by Lola Gabriel
“Yes. She was found stabbed to death in her home. Her neighbor found her and called the cops. They know we were seeing each other and that she cheated on me. They seem to think I would have been angry enough about that to kill her.”
“But didn’t you tell them it was just casual?”
“Of course I did, but they weren’t buying it. And I could hardly tell them it was never going to go anywhere because I’m immortal and she isn’t, could I?”
“I guess not,” Samuel said with a wry smile. “But surely they need more evidence than a motive that’s flimsy at best.”
“Apparently, my fingerprints and DNA were found at the scene,” Mitchell said.
“You went back there?” Samuel asked, surprised. “After she cheated on you?”
“No.” Mitchell shook his head firmly. “I wasn’t particularly bothered that Lisa moved on. Hell, I understand why she did it. She wanted a level of commitment I couldn’t give her. But I have some pride. There was no way in hell I was going to go back to sleeping with someone who would betray my trust. I didn’t go back there, Samuel. I’m being set up.”
“Joshua?” Samuel guessed.
Mitchell shrugged. “Maybe. It’s not really an immortal’s style, involving the police this way, though, is it? It risks drawing too much attention to the community as a whole. But I can’t think of anyone else who would hold such a grudge against me.”
“You’re right. It’s not an immortal’s style, but maybe that’s why he’s done it. Maybe he thinks you won’t associate this with him, and he can get his revenge on you.”
“I honestly don’t know. But I’m now in the middle of a murder trial, and I have to keep my nose clean. I can’t get caught poking about anywhere, and if Joshua is involved in this somehow, then I need to stay as far away from him as possible. So I have a favor to ask of you. One you can say no to if you want to with no hard feelings, because it’s not going to be easy. It’s likely going to be dangerous.” Samuel nodded for him to go on. “I need you to do the poking about for me. Find out from Joshua’s associates if he is behind this.”
“I will,” Samuel promised. “And don’t worry about it being dangerous. I’m a damned dragon. I’m not afraid of a demon or two.”
Mitchell laughed softly. Samuel’s reaction was better than anything he could have been hoping for. “Just be careful, because of the mind control. If he gets too far into your head, you won’t be able to turn. I have no idea if his associates have the same tricks as him, but you know demons. They all have their own little tricks, so just be on your guard, okay?”
“What if it isn’t him?” Samuel asked.
“Then find out who the hell it is,” Mitchell replied.
“And what if it is him? It’s not like we can kill him without an Ure sword.”
“For now, I just want to know if it’s him. If it’s not, then this whole thing might just go away. Maybe it’s Lisa’s new lover. Maybe they got into a fight or something, and he figured I would make a good fall guy. That, I can work with as a legal defense.”
“So really, it would be best if it wasn’t Joshua, wouldn’t it? Because you can hardly tell a court that a demon set you up because you fried him for abducting a girl.”
“Exactly,” Mitchell said.
“So how much have you told this Hughes guy? Your lawyer.”
“Actually, my lawyer isn’t Hughes. At least, not anymore. He passed my case to one of his senior partners. I’ve told her I’m innocent, that I’m not up for making any plea bargains, and that I think I’m being set up. I tried to tell her I was home alone during the time of the murder, but she saw right through that. She told me she believes I didn’t kill Lisa and that she will fight for me, but she’s not particularly happy that I tried to lie to her. In the end, I told her the truth; that I can’t tell her my alibi. She relaxed a bit after that. I think she thinks I was smoking pot or something and that I’ll end up telling her where I was and what I was up to at some point down the line.”
“You can’t tell her the truth,” Samuel said quickly.
“No shit,” Mitchell agreed. “Why would you even think to say that?”
“Because you trust her. Because you like her.”
“She’s my lawyer,” Mitchell insisted. Even to his own ears, his protestation sounded weak.
“Just be careful Mitchell,” Samuel warned. “Getting involved with her isn’t a good idea.”
“I’m aware of that,” Mitchell replied coolly. “I have no intention of getting involved with Lexi. Or any other mortal, for that matter. Believe me, if nothing else has come out of this whole mess, I’ve more than learned my lesson about having a bit of fun with mortals.”
He felt his dragon stirring inside of him. It clearly had other ideas about whether or not he would get involved with Lexi, but Mitchell knew that this time, he would have to listen to his head rather than the primal instincts of the beast within him—no matter how much the idea of never being with Lexi pained him deep inside.
4
Lexi stepped out of the court building into the bright sunlight. She had gotten her verdict. Innocent. She had delivered her closing argument, and she had known then she would win the case by the jury’s reaction to her words. The deliberations hadn’t taken long, and that had convinced her. In her experience, a guilty verdict always took longer to come to.
She shook hands with her client at the top of the steps to the courthouse, and he pulled her into a hug.
“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear.
“You’re welcome,” she told him, meaning it.
She jogged down the steps and went around the back of the building to her car. She switched her cell phone back on, checking for any missed calls or messages. There weren’t any, and she felt her heart sink for a moment. She had been hoping for something from Mel, the firm’s investigator, whom she’d tasked with trying to find out if there was anyone in Mitchell’s life who hated him enough to kill someone and frame him for it. It was no small task, and she had only given it to Mel that morning. She wouldn’t be likely to get any results from it for at least a few days, but she’d still let herself hope.
