chapter 26
SAMANTHA WAS NERVOUS about her meeting with Walter and the Kroger security team. Her appearance on behalf of Walter would be a complete surprise to them, but the advantage was theirs because effectively everything discussed would be new to her. Although Walter had briefed her, she really didn’t know what she was walking into, and she didn’t have time to prepare. She asked Walter as many questions as she could and grabbed her coat. Since he now really needed a lawyer, she didn’t have any qualms about keeping the retainer. This was why she had gone to law school. She wanted to help those who couldn’t help themselves. As she drove to the Kroger, she prepared by pushing the knowledge of her clients robbing the store to the back of her mind.
Walter parked his car next to a distant light pole in the Kroger parking lot, exactly as Sam had directed. She watched and then pulled her green Volkswagen Bug over next to him.
“Cute car,” Walter said as he opened Sam’s door for her.
“One more time, I need to know what you’ve told them.”
“I haven’t said shit…excuse me…I-I’m just nervous. I’ve just answered their questions about that night, what I did, what I saw.”
“Okay, good. I understand. I’m nervous too,” she said in a moment of anxious honesty and immediately wished she hadn’t. She quickly added forcefully, “I’m going to find out the tenor of this meeting and decide my next move. This may not last long at all.”
“These guys don’t show any emotion. They’re impossible to read. They make me nervous.”
“You’re nervous because you’re guilty,” she said, bending over to check her makeup in her car’s side mirror.
“Yeah, okay, so why are you nervous?”
“Because you’re guilty…and this is my first real case. Okay?” she said as she reached inside her car and grabbed her briefcase and a scarf, which she wrapped around her neck as she headed for the store.
“Your first case?”
“Yep. They say you always win your first. Don’t you feel lucky?” She smiled to hide her tension.
“Not especially.”
Sam glanced up at the giant building and saw security cameras pointed downward, presumably recording everyone and everything. “Actually, neither do I. But what’s the worst that could happen?”
“I could go to prison.”