District Shifters Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  “Thank you. Send him in please,” Lexi said to her secretary.

  She nodded and disappeared, coming back a couple of minutes later with Samuel in tow. Lexi quietly appraised Samuel as he entered her office, and they shook hands. He was dressed in casual clothes, blue jeans and a white polo shirt. His hair was styled but not too much, and he was clean shaven. He looked like someone whom a jury would trust. Of course Mitchell had mentioned he had a past, and if it was anything other than a speeding ticket or maybe a bit of pot—which Lexi suspected it was, or Mitchell wouldn’t have been worried about it—the opposition would bring it up in court, and that might bias the jury against him.

  All of this went through her head in the seconds before she said hello to Samuel and introduced herself to him. She gestured for him to take a seat, and she sat back down in her own chair. She was hoping that the alibi would be so airtight, none of her earlier assessment would matter. The best-case scenario here would be using whatever Samuel told her to get the case thrown out altogether, and then his past wouldn’t matter.

  She started by taking Samuel’s full name and address, noting that he didn’t seem nervous, which she took to be a good thing. People who were lying to lawyers usually showed signs of nervousness.

  “So, you were with Mitchell on the afternoon of June thirtieth?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” Samuel nodded. “We went to Dave’s to watch the game,” he said.

  “Dave who?” Lexi asked.

  “Dave’s is a bar.” Samuel smiled. “It’s on Seventh Street.”

  Lexi smiled at him and made a note of it. “What time did you get there?”

  “We met after lunch and got to the bar around one, one fifteen,” Samuel said.

  “Was the bar busy?”

  “It’s always busy.”

  “And how long did you stay?”

  “I think we left around six.”

  Lexi nodded again. Samuel was answering all her questions, and he was doing it well, but something didn’t sit right with her. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but she got the impression that Samuel was lying. His story didn’t sound rehearsed, and he wasn’t doing that tell-tale thing where a liar over-embellished to try and convince you they’re telling the truth. Maybe it was only because she wanted to believe him so badly that she wouldn’t allow herself to do it.

  “If you end up being called to court as a witness, the DA will do everything he can to discredit your story. I’m going to ask you some questions about that afternoon. They may seem rather aggressive, but it’s just to see how you’ll cope under pressure.”

  Lexi would never normally do this to an alibi witness so soon, but she was curious to see if Samuel’s story would hold up. She spent the next hour or so firing questions at him about that afternoon. He answered them all quickly and calmly. She asked some of them more than once on purpose, and each time, his answer was the same, although the wording wasn’t exactly the same, which was good. It meant his answers weren’t rehearsed.

  Finally, she knew she had gotten as much as she could from Samuel, and she already had a good idea of what her next move would be. She thanked him for coming in, and he reassured her it wasn’t a problem. She walked him to the elevator and then went back to her office.

  She still had the niggling feeling about Samuel, and she knew she had to fully investigate this story. If he was lying, she didn’t want to risk getting blindsided in court, no matter how much she loathed to investigate and risk finding out that Mitchell had lied to her.

  Her next moves would confirm the truth for her one way or the other. She made a call to an old friend who worked in the records department down at the courthouse, and she asked him to pull the records of Samuel Mills and send them over to her but keep the enquiry off the record. He agreed to do it and told her that he would have them over within the next few hours. With that done, Lexi picked up her purse and left her office.

  She made her way down to her car and entered the address for Dave’s bar into her GPS. She pulled away and drove to the bar. She parked in the lot, noting that there was a lot of other cars present. Samuel had been right about the place always being busy. That was good. If the bar didn’t have CCTV, at least she might be able to find some other witnesses who remembered seeing Mitchell in the bar that day.

  She took a moment to look around as her eyes adjusted to the dimness inside of the place after the bright sunshine from the street. She strode across the room and saw the large screens showing the baseball game. Another good sign. She was starting to believe Samuel’s story, telling herself she was looking for problems where there weren’t any by not believing him immediately.

  She went up to the bar. The bartender finished serving the customer he was with and came over to her.

  “Hi,” she said. “I’d like to speak to the owner, please.”

  “And you are?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Lexi knew if she just gave her name, she’d get a no, but she also knew if she gave him a card and he saw the words Defense Lawyer, there was a better chance he would talk to her. It had worked in the past. Either the business owners were afraid they had become the target of something, or they realized she wasn’t with the DA’s office; therefore she wasn’t there to investigate them.

  She handed the bartender her card and smiled politely at him. He looked at the card and shrugged.

  “I’ll go and give him the card, but I can’t guarantee he’ll talk to you,” he said.

  Lexi didn’t like the bartender’s attitude, and she was getting fed up with him just standing there looking at her. She smiled politely again, and it was her turn to shrug.

  “He can speak to me now, or I can get a subpoena, and we can have this conversation in court. I’m fine either way,” she said.

  That got the reaction she wanted. The bartender finally scuttled off to find the owner. He returned in seconds with an older man in tow. The older man approached Lexi and offered her his hand.

  “Hi. I’m Dave Watford, the owner. Can I help you with something?”

