GET READY WITH ME

WILDFIRE

"Good morning ma'am"

"Good morning Marie, what are my plans for the day?"

"Meeting with Mr Calloway, ma'am" Marie hands her a hot cup of coffee.

"And...?" Judith beckons

"That's all you have for today ma'am."

"Really?"

"Yes ma'am. You asked me to clear all your schedules today for your meeting with Mr Calloway."

"Oh, yeah that's true."

"So, have you called in Mr Calloway's office to know when he's coming in?" Judith asked.

"Umm, he's currently in your office waiting for you."

"Oh my goodness! Why didn't you say something?" Judith gulps takes a quick gulp of her coffee and curses under her breath as the heat of the coffee burns her tongue. "How long has he been here for?"

"Say.. twenty five minutes now, ma'am." Marie replies while glancing at her wristwatch.

"Alright, have you called Jimmy?"

"Yes, he should be here in five minutes from now" glancing at her watch again.

"Alright, as soon as he's here, tell him to meet me in my office."

"Alright ma'am."

******

Judith opens the door to her office and the first sight she beholds is that of a husky man facing the glass walls of her office, staring blankly at the external view around the building with his hands behind his back. She notices his hair texture and thinks, "he must be mixed."

"Mr Calloway, nice to finally meet you" she extends her hand to shake him and finally gets a front view of the man she had heard so much of as he turned to face her.

He indeed was a fine man with a shiny ebony skin and well curved muscles she could see even in his fur coat he wore. He took off the sunshade he wore and shook her hand.

"Likewise, Ms Walton."

"Please, have your seat." She pointed at an armless cantilever chair behind him while she took the seat behind her desk.

"Lyon told me you made up your mind about representing me. I believe that's good news. So, what do we begin with?"

"Uh, we-" a knock interrupted them followed an entrance by Jimmy followed by Marie

"Hello, did I miss out on anything?" Jimmy asked while taking a seat right beside Mr Calloway.

"Oh no, I just got in. Mr Calloway, this is Mr James Hillier, my personal investigator."

"Or you can just call me Jimmy" Jimmy shook hands with him.

"And what about her?" He asked about Marie.

"Oh, she's my assistant, she'll be taking notes."

"Alright, where do we begin?" Mr Calloway asked.

"Let's begin with how this alleged scandal happened. Tell us everything, Mr Calloway, about how you got to know your step mother's assistant till the day of her death or the day you found out she was dead. Please, do not leave out any detail as-"

"As every detail, even the littlest is important. I know, I've heard that from all the lawyers I've had in the past" He interrupted.

"Seems you get in a lot of trouble often, Mr Calloway." Judith raised a brow.

"Trouble always seems to find me."

"Mmm"

"Anyway, I had been in Cape Town since last September until I moved back to New York by December for the holidays. Well, technically, I hadn't stayed out in Cape Town, I mostly travelled around for some business meetings, but I based in Cape Town because the head of my company over there requested for me to come over to restore some balance in our administration. Now, I got to know Ashley when I got back by December, she came by the house a couple of times when she had errands to run for my step mother." He explained

"What type of errands?" Judith asked.

"I don't know. Work errands, I suppose. I never had anything to do with her. Didn't even know her name until I was accused of killing her." Marie kept jotting down important key points.

"Go on, Mr Calloway."

"I had seen her a few times stop by the house.She probably was there much longer than the times I knew because whenever I came home, she was always there; I think she practically lived there. Well.. I don't know about that. Maybe we should just stick with what we know."

"I think that's a good idea." Jimmy added.

"I moved back to South Africa by mid-January because I had an emergency over there. Things weren't working out so well and I had to come to the rescue... again. One afternoon, in my office, I got a call from my secretary telling me there was a representative from New York waiting to meet with me. I was puzzled because I never demanded to meet with any representative nor was informed about a representative coming to meet with me. Nevertheless, I requested for the person to be sent in, and guess what? Ashley appeared. I asked what she was doing there and how she got to know where my office was at and she claimed my step mother had given her these informations. At this point, I was fuming with anger." He further explained.

