Chasing Justice

by Danielle Stewart

  “Very mysterious, I like that. So if you’re such an important businessman, what were you doing home in the middle of the day waiting to play video games?” She placed her drink back on the bar and tried to ignore the vibrating of her phone in her bag. The noise was loud enough to distract them and it was the third time it had gone off.

  “I handle the family side of the business. Up until school started I watched my nephew every day. Now I have him every afternoon. My brother is very protective, and he doesn’t trust him with anyone but family. It sounds like a lame gig, but it pays well, that’s for sure.” Somehow Sean had already managed to finish his beer and before even thinking of waving down the bartender another had appeared before him.

  “That sounds like a nice setup. How old is he? Doesn’t he have a mom who can watch him?” Piper didn’t want the questions to come too fast and sound like she was gathering information.

  “Chris is eight. His mom didn’t exactly like the lifestyle that came along with the family business, so she took off a few years ago. She’s a real bitch.” Piper assumed Chris was short for Christian III. What a lucky kid, part of such a wonderful legacy.

  “That is really cute. I think guys who get along well with kids are so hot.” She reached into her bag trying to get a glimpse of who was calling her while grabbing her lip gloss. No luck, she couldn’t see the caller ID without being more conspicuous, but luckily it had stopped vibrating. She smeared the lip gloss across her lips and puckered them together.

  “So is that enough to get you to finish that drink and get out of here?” His hand moved another inch up her leg as he leaned in toward her ear whispering, “My car is right out front.”

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth? You prove it to me.” Her phone began vibrating again, and she could see Sean becoming irritated, either with the phone or her protests about leaving. “A good uncle would have picture of his nephew in his wallet.”

  He huffed and finally released her leg, leaned over and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He flipped it open and there was a school picture of a little boy. He was perched in front of a fake autumn scene wearing the uniform of a private school. Piper leaned in to get a good look at the crest on his shirt and cooed over how adorable he was.

  She slid off her stool and whispered in his ear, “Let me go find out who is calling me and run to the ladies’ room. Then I’ll be right back, and we’ll talk about getting out of here.”

  “I’m done talking,” he hissed back, half angrily half playfully as he grabbed a handful of her ass on her way by.

  She looked over her shoulder at him and winked, “We’ll see.” As she rounded the corner of the restaurant and was out of sight she wrestled her stupid oversized bag for her phone. It rang again and the screen read Michael.

  “Hello?” she said in an exasperated tone. There was no answer, she heard the phone click and disconnect.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Michael’s voice called from behind her, sending her jumping. “Are you seriously on a date with Sean Donavan, or am I having some sort of stroke?”

  “Michael, you scared the hell out of me. What are you doing here, and why are you calling me every five seconds?” She knew the answer to the latter question, but faking ignorance seemed like her only card to play.

  “Look at you,” he said, pointing to her dress and hair. “I barely recognized you. I tried for fifteen minutes to convince myself it wasn’t you sitting at the bar with that complete degenerate. So tell me, do you have the nastiest taste in men or the faultiest judgment on earth? Because you are either out on a date with him or poking your nose where it doesn’t belong, either of which would be a terrible choice.” Michael’s face turned from hard-lined disappointment to genuine concern. “What have you gotten yourself into, Piper? When I told you to go check out those court records I had hoped you would either be too dumb to figure it out, or too smart to do anything more with them.”

  “Seriously?” Piper couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “So you knew all along what I would find? You had the answer and wouldn’t give it to me? More importantly, you’re too much a coward to do anything about it yourself. I’m writing a paper Michael, stop being so dramatic.” Piper tried to storm past him but he used his body to block her. He put his hands on her shoulders, not with force but enough for her to stay put.

  “What I believe and what I know are two different things. In this case I believe there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to a judge and a crime family. I’m certain you are in absolutely no position to go trying to find out on your own. I have tried two cases against Sean, and both were sexual assaults. He is a dangerous guy and as tough and smart as you are, you can’t outrun wickedness, it will catch up to you. Please, make an excuse to leave and meet me at my office. We’ll talk this out.” Michael brought himself down to her level and looked her in the eye. “Please.”

  “Fine.” Piper had gotten all she could out of Sean without actually having to sleep with him which she never intended to do anyway. Michael’s incessant phone calls had actually acted as a decent exit strategy, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of meeting him after. “I don’t need the lecture though, so I’ll skip the little meeting at your office. Thanks anyway.” She shook his hands off her shoulders and stormed past him.

  As Piper approached the bar she worked fast to concoct a decent story. “The pipes in my place burst,” she huffed, sounding flustered and put out. “I’ve got to get back there and deal with the damage. My landlord is having a meltdown. I’ll have to take a rain check on tonight.” She had prepared herself for some pouting, whining, and overall childish behavior on his part and was surprised at how calm he was.

  “Oh, that sucks. Why don’t you just finish your drink, that’s what we came here for, right?” He pointed to her bar stool and smiled crookedly at her. “The pipes won’t be any less broken in ten minutes.”

