by Dave Daren
“Press the pound key to listen to your one new message,” the mechanical voice intoned in a staccato rhythm.
I jabbed my ring finger against the pound key and waited to hear the line crackle.
“Hello,” a soft, far-away voice came across the line, as though it was coming through water. “This is Adam Rietvald, from Piney Crest. I... I know I told one of you, the cowboy, um, I don’t remember his name, but I told him we were withdrawing from the suit.”
I was practically on the edge of my seat as I listened to Rietvald creep his way through whatever it was he wanted to tell me. I heard what sounded like a man clearing his throat over the line.
“I… we’d be willing to talk… so... call me back whenever you can,” he finally said.
The line clicked off.
Chapter 14
Brody and Evelyn both turned their focus to me as I rapidly punched in the number from the list of scribbled names that had taken up permanent residence on my desk.
I didn’t recognize the name, which meant it was undoubtedly one of the residences that Brody had spoken with over the phone.
It had already been a few hours since I’d received the call, and I didn’t want to waste any more time. Really, I didn’t want to give him any time to potentially change his mind again about joining our side.
The line picked up after two rings.
“Hello?” Adam Rietvald said with a soft yawn.
“Hello, Mr. Rietvald,” I greeted him as my heart threatened to beat out of my chest. “This is Archer Landon, of Landon Legal, I just received your voicemail about wanting to talk?”
Across the room, both Brody and Evelyn stopped whatever conversation they’d just started as they seemed to pick up on what my words meant.
If I was on the phone with one of the potential plaintiffs that had turned us down, maybe it meant he’d be willing to come back to our side. Or maybe it was just some cruel cosmic joke. At that point, it felt like it could honestly have gone in either direction.
I couldn’t quite make out the sounds across the phone, but it sounded like a door had been very gently closed.
“Mr. Landon, thank you,” he said. “I must have called before you opened this morning. Um, I talked to your partner, I can’t quite remember his name, but he has the hat?”
He paused as if legitimately waiting for an answer.
“Brody,” I filled in, and the aforementioned man let the legs of his chair drop to the ground as he leaned toward me with a curious look.
Reitvald exhaled softly, and for a moment, I thought he wouldn’t say anything else.
“Right, right, Brody, that’s right,” he murmured more to himself than me. “I spoke with him and informed him we were backing out, because, well, we received an offer from Knox Chemicals, and it’s…”
He didn’t have to say anything more for me to understand.
It’s a lot of money, it’s a life-changing amount of money, it’s a guaranteed payday whereas I might never get paid if we sue. I could imagine every reason and excuse he might have found, and the worst part was, I understood each and every reason.
Nothing we were doing was a guarantee of some great financial windfall, but it was a chance to stop other people from being hurt the way the people of Piney Crest had been. But I didn’t have to placate Adam, or point out the potential good he could do, before he was continuing on of his own accord.
“But, I want to discuss rejoining the suit,” he sighed as he said the words. “I just want to do the right thing. Would you or your partner be able to drive out to see us? I’d drive to you, but my wife…”
Just like before, I didn’t need him to explain.
“Of course, would around five this evening work for you?” I asked.
On the other end of the call, Adam said something muffled that I couldn’t quite make out, presumably to whoever else was in the room before he came back onto the line again.
“Yeah, that works for me,” he said. “Do you need our address, or is it on file somewhere?”
He seemed twitchy and almost nervous, like he was worried about something, maybe the phone call itself, or maybe at the prospect of turning down the offer from Knox.
“We have your address,” I assured him in as gentle a manner as I could. “We’ll be by to see you at five, alright?”
I waited for some sort of confirmation on his end before I notched the phone back into the cradle. I slumped with relief and dropped my head against the back headrest of the chair with a hard sigh.
“Well?” Evelyn asked.
She was certainly never one to beat around the bush. Her arms pressed against the top of her makeshift desk as she fixed me with an inquisitive look.
I exhaled a slow, languid breath and then the tired lines of my face slowly started to form a smile.
“Well, it looks like we might have our twentieth residence after all,” I said as I tried to remind myself that we didn’t have twenty folks just yet. The phone call felt surreal, like some sort of good luck we had been long overdue for given everything that had happened.
Brody let out a loud whoop that nearly startled me from my seat. Somehow, I still managed to forget that he had been a football player in a past life, despite the fact that he still certainly acted like one at times.
“The Rietvalds?” I said the name like a question to Brody and waited for a sign of his recognition, which came in the form of a gruff nod, before I continued. “They’re willing to discuss rejoining the suit. I’m not sure what changed their minds, but I’m planning on heading out to meet them at five this evening.”
I leaned back in my chair and couldn’t fight the small twinge of hope that was stuttering in my chest.
The case we’d been building wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly a damn compelling one. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be enough.
Would it convince a judge? Would it convince a jury if it came to that? I needed, with every fiber of my being, to help the people of Piney Crest and bring them not only justice, but safety too. Could the facts we had compiled do that?
Evelyn’s lips pursed, and she tilted her head to the side.
