not contesting that I hired—”

“I’m going to stop you right there.” The armadillo glances at the camera, on which the activation light was off. Trembor didn’t point that out, because he knew the lawyer’s paranoia was justified. He’d questioned suspects while the recorders were supposedly off, only to find out after the fact they’d been kept on accidentally. Getting a confession was more important to some people than the letter of the law. And in time, Trembor had had to rely on disconnecting the camera when he wanted something discussed off the record.

“What I know,” Barany said. “What actually happened, that isn’t what this is about. This is about what they can prove happened. At this time, only hours after most of this started, they claim they can tie you to everything, and they are hoping you’ll bare your throat and let them bury their fangs in it.” He raised a hand to stop Trembor’s protest. “You’re lucky your father got wind of this early and ask me to come before the prosecution got here. If you confess, then yes, this case will be easy on them. That is not our job. I need you to forget you were an enforcer, that you are an RI. At this moment, you are not an enforcer of the laws. You are a suspect, and if you aren’t careful, you will become a victim of the system you work at enforcing.”

Trembor grumbled his protest. He respected lawyers, but this was one aspect he hated; their determination to defend the guilty with as much vigor as the innocent. How many criminals had gone free because of an over-eager lawyer uncovering a procedural mistake?

And now, he was the criminal with the over-eager lawyer, which he hadn’t asked for, looking for any errors to set him free with. Trembor wanted to pay for what he did. He’d broken the law. That he had good reasons to do it didn’t matter. Only what he had done.

“How did my father find out so quickly?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” Barany answered. “But he still has contacts without the legal system on both sides of the line.”

It had to be that, Trembor concluded. Marlot had only found out when Trembor was arrested, and as good as the wolf was, he couldn’t have hacked his way into the department, worked out what was happening, contacted his father, and for him to have the time to find a lawyer to defend Trembor.

He had no doubt Marlot was hacking the enforcer servers right now. He didn’t like it, and he told himself it was because his wolf loved him, not because he was protecting a possession, but he hopes Marlot wouldn’t do anything rash before they talked. He had to make him understand this needed to happen.

“Then I don’t need you—”

“Mister Goldenmane,” the armadillo cut him off and glared.

“Trembor. I’m younger than you.”

The lawyer signed in exasperation. “Mister Goldenmane, the simple fact you want to admit culpability demonstrates that you need me.”

“But—”

“There is not but, Mister Goldenmane. You must have your day in court. You must have your chance to be found innocent. It’s the prosecution’s job to demonstrate you are guilty, not yours.”

“You sound like my dad,” Trembor grumbled.

“Then listen to me as if I was him. I know that if he was still practicing, he’d be here in this chair instead of me.”

Trembor groaned at that image. Torim Goldenmane, verbally tearing apart whoever tried to accuse his son of wrongdoing. Refusing to listen to reason because as far as his father was concerned, his son would never, under any circumstances, break the law.

Trembor had believed that too, only weeks ago. His father will be so disappointed in him when Trembor told him it was all true.

“Look, Trembor,” the armadillo said. “You don’t have to worry, let me do the talking and everything will be fine.”

Before Trembor could ask what he meant by that, Barany pointed to the camera. The recording light was back on. And before he could wonder why, the door had opened, and the hippopotamus had marched in as if this was her office, telling his lawyer to sit down as the male began standing.

Trembor hadn’t understood why the armadillo had wanted to stand.

* * * * *

“May I ask a question?” Trembor asked in the tense silence filling the room. He had understood little in the last thirty minutes, and that surprised him. Torim liked to explain cases to his children, so while not fluent in legalize, Trembor usually got by.

The hippopotamus glared at him. “Unless it’s about how you can make my job easier, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Don’t,” Barany warned, also glaring at Trembor.

The dismissive tone in the female’s voice annoyed him enough that while he still wanted to do the right thing, Trembor wasn’t certain being forthcoming with her was how he wanted to go about it.

