I really don’t like wasting my time dealing with lawyers. I can count the number of lawyers I have any respect for on one hand. I don’t even have to use all my fingers to do that.

I had mounds of digital paperwork sitting on my computer at the precinct and the beginnings of a headache. My favorite ancient drummer, Charlie Watts, was practicing keeping time on my temples.

And now this.

The Chief had made it clear I had to show up and cooperate at a deposition. Well, Markeson didn’t say how cooperative I had to be. There was that.

If the lawyers wanted to be difficult, I could play that game, too.

It was nice and warm when I stepped into the waiting area at Jankovic, Smythe, and Hirchez. To help get in the right frame of mind, I brushed all the snow off my coat as I stood there, looking at the gatekeeper sitting at the receptionist’s desk. I made a point of stomping my feet to get the slush and dirty snow off while I stared the battle axe down.

She frowned and gave me a look that could kill if such a weapon existed.

“You must be Inspector Sullivan.”

She spit my name out like it was poison.

I ignored her, took a few steps forward, and looked the place over. The HUD device for my right eye appeared, and I called up the menu to alter the light spectrum. It only took a few seconds in infrared to determine which room in the corridor to my left was where the deposition would be taken.

Not bothering to comment, I made my way down the hall, grinning as I left a sputtering and fuming gatekeeper behind me. I couldn’t help myself. Sometimes, these things have to be done.

Never one to surrender the strategic or tactical advantage if I could help it, I kicked the door open and walked in. There were more looks that could kill, but with surprise mixed in. There was even one look that would have sent Sarah reaching for her metal baton. It’s nice when the opposite sex gives a scarred and worn hulk like me an appreciative once-over.

“Have you ever heard of knocking?”

“You must be Jankovic,” I replied.

The man’s mouth dropped open. Karl Jankovic was a man who got his way. Jankovic did this by being in control at all times, not just of his words and emotions but of every situation he found himself in.

“I am, indeed, Karl Jankovic. And you are none other than Inspector Thomas Sullivan of the IAPF.”

“Guilty,” I replied, yanking a chair out from the conference table. I spun it around so the back of it faced the others in the room and took a seat, straddling it. There were more shocked expressions. This would be more fun than doing paperwork and possibly, just possibly, not a total waste of my time.

Jankovic was a tiny man, not just in stature but also in build. He dressed better than Markeson, my bent Chief of Police, which is saying something. But no amount of money and fancy tailoring would hide the fact Jankovic was a frail, physically weak specimen of the human species. He had blue eyes set a bit too wide in his narrow face and a narrow nose perched over lips that were razor-thin. I zoomed in for a quick inspection with my cybernetic right eye and noted the blue irises had been dyed.

The man’s eyes were as fake as his claim to be an ethical attorney.

“Inspector, need I remind you a certain level of decorum is expected at a deposition such as this.”

With my head slightly tilted to the right, I made a face as if considering Jankovic’s comment, nodding in agreement. I stood up, turned the chair around, sat back down, and promptly leaned back in the chair, putting my left foot on the conference table first and then resting my right leg over it.

I was confident when I replayed the recording my eye was making of this sham for my friends and Sarah at Joe’s tonight, it would generate more than a few laughs.

Sitting at the table was the aforementioned stenographer. She was an attractive blonde. Very attractive. So attractive it was obvious she had two jobs at the law firm of Jankovic, Smythe, and Hirchez. One of those jobs was to press the button on the recording device that would record everything said and then tell it to make copies and print out a transcript.

Yeah, she was that good-looking.

The other two males were flunkies, nothing more than associates who were worked to death and paid as little as possible. If they survived the ordeal, they might make junior partner after ten or so years.

Jankovic frowned at the sound of his expensive chair creaking under the strain of holding up my two-meter-tall, 118-kilo body. His expression told me he wanted to make a snarky comment but was thinking better of it. In the end, it was too much.

“Please remove your feet from the table, Inspector.”

“I’m comfortable, so, no.”

The man’s eyebrows shot up, and his face turned bright red. If possible, his eyes shrunk in size, giving Jankovic’s face the appearance of a Primian rat—nasty animals.

