Transparency by Charles Royce (children's books read aloud txt) 📕

for the murder. Knowing Micah could never commit such a crime, Shawn gladly took the case. And won.

A high-profile defense attorney and an amateur architectural snob, Shawn has always been judgmental about style and construction, and the brutalist expanse of unthinking brick on both the exterior and interior of this particular building still causes his blood to boil, despite the late-January weather hovering just above freezing.

Before he can completely take off his overcoat, Shawn sees Detective Bronson Penance.

“Back so soon?” Detective Penance winks.

“Not willingly,” Shawn says. He flops his coat over his briefcase and follows Detective Penance down the hall. “But curious to see what this is about.”

“I’ll bet.”

The detective places his hand on the doorknob to the holding room.

“Hey, before we go in there,” Shawn says, “how’s your partner?”

“Lily? Made a lot of progress in the past forty-eight hours. Lost all movement in her right hand, but the left one should be fine. Doctors say it could be a while though. We already miss her around here, not that we’re keeping her on.”

“Not keeping her on?”

“She violated protocol, almost got herself killed,” Penance replies. “Too green. She has to go. I know that sounds heartless.”

“Wow. That’s … is she talking about anything? About what happened in that apartment?”

“Oh yeah, she’s talking.” The detective looks at his watch. “Right about now she’s doing an interview with Press. I told her it was too soon.”

“Press? The political magazine?”

“You think it’s political because we’re entering an election cycle, but no, Press covers current events. Lily was the victim of the pricks involved in Lennox Holcomb’s murder, one of the highest-profile murders of the decade. Unfortunately for us.”

“Unfortunate for all of us,” Shawn says. “Happy she’s talking and doing better. How are you holding up?”

“Lots of changes around here. They’re probably transferring me. Union Square.”

“To investigate the other murder?”

“To continue it, yes. They’re at an impasse. Still no definitive leads, just suspects. They’re not moving as quickly as we did.”

“Smart.”

Detective Penance ignores the jab, puts his hand back on the doorknob. “I’ll be in the next room. You ready?”

“I got this.”

C h a p t e r   4

JENNA STARES AT a distorted reflection in the two-way mirror adjacent to her. She doesn’t look at Shawn as he enters the holding room.

Shawn sees Jenna in person for the first time since the trial, sitting in a small bistro chair in front of a piss-green shellacked table. She’s in navy scrubs, her shirt reading “PRECINCT VII” embroidered in white dangly thread.

Shawn sneers first. “Quite the wardrobe change, huh?”

She folds her arms.

He looks back and forth to Jenna and the male figure to her left. “What’s he doing here?”

Josh Harrison sits beside her in street clothes, his hands on a red folder.

Jenna turns to Josh. Josh looks back at her. She turns away.

Shawn notices the simple glance held an entire conversation. He places his briefcase down and stands before them. “Is anyone gonna tell me what’s going on here?”

Josh answers. “We’d like to start off by—”

“Oh, piss off. I was talking to Jenna.”

“I’m sorry, when you said ‘anyone’ I thought you actually—”

“Jenna, are you gonna say anything?” Shawn thrusts his open hands upward at his waist.

“Shawn, settle down a second,” Josh says. “I’m sure you have lots of ques—”

“So nothing, Jenna?” Shawn ignores Josh once again. “No ‘I’m sorry for what I did to your best friend’? ‘I’m sorry I stabbed Lennox thirty-three times and left him for dead so that his husband could find him’? ‘I’m sorry Micah was almost put away for life for something I did’?”

Josh taps his fingers on his folder. “Shawn, we have—”

“Dude, stop calling me Shawn. I barely know you.” Shawn picks up his briefcase. “Jenna, I came down here because I really thought you’d try to explain all of this, to shed some fucking light on this plan you carried out. Clearly I was wrong. I’m leaving unless you speak up right now.”

Jenna glances up to briefly meet Shawn’s eyes but continues to slump. She knows Shawn thinks she’s guilty of killing his best friend, and based on Shawn’s demeanor thus far, she’s not quite sure she and Josh can convince him otherwise.

She clears her throat but can’t find the words.

Josh notices.

“This was a mistake,” he says to her.

“Ya think?” Shawn turns around and begins to walk toward the door. He jerks himself back around. “You know, I was at home just now with Haylee, who’s been throwing up all morning. While I was holding her hair back not forty-five minutes ago, you know what? She was talking about you, Jenna. She said there was no way Jenna Ancelet coulda done this by herself. She convinced me I should take you up on this meeting.”

“And Jenna and I want to thank—”

“Haylee assured me there was an explanation, this thing you both couldn’t wait to tell me. Me? I didn’t believe it. At Micah’s trial, I may have pointed to several coincidences that made you look guilty of Lenny’s murder in order to save my client, but I would have never thought it was true. Now? With the mountain of evidence pointing in your direction, I have no doubt at all.”

Josh tries again. “Mr. Connelly, if you’ll just listen to me, to us, I feel—”

“But you know what? I came anyway.” Shawn never stops talking directly to Jenna. “Why? To make my wife happy. That’s it. That’s the only reason. Now I have to go home and tell Haylee, my beautiful, loving, pregnant wife that she was wrong. Stop with the destruction, Jenna. You’ve done enough.”

Shawn sees another exchange of glances between Jenna and Josh.

Jenna shakes her head.

“I think we can all agree I’m not the right fit for this,” Shawn says. “I can recommend others who might be willing to take your case, or whatever it is you two have conjured up.”

He jerks open the door and exits, the sounds of his boots stomping down the hall.

Josh taps his hands on the table to the beat of