TWENTY-ONE
Sophia Lawrence sat in a restaurant amongst a loud lunch hour rush crowd. She shared Club sandwiches and Penta water with Michael Johnson. He had asked her to meet him when she told him she was unavailable this weekend.
“You seem so pensive, what’s the matter?” He asked after studying her profile.
“Can I be honest with you?” Sophia said glancing around.
“You better not try it…” Michael started to joke.
“No, Michael I’m serious,” Sophia said sternly.
“Okay, go ahead, be honest…”
“I don’t know a damn about anything that’s going on in my life. Your office is considering an indictment against Eric for solicitation of murder charges. He could go to jail for life and I don’t even know his role in all this.”
“Look, I’ve been honest with you since I’ve known you, and I have known you since…”
“Since law school, Michael I know, I know. It doesn’t help me none to know the man I was about to marry is totally not who I’ve known him to be.
“I’m also looking for help.”
“You cannot expect me to testify against Eric?”
“You may not have a choice. We… ah… the District attorney office will subpoena you.”
“C’mon Michael you can tell them to put that in the shredder. You for one know, I know whole lot less than you do, what will I say? What can I do?”
“C’mon let’s leave,” Michael said assisting Sophia with her coat. He snapped a small button like object on the inside as he did so, then Michael quickly slipped a coin-sized transmitter into her Hermes Croc handbag, before handing it to her. They walked out into a slight drizzle of rain. Sophia pulled her coat tightly about her.
A black Crown Victoria pulled to a stop in front of them. Michael opened the door and Sophia got in.
“Sophia this is my partner in crime, Juan Rodriguez. Juan’s a seasoned vet. He’s been in office way before prohibition was passed.” They both laughed while Sophia looked out the window. They dropped her off at her office building.
“Everything is set?”
“She’s armed and ready,” Michael said to Juan as they drove off.
“Good, then let’s hope they have a great weekend,” Juan said driving away. Michael plugged his head set in.
“Yeah it’s working just fine. I can hear her calling him.”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to be sitting here monitoring her every conversation are you?”
“It should be a rather interesting weekend for us.” Michael said as the car settled into traffic.
“Yes, this is the closest we’ve been to shutting Maruichi down.” Juan opined.