by Laura Snider
“Be honest, Brooke. Did Christopher do that to you?” Ashley nodded at the woman’s shiner.
Brooke shook her head. A tear slid down her cheek.
“What caused the argument?”
Brooke was silent for so long that Ashley didn’t think she was going to answer. “He’s having an affair. With Erica Elsberry.”
“How do you know?” Ashley asked, leaning forward.
“He sneaks around with her. He’s been meeting her at Mikey’s Tavern.”
“You confronted him about it?”
“Yes. And he…and he…”
“You don’t have to tell me, but I know he hit you. You need to get some help, Brooke.” Ashley kept her voice calm, but her insides boiled.
Brooke and Christopher had been together since high school. Both were popular and pretty. Back then, they had been very different people. That was before they were hardcore into drugs and alcohol. Now they’d morphed into shells of their former selves. Drugs destroyed his heart. He shattered her soul.
“He loves me, I know he does.”
Ashley’s tone softened. “I never said that he didn’t love you. He just needs help. That’s all. He needs to dry out, and you need to stay safe until he does.”
Brooke’s head bobbed ever so slightly.
“The county attorney said that she wants you to plead guilty and serve a day in jail for assault on a peace officer.”
Brooke nodded again. Her hair fell into her eyes. She didn’t look up.
“You would probably get a lesser sentence if the judge were to sentence you at a sentencing hearing, but the court doesn’t have time to hold a hearing like that for at least another week. I assume you can’t post bond, right?”
“Christopher won’t.”
Ashley bit back a retort. Because she knew he could if he wanted to. He’d just have to buy less dope. But he wouldn’t. It didn’t matter that Brooke had always bailed Christopher out in the past.
“We could ask for a bond review hearing, but that would also take more than a week.”
The prosecutor was using the overburdened criminal justice system and lack of court dates to force Brooke into a guilty plea. Challenging the charge would result in a far longer jail sentence. Elizabeth was making Brooke choose between freedom and a criminal record.
Brooke shook her head and wiped away a tear. “Just give me the guilty plea. I’ll sign.”
Ashley slid the document to Brooke. She’d drawn it up earlier that day. She’d known that Brooke would take the offer because it was the quickest way to get out of jail, back to Christopher. Ashley had come prepared. She handed Brooke the pen and watched her sign her name. All the while she couldn’t fight the heavy sense of guilt burrowing its way into her heart. Another small injustice courtesy of the criminal justice system.
Ashley met with two other clients after Kylie and Tom took Brooke away. But she couldn’t stop thinking about those bruises. The visible ones were bad enough, but Ashley knew they were far worse on Brooke’s stomach and upper thighs, where nobody would ever see. That was how abusers worked. It made Ashley sick, but there was little she could do about it.
It was all part of her job. She had to deal with the facts of the case. Which usually meant that she couldn’t help those who deserved a second chance. It was people like Christopher who got off and out. But Brooke, a victim of Christopher’s since she was a teenager, she was out of chances. Sometimes, life felt like a cruel joke.
15
Katie
December 11th – 5:30 p.m.
“Can I ask you a question?” Katie said as she rushed to keep up with Ashley’s long gait. They were on their way out of the jail. It was nearing the end of the day, and lawyers were required to leave so the inmates could have visitation time with family.
“You can ask. I don’t know that I’ll answer.”
“Do you like your clients?” Katie asked.
Katie used to think that attorneys agreed with their clients’ actions. That’s how it seemed from the outside. Ashley had argued hard for Petrovsky’s pretrial release. Luckily, Judge Ahrenson had denied that request and kept Petrovsky incarcerated through trial. Ashley had also demanded the jury acquit Von Reich. But Ashley’s rant that morning about the ethics complaint was inconsistent. Perhaps Ashley’s true side spilled out as she opened that envelope and read its contents, but perhaps not. It was too soon to tell.
Ashley shrugged. “It depends on the client.”
“What about Brooke and Christopher Mason?”
Ashley’s shoulders stiffened. “I don’t want to talk about the Masons.”
“Fair enough.”
Katie wanted to press her, to study and understand her, like a scientist does with a newly discovered mammal found deep within the rainforest. But she let it go. She and Ashley were just starting to fall into a rhythm. She didn’t want to rock the boat.
“Wait up!” someone called from behind them.
Katie turned to see Tom jogging down the hallway, his shoes squeaking against the off-white tiled flooring. He was still in his uniform. Brown pants and a brown shirt with a star stitched over his heart.
“Jesus Christ,” Ashley muttered. “I hope none of my clients see me with the two of you.” She was trying to sound severe, but Katie caught the telltale twitch of a smile forming at the corner of her lips.
“Hey, Tom!” Katie shouted. She was deliberately louder than necessary.
“Be. Quiet,” Ashley hissed.
“Hi, Katie,” Tom said when he caught up. “What are you two up to?”
Katie looked at Ashley. She wasn’t sure where they were going now. It was the end of the workday, and she had no idea what Ashley did at night.
“I’m going home,” Ashley said.
“I’m following her,” Katie said with a shrug.
Ashley narrowed her eyes, but there was no malice in her expression. “Really? I still have to put up with you?”
