You And I

Dean was lounging on his couch after a particularly grueling day of work when someone knocked on his apartment door hard. He quickly took his gun out of the holster and cautiously looked through the peephole. Sighing upon seeing who it was, he opened the door to let him in. “What do you want?” Dean asked, eyeing the man with honey-blond hair and piercing silver eyes standing before him with distrust.

The man tugged at his meticulous coat, unsure how to say why he came. “We need your help,” he eventually said. His eyes darted throughout the apartment, cataloguing everything he saw.

“We? Are you sure about that? Does he know you are here?”

“Dean, he is in trouble. He is in no position to say who can and cannot help him.”

“Ah, so he doesn’t know. Get out, Harry.”

“Listen, Dean. I wouldn’t have come unless you were my last hope. I need your help to get them to drop the charges against him.”

“You are his lawyer. Getting him off is your job. He has faced murder charges several times before and came out unscathed in the end. Why are you worried now?”

“Because he made a mistake this time. You may not be a lawyer, but you know how to make evidence inadmissible. No one is better than you at digging up dirt on witnesses to shut them up. Do me a favor and help me out this once. I won’t come to you again.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“Not really. But I would love to have your voluntary help,” Harry said, smiling awkwardly. “Let’s go,” Dean said, clenching his fists. The walk out of the apartment was filled with tension. Dean waved at his nosy neighbor merrily to stave off any suspicion when they passed him.

Harry maintained a distance between them, knowing Dean was itching to throw a punch at him. “Good man,” he said to Dean as they got into the limo waiting outside for them.

“Where are you taking me?” Dean asked Harry, glancing warily at the limo driver.

“Somewhere private where we won’t be eavesdropped on,” Harry said, staring out the window.

Both men did not utter a word more until they reached their destination. “This is your idea of private?” Dean snarled once the limo left.

“No one knows about the underground basement in this nightclub. We won’t be disturbed. Quit whining and walk,” Harry said. Dean grumbled under his breath but did as told. Once they made it past the writhing bodies on the dance floor, the guards let them pass discreetly to the basement’s entrance and melted back into the shadows.

Dean threw himself on a chair and glared at Harry. “What evidence do they have against him?”

“Straight to the point. I always liked that about you.”

“…”

Harry stopped pacing and said, “Two eye-witnesses. One, a professor at Haversham University, swears he saw my client entering the victims’ house. Apparently, he had been there to visit his sister’s family. The other, a boy of twenty, remembers seeing someone roughly matching my client’s physical profile, storming out of the house and knocking him down in the process. The boy’s car had been towed, and his phone had died. He had just stepped off the neighbor’s porch after using their phone when this happened. The boy noted the license plate of the escape car.”

“Is that all?”

“Unfortunately, no. We have several traffic cams placing the client in the neighborhood at the time of the murder. I suppose he couldn’t resist blowing through red lights to get to wherever he was headed. Most damningly, they can prove motive. The victims, the Cullen family, owe him millions. Numerous threatening messages and calls have been traced back to an employee of the client.

“They are still circumstantial evidence. Did they find the murder weapon?”

“No. But the evidence, though circumstantial, is strong, Dean.”

“Where is the murder weapon?”

“How would I know? However, hypothetically speaking, if my client were guilty, he could have melted the gun down. People with presence of mind won’t leave behind shell casings and other damning evidence, would they?”

“You do realize it’s just you and me here? You can speak freely.”

“I learned not to make the mistake of assuming any conversation is private the hard way. I am not going to start living dangerously now.”

“Good for you. Now, I can probably shoot down the credibility of the witnesses. But the fact is, your client was there. That cannot be disproved. So, I think it would be best if we shifted the time of the murder. You could always argue that your client saw the dead bodies and fled without reporting it because he had already faced innumerable baseless charges.”

