by Linda Verji
“Sorry for interrupting your weekend.” Lawrence held out a bulky white envelope. “But I wanted to give you this before I forgot.”
A little apprehensive, Kelly took the envelope then opened it. Her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when she saw the stack of notes inside the envelope. There had to be at least five thousand dollars in there. She gasped. “What’s this?”
“Your bonus.” Lawrence’s face lit up in a wide grin. “Our firm likes to reward good work and initiative, and you’ve done some very good work since you got here.”
“I have?” Kelly stared at him in wide-eyed shock. As far as she could remember, she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary – certainly nothing that deserved this kind of money.
“Don’t be modest.” Lawrence gave her a fatherly smile. “Not many first year associates would be able to bring in as many clients as you have.”
Oh, so that’s what it was about! Spencer had been right! She also noted Lawrence’s use of the plural ‘clients’. It probably meant that he knew that Yuri wasn’t the only client who’d showed up to the firm looking for her to represent them on the strength of her father and Teddy’s name.
A more materialistic woman would’ve shut up, taken the money and run, but Kelly didn’t want this coming to bite her in the ass later. She corrected, “I didn’t bring them. They just followed me in here because of my dad.”
“Same difference.” Lawrence dismissed her protest. “You keep working this hard and you’ll be able to make junior partner soon.”
Junior partner? At Chambers & Quinn? Her breath locked in her throat. With her record, she’d thought that that was a pipe-dream; something she didn’t even dare imagine.
“You know, I wasn’t quite sure about you when I decided to hire you,” Lawrence said as he sat back in his seat. “I mean you practically ruined my godson’s life.”
Kelly’s eyebrows shot upwards. “I ruined his life?”
“Yes.” Unaffected by her outraged tone, Lawrence went on, “Do you know why Spencer decided to become a prosecutor?”
“No.” And to be honest she didn’t really care.
“He became a prosecutor because of his parents,” Lawrence said. “Both of them were lawyers here, and very good ones at that. Especially his mother, Susan. Ah, Susan.” His eyes glazed and his lips turned upwards in a fond smile. “She was a samurai in the courtroom. We used to call her The Jury-Whisperer because whenever she stood before them, they did exactly what she wanted. Unfortunately, she was too good at her job.”
Lawrence sighed. “One of the clients she saved was a murderer. One week after she got him acquitted of his charges, he came to their house and murdered her and her husband. Spencer was only eight at that time but he would’ve been murdered too if he was in the house. He only got away because he was spending the night at a friend’s.”
Shock ricocheted through Kelly. Despite the very active rumor-mill in their office, she’d never heard this story before. Spencer looked so well put together, so stable, so unaffected. Who would’ve thought that he had such a painful incident in his past? And to think he was only eight at the time. A stab of pain seared through Kelly. Now it all made sense – why Spencer was so dogged about putting criminals in prison. And could she really blame him? After what he’d gone through, it was a wonder he’d decided to go legal instead of vigilante.
“Because of Susan and Eric’s murder, Spencer made it his mission in life to make sure that no murderers like that man got put back on the street.” Lawrence smiled, but there was no humor in his expression, just muted pain. “Working in the District Attorney’s office was always his dream. He loved that job enough to even defy me and refuse to work here. He thought that it was the only right side of the law and that it was his duty to get justice for victims of crime.”
Lawrence continued, “But because of you he quit it. Because of you, he got to see the dark side of the law. He got to see how people with power frequently use his side of the courtroom to fake justice and oppress the weak. And it left him feeling betrayed and discouraged. It didn’t help things that he ended up putting the very person he admired and considered his mentor behind bars.”
Lawrence’s words left Kelly stunned speechless. Even though she knew that she wasn’t in the wrong, it was hard not to feel responsible for derailing Spencer from his chosen cause. As much as she’d gone into law to prevent people like her father from being railroaded by the system, she knew that people like Spencer were the rails that kept the train from falling off the tracks. They were the net that caught the bad fish and kept the streets from being a Utopia from Criminals.
