Page 18 of The Interns

“No shit,” he said, raising his drink to that accomplishment. “I had three of ‘em during that time.”

“So what happened then?” Reed pressed now that they had him talking.

“People change.” Johnson took another long pull off his beer.

“You or him?”

“Him,” he snapped, the wound obviously still fresh. He took another sip of his beer then set it on the table beside him. Despite the drinking, he actually seemed to be thinking more clearly. “It was a small business. Just me, him, and two other guys on the crew until a few years ago. His son got involved, wanted to expand, and he went along with it. Started tryin’ to get rid of the old guys. Hired a bunch of his son’s friends who didn’t know a snap cutter from a rotary cutter.”

“What reason did he give for firing you?” Maya asked.

“Hostile attitude or some shit. I told one of the young guys to go to hell in front of a client and her kid. I’d had enough of him not knowin’ what he was doin’ and makin’ more work for me.”

“That was it?” Maya arched her brow. She wasn’t buying it and neither was he. “Just that one time after twenty-two years? No warning or anything?”

Reed nodded along with her line of questioning. He liked where she was going with this. Employment law wasn’t his strong suit, but something about this didn’t sit right with him either.

“That was it.” The old man shrugged. “Fired on the spot. Wouldn’t even let me come back to the shop to get my tools, so I went back the next day and you saw what happened.”

“You didn’t get them back, did you?” Reed asked, thinking back to the tape and how Johnson had left almost empty handed.

“Nah.”

“We could probably help you with that,” Maya offered.

“It ain’t worth the trouble at this point.”

“You got something, though,” Reed said.

“What?”

“On the tape,” he reminded him. “It looked like you took something from the desk after you knocked him out.”

“Oh, did it?” And suddenly Johnson seemed to have lost his clear mind.

“What’d you take?” Reed asked directly.

“One of my tools he had layin’ around.”

“You sure?” Reed pressed. “There’s nothin’ else we should know about?”

He tried to keep the heat on Johnson to get the information they needed, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maya paying attention to her cell phone instead of their interview which seemed unlike her.

“No. I ain’t the crook here,” Johnson shot back. “Anyways, aren’t you supposed to be on my side?”

Reed was about to respond but lost his focus when Maya walked across the room with her phone in hand. Unsure whether to be annoyed or concerned with her behavior, he called out after her. She glanced over her shoulder, an inscrutable look on her face, then looked away too quickly for him to discern what was going on.

“Hendricks?” he called out again.

“Sorry. It’s important. I need to take this,” she said with quiet urgency as she headed out the door.

“You know, I think it’s about time you two get on back to the city,” Johnson suggested snidely, capitalizing on whatever personal drama was happening between them to get them out of his house and off his back.

“Yeah,” Reed scoffed. “We need to set up a time to meet next week so we can make some decisions about your course of action. What’s your best time of day usually?”

“I’m always at my best.”

Reed cocked his head to one side, challenging his client’s assertion given the show he’d put on today.

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