Katie chuckled. “Until the chief says otherwise.”
“Do you ladies want to grab a drink?”
“Ha!” Ashley laughed.
“Was that a yes or a no?”
“My clients can’t see me with you. And you don’t want people to see you socializing with me.”
“I don’t mind,” Tom said a little too quickly.
They stopped by the exit where their coats hung. They each grabbed their own. Ashley’s was a heavy, sleek black puffer coat that hung down to mid-calf. It looked posh next to Katie’s standard-issue law enforcement jacket. Navy blue with twin Brine Police Department badges displayed on each shoulder.
Ashley slipped one arm into a sleeve of her coat, then twirled it around her back and slipped the other arm in. “You will mind when someone leaves fresh roadkill on your doorstep.”
Katie studied Ashley’s face. She was an expert at masking her emotions, but Katie was starting to see the subtle differences that betrayed her true feelings. Like the way her forehead crinkled ever so slightly when she was truly upset. Like it did now.
“Tom, why don’t you meet us for a drink at Ashley’s house?” Katie suggested.
They lingered by the door, nobody quite ready to take the first step out into the cold.
“Yesterday, you hated me. But now you’re comfortable enough to invite people to my house?”
Katie shrugged. Ashley hadn’t told Tom that he couldn’t come. Katie supposed it was the closest to an invitation he would get from the defense attorney.
“Looks like it,” Katie said, flashing a genuine smile. “What do you say, Tom?”
Katie was starting to enjoy Ashley’s company, and she sensed a pull between the defense attorney and jail administrator. She wanted to see where it all went. If they could form an unlikely friendship.
“I’m in.” Tom motioned toward the door. “After you.”
They all drove separately to Ashley’s house. The dogs greeted them in the same manner as they had that morning. They burst from the trees, chasing the trai
n of cars up the drive. Tom got out of his beat-up Chevy Silverado first. He stretched and looked around, a smile on his face.
“I didn’t realize you still lived here.”
Katie looked up, surprised. This must have been Ashley’s childhood home.
“I thought the place was sold when your mother…” He trailed off.
“Nope,” Ashley said, shaking her head. “I wanted to, but I couldn’t let go of it. Too many memories.”
The revelation explained the country décor.
“Anyway, let’s get inside before we freeze our asses off.” Ashley clapped to the dogs, and they sprang to action. They yipped and danced as they followed her through the front door.
Once inside, Katie caught the additional details, the signs of a woman born a generation earlier. Things she hadn’t noticed the first time she’d been inside the residence. A hand-stitched quilt draped over the couch. A doily rested beneath a touch lamp. A framed photograph of a woman holding a chubby baby. The baby’s round cheeks bore a toothless grin.
“That was my mother,” Ashley said.
Katie jumped. She’d been studying the picture so closely that she hadn’t noticed the attorney beside her. “You’re an only child?”
Ashley shook her head. “I have a sister. She lives in New York now.”
“Do you see her much?”
“No. And it isn’t a bad thing.”
“Why not?”
“My mother was the glue that held our family together. When she died,” Ashley shrugged, “I guess we sorta fell apart. My sister doesn’t come to town anymore, and I don’t have time to go see her. I miss my niece, though. She’s ten now.”
Katie was an only child. She’d always wanted siblings, but it was probably better to never have them than to have one that wants nothing to do with you. “What happened to your mother?”
“Cancer.”
Katie’s eyes fell. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was rough in the end. She was ready to go. Besides, it was two years ago.”
Katie nodded. “I lost my mom, too. Not the same way you did, but she’s definitely dead to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“She left me when I was sixteen. Ran off with another man. My dad was,” Katie cleared her throat, “unavailable at the time. So, I became an adult overnight.”
“It’s different,” Ashley said. “I was an adult. I didn’t need my mom anymore, I just wanted her around. You were so young. Sixteen. A child. That’s when girls need their mothers the most.”
Tears budded in Katie’s eyes. She shook her head and blinked them away. There was a kindness to Ashley, a softness that Katie hadn’t expected.
“A loss is a loss,” Katie said.
“You’re right, but my mom didn’t choose cancer.” Ashley sighed, then broke her gaze away from the framed photograph. “I know we’ve had our differences, but you don’t deserve a mother like that. Your heart is too pure. But we don’t get to choose our families.”
Katie appreciated Ashley’s kind words, but she did not believe them. She still had a lot of repentance before she would feel like she deserved anything good.
Ashley held out a glass of wine. She had a second in her other hand.
“No, thanks,” Katie said.
“You don’t drink wine? I have beer in the kitchen if you’d like.”
“It’s not that. It’s just, well, I’m working.”
Ashley’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you working days or nights?”
Police officers generally worked twelve-hour shifts from six to six. “I’m on days.”
Just then, the six-foot-tall grandfather clock in the hall started chiming. The bell tolled six times.
Ashley cocked her head to the side, nodding toward the antique clock. It was dark wood with a window at its center, allowing Katie to see the golden guts of the timepiece.
“Looks like you’re off the clock,” Ashley said as she handed Katie the glass of wine and ushered her into the living room.