Sadness streaked through her. She’d been so wrapped up in her grief that she’d never once considered Spencer’s perspective of the events that had happened, didn’t think she needed to. But Lawrence’s assessment of the situation, though biased, was eye-opening. She could only imagine the crisis of conscience that Spencer had gone through before deciding to quit being a prosecutor.
“At first I thought that your opening his eyes was a bad thing.” Lawrence’s expression was more serious than she’d ever seen it as he continued, “But I’ve changed my mind. You made him look past his side of the fence into the other field. You showed him that there color gray exists and the justice system isn’t as black and white as he’s always assumed. Plus…” he paused for a moment and smiled. “You brought him back to me. So just count this bonus as my way of thanking you for that too.”
CHAPTER 7
The weekend came and went, and still Lawrence’s words echoed in Kelly’s thoughts. During their division’s regular Monday morning meeting, she couldn’t help sneaking glances in Spencer’s direction and wondering if she’d been unfair to him. He wasn’t an innocent victim, but maybe he wasn’t quite the villain she’d made him out to be either.
“Dee Roberts wants to plead guilty and cut a deal with the D.A.’s office,” Angelina cut into Kelly’s thoughts. “I’m inclined to respect her wishes.”
“But you can’t,” Kelly blurted out. When everyone, including Spencer, turned to stare at her, she explained, “She didn’t do it.”
Dee Roberts, a housewife, had been arrested a few days ago and promptly charged with murdering her husband, George Roberts, a well known political analyst. Because of George’s fame, the case had already garnered a lot of media attention, and everyone had made up their mind that Dee was guilty. But Kelly wasn’t convinced.
“How can she not have done it?” Duke shot Kelly an incredulous look. “Everything points to her. She called the police on herself, the police found her soaked in blood, holding the knife and seated right next to George’s body. Worse, her neighbor saw her arriving at the house at nine-fifteen which is right in the neighborhood of George’s time of death. And to top it off, Dee confessed. If that doesn’t scream guilty, then I don’t know what does.”
Kelly opened her mouth to defend her position but before she could say a word, Russell cut in with, “And don’t say she doesn’t have motive.” The man’s brown eyes swept over the occupants of the conference table as he explained, “I did some research on Mr. George. And the picture that the media is giving of this nice, religious, family-man is utter bullshit. Word on the street is that Dearest Georgie was an undercover abuser and perv. Not only did he use Dee as his personal punching bag but she was also his goodie bag.”
Angelina frowned. “Goodie bag?”
“Yeah.” Russell nodded. “If one of his friends pleased him enough, he was allowed to have a go at Dee.”
For a second, Kelly didn’t realize what Russell meant. When she finally understood, her top lip curled upwards in a sneer. “Disgusting.”
“If you ask me, we should be giving the woman a medal for getting rid of that scum,” Russell said, “not trying to send her to jail.”
“That would be nice - if she did it,” Kelly insisted, “but she didn’t.”
“What’s your proof?” Duke prodded.
“Her eyes,” Kelly
said. “I saw it in her eyes.”
Both Russell and Duke burst into laughter and a small smile crooked the side of Angelina’s mouth. Spencer was the only one who didn’t show any signs of amusement, but that was probably because he wasn’t even listening to her. He was more interested in the photos he was studying.
“I’m serious you guys.” Kelly knew that she sounded ridiculous, but she’d spent so much time with cons that her instincts were now sharply honed. She couldn’t quite explain it, but she could tell with almost one-hundred percent accuracy when someone was guilty or lying. And Dee Roberts wasn’t ringing any of her ‘guilt’ alarms. “She didn’t do it.”
“I’m sorry, Kelly,” Angelina said, an indulgent smile on her face. “But eyes are not evidence. And Dee already confessed-”
“She didn’t do it,” Spencer cut Angelina off mid-sentence.
Though Kelly had said the same thing, Spencer’s pronouncement left more of an impact. Shocked eyes zeroed in on him as Angelina asked, “How do you figure?”
