Offer To The CEO

Friday, continued …

James paused, really trying to figure out what to say so he leant over and gave Alecia a brief kiss before speaking. "Alecia, you know my view, that he deserves thirty-years for what he did to you let alone any sentence for what he did to his other victims. Personally, I would love to see him locked up for life."

Alecia looked at James, and simply sunk into his embrace, not knowing what to say. James just let her do this, as this was not a conversation she wanted to be involved. As he tuned back into the conversation that everyone else said he heard Ton say "He deserves never to get out for what he did to Alecia let alone his other victims." Sally sitting beside him simply nodded.

"True" was the short sharp response from Junior.

Everyone started to debate what the penalty was, but James decided that this was a conversation he did not want to be in. He simply settled in and kept Alecia in his arms turning off from the conversation.

Anna, meanwhile, was interested in listening to the debate with everyone. Getting Lu Jingho as much time in jail a possible was what everyone wanted. The problem was a sentence with only jail was not going to get Lu Jingho to agree if he did not have a chance at home detention. The quickness in wanting to reach the deal made her wonder. Did the psychiatric report they arranged come up with a condition they did not want public? That would not surprise her as something seemed to be missing.

As she turned to look at James and Alecia, she noticed that they were off in a world of their own despite being surrounded by everyone. They did not care. After looking at James' face Anna realised that James was not happy. All he was doing was looking down at Alecia, looking like he was checking that she was alright. Anna paused and thought what was happening.

Hou Yi, noticed that Anna had taken herself out of the conversation and turned to look at her. He quickly noticed that she was observing James and Alecia, who from what he could recall since they started talking about the penalty for Lu Jingho had taken themselves from the conversation.

Watching his brother-in-law, he soon noticed the look on his face. He remembered with everything that happened with Lu Jinhu and Yang Lin, that he at one point in time observed a similar look on his own face. The most important thing was his wife and protecting her from any harm. Hou Yi leaned over and whispered to Anna "He wants to protect Alecia. This talk is hurting her, and neither of them want to have to deal with that."

Anna looked at Hou Yi and quietly asked "How do you know?"

"I was the same then everything first went down with you. Your brother loves her and wants no harm from anyone to come to her. Can you end this conversation quickly as I know there is something else that those seven want to talk to us about."

Anna loudly said "Look we all want him to face jail. The thing none of us want is for Alecia to have to go through a court case, as he will try and tear her apart."

That drew a number of nods from around the room, and Hou Yi continued "I think you know about this Tan, but Anna when we spoke to Alister suggested something which comes from her Australian's experience as the way to structure the penalty, but might get that idiot to agree. A sentence of at least thirty years, half of it to be served in prison, the difference between that fifty percent and two thirds of the sentence served by way of home detention before he is eligible for general release. But everything relies on him being of good behaviour. Any bad behaviour means that he cannot get out of jail or will go back, with additional jail time to be served without a chance of getting out before the end of the sentence."

"That makes it easy for him," said Shark. "He will not pay for what he has done."

"He will. We all know how much of a manipulator he is, and the deal with clearly spell out what will see him progress along. But more importantly he is likely to agree, as it gives him something of what he wants. What everyone else is saying is jail and jail only. You all need to think outside the box and look at what is more important. He needs his punishment and Alecia and his other victims do not need to deal with him in court."