1 One

I rub the sleep out of my eyes and try to register the sound coming from my bed. The noise stops but I am more awake than asleep at this point I turn my lamp on and squint as the noise starts again. This time I find the source of the noise due to my cellphone screen being lit up.

"Hello?" I am always getting calls like this.

"Ryan?!" I sigh recognizing my drunk uncles voice on the other end of the line. "I'm a little drunk." He puts extra emphasis on the k.

"Where are you?"

"Um.." he scuffles around, North Maple and uh, College street."

"Alright. Be there soon."

"I'm not done walking around."

"Sit down. I'm coming to get you. Lay in a yard or something." I hung up as I walk to my closet for my slip-ons. "Fucking Jesus Uncle Chris." I mutter locking my door and heading to the car. I send him a text letting him know that it will be about twenty minutes before I get to him.

I tune into the police scanner and hear that they are in route to a murder of a family of four. I didn't think anything of it. After what felt like an eternity I make it to Uncle Chris and saw him laying in the yard and the door wide open. Panic starts setting in as I jog up to my uncle and see a knife sitting in his hand. I run inside the house momentarily and see a mans' body laying, unmoving on the floor.

I rush back out to my uncle so we can get him away from this before someone calls- if they hadn't already- the cops. I nudge the knife out of his hand with my boot before I try to wake him up. It wasn't even a minute later when I was blinded by the police spotlights and sirens were filling the air. I sit back with my hands in the air watching them approach my uncle and myself, guns trained and focused evenly on the two of us.

Helplessly, I watch as my uncle is woken up, read his rights and shoved into the back of a police car as another car pulls up and an ambulance. A few moments later I was read my rights and handcuffed, being gently pushed down on my head into the backseat of one of the cars and watch a gurney come out with a lifeless body. As the scene unfolds in front of me I know my uncle and I are going to need a lawyer.

An hour later, an officer walks into the room they were holding me in and sits across from me. "This office knows that you and your family are a small time mafia family around here. You hide you tracks pretty well but we got you this time. So, why don't you and your uncle co-operate and the DA can get you a plea deal?" He was looking at me sounding like a hick from a movie expecting me to just confess.

"I ain't answering anything until I get a lawyer. So I'd like to use my free call. But before you arrange that how is my uncle?" I crossed my arms leaned back in my chair. You'd think just for safety reasons handcuffs would stay on but someone would have to be stupid to attack an officer in a station and on camera.

"Hung over, Ryan." Officer- I squint trying to read his name tag, Mcdowell says with a deep sigh. I think he normally handles my uncle when he goes out on his rowdy nights. I don't blame him. Uncle Chris is a handful.

"Good. Give him more coffee." I say and Mcdowell nods then hands me his phone so I can call my lawyer.

I don't know how much time had passed and didn't realize I fell asleep until the door squeaking open wakes me up with drool coming out of my mouth and falling on the table. It was my lawyer, or should I say the family lawyer.

"What happened?"

I recount every event from the time Uncle Chris left to go drink at the bar until now leaving out the part that I entered the house when I was starting to panic. Once I finished I watched my lawyer contemplate everything.

With a sigh, "Come on. I can get you out of here. You're alibi clears out with the records on your phone. They tracked where you had been at the time of the perceived murder. You were on the phone longer than it would have taken you to just agree to meet your uncle somewhere to get rid of the bodies and the fact that you sent him a text further proves your alibi that you are not an accomplice." He pauses," At this time."

"Do you mind taking me to my car?" I ask as we leave the police station with my uncle trapped inside. He's innocent I know he is. I just need proof that he is but I'm not sure how to find it.

"You do realize that your car is at a crime scene, a murder investigation that your uncle is the main suspect in, they're not going to let you take your car."

There were so many haphazard thoughts running through my head. i needed to prove my uncle innocent but that would be hard to do since I wasn't with him last night. It wouldn't have done any good anyways because I would have been drunk too. The only proof I have is that my uncle called me but the phone call will be used as hearsay. The court can make it to where him being drunk is what caused the issue and that he is wildly unsafe and ask for him to be killed. The police wee going to fit this crime to my uncle and there was not a thing I could do to stop.

I knew I needed to do something but I wasn't sure yet what to do. it needs to be soon because he should have a trial in a week and then we will know if he has bail or not.

I need to think about who would do this. Why would someone set Uncle Chris up? He's never purposefully hurt anyone. He's scared a few families but not to the point of this type of revenge. This isn't one of those families. I think it might be another mafia family.

We don't quarrel with any other families though. I'm wracking my brains trying to find a reason and I just can't seem to find a logical one. I need to shower and figure out what to do. I need to sleep and eat.

I unlock the door and allow my lawyer to go inside ahead of me.

"What's your next step Ryan?" George asks me as he sits at the counter.

"Well, I'm going to eat, shower and go to sleep. I'll have something figured out hopefully." I start making a couple of toasted sandwiches and look to George in a offer. He shakes his head no and waves the offer away. I shrug my shoulders and take a bite while I put the ingredients up.

"Whatever floats your boat." I say. My mouth is full so it was muffled. I put my empty plate in the sink. "You can stay here as long as you want. I'm going to shower then bed. I'll figure something out when I wake up.

I look at my phone when I wake up and sigh deeply. My mind starts running a mile a minute trying to figure out what I should make to eat and how to fix this mess.

My lawyer is passed out on the couch when I pass by the living room to get to the kitchen. I was making some eggs even though it is close to one in the afternoon. After the eggs and toast were done I came up with an idea.

"George!" I was excited in a messed up way.

I watch as he opens his eyes. "When is Uncle Chris's preliminary trial?"

"Huh?" He asks as he wakes up.

"When does my uncle go to his preliminary trial?" I hated the way I am feeling but I knew it was the right thing to do to prove my uncles innocence.

"I think a week?" George says half asleep.

"A week?" I sked. It was surprising maybe that was the only time they could get my uncle in.

"Yeah." George still sounded very unsure but I didn't care.

"Okay. I've got an idea. I need you to get the whole family over here. They need to put their input on it."

"Are you going to get into legal trouble?" George asks sighing and rubbing his face.

"Probably. If I get caught though. That's the only way." I wink as I run upstairs and go to do some research but I don't even know who the judge is.