Katie placed her wine on the coffee table without taking a drink and sat on the couch. She did not feel right rejecting it again, but she also refused to drink and drive.
Ashley sat at the other end of the couch and took a drink. The wine glass was large, with a deep bowl. She nodded toward Katie’s glass. “You can have the couch or the guest room. I promote drinking responsibly.”
Katie’s eyebrows rose. It was almost as though Ashley had read her mind. “I don’t know if I should.”
“What else are you going to do? Sleep in your car? You and I both know that you aren’t leaving me here alone. You like me too much.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Katie said. But her opinion of Ashley was rapidly changing.
“You’d feel guilty if someone broke in and killed me overnight, right?”
“Yes.” Katie could hardly believe that was the answer, but it was true. A week earlier she would have celebrated Ashley’s demise. Or, at least, she would not have mourned her loss. The attorney was growing on her.
“Then you like me.”
“Fair point,” Katie said, picking up her glass of wine. She inhaled deeply, taking in the dark cherry aroma, then took a drink.
“Hey,” Tom said, striding into the living room as though he owned the place. “Wanna play a game?”
Katie sat up. Tom was holding a small box in his hands, about twice the size of a set of cards. “What game?”
“Exploding Kittens.”
“What?” Katie liked cats, especially kittens.
Ashley laughed. “It’s just a card game. I forgot that I had it. Where did you find it?”
“In the kitchen.”
Katie’s mind went straight to the letter that she had seen on Ashley’s kitchen table that morning. Had Ashley opened it? She doubted it was anything sinister on Ashley’s part anymore, but she still wondered at its contents. Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to leave it on Ashley’s doorstep. Ashley lived on an acreage thirty minutes outside of town. If someone brought a letter out here, it was for a reason.
“Rummaging through my stuff, huh?”
Tom’s face turned bright red. “I, uh…”
“Just kidding, bring it over here.”
Tom handed the deck of cards to Ashley, and she quickly explained the rules. Since there were three players, there were three “exploding kittens” in the deck. If you drew an exploding kitten, you essentially exploded. If you had a diffuse card, which was a card each player started out with, then you could play the diffuse card and put the exploding kitten anywhere you wanted in the deck. If you drew an exploding kitten after you had played your diffuse card, then you were out. It was a devious game.
They played a few rounds. Tom won the first, Ashley the second. They were nearing the end of the third game when Ashley drew an exploding kitten. She was the last one with a diffuse card. Both Tom and Katie had already exploded once. Ashley played her diffuse card and turned her back so that neither Tom nor Katie could see where she was placing the exploding kitten card.
Tom was next to draw. As he did, Ashley made a gesture of her head exploding. He threw the card down. He was out of the game. They all laughed like old friends, and Katie suddenly realized what she had been missing for so many years. It was the easy companionship of close friends. Not those that were forced on you through work. But those chosen and forged through time and trials.
“That’s the last round,” Tom said, settling back into his seat. Katie agreed. It was a fun game, but she had a short attention span.
Katie sat back, and something on the side table caught her attention. A letter. The envelope next to it was the same that she had seen on the kitchen table that morning. Ashley had opened it and left it on the side table. Katie set her nearly empty wine glass down and leaned over to get a better look. It was lying open, its contents only a few words and easily readable. It was more of a list than a letter. It said:
Von Reich
You
“Who sent this to you?” Katie said, holding it up for Ashley to see.
Ashley shrugged. “Probably some punk that wants to scare me.”
“This is a threat,” Katie said, her face growing hot with rage.
Another one. Was it from the killer, or was it a prank? Either option didn’t sit well with Katie. One was sinister, the other cruel. Katie had only recently stopped hating Ashley, but even on her worst day she never would have stooped to this level. She thought the people of Brine were better than that. Apparently not.
“Is it a threat?” Ashley said.
“You know that it is.”
Ashley sighed and rubbed her temples. “Yes. I know it is. But we can’t prove it. It is a list of names, that’s all. It doesn’t say, ‘You’re next to die,’ or anything like that. Even if you did find the sender and charge him or her with harassment, it would never hold up in court.”
“You’re right,” Katie said, dropping the letter back on the side table.
They all fell into a deep silence. The mood was starting to shift to something darker. It was Katie’s fault, she knew it, but she also could not ignore that letter.
“Refills?” Ashley asked as her gaze traveled over the empty glasses. She stood and jogged to the kitchen.
She wanted to change the subject. Katie could not blame her for that. They had been having a nice time up until Katie went snooping through Ashley’s mail. Katie decided she would let it go. For now. They could deal with the threats tomorrow.
Ashley came back a few minutes later with a bottle of wine and two beers. She handed the beer to Tom, then poured the remaining wine into the two wine glasses.
“So,” Katie said, once they were all settled in and comfortable. “You two went to high school together?”
“Yeah,” Ashley said, “but Tom was too good for me back then.”
Tom snorted. “Then we graduated, and Ashley became too good for me.”
Katie’s eyes shifted from one to the other. Tom and Ashley had been stealing lingering glances at one another all night. Sparks passed between them. Flashes of interest that could build into something larger.