"Why would your step mother do that?" Jimmy asked.

"She wanted to get through with some of her plans, I suppose."

"What plans?" Judith asked.

Mr Calloway heaved a sigh, "Plans only her thought worthy of executing".

"Could you elaborate, please?" Judith leaned forward.

He heaved another sigh "She hates me: always have, always will. That's why she pinned the death of her assistant on me. That's if she really is dead."

Judith and Jimmy exchanged quick glances.

"You know this, don't you?" He asked, questioning the surprise on their faces.

"Know what exactly?" Judith asked.

"That his step mother hates him. Yes, everyone knows this." Jimmy said.

"Well, I do not. Am I supposed to?" Judith asked.

Francis was puzzled, Marie cleared her throat and whispered something into Judith's ear.

"Err, Mr Calloway, forgive my boss's ignorance. She's just not always in the best of knowledge of things around her."

"Ms Walton, you do know who I am, right?" Mr Calloway asked, ignoring Jimmy's excuse.

"You are Mr Francis Calloway." She answered.

"Is that all you know about me?" He asked with his brows still furrowed in disappointment.

"Mr Calloway, I don't know you and I've never had a reason to know you before now. Is that a big deal?"

Francis was stunned, not just by her ignorance of him, but by her nonchalant acceptance of her ignorance of him.

"Ms Walton, I'm a public figure, so my business is basically other's as well."

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you, Mr Calloway, I don't stick my nose in other people's businesses. Now, if you do not mind, let's continue. So, why does your stepmother hate you?" She asked sharply.

"You know, if you had stuck your nose in my business probably we might have skipped this question." Mr Calloway said, creating a tensed atmosphere.

Judith skimmed through some pages of a file on her desk, "By the investigations carried out by the Police, your stepmother's assistant was killed in your room, blood spilled over your walls - the same blood that matched the victim's DNA and the same blood was found on your gloves which only you wore on that day." She picks up another file and reads, "'Mr Calloway has always been a verbally abusive man towards myself and my colleagues.' This was a statement made by your chief operations officer. 'Mr Calloway has always been a troubled child, I knew him since birth.' This was from your house manager. 'Francis Calloway always wanted things to go his own way and got quite upset when it didn't to the extent that he destroyed whatever he could lay his hands on. Maybe at the point of Ashley's death, she was the only thing he could lay his hands on.' This was by your stepmother's secretary. Do I continue? Mr Calloway, just in case you don't know, or if you've forgotten; may I remind you that you've been charged with a first degree murder that if we lose this case, you'd be sentenced to a life imprisonment or at a worse case you'd die by lethal injection? And all you care about is me knowing who you are?" Judith began raising her voice. "Mr Calloway, I am an attorney; preferably, your attorney. I am not a journalist or a media person who knows about everyone's business. I don't give a heck about you or what you do. When you become my client, you become my responsibility and if you feel I should know everything about you then I'm sorry but you're so wrong. I've got other people's messes I have to clean, so don't think your my only priority. I've got cases of people who are about to be sent to prison for nothing they know about. I'd rather work Pro bono for the people who will give me all informations I need rather than sit here getting paid by you and waste my time. You can be whatsoever, but the moment you hire me as your attorney, things have to go my way. So, Mr Calloway, do you understand and agree to my terms and conditions?" She asked breathing heavily. The office fell silent with shock in Marie and Jimmy's eyes. Mr Calloway could not believe his ears, no one had spoken to him in such a way. Meanwhile, Judith wasn't going to take in any of his tantrums and she made sure he was fully aware.

"How about we continue this meeting tomorrow, when everyone is calm?" Jimmy suggested, still trying to understand what had just happened and how her words spread like wildfire.

"I think that's a good idea," Mr Calloway rose from his chair and adjusted his jacket. "We will be able to work better when your boss is calm, I suppose. Have a nice day Ms Walton". He walked out of the office.

Judith rolled her eyes and cursed under her breath.