4465

Riiiinnnngggg

“Hel-”

“I’m sick and tired of this nonsense you keep pulling. You understand the importance of proficiency, yes? Well, you seldom show it. I’m at my wit’s end with your incompetence and I can assure you, if it continues, I-“

“Now who on earth do you believe you’re speaking with, young man? I will not tolerate such blatant disrespect! What is your name?”

“…”

“Well? Speak up!”

“My deepest apologies, Miss, I- I must have dialled the incorrect number. Just a moment please.”

“…”

“…4495…44…9…5… 65! 4465, you twit! Damn dial pad.”

“I don’t have all day, young man.”

“Yes! Yes, Miss, as I have said, my sincerest apologies. I was mistaken.”

“Mistaken? Well, I hardly believe that justifies this abu-“

“You have a nice day now, Miss.”

Click 

Riiiinnnngggg

“Hello?”

“Martin?”

“We’ve spoken enough times, I thought you’d know my voice by now.”

“Yes, well, I’d rather not be hasty.”

“Wha-“

“No matter. I presume you’re aware of why I’m calling?”

“Listen, what happened wasn’t my fault. How did you expect me to know they were coming in with additional evidence? My psychic powers? You seem to think I have those.”

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you don’t seem to care that I haven’t lost a case in over five years.”

“…would you like me to respond to that seriously?”

“Need I remind you of what’s at stake for you in the event that I lose this case?”

“Remind me? You don’t let me forget.”

“Then I trust you share my frustrations with what transpired in the courtroom today.”

“Yeah, yeah, terrible.”

“They made me look utterly foolish. And you didn’t do much to help.”

“Ah, yes, my psychic powers failing me once again.”

“Our evidence was insufficient.”

“Our? I had nothing to do with that.”

“You put it on the judge’s desk, did you not?”

“Oh, you made sure that I did.”

“Which, therefore, makes it our evidence. You’re as responsible as I am.”

“Whatever. What do you want me to do about it?”

“Well, evidently, there’s nothing to be done about today. But we can improve our chances for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes, tomorrow. We need more evidence, promptly. And it must be flawless.”

“Absolutely not. We agreed on one drop at the beginning of the week. No more, no less. I can’t-”

“Frankly, I’m not interested in what you can’t do. And I doubt Judge Ralph will be either when he discovers his personal assistant has been sleeping with his wife.”

“I-“

“And poor Katherine and the children, losing a husband and a father to such an abhorrent betrayal.”

“I don’t-“

“And poor old Martin, simultaneously losing your job and your family-“

“Fine! I’ll see what I can do.”

“Indeed, you will. Now, we must ensure that what happened today does not happen again. The defence completely invalidated my point!”

“I don’t imagine it’s that difficult to invalidate fabricated evidence.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll just have to fabricate it better.”

“Ugh, okay. I’ll be right back.”

“You can’t just leave! This is an emergency. We require all hands on deck.”

“I have to find a pen to write this down. Do you expect me to take the whole telephone with me?”

“Just make haste. We have work to do.”

“You could just say hurry, for goodness sake.”

“Hurry then!”

“Okay!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“I’m back. Now, how can we make this more believable than anything else we’ve thought of?”

“I’m just failing to understand. My arguments were infallible; how on earth could they dismiss the fact that he blatantly stole from my client?”

“Because… he didn’t.”

“They don’t know that!”

“No, but they know that the argument was unclear and doubtful, a far cry from infallible.”

“They surely have an agenda against me. They’re praying on my downfall.”

“Or maybe you’re not as good of a lawyer as you thought you were.”

“How dare you! May I remind you that I haven’t-“

“Lost a case in five years. Yeah, you may have mentioned it.”

“Precisely.”

“Well forgive me for questioning your credibility when you’ve been presenting false evidence the entire time.”

“Excuse me, this is simply to aid the inevitable. If I’m going to win anyway, what’s the harm in allowing myself an extra boost?”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Sorry?”

“I struggle to believe that you would go to the trouble of fabricating evidence for every single case you take if you truly believe you’re a shoo-in for the win.”

“Well, like I said, they have a vendetta against me.”

“You’re contradicting yourself. You said you believe you would win regardless of the extra evidence. Now you’re saying you need it because of this so-called, and by the way, non-existent, vendetta? Sorry, but I don’t buy it.”

“I don’t require you to buy anything. All I need is for you to keep your mouth shut and I’ll do the same in return.”

“What if I don’t care anymore? What if I let you tell Katherine and Judge Ralph all about what I’ve been doing? What then? Because then you have nothing against me.

“Well-”

“I don’t think you’d tell them.”

“What?”

“You don’t have the guts to blab and risk me exposing everything because of it. You need this. Lying is what you do, what you crave, and you can’t lie on this big of a scale in prison.”

“If you talked, you’d go to prison too.”

“If I didn’t have Katherine and my kids, or my job, it wouldn’t matter. I’d have nothing to lose.”

“But…”

“You have nothing on me, not really. You can keep living this pitiful life of lies and self-doubt, but I’m out.”

“Out? That’s absurd! We’re a team.”

“We were never a team and you know it. Goodbye, Randall.”

“Wait!”

Beeeepppp

“…”

Riiiinnnngggg

“He-“

“Martin, please, I wish you would allow me a moment. Let’s just talk about this.”

“Martin? Young man, I’ve had it up to here with your antics, you disrespectful little-“

“SIX FIVE YOU NINNY! AAHHHHGG-“

Click