“Tori, we’ve all been working on this case since the first child disappeared almost six months ago. I wasn’t expecting you to solve it over dinner. I’m just looking for threads to pull together to make sense of it all. Who knows, I could be chasing down more dead ends. All of these cases could indeed be unrelated. Still, I have to do something. I can’t stand by and watch more kids disappear under my nose.”
“I get it. I just feel terrible because my hands are tied. I want to help you, but I have no access to any of my files. If I ask other people to help, it jeopardizes their jobs. I can’t do that to them.”
“I’m not asking you to. What you gave me tonight is a place to start. I wish I could return the favor.”
“So do I. It’d be nice to know why I lost my job. It has to be something more than just professional jealousy, racism, or sexism. I’ve faced all that stuff before and still succeeded. This is something bigger.”
“You can’t quit fighting. You were a natural fit for Assistant District Attorney. You’re one of the best prosecutors I’ve ever seen. Stand up and advocate for yourself. It’s what you do best. Now, you need to make yourself your client.”
Shooting to my feet, I walk over and poke him in the chest. “It must be nice to make decisions for me. But you have no idea what I’ve been coping with for the past three years. My job is only a small portion of the hell that I’m dealing with right now. In case you forgot, I’m trying to keep my mother alive. It’s harder than you think when the woman who used to love you doesn’t always remember she even knows you. Speaking of that, I need to get back to her room. So, any further lectures on how I should be living my life will need to wait.”
I spin on the ball of my foot and storm off toward my mother’s room. I resolve not to look back. Maybe Cody and I are just not meant to be. I’ve got too much other stuff to worry about right now. I don’t need someone telling me how I need to save the world. I can barely save myself.
Beep … Beep … Beep … Beep! I sit straight up looking frantically around for whatever monitor alarm is sounding. To my amazement, I’m not in the hospital. This is my bedroom, and that’s my alarm clock! How in the heck did I get here? I scramble out of bed and yank my alarm clock out of the wall as I struggle to turn it off.
I glance down at myself and realize I’m still wearing the same workout clothes I wore to my exercise class before Bonni Jeanne called me to tell me that my mom had fallen yesterday.
I bolt to the bathroom and take care of business. Vaguely, I wonder how long I’ve been asleep. I’m shocked when I look in the mirror and see my bloodshot eyes. Wearily, I brush my teeth and throw my hair up in a ponytail. I quickly return to my room and choose clean clothes and try to puzzle through the sequence of events which brought me back to my house.
Suddenly, I hear a noise outside my bedroom door.
Instinctively, I grab a heavy lamp and stand next to the door as it slowly opens. My heart is racing as I hear a familiar voice ask, “Hey Tori, are you ready for breakfast?”
I exhale heavily as I clutch the lamp to my chest. “Darn it, Cody! You scared me half to death. What are you doing here? Better yet, what am I doing here?”
Cody’s eyes widen when he sees my improvised weapon.
“You’re not gonna clobber me with that when I answer you, are you?”
I raise an eyebrow. “I suppose it depends on your answer.”
“Can I set this down?” Cody asks as he nods toward the tray of food he’s carrying.
“Where’d you get all that food?” I demand.
Cody shrugs. “I made it.”
“Out of the stuff in my kitchen?” I ask incredulously.
“It was a bit of a challenge. But with a little creativity, it came together.”
Not knowing what else to do, I set the lamp down and walk back over to my bed and crawl under the covers.
“Oh great, now I get to serve you breakfast in bed. It won’t quite be a surprise, but it'll still be nice.”
“Cody Dewayne Erickson! You still haven’t answered my question. Why am I here and not at the hospital with my mom?”
“How did you know my middle name?” Cody deflects.
“Cody!” I warn as my frustration grows. “Answer my question. I know your middle name because I’ve deposed you before, did you forget?”
Cody salutes me before he picks up the tray and crawls into bed with me.
