Trapped

Prelude
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know… but I want immunity,” she said with a cold look on her sweet baby-face.
His right eyebrow was raised. How dare she have the gall to make such a demand? “You tell us what we want to know right now or you’ll get the same time as him. I’ll see to it.”
“Your case is weak without her, Mr. Thompson,” said Ms. Fleming, the defense attorney, with a smug look and a haughty tone. “The only way to make your case stick against Mr. Robinson,” she said with a smile, “is by breaking bread with us, cutting a deal.”
Peter Thompson had a tough decision to make. It was an election year in the city of Baltimore and if it was any time to show its citizens that he and the State’s Attorney’s office gave a shit about them and the fight against violence and drugs, it was now starting with the case of Deshawn Robinson and Monique Hopewell. He turned to his fellow Assistant State’s Attorney, Catherine Stewart, and whispered, “This makes my stomach turn.”
Catherine whispered back, “What else can we do? She is the only one willing to talk that has key information on Robinson. I want him to burn.”
“But at what costs? She’s just as guilty.”
Monique suddenly began to cry. “If only you knew the hell Dae-Dae put me through. He forced me to be involved; I didn’t want any parts of this. He beat me so I had to obey. I had nowhere else to go. What else could I do?”
Emotionless, Ms. Fleming stated “Make a decision; either grant our deal or take your chances at trial. All you’ll do is make your boss look bad during election time because you failed to make a conviction.”
Mr. Thompson started to rub his hair which was more salt than pepper, uncertain of what to do. He wanted Deshawn Robinson bad. The state’s attorney, Cecelia Rhone, wanted Robinson’s head on a platter. Baltimore wanted blood, Deshawn Robinson’s blood. He had no choice.
“You testify against your boyfriend, Ms. Hopewell, and you’ll get your immunity but…” says Mr. Thompson as he begins to point his finger at Monique, “if you lie, if you screw me over, I’ll be worse to you than Dae-Dae ever was.”
Monique smiled. He fell for the tactic; hook, line and sinker, like she thought he would.
“A wise decision,” said Ms. Fleming with a grin.
“So let’s hear this story and if I like what I hear, you’ll get your immunity,” said Ms. Stewart with an emotionless face.