"Now you have two choices ...", Director Johnson stood in front of the bookcase in Michael's study, looking at the books that had more or less shown signs of being rifled through, and for the first time his impression of Michael improved a little.
He had thought that Michael couldn't read, but it looked like some of these books had been read.
He sighed in his mind and turned to look at Michael, "First choice, Michael Jr. broke into the house and took Lynch's ring, you wanted Lynch to drop the charges so you planted evidence against him and tried to get him to drop the charges and compromise through you."
This was "Lynch's version," Lynch's claim that Michael ended up with attempted murder, which Chief Johnson did not accept, knowing full well that once attempted murder was established, along with these previous claims, Michael could be suspected of first degree murder.
Even if Lynch hadn't ended up dead, given the current public outcry and bad publicity in the community, the jury would have definitely found Michael guilty, and the judge would have tried to impose the harshest sentence possible to quell the public outcry.
When it came down to it, it wouldn't be a matter of three or five years in jail, but the possibility of going to jail for as little as ten or twenty years, or as much as thirty or fifty, knowing the law was always an excellent sentencing aid, and people wouldn't think much of any more time the judge gave them.
Michael's breathing became ragged as he raised his head to glare viciously at Chief Johnson, who ignored his expression and his gaze.
"This has nothing to do with my child who was also put in there by Lynch ..."
Chief Johnson looked back at him, no one could figure out what was going on with Michael Jr. and what kind of inner workings were in there as he confessed to his crimes while refusing to communicate with Michael was anyone's guess.
Maybe he got in there through Lynch's planting, as Michael said, but the judge wouldn't think so.
"Second option, you have a personal vendetta against Lynch, and you feel that he didn't treat you with enough respect either, and that hurt you to the core, so you went after him several times trying to make him see the difference between you and him and respect you."
This is Chief Johnson's version of the story, and to overemphasize the crimes of Michael and his children would make society worry about whether or not these bottom-feeding law enforcement officers would be in a similar situation.
How about downplaying the crimes and using the conflict between the two individuals as a baseline to simply exacerbate Michael's personal character issues?
Michael's situation fits the second narrative so well that it doesn't even require anyone to write it later, just have a reporter interview someone who had contact with Michael or his associates to come to that conclusion.
Michael's personal image would become more tangible and worse in the community, but the upside would be that the Sabine tax office would be out of it and the law enforcement issue would be out of the way.
Michael pulled at his hair, his mouth tightly shut, his lips losing their blood color from the hard clenching of his upper and lower jaws, his eyesight was hurt, and there was some desperation in it, and he was well aware that he had to make a choice.
The first can not, that will make his son also exposed in front of the media, people will not only blame him, but also his son, even his wife and family can not escape the public eye.
It had to be the second choice ...
When Michael made a choice, when Johnson director heart a trace of indescribable feelings, he even before leaving and Michael jokingly said they do not need to "collusion", Michael as long as the color performance, people believe that this choice is the truth.
These things seem cruel, let a person choose how to bear one of the most terrible things in the world, but this is also not the way things are.
The next step in changing public opinion requires the cooperation of Michael and Lynch, and without the "ethical" journalists digging up more "inside information" from them, the truth would not have come out. Without the "ethical" journalists "digging out" more "inside information" from them, the truth would not have come out before the eyes of the people.
It looks like the reporters have more credit, but in fact Michael and Lynch's work is more important, with the emergence of a variety of insiders, they will appear in front of the media to be scrutinized by the public, then their mutual cooperation is very important.
With all this settled, Director Johnson's heart seemed to have smoothed over his own guilt over Michael, not to mention that he had saved Michael from the Lynch version, he would take care of Michael's family for the rest of his life until he was released from prison.
Without him, the family would have been torn apart, and he had done everything a supervisor was supposed to do and more.
The very next day, Joe Gleeman called Lynch and offered to talk to him about these little business deals they had been doing, and Lynch, of course, was happy to go to the meeting.
Ten percent of two million dollars and five percent of the expected return, this was a deal worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and there was not much danger to himself, many people would feel that this was a chaotic time, but Lynch felt that this was the golden age!
In the morning, the two met at a private club, like a meeting that required a certain amount of privacy that was best not exposed to the public.
In this society, there are many people who have a "terrible" perception, they think that the upper class people do not need to have fun, do not need to be entertained, they are always working, socializing, and maybe socializing is their leisure time.
In fact, this is a kind of cognitive bias, not because people do not see them entertain, think they do not have a leisure life, spirits know that people can not see the place, in the end, how much they entertained!
After nine o'clock, Lynch carried a suitcase and appeared in a remote and quiet street outside the city center, there were not too many pedestrians on the whole street, according to the address given to him by Joe Gleeman, he came to a house with a square-sized red carpet spread in front of the door.
From the outside, it didn't look much different from the vast majority of houses on the street, consisting of a three-step front door, a handrail so short it was barely usable, and an old-fashioned wooden door.
His wooden door might have been a little wider than the others, but that was about it; there was no sign, no name, and everything was plain enough to keep passersby from paying attention.
Lynch double-checked the address and pushed his way through the doorway, which was the box door to two elevator cabs and a small, fenced-off workroom where a man in formal attire and glasses sat like a butler.
The place was like the first floor of most apartments and Lynch walked up to the counter with a strange experience, "Mr. Joe Gleeman asked me to meet him here ...".
The guy who looked like a butler immediately started flipping through the book in front of him, "May I ask your name, sir?"
"Lynch!"
The man didn't move to look at Lynch for a moment to make sure there was no mistake before he took a key from the wall behind him where it was hanging along with a small palm-sized card, placed it in a red velvet tray and handed it to Lynch with both hands raised in the air.
"Mr. Lynch ...," he owed slightly after Lynch took it, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Lynch looked at him and shook his head as he walked to the elevator.
Once inside the elevator, he realized that the card was a sort of key to the elevator floors, with small holes on one end of the card that would light up the appropriate floor after the card was inserted into the slot.
Lynch in the elevator work almost did not notice the feeling of overweight or weightlessness, the elevator compartment door slowly opened, out of the elevator, his eyes all of a sudden become extremely luxurious up!
The various gold decorations, the large red carpet, the various exquisite tapestries, and the oil paintings that appeared on the wall at intervals, Lynch didn't know how to appreciate the oil paintings, but some of the oil paintings were really very good.
There was a faint scent in the air that he had never smelled before, very muted, not lively, but giving a feeling of solemnity.
The doors were far apart, which meant that the house was much larger than it appeared.
It didn't take Lynch long to reach the door corresponding to his key number, inlaid with jewels of different colors, half of them metal, and just as he stood in front of the large door, the heaviness of the gate hit him.
He inserted the key into the keyhole and gave it a gentle turn, and with the sound of the machine spring after the gears turned, the gate was pushed open with an unimaginably gentle feel.