Bitter Sweets

Chapter 2: A Mother's Plea

I opened my laptop, the faint hum of its startup filling the quiet room. Mrs. Todd sat across from me, her hands twisting around each other as if she could wring the truth out of the very air. Her eyes, wide and anxious, darted around the room as though searching for reassurance. I knew this look well from when I was an understudy—most clients arrived with that same blend of hope and fear, desperate for answers but terrified of what they might discover.

I was a defense lawyer, however, so with no client, this hardly seemed like a case I should be taking. I was supposed to defend someone in court. This seemed more like a case suited to a private detective.

I cleared my throat. "Please fill me in on the details. But Mrs. Todd, I have to warn you, I'm a defense lawyer, not a private investigator. Given that, I might not have the qualifications or experience to help you."

Mrs. Todd straightened, her hair a mess around her face as if she hadn't been sleeping much. She nodded. "Would that change if you had someone to defend?"

My eyes went wide with curiosity. "Someone to defend?"

Mrs. Todd explained, "My son! My son has been convicted!"

I leaned forward, my fingers hovering over the keyboard, more to give myself something to focus on than to actually type anything. "Convicted of what?" I asked, my voice softer now, instinctively shifting from the cold detachment of a defense attorney to something more human. The way her eyes watered at the mention of her son's name made it impossible to remain impassive. Part of me knew what he had been convicted of, but I had to ask anyway.

"Murder." Her voice trembled with the word, and I felt the weight of it settle like a stone in my chest.

My first case had been a minor property dispute—one I had swiftly lost. To be presented with a murder case so soon after was jarring, to say the least.

My mind scrambled for context—what kind of case had she come to me with? A defense lawyer's job was to create reasonable doubt, to pull at the threads of the prosecution's case and unravel it. But murder? That was serious. Real serious.

I took a deep breath, then met her gaze. "Mrs. Todd, I can't make any promises, but if your son is innocent, I'll do everything I can to prove it. I'll need all the details—the police reports, the evidence they've used against him, and anything else you know about the case."

Mrs. Todd handed me an envelope with a lot of the details of the case neatly packed inside. She seemed to have done her own research. "This is everything I could gather from what they told me. To the police, this is an open-and-shut case. According to them, my son Edward killed my brother Max in a botched robbery. They just wanted a conviction. My son was visiting Max, but he would never rob him. This entire case just sits wrong with me—my poor Edward is being held as a criminal, but he would never do this."

"The details don't add up," she said quietly. "Max was a proud man, but he wasn't the type to keep much in the way of cash or valuables. A robbery gone wrong? It doesn't make sense. Edward wasn't a thief. He loved his uncle. He would never hurt him."

I nodded. "Did he have enemies who would want him dead?"

Mrs. Todd sighed. "Unlike my Edward, my brother Max was anything but spotless. He was involved with a gang down by the docks off Center Street—the Red Hand Brotherhood, a dangerous gang with a bad reputation."

I tapped my keys on the laptop. "So he was part of a gang?"

Mrs. Todd's face tightened, a flash of anger or regret passing through her eyes before she forced it away. "Max wasn't really a part of the gang, not officially, but he was involved in some of their dealings. He was a bookie; he sold illegal, rigged gambling deals. But he didn't have the connections to do it cleanly. The Red Hand had the muscle, and they were happy to provide it in exchange for favors. But as far as I know, Max never got too deep into their crimes. He always said he kept his distance, but..." She paused, her voice wavering. "But I know he didn't always play by the rules."