  “Hopefully,” Lexi replied. She looked around, trying to see if anyone was close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation. Dave seemed to understand what she was doing.

  “Would you like to come to my office?” he asked.

  Lexi nodded, grateful to see his attitude was a whole lot better than his bartender’s. He opened the hatch and led her through the bar and into a short hallway. He looked back over his shoulder at her and grinned.

  “Sorry about him. You have no idea how many reps we get in here trying to get us to switch suppliers or some similar bullshit. I’ve told him to put them off. He probably thought you were one of them until you gave him your card, and, well, he just wanted to save face after that.”

  “It’s fine.” Lexi decided she liked Dave. “I deal with bigger and meaner guys than him every day.”

  Dave snorted a laugh as he opened his office door and gestured for Lexi to take a seat. “I’m guessing you probably represent bigger and meaner guys than him regularly.”

  Lexi nodded and smiled.

  “I do. Which is why I’m here. Do you have CCTV in here?” Dave’s face changed slightly, becoming more guarded, and Lexi hurried on. “Look, I’m not interested in making any trouble for you. My client has been accused of something, and he says that at the time of the crime, he was in here. All I want to do is check to see if I can see him on your footage. If I can, I can get the case thrown out without any messing around on the taxpayer’s dime.”

  “I can’t just hand copies of my footage out without a court order, but you’re welcome to take a look. If you see who you’re looking for, you can get a court order, right?” Dave said.

  “Right,” Lexi agreed, surprised at how easy this was turning out to be.

  Dave seemed to read her expression, because he laughed. “I’ve got nothing to hide. The only reason I won’t be able to give you a copy without a court order is because of my insurance company. What date are you looki
ng for?”

  “June thirtieth. Between two and two thirty,” Lexi answered.

  Dave stood up and went to a cabinet door. He pulled it open to reveal a monitor and a computer. He typed in a couple of commands, and the picture on the screen changed, showing the bar area from a few different angles.

  “Knock yourself out,” Dave said, indicating towards the screen.

  Lexi thanked him and walked over to the monitor. She watched the screens, looking for either Mitchell or Samuel, but she saw neither of them. She kept watching, carefully checking the faces of everyone at every table and those walking around. She kept her eyes glued to the monitor for the full half hour, vaguely aware of Dave behind her going about his business. At the end of the half hour, she felt a deep sense of disappointment. Either Samuel had lied to her, or he and Mitchell were somewhere off camera and the footage couldn’t help Mitchell. She turned back to Dave.

  “Are there any public seating areas that aren’t covered by the cameras?” she asked.

  “There’s a table or two that the cameras don’t reach,” Dave admitted. “But the main areas are covered.” He stood up and came to the monitor beside her. He pointed at the monitor. “That area there covers anyone coming to the bar from any angle.” He pointed to a different spot. “And that door there is the one leading to the bathroom. If you haven’t seen your guy on either feed, then chances are he wasn’t here when he claims to have been. I mean, you can look at some earlier or later footage if you want to.”

  Lexi shook her head. She knew in her gut she wouldn’t see Mitchell or Samuel no matter what time she looked. And besides, if she couldn’t prove Mitchell was here at the time of the murder, it didn’t much matter, anyway.

  “It’s fine. Thank you for your time.”

  “No worries. I’m sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for,” Dave said.

  He typed in another command on the computer, and the view changed again, showing a live feed of the bar right now. Dave led Lexi back down the hallway and through the bar, and she walked back to her car, defeated. She checked her cell phone as she sat in the parking lot, and she saw an email from her contact at the records department. It didn’t matter so much now. After all, Samuel had been proven to be lying about where he was at the time of the murder, but Lexi was curious, so she opened the email anyway.

  She read it and shook her head. Samuel’s record was totally clean. He didn’t have a shady past. Mitchell had lied to her completely. Even though she knew in her heart that he had played her for a fool, there was still a tiny part of her that kept asking what if. What if they were in the bar and just hadn’t used the bathroom or went to the bar in the half hour footage she’d watched? While that was the only useful part for using in court, it could still be that Mitchell and Samuel were telling the truth. Maybe Mitchell thought Samuel would have a record, but he had actually never been caught doing whatever it was he was up to. Maybe that was why Mitchell had been reluctant to involve Samuel.

  On a whim, Lexi opened up Google and typed in Samuel’s name. She easily found a LinkedIn profile. She clicked through to it and saw he was listed as working for Seven Oaks Entertainment. She went back to Google and found out the company was a large cinema complex on the edge of town. She finally fired up the engine of her car and pulled out of the parking lot. She decided to pay them a visit. If Samuel was on shift at the time of the murder, it was the proof she needed that she was being taken for a ride by the two men. If he wasn’t, then she would have to do some more digging. Either way, she wanted to know where she stood before she confronted Mitchell. She didn’t want to accuse him of lying to her only to find out that he hadn’t.

  Even as she pulled up in the parking lot of Seven Oaks, she knew she was wasting her time. If Mitchell had lied about his alibi, it made her wonder what else he had lied about, and she desperately didn’t want him to be guilty of murder. How could she condone being so drawn to someone who was capable of such a terrible crime?