Normally, after winning a case, Lexi was practically walking on air, but today, it was different. Today, she was focused on Mitchell’s case, already thinking about what she would do once she got back to the office. She didn’t have the luxury of taking out any time to celebrate her win. Perhaps her client would celebrate enough for the two of them. She had given him his life back, and she was proud of herself for that.
She reached the office and parked her car. She entered the building and took the elevator to the top floor. She had barely stepped out of it when Alex appeared at her side.
“Mr. Hughes wanted to see you the second you came back from court,” she said.
Lexi smiled to herself. He probably wanted to congratulate her on her win.
“Um, I don’t think it’s about what you think it’s about,” Alex said uncertainly.
“What do you mean?” Lexi asked.
“Well, you’re smiling. But Mr. Hughes isn’t happy, Lexi. Not at all. He’s pissed. With a capital P.”
Lexi frowned. What had she done to piss Jared off? She’d won her case, what more did he want? It must be about something else. “I’d better go straight there then. I don’t want to make it worse.”
Alex nodded and headed back to her cubicle while Lexi went on to Jared’s office. She knocked, and he shouted her in straight away.
“How did it go today?” he asked before she’d even sat down.
“We won. The client is a free man,” she smiled.
“Good,” he said. He didn’t smile back at her, and Lexi suddenly felt a tightness in her stomach and her throat. Maybe he was pissed at her, after all. But why? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Had she?
“Did I miss something in the case?” she asked.
Did it matter? She had won. Jared would have pointed out any oversights so she didn’t make the mistake again, but he
wouldn’t have been angry like this. She wished he would just spit it out. At least then, whatever it was, she could explain. The not knowing what she was meant to have done was the worst feeling.
“No. You didn’t miss anything. I’m not annoyed about that. You handled that case perfectly. What I’m annoyed about is that Rick came to me this morning and told me he can’t use Mel today because she’s working on something for you.”
Now Lexi was really confused. She was allowed to use Mel’s services. That was what she was there for. Jared looked at her for a moment, and he seemed to sense where her thoughts were going.
“I’m not pissed off that you’re using Mel’s services. I’m pissed off that you’re wasting her time investigating on a case that I’ve already told you to plead out on.”
Oh, so that was what this was about. Lexi relaxed, pleased that it was something she could so easily explain.
“The client doesn’t want to plead out,” she said. “He swears he’s innocent, and he wants to go to trial.”
“Go to trial?” Jared raised an eyebrow. “You’ll get crucified in court, Lexi, and he’ll do life. Why didn’t you talk him out of it like I told you to do?”
“Because I believe him,” Lexi said.
Jared stared at her for a moment. She got the impression he was waiting for her to laugh. When she just looked back at him, he sighed loudly and shook his head.
“Have you even read his file?”
“No. I thought it would be more fun to go in totally blind,” she answered sarcastically.
“Okay, I asked for that one,” Jared admitted. “But how can you believe he’s innocent after reading through the evidence against him?”
Lexi thought about it for a moment. If she started throwing around the suggestion of a set up with no proof, Jared would laugh her out of his office. It was hard to put into words why she believed Mitchell. Her gut told her he was telling her the truth, but how could she explain that in a way Jared would accept as a reason to pursue the case? She certainly couldn’t tell him about the way Mitchell made her feel, like she had found something that she hadn’t even known she was looking for, and that someone who made her feel that way couldn’t be a person who was capable of coldblooded murder.
“The evidence is all too neat,” she started. “There’s no messiness. No complications. It’s like it was all just sitting there, right in the most convenient spot, waiting to be found.” Jared didn’t look convinced, and Lexi hurried on before he could tell her to drop the case. “And there’s something else. I know it sounds stupid, but I’m asking you to trust me on this. My gut instinct tells me there’s more to this than meets the eye.”
Jared considered her words for a moment. “Well. I have to say a good lawyer trusts their gut. And you’ve proven yourself to be a good lawyer over the years.”
“So, I can keep going with the case?” Lexi asked, hardly daring to believe she had managed to convince him.
“You have two weeks. If you can’t come up with anything solid to prove the client’s innocence in that time, either you tell him to take the plea bargain road, or we’re dropping the case.”
Two weeks wasn’t long, but Lexi knew Jared had thrown her a bone. He was going against his own instincts to trust hers, and she would just have to work harder and find what she needed quickly.
“Thank you,” she said, standing up. “I’d better get started then.”
Jared nodded, and Lexi left the office. She felt as though she had won a small victory, but the tight timeline still bothered her. If Mitchell had been set up, whoever did it would have been careful to cover their tracks, and finding concrete evidence might be hard. She still had one ace up her sleeve, though. If it came to the point where she had to tell Mitchell they were dropping his case, she would convince him to give up his alibi. If she could then verify his story, no matter what illegal activities he was mixed up in, Jared wouldn’t make her drop the case. He would take the same attitude as her. He might deserve to be punished for whatever he had really been doing, but he wouldn’t go down for a murder he hadn’t committed. Not on their watch.