“Look,” I said as affably as possible. I don’t want to be here. We both know this is a waste of time. Swear me in, ask your questions, give me a copy of the deposition, and I’ll be on my way.”

Jankovic began to shake—well, more like vibrate—he was so angry. His eyes were bulging, which made him resemble a Primian rat even more.

“I insist,” Jankovic repeated, raising his voice.

I leaned the chair further back, balancing it carefully on the two legs that still touched the floor.

“Nobody tells me what to do,” I said firmly. “Chief Markeson is smart enough to suggest I do something. Sometimes, he insists, which is the closest anyone on this planet comes to giving me an order.”

“Put your feet on the floor and sit in the chair properly.”

One more poke at the Primian rat seemed like a bit much right at the moment, so I complied. Jankovic’s immediate relief, combined with an obvious grin, confirmed what I already thought about the man: He was dangerous and had to have his way. What Jankovic didn’t realize was that I wasn’t afraid of him, and I, like him, tended to want to have my way.

Sitting next to the attractive blonde was Jankovic’s client. A known sexual deviant with more twists than most people can count. Lots of arrests on multiple worlds and not a single conviction. But then, Will Peters had credits to waste and kept legal talent like Jankovic on retainer for when the inevitable arrest came.

People like Peters make me sick and for more than one reason. He’s a predator of the worst kind and knows he’s going to get away with it even if he’s caught. His victims are abused twice, once with the assault and the second time when they don’t get justice. The fact he gets away with it just feeds his narcissism and arrogance.

He’d made the mistake of putting his hand somewhere it didn’t belong on a friend of mine, a waitress named Alice who worked at Joe’s. Now, Alice is not just a friend of mine. She’s my partner’s adopted mother figure. Alice has been good for Sarah in more ways than I can count.

Now, Alice is no pushover. Peters is not the first customer to handle goods reserved for Alice’s husband, Ralph, another trusted friend. She slapped Peters not once but twice for good measure. Baldie and Giganto, Joe’s two bouncers, rather unceremoniously removed Peters from the establishment and sent him sliding down an icy sidewalk face-first.

Peters, being the slime that he is, lay in wait until Alice finished her shift and attacked her a second time as she walked home. He wasn’t successful in raping her, but he gave Alice a good beating in the process before she escaped his clutches.

Naturally, when I arrested Peters, his money and connections meant nothing to me. I was looking for an excuse to slap him around to make a point. Peters gave me the reason I was looking for. Now, I was sitting in a meeting room with the slime and a collection of sleazy but talented lawyers. Oh, lest I forget, a beautiful blonde that would make Sarah jealous.

Peters sat on the other side of the table with a pair of Jankovic’s underlings on either side. Evidently, this arrangement was supposed to make the perv feel safe from me. I got a chuckle out of that.

“You really are an unintelligent thug, even for a cop, Inspector Sullivan.”

“What makes you say that?”

Jankovic smiled, displaying the best, white, perfect teeth money can buy.

“Not only is your brutal treatment of my client going to get the charges against him dismissed, but both he and I are going to enjoy the financial rewards that come from large financial settlements from lawsuits against the IAPF.”

I shrugged to indicate my indifference. Jankovic was not going to fluster me. I decided it was time to poke the Primian rat again.

“I thought you were supposed to be a real hot-shot lawyer.”

Jankovic’s eyebrows shot up.

“As you say, Inspector, I am indeed a hot-shot lawyer, as you are going to find out.”

I could feel another poke coming.

“I have yet to see any evidence you live up to your reputation.”

Jankovic’s mouth dropped open in surprise. Nobody talked to him like this, and walked away without being significantly poorer.

“What’s more, your client there is going to die within months of being incarcerated in Graham Correction on Persephone.”

Peters lunged forward, only for the two associates to physically sit him back down. His face, already yellow, green, and black from the bruises I’d given him, was turning a dark red, he was so angry.

It wasn’t a good look for him.

“Did you just threaten my client, Inspector Sullivan?”

“No. I stated a fact. Once the inmates in Graham learn Peters is a serial child molester and sexual predator, they will have of sorts of their own. He’ll be found guilty, the sentence will be death, and any number of the psychopaths incarcerated there will carry out the execution.”

