Shattered (Anderson Special Ops #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,111

not your answering service, come find out for yourself,” the guard snapped back.

When Anna walked to seat number four, where her visitor was waiting on the other side of a full glass partition, she knew whomever this woman was, it was someone she’d never met before. Her body might’ve gone downhill since her incarceration, but her mind was as sharp as ever, and she never forgot a face, not in all of her years of rubbing elbows and kissing disgusting babies.

The young blonde on the other side of the glass didn’t come from money. Anna could tell that immediately. She also appeared too young to be a lawyer trying to steal her business away from her current idiot lawyers. Before Anna picked up the phone to talk to the blonde, she sat for a moment sizing up the girl who had enough gumption to enter a jail and ask to speak to the most influential person she’d ever meet. Interest piqued just enough for Anna to take the receiver off of its station, wipe it down with a small disposable disinfectant towel, and begin the conversation that would end up sinking her deeper into a hole.

“Hello. Who might you be?” Anna asked curtly. She was still an important woman, even if the rest of the world had somehow forgotten that.

“Hello, Ms. Miller. My name’s Courtney Tucker. I’m an independent reporter looking to get your version of what happened to you out into the world. This junk the major news networks are putting out, blasting you non-stop, and having the audacity to call it journalism makes me sick. I tried to speak with your lawyers, but they wouldn’t give me the time of day. I do need to tell you they made it very clear that I shouldn’t come here and attempt to speak with you,” Courtney said, smooth, calm, and with no indication she was lying through her teeth on her reason for wanting to speak with Anna.

Prior to her arrest, Anna would’ve shot a thousand holes through Courtney and her story in seconds. But she’d been removed from the outside world for too long now. Besides that, being silenced for almost two months, and having lost her ability to be heard by the state, country, and the world was too much to bear. It had created a lapse in judgement on what the reporter was saying to her. Instead, Anna decided this woman would be her outlet, her confidant and in a small way, a friend to be used as a puppet in all Anna wanted to relay to the people who should be bowing at her feet.

“Screw my lawyers, Courtney. Those lazy bastards haven’t done a single thing to help me. And screw the media for making up these terrible lies about me. None of them have the balls to come talk to me and get the truth, to find out what actually happened. I’m glad you’re here,” Anna said, her anger rising at all of the injustices she believed she’d endured in this mess surrounding her. She’d simply been doing her job. It was the screw-ups beneath her who should be punished — never her.

“I’m glad to be here too, and to meet you, Ms. Miller,” Courtney said with what appeared to be sincerity.

“Where would you like to begin, Courtney?” Anna asked.

“I’ll take notes on whatever you’d like to say to me. Just begin where you think is a good starting place and, if you don’t mind, I’ll ask questions as you tell your story,” Courtney said as she took out a thick pad of paper, clicked her pen open, and stared through the glass.

“Sure, that sounds great,” Anna said. She paused as she thought about where to begin. One name flashed into her head.

“This all started when I met Damien Whitfield. We met at a meet-and-greet almost a year and a half ago. He made a point to have multiple discussions with me throughout the evening, enough for me to think he must want something from me, or more precisely, from my position as a senator. If I recall correctly, and I usually do, within three months we were talking on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day.”

“Do you recall if one of your aides gave him your phone number, or if he asked you directly for it?” Courtney asked.

“He asked me directly, and I had no issue giving it to him at that time. I wish I would’ve never met that man. Anyway .