“Why five o’clock, do you have a date beforehand?” she asked while clearly making fun of me.
I rolled my eyes and pushed myself up to my feet with the clatter of my chair’s wheels skidding against the wood floor.
“No, I have a very long, very well-deserved nap that needs taking,” I announced with a tired smile.
The exhaustion I’d been fighting refused to be ignored any longer. I didn’t even trust myself to drive home and planned on walking the few blocks back to my apartment, just to be safe.
“And afterward, I intend on changing my clothes and showering, though, maybe not quite in that order,” I continued.
I reached above my head and twisted my body to loosen the crick in my back and the ache in my muscles. I still tossed around the idea of seeing a chiropractor when the case was settled, because with the toll my body had already taken, I’d certainly earned it. I dropped my arms back down and gave a yawn I didn’t bother to hide.
“After that, I’ll meet you back here, Brody, and we can drive out to Piney Crest?” I questioned, just to make sure he was on board with the plan.
Before he could reply, however, Evelyn spoke up.
“No,” she said, simply.
Both Brody and I turned our focus on her with matching sets of raised eyebrows.
“No?” I repeated in confusion.
“No,” she said once again with a curt nod of her head. “You two boys have done decent leg work with the residents of the neighborhood, but you keep on going in with a hammer when what you need is a chisel. Understand?”
I, in fact, did not understand, and based on the confused look I shared with Brody, he was equally as lost.
“Uh?” I eloquently said.
Evelyn rolled her eyes and gave an annoyed little huff.
“You two aren’t exactly the mos
t tactful people,” she said without any malice, but it still managed to sound like an insult coming out of her mouth.
Because I wasn’t a stupid man, I didn’t point out that she wasn’t exactly who I’d select to be the poster child of ‘tact’, either.
“Sometimes you need a woman’s touch,” she said, and I worked very hard to keep my confusion off my face. “So, you’ll pick me up here instead of Brody, and I’ll go with you.”
Evelyn, like always, left absolutely no room for argument.
I sent a helpless look in Brody’s direction, but he seemed to have come to the same conclusion that I’d been thrown into. I cleared my throat.
“Alright, I’ll bring you with me,” I agreed while feeling a bit like I was at gunpoint.
And given that little Crown Royal bag in her purse I’d yet to purge from my mind, I suppose I was.
She gave a prim, pleased little nod.
“Good, now go the hell home and get some rest,” she ordered. “You look like shit.”
Whatever sort of nicety her first comment had come with was gone in an instant with the second, and I had to laugh.
“Alright, alright,” I assured her. “I’m going home. I won’t be able to call you when I’m on my way here, so just plan for four-thirty.”
Her only reply was a pleased little nod of her head.
I had the brief, hilarious little thought that I could plop Evelyn in a windtunnel, and her hair still probably wouldn’t budge. I did not share that thought aloud. Instead, I turned and began making my way out before I could say something I’d regret.
“Well,” Brody began, “I’ll be around if she changes her mind.”
Behind me, I heard Evelyn scoff, and as the door swung shut behind me, I could only catch the faintest traces of an argument beginning to swell. I was glad to be going home, and the thought of being able to sleep nearly made me salivate.
Which, while a little disgusting, was probably warranted given the fact I’d been awake for over twenty-four hours at that point. I counted it as a small miracle that I was still on my feet at all.
I missed the comforting weight of my phone in my back pocket, but, given its status as a ‘very niche novelty paperweight’ at this time, there wasn’t much it could do for me.
It just felt strange to be without it, and so I made the walk back to my apartment in a brief, odd silence with only my thoughts to keep me company.
Seeing Clara had been a surprise, but a welcome one, and I couldn’t help but marvel at what she’d started for her daughter by launching this case.
The thing she’d stumbled upon was just as astounding as it was horrifying, and she’d put it together on her own.
I wasn’t afraid to admit I was impressed, but I did pointedly ignore the memory of Evelyn’s comment about the pretty nurse. Some things just weren’t in the cards, and I might not have been a genius, but I’d never been stupid.
I nudged open the door to my apartment and could have collapsed in relief. I thought I’d been tired in the office, but once I was within the vicinity of my bed, I felt about a thousand pounds heavier. I practically had to drag my feet across the floor toward my bedroom.
It would have made more sense to shower before crawling into my unmade bed, but that screamed “accident waiting to happen.” And if I fell in my shower, I wouldn’t even have my phone to call for help.
So, I set the alarm on the digital clock I had set by my bedside more out of habit than functionality, and was suddenly very glad I’d been lugging the thing around with me from place to place since college.
After double, triple, and quadruple checking the time on the alarm, I kicked off my shoes and my dirtied clothes and climbed into bed.
When I woke, I couldn’t even recall my head hitting the pillow. The shrill, obnoxious shriek of my alarm continued to blare as I worked to pull myself out of the fog left over from my heavy, dreamless sleep.
I rubbed my eyes with my knuckles and was almost surprised to see my bandaged hand.
