Lawson didn't take Megan and Franklin to Sangiovese.
Sangiovese was always a mixed bag. There was a decent chance Mafia guys were drinking inside right now.
After thinking it over, Lawson brought them to the apartment right across from his own—the one Mrs. Gaines used to live in.
Mrs. Gaines had signed a three-month lease but only stayed for less than two. The landlord obviously wasn't going to refund the rest of the rent.
So, Mrs. Gaines had given the keys to Lawson, telling him to just return them to the landlord when the lease was up.
Lawson hadn't moved into the new premium apartment near Caltech yet, as this current lease still had a few days left.
As for the Mafia's Cadillac, Svafa drove it off to dispose of it. Parking that car near the apartment would definitely draw the Mafia's attention.
"Alright, you two. How about we talk about why the Mafia is hunting you down?"
Megan and Franklin exchanged looks. Finally, the blonde news anchor spoke up.
"Mr. Lawson, can I trust you?"
They had already introduced themselves before entering the apartment.
"Ms. Kelly, of course you can trust me. I'm your biggest fan!"
Unfortunately, Megan was already convinced Lawson was the driver from the May 1st LA freeway loop incident, so she didn't buy his 'fan' act for a second.
"What? You don't believe me?"
Lawson's gaze instantly turned dangerous. Seeing this, Franklin quickly jumped in to explain.
"Mr. Lawson, it's not that we don't want to tell you. It's just that this is incredibly dangerous. If you know about it, your life might be in danger too!"
Lawson wasn't afraid of life-threatening danger; he was only afraid of not getting a job.
Lawson chose to save Megan and Franklin not just because Megan was gorgeous, but because he sensed an opportunity to trigger a job from them.
"Life-threatening danger? My god! Ms. Kelly, why didn't you tell me something so important earlier? I definitely wouldn't have let Linsey save you if I knew."
Lawson's exaggerated expression made it obvious he was being sarcastic, but it still annoyed Megan slightly.
"Mr. Lawson, I'm not joking!"
"Ms. Kelly, I'm not joking either. To save you, Linsey killed two Mafia guys. We're already dragged into this. Right now, I just want to know why this is happening!"
Megan paused, realizing Lawson was absolutely right.
"Sorry, Mr. Lawson. So much has happened in the past few hours, my head is completely scrambled!"
Just a few hours ago, Megan was just a somewhat famous local news anchor.
But within those few hours, she had participated in an underground street race, witnessed a murder, and been hunted by the Mafia.
For someone who had been law-abiding her entire life, this was incredibly hard to process.
At that moment, Franklin spoke up.
"Mr. Lawson, is Ms. Svafa the owner of the Sangiovese bar?"
Lawson glanced at Franklin. He hadn't expected the guy to recognize Svafa.
"Yes, she is. Is there a problem?"
"No problem at all! Megan, I think we can tell Mr. Lawson everything!"
Franklin turned and urged Megan.
Megan was slightly confused by Franklin's sudden change in attitude.
"Are you sure?"
"Some old boys of mine told me the Sangiovese bar has massive backing. Maybe they can fix our problem!"
Franklin didn't want to spend the rest of his life hiding, nor did he want to lose his hard-earned TV station job.
Megan fell silent. She knew far less about the underworld than Franklin, so she chose to trust her colleague.
"Alright. The truth is all in here."
The blonde news anchor pulled her camcorder out of her bag and handed it to Lawson.
"See? Should've done this from the start!"
Lawson took the camcorder, ready to see what she had filmed, only to find it had automatically shut down due to a dead battery.
"Uh, probably recorded for too long. I have a spare battery right here."
After swapping the battery and turning the camcorder back on, Lawson carefully reviewed Megan's footage. The video included several segments where the blonde anchor analyzed Lawson's true identity.
Lawson shot Megan a weird look, making her look incredibly awkward.
"Uh, Mr. Lawson, you can actually skip straight to the last part. That's the key to the problem."
"Ms. Kelly, you don't mind if I delete the earlier footage, do you?"
Megan instinctively objected.
"You can't do that! I worked so hard to film that!"
Franklin gave Megan a speechless shove. Only then did she realize the earlier footage was literal evidence of Lawson and Svafa participating in an illegal underground race.
Lawson definitely wasn't going to feel safe unless it was deleted.
Megan quickly changed her tune.
"I promise I won't leak the video!"
"Your promises mean absolutely nothing to me, Ms. Kelly."
Lawson immediately prepared to edit the video right in front of her.
"Wait! Mr. Lawson, if you answer one question, I'll agree to let you delete the earlier parts!"
Megan stared intently at Lawson.
"Ask whatever you want. Regardless of whether I answer or not, the earlier parts are getting deleted."
"Mr. Lawson, are you the driver from the May 1st LA freeway loop incident?"
Lawson looked at Megan in surprise. He hadn't expected her to figure it out.
But considering he had been seen near the totaled blue sedan and had just showcased terrifying driving skills tonight, drawing suspicion was completely normal.
Fortunately, Megan hadn't figured out that the Asian guy in the Pacific Standard Bank heist was also Lawson.
"If you think I am, then I guess I am."
That answer definitely didn't satisfy Megan, but the blonde anchor had no other options.
Lawson deleted all the earlier footage, leaving only the crucial final clip.
Because camcorders from this era had terrible resolution—only 640x480—and Megan was filming from quite a distance, the video was incredibly blurry.
Then again, if Megan had been any closer, the killer definitely would have spotted her much earlier.
Still, through the grainy footage, Lawson could clearly see Martin Bonanno Jr. being murdered by a dark-haired young man.
"Martin got murdered? And the killer looks like someone he knew?"
Lawson quickly analyzed the footage. Martin stepping out of his car and opening his arms for a hug clearly meant he knew the killer. They had to be close.
At the very least, Martin wouldn't try to hug some random person.
What was weird was that the killer looked incredibly familiar to Lawson. He felt like he'd seen him somewhere before, but he just couldn't place the face at the moment.
"That's exactly what I thought! The killer might even be someone inside the Bonanno family! I have a feeling this murder was meticulously planned. Otherwise, why would the LAPD suddenly set up a massive dragnet at the bottom of Mt. San Antonio?"
Megan's words triggered Lawson's memory. He suddenly recalled a piece of intel related to the Hot Pursuit job.
"Wait here for a second!"
(Megan Kelly)