“It’s not about the case,” Trembor said and continued before either could stare him down. He would not be cowed by prey, no matter how much legal power they had. “I’m trying to understand why you’re here. The little I understood of what you snarled at each other is that you’re the city prosecutor. Doesn’t that mean you go after criminals who run things? I don’t see why you are interested in my case.” He’d known City Prosecutor Flattooth was a hippopotamus, but the incongruity of someone that powerful being in the same room as him was still too much for him to accept.

Her small ears folded back, first in annoyance, then further in anger. When she smiled, there was nothing pleasant in the show of flat teeth. “You are really going to play it this way? You’re only a small bone in this criminal body? You, not only a well-respected RI, but a male with the connections to afford this male as shielding against your crimes, and able to get the enforcers who arrested him for interfering in their investigations to treat him gently.”

“I—” Trembor began, but a raised hand from the armadillo and a clearing of the throat silenced him. Trembor grumbled. He wasn’t looking to deny anything, and he couldn’t control how Derimak and the others acted.

Her smile gained the viciousness Trembor was used to seeing on predators. “Would a mere bone be able to make that happen? You never contacted anyone. I saw to it. No, you’re the skull of this body, you exemplify what’s wrong with the enforcers. I’ve been telling that old Dullhorn for years people like you were in charge of the law instead of honest people. Now I’m going to prove it, and I won’t be surprised if somewhere in that cooler where you hide the influence you hold over everyone here, I’m going to find something tying Sharphorns to you.”

The announcement surprised his lawyer as much as Trembor. He wanted to laugh at the extent of the delusion, but the seriousness in the prosecutor’s eyes stopped him. She couldn’t believe any of what she’d said. It had to be an attempt to unsettle him.

And it worked.

“I’m glad you finally said what your angle is,” Barany said, regaining his confidence. “Because now I can point out that this delusion of yours has nothing supporting it.” He tapped his tablet.

She looked at it with disdain and took one from her jacket. “Let’s start with what’s already stinking up the room, shall we?” She read off. “Evidence tampering, hiring hackers to plant said evidence, paying said—”

“I’ll stop you right there, Madame Prosecutor. There’s no evidence any such transaction took place.”

She glared at the armadillo. “I have the transcript right here. The one where the criminal in question admits to taking your client’s money.”

“I have the same testimony, but I haven’t seen any corroborating evidence supporting it.”

“We’ll find it. There’s only a few kiosks left where physical currencies can be obtained. I’m sure we’ll link his ID to at least one of them. Why do you think we keep them around? It’s certainly not because we like making it easy for criminals to hide their transactions.”

“Actually, they’re still around because the attempt to remove all of them was stopped by corporate influence,” Barany said. “And you’re welcome to look into it because my client didn’t withdraw anything from them. Miss Jasber Braid is a career criminal, with multiple arrests at this male’s hand while he was an enforcer. He is responsible for lowering her productivity, and people in her line of work don’t take to that kindly. She couldn’t afford to have him removed, so she’s using this opportunity in an attempt to have you work for her.” The armadillo smiled. “Maybe I should be launching an investigation to find out if you have some connection to this criminal, Madame Prosecutor.”

The hippopotamus rolled her eyes. “Don’t think yourself a predator, counselor, you can’t carry the scent. How are you going to explain to the judge that his criminal acted to protect Bolifen Goldenmane, your client’s brother? Just so she could frame your client? Maybe you should look for a career in fiction writing.”

“I’m afraid you’re forgetting that I don’t have to explain why Miss Braid did anything,” Barany answered calmly. “That’s your job. The only thing I need to show is that whatever you claim to have is only as solid as the word of a known criminal who had ample reasons to hate my client.” He smiled. “That, I can do easily.”

“I see,” she replied, sounding disappointed. “Mister Goldenmane, I came here to make your life easier. To keep all the evidence I have from being made public for the newsies to tell everyone. Whatever you think of me and the work I have to do against you, my first concern is to ensure that what you did doesn’t splash blood on anyone other than you. This male will force me to spread it out for everyone to smell, and because of him I’ll have no way to control how much of it splashed onto the rest of your family.”