  She didn’t have time to dispute, her story was not thought out well enough to ad lib reasons she must leave right this second. When nothing came to her, she acquiesced and sat back down. She knew Michael’s eyes would have been on her. She knew he must be steaming mad, but she thought finishing her drink was a small price to pay for exiting this horrible date unscathed and with a little more information than she had when she arrived.

  The drink only tasted worse the longer it sat, and Piper decided to drink it quickly and make short work of it. With five or six large swigs that she tried to work in between more idle conversation, the drink was finished. Why she was worried about being rude was beyond her, but she thought she should wait at least another five minutes or so before taking off.

  It was in the middle of a discussion about video games that Piper realized something was amiss. She had been half-listening to Sean speak and half-organizing the thoughts of her plan in her head as she processed the information he had given her and considered ways to use it. Then she was doing neither; her thoughts seemed to be sloshing around in her head like a boat at sea. She felt dizzy and confused, her vision failing her slightly.

  When she grimaced and brought her hand to her forehead to try to steady the spinning room she heard Sean’s voice, now seeming far away. “You don’t look so good. We better get you out of here.” He lifted her arm, the one closest to him, and swung it up over his neck. In an instant she realized what was happening. He had put something in her drink and now was trying to take her out of the bar.

  Even though her limbs were heavy and she couldn’t find her voice, she used her free arm to swat at Sean’s beer bottle and knocked it to the floor where it smashed loudly. All she needed to do was draw some attention to herself and then someone, hopefully Michael, would intervene.

  “Hey.” She heard Michael’s voice swimming around in her head. She could barely keep her eyes open now and her legs were shaking, hardly able to support her weight. She didn’t want to keep holding on to Sean, but if he were to let go she knew she would fall to the floor.

 
; “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Michael stood between Sean and the door. “Did you drug her? You honestly think you’re walking out of here with some girl who can’t even see straight. That doesn’t sound like a good idea with a record like yours.” Michael was ready to fight, either with his professional skills or his fists, it didn’t matter. There was no way Piper was leaving with Sean while he was standing there.

  “I don’t have a record. I’ve never been convicted of anything. You’re the lawyer, you should know that. Just because you can’t win a case doesn’t mean you have to go around making shit up. She had a few too many drinks, I’m taking her home.” Michael was a full five inches taller than Sean and significantly stronger. As long as Sean didn’t have a weapon on him, or was stupid enough to show it in a busy restaurant, then Michael felt confident. Sean tried to push past him and in one fell swoop Michael pulled Piper to his side and shoved Sean in the other direction.

  Chuck the bartender, still meek in his approach, came out from behind the bar and talked quietly to Sean. “Sean, buddy, if you catch another case your brother is going to kill you, especially if you draw any more attention to this place. Just get out of here and I’ll cover for you.” He ushered Sean toward the door.

  “Wait,” Michael shouted, having a last minute epiphany. “What the hell did you give her and how much?” He knew this information would be vital to figuring out what to do next with the lifeless girl pressed to his side.

  “Right, like I’m going to tell a lawyer. That tease wasn’t worth it anyway.” Sean pushed open the door and proceeded to flash his middle finger back at Michael. If there had been a safe place to lay Piper down he would have followed Sean into the parking lot and beat him senseless.

  The bartender waved back at Michael signaling that he would try to find out and to stay right where he was. Michael looked down at Piper who was now limp and seemed as though she were sleeping. He watched her chest rise and fall and was relieved to see she was still breathing. A few moments later Chuck reemerged from the doors and tossed a pill bottle over to Michael.

  “There’s an ambulance on the way, but you’ve got to meet them at the corner,” Chuck said, motioning toward the street. “Sean said he only put one in her drink, and all she’ll need to do is sleep it off.” Chuck was shaking his head as he crossed back behind the bar and went right back to work. “I can’t have this shit here,” he mumbled.

  Michael adjusted his grip on Piper’s upper half and scooped her up from behind her legs, cradling her in his arms. He had stood next to Piper, leaned in close to her over some documents a few times, but it wasn’t until this very moment he realized how tiny she was. He pushed his way through the entrance and was stunned by the lack of offers to help. People didn’t want anything to do with this and certainly would have let Sean walk right out with Piper regardless of what state she was in.

  Outside the restaurant, Michael sat down on a bench under a flickering street lamp, his arms starting to ache from holding Piper for so long. He was still supporting her under the legs, and her face was now pressed against his neck. He took comfort in the repetition of her breath and was whispering encouraging words in her ear.

  The ambulance pulled up one block over from the restaurant, and Michael was relieved to recognize the EMT. It was an old acquaintance of his, Johnny Thompson. He saw him occasionally testifying in court and they still had some friends in common. They had partied together in Michael’s early days in Edenville. The move to a small town where he hadn’t known anyone had seemed like such a good idea until the loneliness had started to set in. Johnny had been a dependable drinking buddy for a while.

  “Hey Mikey, what’s going on?” Johnny asked, as he and his partner, a young stout woman, hustled over toward them.

