Chapter Twenty
Mia
“Hello, Mia?”
Sam’s voice was a little gravelly on the other end. The connection was somewhat fuzzy, but I could hear him well enough.
“Sam?”
“Can you hear me?” he asked, sounding a little nervous.
“Yes, I can hear you,” I nodded. “Is something wrong?”
“Mia… This is going to be a little difficult to explain.”
I frowned into the phone. “What do you mean?”
“There’s been…a situation – a misunderstanding, really… I need a lawyer.”
“A lawyer?” I repeated, growing more and more confused.
“I’ve been taken into custody,” Sam said. I could tell he was embarrassed to have to tell me that. My heart sunk immediately, and I felt my fingers grow cold.
“You’re in jail?”
“Can you come, please?” he asked pleadingly. “I really need your help. I only get one call, and my time is almost up.”
I hesitated for a moment. “Okay, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
I hung up and stared at my phone. Sam was in jail and he had called me. I felt my heart beat a little harder than usual, but it was an uncomfortable rhythm. What had he done? What had I done?
I barely knew Sam, and I had brought my daughter along on our first date. At the time, I had believed that it was a brilliant first step, a way to see if we could have a future. But now I was beginning to see how stupid it had been.
Sam was a fire fighter; he’d seemed like a decent enough man. But now I was forced to question that assessment. Had I really gotten involved with a criminal? Had I really exposed my daughter to a criminal? I was starting to feel slightly nauseous, so I got up from my desk and headed to the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face.
I was so distracted that I realized that I had spilled water down the front of my blouse. Luckily, it was a black silk shirt, and it was barely noticeable. It would dry soon in any case. I wiped myself off, straightened out my hair, informed Helen that I needed to go out for a little while, and then headed down to the precinct where Sam would be.
Inside, I informed the officer at the front desk who I was and who I was here to see. She looked me over once and then nodded. After a few minutes, I was led to an empty room with a table in the center and two chairs on either side. Sam was sitting on one end, and he stood the moment I entered. I stopped for a moment and stared at him. His hazel eyes were imploring, but I knew I couldn’t afford to trust them anymore.
“Sam,” I said uncertainly.
“Thank you so much for coming,” he said emphatically as the door closed behind me.
I hesitated. “What is going on, Sam?”
“Please, sit,” he said imploringly. “I’ll explain.”
I took a deep breath and sat down opposite him. “Alright,” I said. “I’m listening.”
“Remember I told you about my friend’s bar, the one we-”
“I remember,” I said quickly.
“His name is Jackson,” Sam continued. “I don’t know whether or not I mentioned this to you but I’m sort of…a silent partner in the business.”
“You did.”
“I just invested some money into it,” Sam nodded. “I didn’t expect anything in return, but Jackson wrote me in as a partner. But I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
I sighed. “You’ve been brought up on charges of money laundering, Sam.”
“I know,” he said. “But believe me, Mia, I had no idea what was happening. This was always Jackson’s project. He wanted to open up a bar. I just thought I was helping him achieve that dream.”
“If he has you down as one of the partners, then he must have got you to sign something,” I said.
Sam looked down at his hands for a moment. “He did.”
“You signed documents?” I asked sharply.
“Yes,” he nodded. “But…I didn’t read them.”
I raised my eyebrows and stared at him for a moment. “You signed your name to something you hadn’t read?” I asked slowly.
“I know,” he said. “It was stupid.”
“Stupid?” I repeated incredulously. “Are you kidding?”
“Mia-”
“Do you really expect anyone to believe that, Sam?”
“Do you believe me?” he asked suddenly, his eyes boring into mine.
“It doesn’t matter what I believe-”
“It does to me,” he cut in immediately. “I don’t want you to think I’m that sort of guy. I’m a fire fighter, Mia. That is what I do – it’s what I love to do. I’m not the kind of guy who ends up…here.”
“And yet here you are,” I pointed out.
“Because I trusted my friend.”
I shook my head. “Think of how this looks, Sam. You’re a grown man who’s claiming to have signed documents that you never read. You think you’re going to get out of this based on that defence? No one is going to believe you. It sounds like an excuse – and a ridiculous one at that.”
“But it’s the truth,” he said steadfastly.
“It may be,” I sighed. “But it’s a truth that sounds too much like a convenient lie.”