Trembor’s chair screeched as he jumped to his feet and slammed his hand on the metal table. “Don’t you—”

Barany pulled him away from the table, preventing what Trembor had been about to say in surprise at how strong the armadillo was. Then he notices the disappointment on the prosecutor’s face and realized in his anger the warning to stay away from his family would have included an admission of everything he’d done; on the record.

Trembor wanted to pay for his crimes, but the way she played him, had known him well enough to use his family, pissed him enough he wanted to make her job as hard as possible just to prove he could.

Gorrek had played him in his youth, that hunter, Nikal, had played him recently, and true or not, what Marlot had done still felt like he’d played him too. He would not reward her for adding to it. He nodded to Barany and retrieved his chair.

“That was uncalled for,” his lawyer stated.

“All I did was point out the reality of a trial. It isn’t my fault it’s an ugly one, and that you’d rather he and his family suffer through it so you can get that large paycheck.”

Trembor sat and glared at the hippopotamus and crossed his arms over his chest. He felt childish for the display, especially since in the end, she was right. The newsies were going to make things ugly. But his family wasn’t the prey she seemed to think they were. Serene would eat any newsie who came too close to them.

The silence stretched, the two of them glaring at her. She sighed.

“Very well.” She tapped something and smiled menacingly. “Your client’s bail has been set. Until he pays it or the trial starts, he’s being transferred to DownStream. I don’t want a precinct like this to be burdened with having to care for a male like him.”

“That’s unreasonable!” Barany exclaimed.

Trembor was stunned. DownStream was for criminals deemed too dangerous to be caged among other criminals. It was where Nikal was headed. Would have been headed, he corrected himself, if he hadn’t vanished.

“It’s the only complex I could find to take him on short notice,” she answered dismissively, but she was so smug, Trembor smelled it. “It’ll just be for a few days. I’m sure you’ll see to it the trial can start without delay, won’t you counselor?” She smiled at Trembor. “You still have time to change your mind, Mister Goldenmane. Come clean now, and there’s no reason to move you from this precinct until a proper cage can be found.”

“No,” he answered before Barany could say anything. Trembor wouldn’t let someone bully him into anything, not even the one thing he’d wanted to do when he sat down in this room with his lawyer.

Barany’s surprise morphed into satisfaction, then concern.

The hippopotamus stood. “Very well. Enjoy your stay at DownStream. I’m told it’s an exciting place for anyone with connections to the enforcers.” On those words, she left the room. Cursing, Barany hurried after her.

A cheetah in enforcer uniform looked in. “I take it the interview is over?” Trembor shrugged. “Come on, Trem. You don’t need to stay in here if they’re going to leave you unsupervised.”

“That’s why you’re there, Spotter, isn’t it?”

The cheetah smiled. “I’m here to keep an eye on you. Nothing says it has to be in this room or any specific one. So how about we head to the lounge? Streaks brought in a rhino this morning, there’s going to be some left, and there’s more people there, so a lot less chances you’ll be able to escape, right? It’s just more efficient all around.”

Flattooth was right about the officers here treating him better than any other criminals. Not that it was why he’d done it, but Trembor enjoyed making friends. He’d started with the academy, kept it going in his time as an enforcer, and kept in contact with everyone once he became an RI.

He looked at the pad his lawyer left in his hurry to leave. It was on and unlocked. If he picked it up to read, Spotter would let him. Say he hadn’t noticed if he was asked. Not that anyone in the precinct would ask. The worse Trembor expected was to be reminded he shouldn’t have access to it.

He turned the pad off as he stood and handed it to the officer. “Just take me to my cage.”

“Trem, you—”

“I don’t feel like being among people right now, Spotter. I just want to be alone.”

The cheetah took the pad. “If you’re sure?”

Trembor nodded.

“Okay, come on.”

Trembor turned so he could be restrained.

“Don’t be an idiot,” the cheetah said, punching his shoulder lightly.

Trembor crossed the precinct more as one of them than the criminal he was. He couldn’t help recalling the prosecutor’s words about how he was some skull in a criminal body. Implying he was in charge of all this.

She was wrong, but he still hated that it looked like she was right.

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