Alistair looked at his watch impatiently, he wanted out of the stuffy office. Sniffing he consoled himself in the thought that it wasn't long before knock off time, which meant another late one at the pub across the street. A late night stagger home, which was just a few blocks away then off first thing in the morning to do it all again.
Danny was his last client meeting for the day and he was expecting him to be there any second. That left just enough time for him to have a sneaky nip of scotch, or maybe two to warm up for the pub. And then, only if time permitted he would flick through his case notes just to remind himself, not that he needed to, this one was a walk in the park.
He hadn't even finished pouring the damn scotch when his intercom buzzed and his new pain in the ass secretary announced Danny was there, five minutes early.
"Damn that Danny and his punctuality," he cursed under his breath before pressing on the intercom.
"One moment," he said gruffly, before downing the scotch and hiding the bottle and glass back under his desk.
As he grappled with the wrapper of a stick of gum in one hand he barked into the intercom, "Ok, Mary Jane, show him in now."
"My name is Annette sir, I will bring him in now," said the annoyed young girl at the other end of the intercom, before promptly hanging up.
The young lady appeared moments later with Danny in tow, showed him to the nearest seat, gave Alistair a dirty look, before promptly leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
"Come in, sit down, don't worry about the dragon out the front, she must be on her rags or something," he said raising his eyebrows a few times and letting out a crude giggle.
Danny didn't laugh instead he wriggled uncomfortably in his chair and checked his watch, waiting for Alistair to get his act together and start talking about what was going to happen next.
Alistair leaned back in his chair, feeling a little bit offended, but took his cue and began.
"Tomorrow is going to be tough, the last court day went well for us, but we aren't out of the woods yet. Mark my words though, if we play our cards right this is going to be a shoo in."
Still uninterested, Danny sat looking at the floor, until finally he said quietly, "she didn't do it, you know."
"Whose side do you think you are you batting for, what did I tell you the day you walked into the cop shop, think back you little tosser."
"You said you didn't give a damn who was guilty or innocent, you were here to win your case regardless."
"Exactly, that's the game, the job I got assigned is to win this case, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Victoria harmed your kid. If they can prove reasonable doubt, she is off the hook."
Alistair furrowed his eyebrows and leaned forward hissing through his teeth, "then my friend they are going to come after you next, if that happens you won't just lose one kid, you are going to lose them both, and I won't be around to help you out. I will probably be prosecuting you! So grow some balls and get your head in the game!"
Danny sighed putting his hand over his face and thought for a moment, he was trapped, he didn't have a choice. He had been subpoenaed as a witness for the prosecutor, legally he didn't have a choice he had to go up on the stand and couldn't risk losing Amanda and Emily. Alistair knew that, and he wasn't afraid to throw his weight around.
Taking in a deep breath and sitting up straight looking at Alistair Danny said, "Your right, what do I have to do?"
"To start off, tomorrow I want you to really play things up, without being too obvious to the judge, but let me lead you and the court into thinking that all of the evidence we have against her is just a little bit worse than it is," then he wagged a finger at Danny thoughtfully, "which brings me to another problem we might have, Demi."
"What about Demi, what does she have to do with any of this?"
"She is Victoria's best friend, is she going to know some of the things you are saying in court are...well, let's say exaggerated?"
"No it will be fine."
"Well you need to make sure that Demi is on your side 100% of the way, because she could be our undoing, and mark my words Danny Boy, they will call her to the stand and make use of her if we don't first!"
"Let me get this straight, to protect my children I have to exaggerate the truth, make Victoria seem like some sort of monster and drag my sister into it too."
"Unless you don't really care that much about your brats, yes."
Danny stood up, "Fine, well I guess we are done here."
Alistair watched thoughtfully as Danny left the room, he was going to win this case, just like every other case he had ever won, he didn't care who was guilty or innocent. For him it was always about the glory of the win and the bottom line, it didn't pay to have feelings or morals in this game.
Closing Danny's file he thought, morals and feelings hadn't got him to the position of court prosecutor, ruthlessness had, it served him well.
"So does this," he said out loud with a grin as he took the bottle of scotch from under his desk again. Discarding the glass, hungrily he began swigging at it.
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