“No ma’am, I did not forget your phenomenal skills as an attorney. You’re here because you needed help. Apparently, the emotion of the night caught up with you and you passed out from the sheer emotion or exhaustion of the moment.”
“Oh my gosh! How embarrassing. I don’t even remember.”
“It’s okay; I don’t think the nurses will hold it against you.”
I look around my room frantically trying to figure out what time it is. I mentally curse myself when I remember I screwed up my alarm clock when I was turning it off. “I need to get back to the hospital. My mom is by herself,” I blurt in a panicked voice. “My mom has been all alone in the hospital for hours!” I sob. “How could I be so irresponsible?”
Cody puts his arm around me and holds me as deep sobs wrack my body. “Shh, Tori, listen to me. Your mom isn’t there by herself. Bonni Jeanne is there and Crystal Downing went to keep her company. Your mom is fine. I’ve been checking in every two hours. She’s resting comfortably.”
I sag against Cody in relief. “Oh, they didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. But they wanted to because they care about you. Why don’t you eat some breakfast? It’s going to be a long day. Your mom has to have surgery today.”
“Oh gosh, they were supposed to do that the first thing this morning. We'll be late!” I exclaim as I try to leave the bed.
“Tori, stop. You need to eat. We have plenty of time before the surgery. You work out insanely early in the morning, remember?”
“No! You stop!” I snap as I pull away from him. I grab some clothes and head toward the bathroom calling back over my shoulder, “You don’t have the right to tell me what to do. You don’t know what this is like. My mom counts on me to be there. I’m the only person she has — even if she doesn’t quite understand that.”
Right before I turn the shower on I hear Cody say in a resigned voice, “I wasn’t trying to offend you, I was just trying to help you take care of yourself so you can take care of your mom.”
I lean my head up against the cold tile in the shower and let the freezing water flow over me. I’m too frustrated with myself to let it warm up. I suppose that’s my punishment for being an ungrateful witch.
The logical side of me knows Cody is a good guy who’s trying his best to help out in a difficult situation, but the side of me who’s in the middle of a meltdown can’t get over the injustice of it all.
CHAPTER SEVEN
CODY
DYLAN CATCHES ME AS I’M headed to the supply room to get another stack of notebooks. He taps me on the shoulder and I nearly drop everything I’m carrying. “Are you ever going to go home, or should the captain start charging you rent?”
I shrug. “I’ve got things to do, people to meet, cases to solve … you know the drill.”
“I do know the drill. But I also know you’re doing everything yourself. Some of these cases haven’t even been assigned to you. You could have the officers in charge actually handle their own cases —”
“I know — but I’m chasing down a lead Tori gave me the other day. It’s important that I ask the same questions the same way to everyone to make sure I get consistent answers.”
Dylan runs his hand through his hair. “Look, I’m not gonna question the way you do your job. But you need to watch yourself. You don’t want to get burned out. I know you want to find these kids, but you can’t kill yourself in the process.”
I chuckle. “That’s funny coming from you. I swear you and I just had this conversation a few weeks ago.”
“We did. That’s why I recognize
all the symptoms. You need to go home and get some rest, so you can find some objectivity.”
“Okay, fine. I was about to wrap it up here anyway. I’m planning to take a three-day weekend.”
“Now you’re talking! Go take Tori on a date or something productive. You know, like normal people do?”
“I’d love to, but I don’t think she’s talking to me.”
“What in the heck did you do to her this time?”
“I stepped in it. I stuck my nose where it shouldn’t have been and I gave my opinion about things I knew nothing about. I got a little taste of Tori Clarkson’s famous fiery temper. I suppose I deserved it too, but that doesn’t make it suck any less.”
“So that’s it? You’re just gonna give up because the lady got mad at you?”
“Nah, not my plan. I’m simply regrouping. I’ve decided to put my money where my mouth is. I try not to be repeatedly stupid if I can help it.”
