Page 40 of Rekindled

Molly opened her purse, pulled out the note, and handed it over to Sarah.

As soon as she was finished reading the contents, she looked up at Molly with rounded eyes. “Have you looked at the information on the drive?”

She shook her head. “No, it wasn’t in my purse this morning. Someone put it in since I’ve been here. Did you see anyone behind me acting odd?”

“I wish I could say, ‘yes,’ but I was so focused on our conversation, I didn’t pay attention to anyone else.” Sarah’s brows came together in a furrow as she asked, “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take this drive back to my parents’ house and look at the information on my laptop. Then I’m going to take it to my tech guy to see if he can get to the bottom of it.”

“I have to tell you; I don’t think any of this is true. Something fishy is going on.”

“I think you’re right, but if I don’t do something about this, there’s a good chance whoever gave it to me will just find someone else to give it to. The next person might not look into it before publishing the content.”

“All right, I support whatever you think is best. I can tell you really care about Spencer, so I’ll let you be the one to tell him about it.”

“Considering the turn of events, I think I need to look into this immediately.”

Sarah nodded. “Please text me, and let me know what happens.”

“Will do,” Molly promised before standing up and exiting the diner.

Once she returned to her parents’ house, she went into her room and popped the drive into the plug on her laptop.

A folder icon blinked, beckoning Molly to click it. When she did, a massive list of files appeared. They were listed by date and had either Conrad’s or Jacks’ names on it.

She clicked the first one and an email from Spencer Conrad to Jeremy Jacks, the district attorney, appeared. There was detailed information about a client; the type of information that if used by the district attorney, would convict the client with little effort.

Molly clicked the next one down. This one was reversed and was from the district attorney to Spencer. It had a defense strategy with an arrow next to one item. It showed that the police broke the chain of procedure when securing evidence, which meant Spencer could get the case thrown out because of it.

After working down the list of twenty emails, Molly’s heart seized with dread. The evidence on the drive was overwhelming; Spencer Conrad was corrupt.

* * *

As Spencer finishedhis closing argument, he watched the jury members’ faces to gage their reactions. They seemed to respond positively to his evidence and emotional plea on Daryl Burke’s behalf.

Even though he was unable to track down Trixie at the hotel, Spencer was able to put together a strong case to defend his client. He just hoped the jury believed Daryl’s story and the hotel clerk’s testimony that he saw Daryl the night of the robbery.

Court was dismissed until the jury reached a verdict. With this type of case, the most it would take would be a couple of days, but it could be as quick as a few hours. Either way, he still had two other cases to wrap up along with a new case his boss had given him. He needed to get back to his office to make some calls.

As Spencer made his way down the aisle of the courtroom, he noticed Molly sitting in the back row of seats. She stood up as he approached.

“Here to see me slay a legal dragon?” Spencer joked with a grin. Her somber expression quickly caused him to turn serious. “What’s the matter?”

“I need to speak with you,” she glanced around at the lingering court personnel, “alone.”

“Okay, but you’re starting to worry me,” he stated as they made their way out of the courtroom and out to his car. “Is everything all right?”

“Not really,” she said with a shake of her head. “It has to do with the allegations against you.”

“Did your tech guy find something out?”

“He’s still working on it, but I’m going to have to take something to him right away.”

“What’s that?” Spencer asked with concern.

“Here, read for yourself,” she said, handing him the note.

As soon as he was done reading the contents, he handed it back to her. “Did you take a look at the drive?”