The Cartel Lawyer: A Legal Thriller by Dave Daren

Author:Dave Daren [Daren, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“I can’t get you out just yet,” I told Camilo.

My heart squeezed in my chest as I saw the little spark of hope in his eyes die away to be replaced with a dull lifelessness.

“Then why are you even here?” the young teen snapped.

The guard who had brought him in was leaning against the gray cement wall a few feet away. He looked relaxed, but his eyes scanned the room for any signs of trouble, and when he heard my client’s tone, his attention snapped back over to our table. The wiry guard suddenly kicked off the wall as his right hand went to the handle of the club he had at his waist.

I lifted a hand to wave him off, and though he narrowed his eyes, he relented when I shook my head. I didn’t like the way he’d reached for his weapon so fast, or the way he’d pressed his lips together when he’d given in. It was like he was upset he hadn’t been able to strike the fourteen year old boy across from me. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he resumed his leisurely position on the wall, but I wondered what would happen once I left.

There were a few other teens who were meeting with visitors, and I noticed how unlike teenagers they all behaved. They kept their voices low, and they sat across from their visitors with their hands in their laps. I saw one gray-haired woman reach toward the boy she was talking to, but he kept his hands in his lap, his eyes downcast, and he simply nodded whenever she said anything, and tears silently slipped down his sunken cheeks.

My attention shifted back to the teen who sat at the table with me. His shoulders were slumped in on themselves like the other boy, and though he didn’t cry, he didn’t have that cocky grin that he had worn every other time I’d seen him. He hadn’t been there long enough to lose much weight, but exhaustion rolled off of him as if he hadn’t allowed himself to sleep since he’d arrived.

It was possible that Judge Williams had no idea what it was like at the Everson Juvenile Center, but no one was above corruption, and his records had shown he favored the terrible place. And then there were the longer sentences he’d started dishing out. None of it made any sense unless the judge was getting a kickback.

Scouring the judge’s financials suddenly moved to the top of my to-do list. If the jurist was indeed receiving payments for every child he sent to the facility, I would make sure he was disbarred, lose his seat on the bench, and maybe even find himself in prison.

“How are things going?” I asked as I pulled my thoughts away from the corrupt magistrate.

“How do you think?” Camilo scoffed.

There was a flash of his previous sass, but it was half-hearted and didn’t have the usual bite that came from the teen’s confidence.

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