Brennan Malley: The Next Case

   Chapter 1, Part 1
 

   Generally, when a story begins in the morning, the story begins with the main character waking up to an alarm clock, or to some fuzzy animal.  Heh, I wish.  My morning was anything but that pleasant.
  I woke up to no alarm clock, but the sound of loud obnoxious music coming from the apartment floor below mine.  Despite the fact that I had been woken up like this for the past year or so, I still can't manage to get used to it.  I looked at my clock, I discovered it was 5 AM...two hours before I had set my alarm clock. If I wasn't just a tolerant person and being polite wasn't on my agenda, I would've gone down there and let them have it.  I don't care if you're a rock band, you don't practice 5 AM in the morning!  That makes almost no sense!
  I decided to let it go.  They were kids after all, and I had survived the past year of it.  I grabbed my morning coffee, and decided to take a walk outdoors.  I was happy to see that it was raining quite calmly outside.  The noise of the band was so loud, I hadn't heard any rain at all.  I love rainy days, I'm not sure why, but I do.  So I put on a raincoat and went outside for a two hour walk before work.
  Wait a minute, you have no idea who I am, do you?  I'm so sorry, when you get woken up so suddenly so early in the morning you forget a lot of things.  My name is Brennan Malley.  I am currently 28 years old, and yup, you guessed it, single.  I live in Detroit, a large city in the weather hazard that is Michigan.   Detroit is...not exactly the greatest of places to live.   It's generally loud, full of people with absolutely no control on their temper, and very polluted.  Also, there's crime.  Lots of it.  Now, for most of you, that may sound like a bad thing, but for me of all people, it actually isn't.  My job is defending others in court...in other words a defense attorney.
   No, I am not one of those snobs who simply will defend anyone for money.  I am a kind person, with a love for good and justice.  The thought of defending anyone who would commit terrible crimes gives me a nasty taste in my mouth.  If I get a job from someone who I find out committed the crime, I make sure that they get a guilty sentence in the end.  So how do I tell who is bad and who is good?   Don't worry, I'll get back to that soon.
   After my two hour walk, I wound up exactly where I wanted to be: my law office.  There are many law offices around here, but none as clean and polished as mine, something I take quite a bit of pride in.  I felt the handle of the door, finding that it was unlocked.  So she had arrived early.  Perhaps to make sure everything was in order.  I was dead tired, so instead of going to my office, I sat down on the couch meant for those visiting to give them a more comfortable feel.  A few seconds after, as I expected, I heard the sound of high-heeled shoes, the sounds of which I knew too well.
  "Good morning Michaela", I said, drinking some more of my coffee out of my ridiculous mug.
  "Good morning, Brennan", she said, smiling.  "Had a rough morning?"
  "Yeah, noisy kids again.  I really hope the owner kicks them out soon."
  "You know how the apartment owners are around here Brennan, all they care about is how much money is in their pocket."
   This is Detective Michaela, my "partner" and good friend.  She doesn't directly work for me, but she is generally the one who gets me clients.  She finds the case, and I defend it.  In the end, we both get paid, and we both get praise in the end.  Despite not being my official assistant, she assists me with most of the things I do.
  Michaela is my idea of almost the best assistant to have.  You see, the reason this place is so clean and nice isn't because of me, something I probably should have mentioned earlier.  Despite being generally good natured and decently intelligent, I have some issues.  I am the kind of person who likes to take things calmly and in a peaceful stride, not rushing through things quickly to get them done...something that occasionally becomes quite the problem.  Sometimes I forget to study notes, or end up not preparing completely for a case, which is never good.  I am also a little clumsy, and I often end up doing some pretty silly things.
  Michaela is nothing like that, except intelligent.  She's a hard worker through and through, and won't stop until everything she has to get done is done.  She's very neat and detail oriented, and is quite intelligent.  She's not just a great detective, it's thanks to her this place is in such great shape, and the reason I still have a job.  I can't even begin to number the times where I was being lazy, and she came in and got me right on the tasks at hand.  Granted, sometimes she's a little overly strict, but generally I really need it.
  I set down my mug and stretched my arms and legs...or in other words, my thin arms and my long and lanky legs.
  "Are there any interesting jobs out there right now?"
  "If by interesting you mean any job that does not involve pointless suing, fake kidnappings, or trying to get a criminal out of prison, no"
  I sighed, that was the problem with being a strict lawyer these days.  In a town like this, everyone's greedy, always trying to get money.  I heard that a kid tried to sue a famous game company for "not having a good ending".  Really?  At age 10 I would've been smart enough not to try something so stupid.  The only advantage is that generally in a suing case, the prosecutors are just as stupid as their clients.  However, I generally never get to defend those who are pointlessly sued, because they generally have enough money that they have a lawyer that is for just them.
  Michaela noticed my depressed look, and tried to think of something to cheer me up.
  "Well, at least there hasn't been any cases like the AK2 one."
  I cringed.  I knew she was just trying to help, but that was not the way to do it.  That case was nothing but a nightmare.  It happened just about a year ago.  At first it seemed like a normal murder defense case.  I was asked by a young woman to defend her, and it seemed simple enough.  She seemed pretty innocent, and using some of the ways I figure out their actual position, I found her to be innocent.  I had also heard that the prosecutor was none other than my rival, Brandon Connell, who is the smartest and most nonchalant prosecutor that I've ever met.  Although difficult to defeat, it gives me a decent challenge, and we are decent friends, so it seemed like it was going to be a good case.
  Then everything fell apart.  I ended up connected to the case even though I had nothing to do with it, and ended up in the detention center along with my client.  Michaela was allowed to defend me, and she did quite well.  But all the evidence she found pointed to me.  After lots of research and much court time, it was deduced that most of the evidence was fake.  However, it was also found out that most of evidence I had been using was also fake.  Then, after all that mess, my trust in my own capabilities was broken for the first time.  It turned out that the person I was defending wasn't just guilty, but was in fact, an assassin "at large", and had committed more than her share of all kinds of different treachery.  Not only that, but she disappeared through a trapdoor right in the middle of the courtroom, and had not been seen since.  It didn't just hurt my reputation as an attorney...it hurt me personally.
  I tried to give her a grin, but nothing came out.  To some degree, you can't hide emotions.  Unless you're Brandon, that is.  
  "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up," she said, trying to think.  "What if you help me out for a bit?  I'm currently investigating a case that already has lawyers, but needs investigation.  We could figure it out together, and I could probably pay you a little bit for your effort too."
  "Sound good," I said with a half smile.  Heh, yeah right.  By the end of the investigation, I will have done just about nothing.  I am good at making arguments, not observations.  She might as well have asked a random person along the street.  In fact, I'm not even exactly sure just what one does as a detective.  Oh well, I have nothing better to do.
  We both walked out the door, Michaela looking professional and ready for anything, and me with my head low and my shoulders sagged.  It was gonna be a long day.