  “Hey Johnny, it’s been a crazy night.” There was a good chance that Johnny Thompson no longer preferred to be called Johnny, He was probably just John now, much like Michael had converted from Mikey years ago. But the relationships you form in your youth, as casual as they might be, always seem to transport you back in time.

  Michael relayed the story to Johnny and handed over the bottle of pills. They loaded Piper into the ambulance and took her vitals.

  “So what’s the plan here, Mikey? If I bring her into the hospital this turns into a police report, and it won’t be something we can forget about tomorrow. Her vitals are stable. There’s been no impact to her blood pressure or blood oxygen levels. Most likely she needs to sleep this off, so if you want to leave the cops out of this…” Johnny’s voice trailed off as a police car pulled up to the scene. “Never mind, looks like this will be a police matter after all.” Johnny walked over to the police car and Michael watched a young, dark-haired cop exit his car. He could tell by his military posture and unsmiling face that this cop wasn’t one of the good ol’ boys.

  Great, Michael thought, at least one of the older cops would be willing to let this go to avoid the paperwork. But an eager young rookie would be a thorough bastard tonight. Michael was confident whatever Piper was doing here tonight, she wouldn’t want it to be the start of a long-drawn-out court case. She’d want it to go away.

  “Hey Bobby,” Johnny said, pulling his rubber glove off and extending a hand out to greet the officer. Michael felt slightly relieved that at least they knew each other.

  “Did this get called in? I didn’t hear anything about it over the radio. I was passing by and thought maybe you could use a hand. What’s going on?” Bobby approached the open doors of the ambulance and glanced inside. Immediately recognizing Piper, his heart popped in his chest, and he felt panic briefly overtake him. “Piper?” he quaked, pulling himself into the back of the ambulance to be by her side. “What the hell happened, is she all right?”

  “You know her?” Michael asked, feeling like this night was one of the strangest of his life. Living in Edenville you grew accustomed to knowing someone almost everywhere you went, but Piper wasn’t from here, and from what Michael knew she was somewhat of a loner. She never talked about having friends or family in the area. Now suddenly she was associating with cops and criminals.

  “She’s my friend,” Bobby said, hesitating a little on the words. Piper certainly had become a friend over the past months, but after the kiss they shared last night Bobby had been wondering if they were becoming more. He reached for her hand and pulled it up to his chest and over his heart.

  “She was out tonight with Sean Donavan. Apparently the date wasn’t moving fast enough for him and he put something in her drink. I saw him trying to get her out of the bar, clearly not of her own volition, and I stepped in. This being one of the Donavan-owned establishments we didn’t get much support from the staff, which is why we are sitting here, a block away from the place, and no one else seems to be worried about how she’s doing.” Michael found himself still itching to fight, his nerves still on edge, and the thought of all those complacent people enjoying their meals was making him crazy.

  “Is she going to be okay? Are you taking her to the hospital?” Bobby had urgency in his voice that spoke volumes about his feelings for Piper.

  “We were talking that over,” Johnny cut in. “Her vitals are stable. We know what kind of pill he gave her. It was rohypnol, or ruffies. She isn’t showing any signs of an allergic reaction, most likely she needs to sleep it off as long as someone can stay and watch her. We’ve got to get back to the station, so I don’t want to rush you but we need to make a decision.”

  “I don’t think she’d want this to turn into a big thing,” Michael said, forgetting for a minute that he hadn’t really introduced himself as more than a stranger in the right place at the right time. “Dealing with the Donavans, especially in court, is no easy process. There is a restaurant full of people ready to cover for Sean. Unfortunately I’ve been through this process with him before. They’ll drag her through the mud in any kind of case we try to make. Piper got lucky tonight; maybe we should just cut our losses and move on. I think that’s what s
he would want.”

  “You know Piper?” Bobby asked with a skeptical glare. He let his mind run through the scenarios of how this man might somehow be involved.

  “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself.” Michael leaned into the ambulance and shook Bobby’s free hand. “I’m Michael Cooper. I’m a lawyer and a friend of Piper. I was out tonight having drinks with some people from work and saw her up at the bar.”

  “I’m Bobby Wright,” he answered, skeptical of this entire situation. “So you’re the Michael? You’re the one Piper has been doing all this research for? I find it odd that one day she’s digging up cases on these guys for you and the next she’s risking her life at the bar with them. It sounds like maybe you were looking for a little more information and decided to use her as bait?” Bobby put Piper’s hand back down gently and exited the ambulance to get a better view of Michael. Bobby was excellent at reading body language, facial cues, and tone of voice. If he was going to get an accurate read on this guy he’d need to get closer.

  “She isn’t doing any research on my behalf,” Michael barked defensively. “She’s writing some paper for school, and I’ve been giving her pointers. I have no idea what she was thinking being out with Sean tonight, but you can be damn sure I didn’t put her up to it. If you guys are such good friends why didn’t you know where she was?” Michael was dumbfounded at the attack. All he had tried to do up until this point was steer Piper away from danger. He certainly wasn’t putting her in harm’s way.