“Your ego is massive,” Jankovic informed me. He’d regained control, and his face was blank save for the hate in his rat-like eyes. “This will never come to trial after the beating you gave my client.”

I made a show of sighing in exasperation. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a chip, which I tossed on the conference table. It amused me that everyone present, save the blonde, started like I’d thrown an armed grenade on the table.

“I hope you didn’t pay Jankovic any money upfront,” I told Peters. “He hasn’t done his homework.”

The poke was too hard for the rat to take it silently this time. Jankovic stood up and shook his finger at me like I was a little kid getting scolded by my grandmother.

“You are the most unprofessional, arrogant, and uncouth example of a police officer I have ever met.” He had more to say, and I let him get it off his chest.

“You will lose your badge over this. Mark my words, Sullivan.”

I’d had my fun, but I had things to do before it was time to eat dinner at Joe’s with my partner Sarah and our friend, the Anglican priest Father Nathan. It was time to wrap things up.

“If you had done your homework, Jankovic, you might not have taken this case.”

“Oh, really now.”

“As you are hopefully aware, the law requires full disclosure of the evidence the prosecution has against the defendant.”

I nodded at the chip I’d tossed on the table.

“And that chip and the video on it is my proof you didn’t do your homework.”

Peters stared at the chip with a worried expression, which made me laugh out loud.

“Don’t worry, Peters, you disabled all the CCTV cameras before you attacked Alice.”

I turned my face to stare hatefully at Jankovic.

“Yes, I have a somewhat checkered record as a cop. But if you’d looked further than the list of complaints against me, Jankovic, you would have learned two things. My arrests all went to trial, and nearly all resulted in convictions.”

You could cut the tension with a vibroblade, it was so thick in the room.

“The second thing you would have learned is I lost my right eye in an explosion while serving as a Space Marine.”

“And what relevance does that have,” Jankovic sneered.

“The Space Marines place a high value on Shore Patrol officers, of which I was one. The eye you’re looking at is one of the best cybernetic eyes credits can buy. What’s more, it’s equipped with a heads-up device, and I have a computer in my chest.”

Jankovic wasn’t as stupid as I’d thought. He instantly turned pale.

“That’s right. Peters threatened me with bodily harm right after he laughed while confessing to the assault. Then, he attacked me. Normally, I would never let someone land the first blow, but I wanted to give Peters a taste of what awaits him in prison.”

Jankovic sat down without saying a word.

“If you’d looked into my background more thoroughly, you’d have known about my eye, that I know the law, and that everything would have been on video. The arrest, though more physical than normal, was good. Oh, and assaulting a police officer will be added to your client’s charges this afternoon.”

“Striking a man as large as you a single blow does not warrant the beating you gave my client,” Jankovic informed me in a small voice. He’d gone from being a sizeable Primian rat to a tiny mouse.

“It does when the perp is armed with an energy weapon that was discharged after he struck me.” I nodded at the chip as I stood up. I laughed as I adjusted my great coat. “I felt my life was in imminent danger. That makes that beating legal, especially on Beta Prime.”

Peters couldn’t keep his mouth shut, but his kind never can.

“Markeson is bent, and we both know it. He’ll smooth things over for the right price.”

“My chief, bent?” I laughed. Markeson was as bent as they come. But he had his own code of ethics and was loyal. Joe’s was a neutral site. All kinds of business is conducted there, legal and otherwise. Markeson made deals there, and Alice was his waitress. Joe expected justice for his employee. If he didn’t get it, Markeson would lose negotiation privileges, which, for a man with as many business enterprises as Markeson had, both legal and questionable, was unacceptable. Then there was the fact he liked Alice.

“More homework you didn’t do,” I informed Jankovic. “Joe’s is a neutral site. Markeson does business there. There is no smoothing out to be done.”

Peters just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. I was almost out the door when he ran his mouth one final time.

“I’m going to beat this, Sullivan. Mark my words, and when I do, that cute little tramp you call a partner, she’ll get what’s coming to her.”

I was proud of myself.

I let Peters live, and Jankovic didn’t say a word. But then, he’d never seen a man put a cybernetic fist through a plastisteel wall before.

Why does Sully have such little use for attorneys? Click here for a copy of An Innocent Man and find out why.