Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 18: Les Venger

            I was nervous as I paced back and forth outside of the office of Sonya Woods, the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia's criminal division. She'd been in her office discussing a possible plea deal with Quincy Atwood's defense attorney. I'd only spoken to her by phone and was finally about to meet her now that I was in Atlanta again. When her office door opened, I stepped inside immediately so that I could know if she and Atwood's attorney had agreed on anything.

"In exchange for Quincy Atwood's testimony against Michele Whitlock," began Ms. Woods, "we're offering life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death penalty. However, if Mr. Atwood also discloses all information regarding project Eradication, we're prepared to offer him a sentence of twenty-five years for each count of murder facilitated by his organization to be served concurrently."

I looked at Atwood's defense attorney and smiled as I told him, "That's quite a generous offer. Your guy tried to kill me and he could be a free man in his late fifties with good behavior. I hope you can persuade him to take that offer."

"I'll see what I can do," he told us as he grabbed his briefcase. "I'll be in touch."

Ms. Woods waited until he was gone before she smiled at me and extended her hand for me to shake. As we shook hands, she told me, "It's nice to finally meet you in person, Special Agent Rowell."

"Please, call me Cameron. It's nice to finally meet you, too, Ms. Woods."

"You can call me Sonya outside of the courtroom."

"Sonya, when I did some research on your record and saw your success rate, I can't lie; I was beyond impressed."

"Thank you."

"So, I heard Michele Whitlock refused to even have her attorney discuss a possible plea deal with your office?"

"She's a confident one, isn't she?"

"More like way in over her head. She has no idea how pissed off Quincy is that she tried to have his little brother killed."

"She has a little luck on her side."

"How so?"

"The levels of arsenic found in Samir Whitlock were enough to make him slightly sick but can be explained away by him eating a lot of something with a small amount of arsenic in it, like rice or certain types of seafood."

"What about her motive to kill him?"

"She had unlimited access to her husband's money. Her attorney will argue in court that she didn't need him to be dead to obtain his money. It would be best for me to focus on her role in the kidnapping and attempted murder of her son. Kemari's sworn testimony to the grand jury places his mother at the scene of his kidnapping the night of March 2nd. Even if she were able to squirm her way out of a guilty verdict on some of her charges using reasonable doubt, we got her for participating in the kidnapping of Kemari."

"I have faith in you, Sonya. I know you'll take this case seriously and prosecute it to the best of your ability."

"As the only black transwoman Assistant U.S. Attorney, this case means a lot to me. These people don't want a woman like me to exist. I have a lesson to teach and criminals to put away."

I smiled as I nodded in agreement and said, "Amen, my sister."

After leaving the Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney's office building, I had one more thing to do before leaving Atlanta again. Natasha Jeffries was back in Atlanta to make arrangements for Karen's permanent stay in a mental institution and I'd reached out to her. I'd also reached out to Chance Atwood and Pastor Henry Travers. I arranged a meeting at Pastor Henry Travers's church for the four of us because in a way, we were connected for life because of Eradication.