The Sister // Bennny.r

Chapter 48 - the Trial (2nd day)

Benny. 

The whole friendgroup had gathered at the back of the court house so see how this would play out. Phillips was be the next to testify, the defence lawyer grilled him for the entire twenty minutes but he managed to do pretty well. Or at least I thought so, it was hard to tell whether the jury was convinced by either side. 

I could see Aliza wave me over as one of her Father's old college buddies got up on the stand, I walked down the isle before stipping next to her, "what's wrong?" 

"I need you to get something for me." She whispered, "it's urgent, and I really think it could help our case." 

"Okay," I replied confused, "what do you need?" 

"There's a metal paperclip lying in the little dish on my bedside table, I need you to get it and then go to Marlow's bank, it's inside a casino." Aliza grabbed her pen scribbling down the address on a postit note for me, "ask for the safety deposit box of Jim Phillips. Whatever's iside get it for me please."

She handed me the keys to her vespa before turning back to the trial at hand. I grabbed Yeah-yeah and pulled him out of the court house with me. "Where the hell are we going?" he asked confused.

"Marlow's bank, inside Marlow's casino. It's about twenty minutes into LA, which is like a half hour away from here so we need to hurry, they only have about four hours left." I explained getting on the Vespa and putting the keys in the ignition. He begrudginly climbed on the back and I started driving. 

"You are so whipped man." he muttered. 

I rolled my eyes, "give her a break she's on trial." 

"Yeah exactly. Besides, couldn't she have thought of this before?' Yeah-yeah asked sceptically. 

"Obviously not." 

When i reached her house I climbed up the drainpipe barging in through her window and running over to her beside table. The clip was exactly where she said it was, I pocketed it before hastily making my way back down to the road. I must have run at least ten red lights on my way to the city but we got there ten minutes earlier so it was worth it. We rushed inside banging the clip on the front desk. "We need to open a safety deposit box." I panted.

The woman looked down at the clip, "how old are you?" 

I frowned, "eighteen." I lied, surely that would be a high enough age for me tp have opened a safety deposit box. 

"Right, well those clips were handed out to clients at least ten years before you were born son, so it's obviously not yours is it?" She asked corssing her arms. 

"It's my dad's." I added quickly. 

"Sorry, we don't open the boxes for anyone but the person who made the deposit. It keeps items safe from relatvives. Come back with your Dad kid. And if he's dead don't come back at all." she replied rolling her eyes. 

I sighed annoyed, "Yeah-yeah man, you need to distract her, I'm going to go down and get the stuff in the deposit box." 

"Do you even know which one it is?" He asked frowning. 

I shook my head, "no, but how hard can it be to figure out, just keep her occupied okay?" 

He made a face at me, "I don't know what you're expecting but I'll do my best." 

That was all I needed to hear, I snuck down the stairs towards the safes making sure to be as quiet as possible. I didn't really think their security system would be particularly advanced mostly because the placed looked like a dump, but I wasn't about to take any chances. 

There was a list at the bottom of the stairs that had all the names of the owners of safety deposit boxes, I started with ten years after the year I was born started and worked my way back. There was no Jim Phillips or Johnny Peterson, no Rebecca Phillips, Aliza Phillips or Jordan Phillips. But he had a clip, which I assumed was the key so there had to be something. 

I scoured the list a second time looking for anything that could have been related to them, the only thing that I could find was a box under the name of Jasper Pozac. Mr Phillips seemed to have a thing for aliases with his initials so I figured that was my best chance. it was one of the oldest boxes which also meant it was further up the corridor. 

I ran down the plasticky floors until I reached the locker at the back, number 107 was 'Jasper's' one. I shoved the paperclip inot the little paperclip shaped keyhole and it swung open a moment later. Inside was a stack of doccuments.

"HEY!" i heard someone yell from down the hall, "STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" 

Crap. 

I turned around to see a burly security guard charge down the hall towards me his hands out stretched, I swore looking around me for another exit option but there didn't seem to be one. I turned back to face him and started running up the hall towards him.I ducked down sliding like I would to fourth base in the last second before I took off back up the stairs. 

Only this time I didn't arrive in the lobby but in the casino itself, I shoved through the crowd of people the security guard only a couple of meters behind me. I came crashing through the door in the lobby where Yeah-eyah was standing. he was in the middle of a heated discussion with the desk lady. 

"RUN!" I shouted to him as I bolted outside of the bank. He was close behind me. We jumped on the vespa and I turned it on as quickly as I could before shoving my hands forwards and pshing us into full speed as the staff ran out behind us. 

Yeahyeah took the doccuments from me reading through them as I drove, "jesus christ."

"What?" I asked curiously as I turned up the road. 

"Aliza, Rebecca and Jordan, they're not their Dad's first family. He had another one while he was still Johnny Peterson. Got married as soon as he turned twenty, his wife's name was Goldie Turner. They had a son together. He beat Goldie so hard that she died, and then gave the son up for adoption to some family in Sweden." 

My mouth dropped opn, I shouldn't have been surprised after anything that we'd seen but it was still a shock. They had an older half brother who was swedish and had a mother who Mr Phillips had outright killed. "Well, Aliza was right this will certainly help their case." 

"No kidding." Yeahyeah muttered.