“The crime scene!” Spencer said.
Everyone grabbed their tablets to view the photos. Kelly didn’t see anything newer than what she’d already seen. George was on the floor with several stab wounds and a knife lodged in his chest.
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one who didn’t see what Spencer was talking about because Angelina said, “I’m looking at these and I don’t see anything that proves Dee didn’t do it.”
“Don’t just look. Observe. George’s watch.” Spencer drew their attention to it.
“Nothing new there,” Duke said. “It’s broken.”
“It is,” Spencer agreed. “But look at the time.”
Everyone squinted to take a better look at the watch.
“Eight forty fiv… oh!” Russell gasped. His shocked gaze swung to meet Spencer’s. “She couldn’t have done it.”
When everyone else seemed confused, Spencer explained, “I bet that watch broke when George fell and that his real time of death is eight-forty-five. According to the neighbor, Dee got to the house at nine-fifteen, which is thirty full minutes after George died.”
“Ah!” Angelina, Duke and Kelly gasped as they finally got it.
Excitement bubbled inside Kelly. See, she was right.
However, a moment later, Angelina burst her bubble. “That might be enough for reasonable doubt but it doesn’t exonerate Dee.”
“Then this might,” Spencer said. “Look at the area around George. No signs of a struggle apart from the broken glass and spilled brandy next to him. There were no marks on Dee either, which means the two didn’t have a physical altercation. How did she get to him?”
“She stabbed him when he wasn’t looking,” Duke offered helpfully.
“Look at the stab wounds. They’re all located around his upper chest,” Spencer countered. “Now consider Dee’s height. She’s just under five feet tall against George’s six-three. If she stabbed George, she would’ve had to lift her arm and he would’ve seen it coming. At the very least, he would’ve lifted his arm to defend himself against the first stab. But he has no injuries on his arms, which likely means someone taller than Dee stabbed him…”
This must’ve been how John Watson felt whenever he watched Sherlock Holmes mind at work. Kelly was beyond impressed with Spencer’s powers of deduction. He’d managed to prove Dee’s innocence with real evidence when Kelly only had her instincts to go on. Impressive! Now she understood how he’d managed to solve her case in just under a month when her father had been working on it for over a year.
Spencer finished, “… I think the daughter, Tessa, did it.”
And just like that Kelly’s awe vanished. Had this man not learnt his lesson? There he went, accusing another innocent person. Kelly pushed out an annoyed breath. “Tessa didn’t do it either.”
Spencer’s eyes locked with hers. “I think she did it, and Dee’s taking the blame to protect her.”
“No, she didn’t,” Kelly insisted, her stare as unwavering as her tone.
“How did you figure that?” Angelina cut into their stare match. She turned to Kelly first, “Why do you think Tessa didn’t do it? And please don’t say anything to do with eyes.”
Well, that narrowed Kelly’s options. She took a moment to gather her thoughts and find a way to convince her colleagues with proof they could accept. Finally, she said, “When Angelina and I went to see Dee in lockup, I stayed outside with Tessa. We talked a little bit, and she was genuinely worried about her mother. She kept on saying that her mother was innocent and that her mother wouldn’t survive prison. She was genuinely worried.”
Angelina arched her eyebrows. “That doesn’t say innocent to me.”
“It does to me.” Kelly knew her logic was shaky at best, but she knew no other way to explain her instincts. “Usually, if you’re trying to pin your crime on someone, you don’t constantly claim they’re innocent or worry about their health. Tessa loves her mother too much to let her take the blame for her.”
The looks that everyone gave Kelly made it clear that her arguments hadn’t moved them.
Angelina turned to Spencer. “Why do you say Tessa did it?”
“One – she’s got motive,” he said. “Men like George tend to abuse everyone in the family. I bet if Russell looks hard enough, he’ll find evidence that she was a victim too.”
“I’ve already got it,” Russell chimed in. “When she was younger, teacher’s called Social Services on George because Tessa showed signs of abuse. However, George used his connections to quash the investigation. Then there are the reports by neighbors of her running away after numerous screaming matches… Yeah, Spencer’s right.”
