“With you paying so much rent now, Mom? Madison up to her ears in debt for law school, and Aunt Nilda about to retire? I’m not gonna burden any of you. Adrian’s my oldest friend. I knew he was making bank, so I asked him. He said he’s overextended and can’t personally float me. But his boss, this guy Ricky Pe?a, was looking for legitimate investment opportunities.”
“This Ricky. He’s a drug dealer?” Mom said.
“Yeah, but I would have nothing to do with that. He’s looking to go legit and invest in legal businesses.”
“Invest drug money,” Madison said.
“Money is money. And beggars can’t be choosers. You think a bank is gonna give me a loan, with no collateral?”
“They might. Did you try?”
“There’s no point. I’m a nobody. I don’t have a Harvard degree like you. To me, this was my big chance, so I went to meet Ricky at this bar he owns. That was my first mistake. Ricky sells out of that place. Right when we started talking, he took a phone call, then he stood up. I heard him tell the bartender, ‘It’s a go.’ Then he says he’s going to the john and disappears. The bartender comes out from behind the bar, drops a duffel bag on the table in front of me, and he disappears. I’m thinking maybe this is the cash up front for the investment, so I pick up the bag. I’m about to open it and look inside when the DEA busts in. They arrest everyone in sight, including me. This bag is in my hands. It turns out to have heroin in it, and now it has my fingerprints, too.”
“But they weren’t your drugs,” Yolanda said. “So that’s not your fault. You need to tell somebody what’s going on. Someone who can do something about it.”
Danny wrung his hands, his face gray.
“There’s no one to tell. The cops are on the take. Ricky pays protection, and that phone call he got—it was a tip-off. I’m ninety-nine percent sure that it came from the detective running the case. What am I gonna do, go to that detective and say I’m innocent? He’ll kill me—like, literally kill me.”
“You have to tell your lawyer,” Madison said.
“My lawyer is in on it, too. Him and the dirty cop are working together. These guys are as bad as Ricky. Worse.”
“They can’t make you plead guilty if you’re innocent,” Madison said.
Danny looked at her like she had two heads.
“Did you hear anything I just said? They can. They did. The night before I went to court, some guys cornered me in the bathroom and beat the crap out of me. They said to keep my mouth shut ‘tomorrow.’ I’m like, What’s tomorrow? And they said, You’ll see. Do what you’re told, or next time we won’t be so gentle. I go back to my bunk, bleeding, in pain. I’m afraid to go to the infirmary. I got no one to turn to. No friends inside, no allies. I go to the pay phone and try calling Adrian, who got away clean, the asshole. He changed his number. All I know is, if I tell the guards, those guys who beat me’ll come back, and this time I’ll be dead. So, I keep my mouth shut. I go to sleep, and next thing I know, the CO’s shaking me awake. They put me in the van to court, where that lawyer meets me. He tells me the case is overwhelming and my only hope is to plead guilty and throw myself on the mercy of the judge. He gives me a paper to sign. It says the drugs are mine, and I’m looking at ten years. And I’m like, No. He goes, Danny, if you do this, I can ask the judge to go easy. But if you resist, she’ll think you have no remorse. You’ll be locked up for life. And your friends will think you shafted them. I know these people. They don’t play, and they know where your mother lives.”
Madison went cold. “Your own lawyer threatened you? And threatened Mom? That really happened?”
“Yes, it happened. You think I’m making it up?”
“No. I—I’m just shocked.”
“Yeah, because you live in a fantasy world where everything is pretty.”
“Did the prosecutor object?”
“He wasn’t there when the lawyer railroaded me. Nobody was.”
“Did you ask to speak to him?”
“To the prosecutor? So they think I’m a snitch? That’ll get me killed for real.”
“What about the judge in the case?”
“What about her? In court, she asked for the evidence. And the prosecutor just said I was in possession of the bag, and my prints were on it. Which was true. As far as the judge is concerned, that’s the end of it.”