“Well, I hope you decide to do all this after you take a shower and a nap. At this very moment, you are the definition of disgusting — I hope you are awake enough to have that degree of self- awareness,” Dylan teases.
“I do. I have spent a crazy amount of time today trying to decide whether the first thing I’ll do when I get home is shower and take all the grime off or collapse into bed for twenty-four hours straight.”
“That’s a tough call. When I’m in your shoes, I always tried to decide whether I can stay awake long enough to take a shower without drowning. If the answer is no, I sleep first.”
“Good call. Sleep it is.” I answer as I sling my backpack over my shoulder. “See you in a few days.”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Dylan teases.
“You’ve been telling me that same lame joke for years. You know I never pay attention.”
“Well, maybe one day you will.”
“Probably not today,” I call over my shoulder. It’s a good thing Dylan doesn’t know how true that statement is.
Crystal looks around Art Your Heart Out with wide eyes. “This is such a cool place. I can’t believe I’ve never been here.” She chuckles softly to herself. “Then again, I can believe it. I’m not very crafty.”
“You didn’t want anyone to know you were meeting with me, so I chose a spot where you were unlikely to ever go so you wouldn't run into your friends.”
Crystal laughs out loud. “That’s true, they’d never think to look for me here.”
Nancy, the owner, who’s been walking several steps behind us, suddenly speeds up and opens the door. “This is a room I’ve always intended to make into a classroom. At the moment, it’s just an overflow room.” She hands me a set of keys. “Make yourself comfortable. There’s water in the refrigerator. Cody, when you’re done, you can lock up my shop and take the keys over to Ink’d Deep. Jade is working on a new tattoo for me. I’ll be there for several hours.”
“Thank you, Nancy. I appreciate your help.”
“Don’t mention it. I can never thank you enough for all you did for my family. My daughter and my granddaughter are happy and healthy in no small part because of what you and your colleagues have done. If I can help you keep other people safe, it’s the least I can do.”
Nancy waves at Crystal and gives her a thumb’s up as she turns and walks out of her store.
Nervously, Crystal walks over and sits down on the couch. I pull up a rolling office chair and sit down across from her.
“Thank you so much for coming to talk to me today. I want you to know I’m not here in an official capacity. I’m here as Tori’s friend.”
“Okay, that’s nice. But why isn’t anything being officially done?”
“I don’t know the answer to that quite yet. Hopefully, what I find will help me come up with answers about why nothing seems normal in Tori’s case.”
“So, nothing I say to you will be public, right?”
“Right now, this isn’t even an official investigation. I’m not filing any reports or making any statements. Right now we’re just having a conversation between friends. It’s off the record until you want to make a statement on the record.”
Crystal wilts back against the couch. “Oh good, I’m so glad someone else thinks everything that’s happening is weird. I’ve worked for a lot of prosecutors in my years. You know, I’m almost old enough to retire — don’t tell anybody. I always lie to my friends about my age. Nobody really knows how old I am. Let me just tell you this — some of the people here are the kids of the people I started with. But I’ve never, ever seen anything like what happened to Tori.”
“Can you explain what you saw?”
“I don’t know if I can explain it. It was just too strange. Almost everybody likes Tori, but some folks never will. I’ll just put that out there. Some people are jealous because she’s really, really good at her job. Some people are mad because she’s a woman and they don’t think women should be in powerful positions. I know that’s true. It shouldn’t be, but it is. It was true when I started and it’s still true now.”
“Sadly, we see some of that in the police department as well.”
“There are even a few people who don’t think Tori earned her new position honestly because she’s black. They think somehow she cheated. I know that’s not true because I know how hard she works. She works rings around the other attorneys in our office. Even though her mama is sick, she works longer hours and tougher cases. The paralegals tell me she even adds cases to their briefs, and she’ll spend hours crafting her arguments and studying juries.”