“I’m sorry, Mia.” Sam cast his eyes downwards. “I didn’t mean to drag you into this. It’s just… You were the only one I could think of and you’re…so smart.”
I glanced away from him. I wanted to help him, but I was angry, too. I was angry that the little bit of hope that had materialized in my gut over the last few days had been stamped out and burnt. What would I tell Renni? I wondered. She didn’t need to know any of this, but she would undoubtedly ask about Sam at some point. She already talked about him all the time.
“Mia?”
I turned my gaze up to Sam’s. “Yes?”
“You look mad,” he said softly.
“I’m not,” I insisted, but I didn’t sound very convincing even to myself.
“You are. I can tell,” he said. “And, I don’t blame you.”
“I introduced you to my daughter!” I said before I could stop myself. “Renni’s half in love with you already. What do I tell her now?”
“I… I don’t know,” Sam said, looking dejected.
“Why would you?” I asked heatedly. I sighed in frustration and leaned back in my chair, surveyed him with cold eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a moment.
“What made you think you could trust this guy?” I demanded.
“We went through training together,” Sam explained. “We were both eighteen and clueless. We grew up on the force together, we trained together, and we’ve saved each other’s lives on several occasions. I thought we had a real bond – a bond that meant we couldn’t betray one another.”
I sighed. “He screwed you over.”
“I know,” Sam nodded. “I think that’s the worst part about all this. Not the fact that I’m sitting in jail, but the fact that the person I thought had my back threw me under the bus.”
“You really had nothing to do with this?”
“Nothing, Mia,” Sam said emphatically. “I swear to you, I didn’t know what was happening. I mean, I noticed Jackson was a little cagey when it came to discussing certain aspects of the bar. But I just thought he was being defensive.”
I sighed. “Okay…”
“Can you help me?”
I looked at his strong, handsome face and knew I couldn’t possibly be the person he needed me to be through this whole thing. I had to think of myself, and I had to think of Renni, too.
“I can’t take on your case, Sam,” I said, in my most business-like voice. “But I will refer you to a good lawyer.”
Sam looked at me with wide eyes. “Why can’t you represent me?”
I stood up abruptly and headed for the door. “I’ll have one of my colleagues get in touch with you,” I said, turning back to glance at him.
“Mia?”
I turned my back on him and walked out of the door. I made it all the way to the parking lot, and it was only when I was in the driver’s seat with my hands on the steering wheel that I felt the weight of that decision settle down over me.
Could I really abandon him now in his time of need? He was still practically a stranger to me, so why did I feel like I was turning my back on him? It didn’t make sense.
I did the only thing I could do under the circumstances: I called Vanessa. I wanted to hear a voice I trusted, someone to reassure me and tell me I was doing the right thing. She answered on the third ring.
“Hi, Mia,” Vanessa said brightly. “Called to talk to me some more about your fabulous date?”
I hesitated. “Umm…”
“Mia?” Her tone changed instantly as she sensed something was wrong.
“Oh God,” I breathed, into the phone.
“Mia, what’s wrong?” Vanessa asked, her voice instantly urgent.
“It’s Sam,” I said, stumbling over his name.
“What happened?” she demanded. “What did he do?”
“He… He’s in jail.”
“What?” Her tone was shocked.
“I… He’s claiming he didn’t do anything,” I said, wondering if I even made sense. “He’s claiming that he was set up, but I… I can’t believe this is happening. He’s in jail. What if Renni asks about him?”
“Okay,” Vanessa said in a calm voice. “Just take a deep breath, Mia. Start from the beginning. How did you find out Sam was in jail?”
“He called me,” I admitted.
“He called you?”
“I was his one phone call.”
“And when you went down there?”
“He told me that his best friend had set him up, basically,” I said, explaining the gist of the story to Vanessa. “He claims to be completely innocent.”
“And, do you believe him?”
“I… He asked me that, too.”
“That’s a good sign,” she told me.
I frowned. “How is that a good sign?”
“Because he cares what you think,” Vanessa said. “He doesn’t want you having a bad impression of him. And chances are, he’s innocent.”
“How did you figure that?” I demanded.
“Because he had one phone call, and he called you,” Vanessa said reasonably. “If he really was guilty, then don’t you think he would have wanted to hide this from you?”
“I don’t know…”
“Think about it.”
I sighed. I was pretty sure I was going to spend the whole night thinking about it. I was pretty sure I was going to spend the next few days thinking about it, whether I wanted to or not.