I’d been more tired than I’d anticipated, and my body ached to go back to sleep and just let Evelyn handle seeing the Rietvalds, but I knew I couldn’t let that happen.
I swung one leg over the side of the bed once I freed myself from my navy sheets, and then another. I couldn’t yet shake the sluggish fog that circled my brain.
As I shuffled from my bed to the master bathroom, my body moved on autopilot alone. I’d be a liar if I said I was fully cognizant and aware as I went through the motions of turning on and climbing into the shower.
Despite my haze, the water felt wonderful on my aching muscles. I turned the faucet up until the heat was nearly unbearable and let the water beat against my back until I couldn’t stand it any longer. Then I turned the temperature back down to something a little more reasonable and set to work on removing a day’s worth of grime.
I scrubbed at my face and limbs while I did my best to keep from soaking my bandage-wrapped hand. I wasn’t sure I had the supplies Clara had mentioned I needed on hand and didn’t want to ruin her handiwork in my haste to clean myself.
Once I was certain I had managed to wipe clean all of the dirt and sand from the Texas wilderness I’d become far too acquainted with the night before, I turned the water off in the shower and stepped into my steam-filled bathroom. I wrapped a towel around my waist and dried my hair with another before leaving it draped over my shoulders.
I pulled open the door that led back into my room to let the steam escape and nearly recoiled at the sudden gust of cool air that burst into the room. I took a breath and braced myself for the temperature change before I walked back into my room to get dressed.
I settled on something a bit more casual than a full suit, because I had the feeling that the Rietvalds wouldn’t respond nearly as well to me if I showed up looking like they expected a lawyer to look.
My job was about justice, but it was also about people and how to read them, and I thought I had a fairly good understanding of what the Rietvalds needed to see.
In the end, I pulled on a pair of nice, dark trousers and a button-up shirt. I wanted to look professional, but not stern, respectable, but not authoritative. I wanted to make them comfortable, and I wanted them to be able to talk to me without feeling like they were being cross-examined.
I fastened my father’s watch around my wrist and flexed my aching hand, just to make sure the bandages Clara had wrapped around my knuckles were still secure.
Once I was certain I looked the part, I took a moment to give my hair another drying ruffle with the towel and combed through it so it would lay a bit flatter as opposed to flopping over my forehead. I needed a haircut about as badly as I needed to see a chiropractor.
I only had another thirty minutes or so before I’d promised Evelyn I’d meet her at the office, and I used that time to eat a hastily prepared sandwich and wash it down with a glass of water.
The nap had invigorated me, and for the first time all day my brain felt sharp. Without sleep, I’d felt like I was moving through honey when I tried to get anything at all done, like I was moving in slow motion. I was happy to see things had been set back to normal.
I locked up my apartment and made my way back out to the street and began the brisk walk. The sun was lower in the sky which made the heat tolerable as opposed to overwhelmingly miserable.
When I turned the corner to Landon Legal’s street, I saw that Evelyn was already waiting outside for me. She gripped her purse in front of her with both hands on the thin strap.
“About damn time,” she called out with a huff. “You’re almost late.”
I glanced down at my watch and stifled a snort. It was five minutes until 4:30, if anything, and I was more than almost on time. But, I wasn’t in the headspace to argue the semantics of time with Evelyn, and frankly, I was in too good of a mood.
“My apologies,” I said without sounding the least bit apologetic. “Shall we?”
I gestured to my dirtied car and derived a small bi
t of pleasure from the annoyed scrunch of Evelyn’s nose.
I added that to the list of things I needed when this case ended. A haircut, a visit to the chiropractor, and a car wash would all be necessary once we won our case. I could probably add a stiff drink to that list, too, if I was being honest with myself. Or maybe I should add a good night’s sleep.
But instead of standing there and continuing to make a mental list of everything my life was currently lacking, I walked around to the driver’s side of the car and nestled myself into the seat.
My earlier claims of never wanting to drive again echoed in my head, and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that the sentiment hadn’t changed in the last handful of hours.
However, I knew Evelyn had never been to Piney Crest, and the thought of trying to direct her to the neighborhood made me sentimental about being chased through the desert.
“You look rested,” Evelyn said with a curt nod of her head in what I could only hope was approval.
I nodded and stifled a yawn at her words as I began to navigate my way down the street.
“I don’t quite feel it,” I admitted. “I want to sleep another twelve or so hours, then I’ll get back to you on feeling rested.”
It might have been a joke, but I almost meant it. I hadn’t felt so exhausted since late night cram sessions in college.
The radio buzzed it’s hazy almost silence as we drove. Luckily for my shattered phone, I didn’t need it to navigate out to Piney Crest at this point. I felt like the directions to the neighborhood were just permanently etched into my mind by now, like basic math or my mother’s phone number.
Some things just got etched into the gray matter of your brain when you weren’t looking, but suddenly you had them forever. I wasn’t sure when the route to the poisoned neighborhood became one of them, but I wasn’t really surprised it was there.
We spent most of the drive in silence, with only the half-there sound of the radio to cut through the quiet.