She returned to her office and began going through the boxes of discovery the DA had sent over. Straight away, she found something that didn’t sit right with her. One of Mitchell’s prints had been found on the door jamb, which had been forced to allow the murderer access to the house. But there was no record of his fingerprints being anywhere else in the house.
Did that mean they hadn’t found any other prints, or did it mean that they hadn’t bothered searching anywhere else once they’d found that one? Either way, it didn’t make much sense. Why would Mitchell touch the door and then put gloves on? Or in the other scenario, why wouldn’t the detective keep looking for further prints? And if they had kept looking, why wasn’t there any information about any other prints they’d found?
She wouldn’t find the answers to those questions anywhere in here. She thought for a moment, and then she grabbed the file, her car keys, and her handbag, and left the office. She pushed the file into her bag as she waited for the elevator. She practically ran to her car, and she was sure she broke a few speed limits as she headed across town to Lisa’s address. She was going to go and have a look around the crime scene, see if she could spot the telltale white powder from the fingerprint search anywhere else in the property.
Once there, she parked, got out of her car, and looked around. The street was nice. It wasn’t one of the really nice streets full of luxury homes, but it was no slum. It was what Lexi thought of when she thought of quiet, peaceful suburbia. Except this street had felt the effects of getting too complacent in believing living in a nice neighborhood kept you safe at home.
The outside of Lisa’s house and her front garden were well kept, like all of the homes in the street. There was nothing that looked to be out of place, nothing that suggested a murder had happened here. Except for the bright yellow crime scene tape across the front door. It looked so out of place on the pristine white front door.
Lexi made her way around to the back of the property, where she knew the murderer had entered the house. The back door had a similar crime scene tape in place, but the locksmith had yet to come out and secure the door, just as Lexi had hoped. If she got caught creeping into the property, she’d be in trouble, but she had risked similar things on other cases, and she knew how to get in and out without being seen.
She pulled a pair of latex gloves from her handbag and moved to the door, pulling it open and ducking beneath the tape. She looked at the doorframe. It had indeed been forced open. The wood of the frame was split, and she could see the white powdery residue from the finger printing. She moved through the kitchen and into the dining room, where Lisa had been killed. She winced at the outline of Lisa’s body, still visible on the ground. She winced even more when she saw the blood-soaked carpet around the outline.
Lexi saw plenty of white dusty residue, which made her raise an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting about the blood and the outline. The cops had fingerprinted inside, but evidently, they hadn’t found any more of Mitchell’s fingerprints. She pulled her cell phone out and shot off a few photographs. She could never use these in court, as she had no right to be in the property without going through the official channels, but if it came to it, she might be able to use them to prove her theory to Jared, or at least to convince him there was something there to find. It could buy her more time if it came to it.
She left the property and pulled the door back to flush. She slipped the gloves off and put them in her handbag. She wasn’t concerned with being seen in the garden. She had every right to come out to the property as Mitchell’s lawyer, but being seen with gloves on wouldn’t go down too well.
She pulled the file from her bag and flicked through to the fingerprint report. Except for the one print found on the door frame, the only other prints recorded belonged to Lisa herself and Tyler Bowes, the neighbor who had found Lisa. She made a note on her page of scribblings to look
into Tyler. Something about his story struck her as odd, too. Why had he risked entering the property even after calling the police? It was probably nothing, but her instincts were firing, and once that happened, Lexi had to follow up on it.
She moved back to the front of the property and stepped into the road. She estimated that Tyler’s place was indeed close enough to Lisa’s for him to have heard her screams. But that meant that the neighbor on the other side could also have heard something, and there was no mention of her being questioned. That was another red flag for her. She set off towards the house and knocked on the door.
A young woman with long black hair pulled the door open. She peered curiously at Lexi and gave her a friendly but slightly cautious smile.
“Can I help you?” she asked. Her tone matched her friendly smile.
“My name is Lexi Lord,” Lexi said. “And I’m doing some investigating into the murder that took place next door. I was wondering if I could come in and ask you a few questions?”
She worded her statement carefully. She didn’t want to come out and say she was a cop. That was a line that she wouldn’t cross, but if she mentioned she was a lawyer, particularly a defense lawyer for the accused, people often refused to talk to her.
“Sure,” the woman said, stepping back and letting Lexi enter. “It’s just terrible, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” Lexi agreed.
“Would you like a cup of tea or coffee or anything?” the woman asked her.
“No, thank you.” The woman shrugged and gestured for Lexi to sit down. Lexi took an armchair, and the woman sat down on the couch next to the chair. “I didn’t catch your name,” Lexi said, knowing fine well the woman hadn’t told her it.
“You wouldn’t have, being that I didn’t say it,” the woman said. “I’m Hattie Paulson, and yes, this is my house.”
“Were you home on the afternoon of June 30th?” Lexi asked.
“Yes,” Hattie answered. “And to be honest, I’m shocked the cops haven’t been around to talk to me. But they have already decided they’ve found the killer, haven’t they? And I guess they’re worried I will end up telling them something that doesn’t fit their neat little theory.”