law

ch. 1

"Miss Chen, your 2pm appointment is here to see you?" My assistant, Rebecca, says through the speakers.

I frown and press the speaker button on the wall "I don't have an appointment scheduled at 2, is there a mistake?"

A pause stretches between us and the speaker clicks "oh um, the man said he didn't need an appointment? he's coming up now"

"What. Rebecca you're my assistant, that's not supposed to happen. Get him to-" I grit my teeth when i hear my office door swing open and hit the wall.

I look up and see a wealthy looking man, not much older than me. Standing at 6'3, a man dressed in a dark grey business suit and a black trench coat stands across from me, wearing a smirk on his face.

"You're Lillian Chen right?" He steps closer to my desk and holds out his hand. I stare at him "yes, I am. I'm sorry but I didn't get any notice of you wanting to meet with me. You'll have to set an appointment. My assistant can help you out with that" I disregard his handshake and gesture towards the door.

He scans the office "well, you aren't busy now, are you". I shrug "no, but-" he clasps his hands together and sits in a chair "fantastic, so we shouldn't have a problem here!"

I blink and narrow my eyes at him "who are you, and what is this meeting in regards to?" He pauses as though he forgot what he was here for.

A lightbulb seemed to flicker in his brain "I'm Josh Peterson, investigator for the District Attorney's office". My mouth gaps open slightly. I just told off someone from the DA's office, crap.

I gulp and take a seat in the chair behind my desk "I see...my apologies for my behaviour before, but i still don't appreciate the lack of notification about this meeting". He nods and places his a hand beneath his chin "understandable, this was abrupt on my part as well, I'm here to discuss one of your cases. The Abernathy case".

He pulls out a beige folder, filled with tens of papers. My papers. I hastily grab the folder out of his hands and scan through the documents i've spent hours on.

"H-how did you get these?" I slam the folder down on my desk. He grins and rolls his lips into his mouth. "HOW!?" I growl.

This case was the hardest case I have fought on behalf of any client I have ever worked with.

And I lost.

In 2014 a man named Cole Abernathy came to my just-starting-out law firm, in hopes I would be willing to take his case. Allegedly, no other lawyer had agreed to take his case, due to lack of evidence supporting his innocence, or potential innocence.

He had been framed for the murder of 4 women, all victims in the rage of 16-24 years old. All were from an Asian ethnicity, and all had no connection with each other, except for the fact they attended the same English lessons for southern Asian immigrants. They never had a single interaction with each other.

Their assistant teacher was Cole Abernathy. Yes, fellow students and other teachers were made out to be suspects. But Abernathy was the prime suspect of the serial-killer investigation. His prints were found at every crime scene, but never on the bodies. In fact, no prints were on the victims bodies.

At the time of deaths, he was no where near the crime scenes, he claimed he was either grading papers at home or in a dog park with his German Shepard. Sadly for the sake of his case, no eye witnesses could confirm his whereabouts.

With no alibi, and his prints at the crime scene, it was enough for the New York Police Detectives to provide the DA with a closed case and a charge.

There wasn't enough evidence to prove his innocence, so he was charged with 1st degree murders for all 4 women. Sentenced to life with no parole, I was hired by him initially to prove his innocence. I told him I would only take him as a client, if he agreed to settle for 30 years sentence, with parole.

"OH COME ON! I DON'T DESERVE THIS, I DIDN'T DO THIS TO MY STUDENTS" Abernathy slammed his fists on my desk.

I press my lips together and lift my chin higher "your prints were found at all crime scenes, and you have no alibi. You may not deserve this but you sure as hell don't need to drag a lawyer's reputation down with you. Take my deal or have fun with your life sentence"

I sit back down in my desk and continue with my files. He begins to sniffle and tears plop down on my desk. I cringe at the sound and look up at him through my glasses.

God knows what snapped in me but I saw someone vulnerable and honest in him, so I took his case.

A year full of legal battles, investigations and lawsuits followed me after taking his case, his case was the only case I've ever lost.

He was flown down to Florida county jail, and sentenced to the electric chair in 2015.

Josh shrugs "I'm not the one responsible for obtaining those files. This morning while I was having breakfast, work called me and told me I had to get down to the office, it was my day off. They handed me your case file and had me meet up with you"

The folder sits in front of me tauntingly, its a paper format of my failure. To my craft and to my client. Still staring at the folder I mutter "but why. This case has been shut for years"

He takes my folder "they said they want to open the case. Something has...come up". My head snaps up "what do you mean? He's been dead for 2 years".

I walk around my desk to stand over him and he rubs the back of his neck "that's, um, that's the problem. He's alive. He faked his death 2 years ago"

Falling back into my seat, I shake my head knowing the hell storm that's going to follow me.

Relief flooded through me because it meant his death wasn't upon my shoulders anymore. But I began to panic, because I'll most likely be looked at as a co-conspirator  in his escape.

"How do you know he isn't dead? His body is 7 feet underground" I raise my head up slightly to look at Josh.

He hands be another beige folder, filled with autopsy reports, pictures, and a death certificate. "One of his psychopathic fans came to visit his grave, but there was none. It was just a giant hole"

"We believe the quote on quote body wasn't stolen, because there was no body in the first place. See that death certificate?" He points at the bland brown and blue decorated sheet of paper "its fake, so are the autopsies"

I look at the signature on all the papers, they were all signed by a Damian Harris. Who was the prison's lab technician that supposedly killed Cole. "I know Damian. I've seen his signature, and the one on these papers are forged" I shake my head in confusion.

Josh nods "the certificate has no legitimate serial number either. And the emblem is fake. The autopsies were from another electric chair death, but whoever helped Cole fake his death changed the information to Cole's".

Anger boils within me to where I want to flip over my desk, but I don't, because I'm too small. Who was the idiot who didn't look over the papers? How could they let this happen? Especially if they were convinced the notorious Cole Abernathy was a serial killer.

"I want the man responsible for finalizing these papers, charged with negligence of justice" I ball my fists up. Josh eyes me warily "the DA is already onto that, but you have a court date. "Miss Chen you are under arrest for obstruction of justice, and conspiracy".

Blood drains from my face. No... there's no way he can do this. Theres no evidence or case, oh and I didn't even do it. He is way out of line-

His chuckle breaks into my thoughts "I'm kidding ahaha, you should've seen your face. I'm going to help you".