  She got out of the car and headed towards the building, her mind ticking over with how she could get the information she needed. She had promised that she wouldn’t make any trouble for Samuel, and even if it turned out Mitchell had lied to her, she didn’t want to make herself as bad as him and break her word. Plus, she had to think of Samuel. If he was Mitchell’s best friend, he would never believe he was capable of murder, and while she didn’t condone what he might have done, she could at least understand it. Wouldn’t she have considered doing something similar for her own best friend before she understood the law?

  She entered the lobby of the building, a brightly lit, air-conditioned space that felt cool and relaxing. Soft elevator music played in the lobby. She looked around. There was a small line at the concessions stand, but the ticket booth was currently empty, and she made her way there.

  “Hi, how can I help you?” the girl behind the counter asked.

  “I would like to speak to the manager, please,” Lexi answered pleasantly.

  “May I ask what it’s regarding, ma’am? I might be able to help you,” the girl said. Her customer service smile didn’t falter, and Lexi wondered if she was worried inside that it might be a complaint about her.

  “I’m investigating a possible murder, and I need to view some of the complex’s CCTV footage,” she replied.

  “Oh,” the girl said, clearly surprised. Her smile had slipped now, replaced with a look of concern. “One moment, please.” She picked up a telephone and quickly explained the situation. She looked back up at Lexi, her smile back in place. “Would you like to take a seat on your left? The manager is on her way down now,” she said.

  Lexi thanked the girl and took a seat. Her plan was simple. She was going to tell the manager that her client was accused of a murder, and his alibi was that he was in the lobby buying a ticket at the time of it. She would watch the footage and see if Samuel was behind any of the counters. If he wasn’t, then she would ask for a list of every staff member who was working that day and say she might need to speak to them to confirm whether they remembered seeing her client here that day or not.

  She saw a woman in a smart grey suit and a pink blouse heading towards her. She stood up as the woman reached her. She extended her hand, and Lexi shook it.

  “I’m Marion Grimes, the manager here. Would you like to come through to my office?”

  “Lexi Lord,” Lexi replied, following Marion across the lobby and to her office.

  “Lou from the desk told me why you’re here, Ms. Lord,” Marion said as they sat down facing each other across a desk. “What exactly would you like to see?”

  “Please, call me Lexi. I’d like to see the footage you have of the lobby from June thirtieth between two and two-thirty, please.”

  “I was working that day, and I think I would have noticed if someone was killed here,” Marion said.

  “I’m sure you would have.” Lexi smiled. “It’s nothing like that. The murder happened a long way from here, but the accused claims he was here at that time. If he was, then he’s not the killer.”

  She chose her words carefully again, being sure not to come right out and say she was with the police, just enough to imply it. It seemed to be working. Marion nodded her head and began to type into her computer. She waited for a few seconds and then turned the monitor around so that Lexi could see the screen.

  “This is starting from two o’clock,” Marion said.

  Lexi could see the entire lobby, including Samuel working behind the concessions stand. Her heart sank. She could no longer try to convince herself that Mitchell had been straight with her. He had lied to her and roped Samuel into doing the same thing. It really was that simple.

  It was hard for her to sit there for the next half hour, pretending to be studying the footage carefully, but she remembered that she wanted to keep her word and not drop Samuel in it, so she made herself look at the monitor, even as her mind worked overtime. Finally, the time passed, and Marion stopped the feed.

  “D
id you find what you were looking for?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Lexi said. She caught herself, realizing that would mean she had spotted the accused and that the footage would be needed down the line. “But not what I was hoping for. He’s not on the footage.”

  “He lied to you?” Marion said, a little surprised.

  Lexi nodded. “It sure looks that way. Thank you for your time.”

  Marion escorted her back to the lobby, telling her she could call anytime if she needed anything else. Lexi told her she didn’t think it would be necessary, but she thanked her for being so helpful.

  Back in her car, she was surprised to feel a lump in her throat. How could she have been so wrong about Mitchell? How could she have been so taken with him? It seemed he was a textbook sociopathic liar and a conman, but a very charming one who had managed to worm his way into Lexi’s heart.

  She pulled her cell phone out and called Mitchell. He answered quickly, and even after everything that she had learned today, his voice still set her heart racing, and she knew, more than anything, that she still wanted him to prove her wrong. To convince her he had a good reason for lying about his alibi and to prove once and for all that he was the man she had thought he was.

  “Hi,” she said. “Can you meet me at my office in an hour? I know it’s kind of late, but there’s something urgent we need to discuss.”

  “Well, if you will still be working on my defense, how can I refuse?” Mitchell said. His voice was teasing, flirty, even, and Lexi felt her heart flutter again. Oh, God, please let him have a good explanation for all of this.

  “See you in an hour,” she said, ending the call before Mitchell’s voice could continue to be a distraction.

  She knew what she should do. She should drop the case. Even if there was an explanation for this, it was the second time he had lied to her, and she was staking her whole career on this shit. She already knew she wouldn’t do that, though. Not without giving Mitchell a chance to explain.