“I know that kind of discrimination exists too. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or what you’ve accomplished, someone will always assume you got your job because of your race — not in spite of it. It’s always been a problem, but it’s far worse now. As politics grows uglier, so does systemic discrimination.”
“All that’s true — the sexism and the racism, but this seemed more than that —”
“That’s weird. Tori said the same thing,” I interrupt.
“I’m not surprised she picked up on it. There’s like a weird undercurrent. Even though she hasn’t been in the office for a while, I’m sure people have been gossiping so loud she must be able to hear in the community. We have some sort of gag order, but I can’t bear to stay quiet and let Tori suffer by herself.”
“When did the undercurrents start?”
“To be honest, there have been a few waves of weird undercurrents. The first wave started a few years ago when Derek Zane came on board. Everything about Mr. Zane is flashy. It’s big, bold and exaggerated. Some people like that kind of stuff and a lot of the attorneys in the office were falling all over themselves to impress him and, frankly, date him. He considers himself quite a catch. I suppose I see the appeal. He looks kinda like a movie star — if you catch him in the right light. Anyway, he has a high opinion of himself and he doesn’t mind sharing it.”
“What did Tori think of Mr. Zane?”
“Officially? They had no problems. Publicly, she tried to be supportive of whatever he did. Privately, she thought he should spend a lot less time grooming his public persona and his hair and dedicate a lot more time to learning the cases his office was handling and going after the true bad guys.”
“I take it Tori didn’t have a high opinion of how Derek was handling the position of district attorney?”
“Oh, I think it was more than that,” Crystal answers with a wry chuckle. “She found him downright repulsive.”
“Tori isn’t one to mince words. That must’ve been interesting.”
“She actually did a pretty good job of keeping her opinions to herself. However, Derek Zane had his eye on Tori. He wanted her to be one of his office conquests. It drove him crazy that she didn’t want to go out with him. I don’t have to tell you that Tori is beautiful. Mr. Zane made it a point to go out with all the most gorgeous women. He likes to go to all the high-profile events with beautiful arm candy. If the arm candy was smart, all the better. So,
when Tori rebuffed his advances, even as polite as she was, that didn’t go over well.”
“What do you mean? Can you give me some examples?”
Crystal’s expression tightens. “It was just stupid little unprofessional stuff that shouldn’t be happening in an office. You know, it got awful around the holidays when we have all the parties and get-togethers. Whenever Tori would show up alone to one of those, Derek would make some sort of remark like, ‘Well, it’s no surprise the Ice Princess is alone. No one in their right mind would put up with someone like her.’ It was demoralizing for Tori.”
“I can imagine.”
“For a while, a bunch of random stuff started going wrong with her car. Her tires would go flat, her gas cap would mysteriously go missing, and her gas was suddenly siphoned off. When she tried to report it to security, Mr. Zane told her that if she had a good man in her life, that kind of stuff wouldn’t happen to her.”
“What a load of garbage!” I exclaim. “Please tell me she reported this crap?”
“Reported what to who exactly? Tori couldn’t prove that Derek had done anything wrong. He could say he just has an offbeat sense of humor. He didn’t make any overt threats at that point, he hadn’t even penalized her — he just specialized in making her feel inferior and stupid.”
“What a jerk!”
“Yeah, that’s not even half of it. He loved to take credit for everyone else’s work. That’s just idiotic in an office like ours. We build cases as a team — but make no mistake; we know who doesn’t pull their weight. We also know who busts their butt to pull out a win, even when the odds are against us. Tori is that kind of prosecutor. She should not have lost her job.”
“I agree with you one hundred percent. You said the undercurrents occurred in waves, what happened next?”
“After a while, people started ignoring the digs from Derek and he moved on. I thought things would calm down. They did for a while — but then Mr. Fleming had a heart attack and Tori was promoted into his position. It was the right thing to do. She was next in line. Most folks here had no problem with that. It was her job fair and square.”
Love and Injustice Page 5