“But the M.E. was confident that the time of murder was between 7 and 9 p.m. Shifting it isn’t possible. Besides, what reason could my client possibly have to visit the Cullens that night? He has many employees at his service to collect any debts owed to him. Why would he personally go over there?”

“I will think of something. Let me know if you suddenly have a brilliant idea to dismiss the charges against him entirely. Also, send me whatever information you have on the witnesses.”

“Oh, here you are,” Harry said, extending two thick files to Dean. “I don’t want to leave a digital footprint for the prosecution to follow in case they are paranoid enough to have me followed and see us together. Burn the papers once you memorize the information inside.”

“Overly cautious. I have always liked that about you.”

“Ha. Liar.”

“Anyway, I don’t want him to know that I was involved,” Dean said, getting up to leave.

“Understood. If you find out anything to help my case, drop in at the Jenkins bar. I will meet you there or send someone we both trust, no matter what time it is.”

“Good luck, buddy.”

“Thanks, I will need it.”

Two days later, Dean found himself at the Jenkins bar, glaring at the young man sitting across from him. Their table was secluded from the rest, but they still spoke in a low tone so that their voices wouldn’t travel. “Hey, Cub. Is Harry too busy to meet me?” Dean asked.Jenkins Bar was not the sort of establishment Dean usually visited. However, he had had no other choice but to come as instructed.

“Something like that,” the young man said, sweeping back his electric blue hair from his forehead. “What do you have?”

“Patience, Cub. What’s the rush? Let me finish my beer, would you?”

“Dean, we don’t have much time.”

“Lucas, shut up and drink. Two men are staring at us from across the room. I need to know if they are just admiring our looks or tracking us,” Dean hissed.

“Oh. I can’t believe I did not clock them.”

“Well, you were too anxious. Never mind, they were just creeps checking us out. Listen, Professor Langdon was wasted when he saw him. His testimony won’t hold up. Several of his colleagues will swear he doesn’t know a goat from a donkey when he is drunk. The boy, Hansel, could be trouble for us. He is a sharp kid. It’s fortunate that he did not actually see the murders. I do have something on him, though. He has a history of substance abuse. He hid that from the college he is enrolled in. However, he was not high on the day of the murders. So, we can’t discredit him, but we can—

“Understood. He won’t be testifying.”

“Great. Now for the time of the murder…”

“Ah, yes. Harry said you were trying to pull off the impossible.”

“Turns out, not so impossible. The Cullens could have died before the time determined by the M.E. The cops assigned to the case had pressured him to move up the time so that they could place their suspect, your boss, at the crime scene. I am sure Harry will know what to do with that information.”

“What would we do without you?”

“Probably, find some other demented soul to do the job.”

“Dean—

“Nope. I did my part. Now leave me alone. I am going home and spending the rest of the day with my son. Do not, I repeat, do not disturb me today.”

“But Dean, what if Harry wants you to find out an alternate suspect?”

“Politely tell him to go to hell.”

“Noted. I will let you know how it goes.”

Dean left the bar and made a beeline for his car, only to be waylaid by the creeps he had seen at the bar before. “Gentlemen, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing your ugly mugs?” he asked, sliding his hand into his jeans pocket.

“Keep your hands where we can see them,” one of the men growled. The other flashed his FBI badge at Dean.

“I was merely retrieving my car keys.”

“I said keep your hands where I can see them.”

“Problem, agents?” a figure asked from the shadows. The guy who had flashed his badge drew his gun and pointed it at the figure.

“Stay out of this, Cub. Get going,” Dean said.

“Nope,” Lucas said and stepped closer to him. Both agents were pointing their guns at him then and did not see Dean flex his hand. One of the agents fell with a thud. The other agent stared in shock at the knife embedded in his partner’s eye. Before he could react, Lucas shot him down.

“Doing this job is never dull, Dean. Are you sure you don’t want to come back?”

“Clean up here. Leave no trace,” Dean said and got into his car.

“You did not answer my question,” Lucas yelled. Dean sped away in his car without replying.