“I thought so.” Spencer’s knowing smile sent immediate annoyance rushing through Kelly. He continued, “Two - she has no alibi. She claims to have been at her apartment during the murder. But a witness saw her visiting her family home at around seven.”
“She said she left through the back door at seven-thirty,” Kelly defended the girl.
“What she said and what she actually did could be two very different things.” Spencer added, “There’s no way to confirm that she actually left when she said she did. Plus, her own apartment building conveniently doesn’t have any surveillance to prove that she was there when she claims to have been there. Then let’s not forget the bandage that I saw covering her right temple. Looks like somebody hit her… and who do we know who hits people around her?”
“Georgie!” Duke piped in enthusiastically.
“There’s no proof that Tessa did it,” Kelly insisted.
“That’s because no one’s questioned or investigated her,” Spencer countered. “Maybe she had a fight with her father. Maybe he hit her. Maybe she got so angry that she decided she’d had enough and stabbed him. She’s certainly tall enough to have caught him unawares. Maybe she left after stabbing him, Dee came in, saw what happened and came to the same conclusion I did. But she went a step further and took the blame so her daughter wouldn’t go to prison. Maybe that’s why Dee insists on pleading guilty even when it’s obvious that she didn’t do it.”
“That’s a lot of maybes to be throwing around,” Kelly retorted. “And it’s not enough to prove that Tessa is guilty.”
“But it’s certainly more than ‘I saw it in her eyes’,” Spencer countered.
Was that sarcasm? Had he just mocked her? Like a bomb, Kelly’s anger exploded.
“You haven’t learnt anything, have you?” Red hot rage pulsing through her nerves, she bit out, “You’re still the guy who has no problems throwing someone under the bus based on flimsy and faulty evidence. This is your thing, isn’t it? You get off on railroading people, don’t you?”
Hurt flashed in Spencer’s gaze but he didn’t say anything.
Kelly continued, “I can’t believe I thought you’d changed-”
“Kelly,” Angelina cut her off mid-rant. “This isn’t about you or your situation.”
Angelina’s interrup
tion was enough to yank Kelly into the real world where she and Spencer were not the only ones at the conference table. Everyone was looking at her like she’d grown two heads, like she was the crazy one. Embarrassed heat flushed up her face. Even if she was angry, she wouldn’t have blown up like that.
“And Spencer’s right,” Angelina went on. “His theory has more meat than yours. Tessa may be our culprit. However, that still doesn’t change our case.”
“How do you figure that?” Spencer said, his tone more subdued than it’d been a moment ago. “All we have to do is prove Dee isn’t guilty then point the D.A’s office to the real killer.”
“You haven’t met Dee, have you?” Angelina eyed him. “If Tessa really did this, she won’t withdraw her confession.”
“We can convince her,” Spencer said, earning himself a glare from Kelly.
Angelina shook her head. “If we push her, she’ll simply switch lawyers.”
By the time the meeting ended, the team had decided that they would try convincing Dee to change her plea. But none of them held hope of that happening.
If only they would listen to her, Kelly fumed as she sat at her desk, then they could have a way to change Dee’s plea. If they convinced Dee that Tess was innocent too, she wouldn’t feel like falling on her own sword. But of course no one was listening to her.
Ugh! Kelly wished she had more evidence to back up her claim that Tessa was innocent, or that she had Spencer’s quick tongue so she could get her colleagues to trust her instincts. God, he was annoying. She was still seething when Spencer suddenly showed up at the junior associate’s office. Her annoyance immediately shot up several notches.
“Russell, I noticed several pill-bottles in the master bathroom’s medicine cabinet,” Spencer said as he stood at the doorway. “Whose are they?”
Kelly’s interest was immediately peaked. Why was he looking into the medicine cabinet?
“Most of them are George’s prescriptions,” Russell answered.
“What for?”
“Mm.” Russell shifted through some documents. “High blood pressure and severe headaches.”