Chasing Justice

Chapter Twelve



Seventy-one days. That’s how long it had been since Piper had spoken to Bobby. She had seen him and Betty, twice through the window of the diner, but she stealthily avoided being seen by them. She had almost called him a handful of times, but managed to fight off the moments of weakness with the reminder of what that phone call would entail.

Once, in the middle of another sleepless night, she came to the depressing realization that she might love Bobby. It was baffling to her how she could meet someone and be so annoyed by him and then just as quickly become so caught up in him. The first couple of Wednesday nights since arguing with Bobby were like torture for Piper. She’d spend hours looking out her window up at the stars and cursing the noise that came from the street and the stores below. Nothing would ever be as tranquil and serene as her time spent with Bobby swinging on Betty’s porch, watching the night unfold before them.

She occasionally saw Scott at work. Whatever story Bobby had told them about Piper’s absence had been enough to have him walking the other way when he saw her coming. Her emotions ran the gamut. There were days she was saddened by the barrenness of her life. Other days she was angry that she didn’t mean enough to any of these people for them to track her down and find out how she was. Did she mean that little to them? Had she misread their friendship?

Michael had been a steady presence in her life since the night after her date with Sean. She had asked him for coffee and told him that she was sorry for putting him in that position. She had genuinely thanked him for his help that night and even let a few tears fall when relaying her gratitude. She admitted she had been stupid, overzealous, and caught up in the idea of what she thought was wrong with the justice system. She told Michael she wasn’t putting this all behind her quite yet but she wouldn’t put herself back in a position like that ever again. She knew that was probably a lie, but it was one he needed to hear in order to forgive her.

They shared long nights together talking only about topics that pertained to Michael, never what was going on with Piper. They discussed his dysfunctional family, his cases, and his future. He picked her brain and loved to bounce new ideas off her. It was nice to see the spark slowly come back into her eyes after her brush with danger.

Many nights he felt himself on the verge of kissing her, staring at her lips as she spoke. She had told him time and again there would never be anything more than a friendship between them. Yet, somehow he kept finding himself caught up in the idea of running his tongue along her neck and making love to her on his desk. It was an internal conflict he fought hard to keep at bay.

He had spoken with Bobby the morning after Piper’s date with Sean. Bobby had told him he wasn’t able to get through to her. It was a large part of Michael’s job to read between the lines and it was clear that Bobby cared deeply for Piper. But Bobby explained he had other people in his life to worry about, and Piper was too much of a liability to them right now. He asked Michael to keep an eye on her, and to do his best to keep her safe just as he had that night with Sean.

At first Michael wasn’t sure how he felt about being someone’s keeper. He was a successful, handsome, and wealthy man with his pick of woman and an abundant social network. Babysitting wasn’t in his job description, and he assumed it would put a cramp in his social life. However, the more time he spent with Piper the more he realized how alone she was in this world. She had told him that first day over coffee she needed him to refrain from asking her questions about her family or her past. She wanted to spend time with Michael but it couldn’t be an interrogation, she wasn’t a puzzle needing to be pieced together. “Let’s go back to being funny, laid-back people who have a good time together,” she begged, and, begrudgingly, he agreed. However, even through casual conversation, he found Piper to be more damaged and lonely than anyone he had ever met before. So why commit to keeping watch over her. Frankly, he was lonely too.

When he felt himself wanting to scoop her up into his arms and make love to her until she felt whole, he reminded himself that even though he wanted her he didn’t love her. And even if Bobby couldn’t be around her right now, Bobby did love her. If Piper was going to be happy someday it wouldn’t be because of a passionate night in a dark office. He wasn’t going to be the guy sleeping with her when Bobby returned on his white horse.

“So have you thought about what you’re going to get your mom for her birthday?” asked Piper as she curled a ring of hair around her finger and read a file Michael had given her. She loved being in his office. She loved being in his presence. He had done exactly what she needed, been there for her without needing to be everything to her.

“I think I’m going to send her one of those fruit things that look like flowers. I’m pretty sure she likes fruit and flowers. So what do you think of that opening argument?” he gestured to the file in her hands.

“It’s all right. It seems a little weak though. Have you thought about talking more about the children? You said there are seven women on the jury, four with kids. I would talk more about the impact the crime had on the kids. Their mother was beat up by their father right in front of them while he was in a meth-induced rage. Sure she was sleeping with another man, that might bias a few people on the jury, but she wasn’t sleeping with the man in front of her kids. The defendant is the only one who crossed that line. That’s not something they can get over. How are their grades? How are they sleeping? Have they had any therapy? I would tell the whole story from the perspective of the youngest… what was he, nine? My opening statement would read like a journal entry from that little boy on the scariest day of his life. That’ll make an impact for sure.” She closed the folder and slid it across the desk to Michael.

“What a horrible misuse of talent, Miss Anderson. That is simply genius, and I fully intend to steal the idea from you and pass it off as my own. You should really consider going back to school. Maybe even law school down the road.” Michael knew he was on thin ice. Bringing up school with her was something they had put on the taboo list early on. But he was tired of her skills being wasted, though he was certainly benefiting from them.

“Nope, I’m perfectly happy being your muse here and tinkering around at the cable company. Besides, I’d probably end up taking your job someday if I did that.” She stood up and took his school conversation as a great cue to leave. Things between them had been working so well, and some of it simply came down to a well-timed exit on her part. “Give me a call once you have that drafted if you want to talk it through.” She pulled her bag over her shoulder and saw herself out.

Michael swiveled his chair so he could look out his window and watch her get into her car and drive off. He thought it was finally time to do something he had been thinking about for weeks. He picked up his phone and dialed.

“Hey Bobby, it’s Michael Cooper, do you think we could get together sometime this week? I have a few things I’d like to chat about.” Going behind Piper’s back wasn’t ideal but she hadn’t left him with much choice.



Piper had planned on being at Michael’s office for at least another hour before he had brought up school. It was only six o’clock on Wednesday night which meant she’d have too much time to sit alone and think of Bobby if she went home now. She normally would have had dinner with Michael, or they would have had takeout delivered to the office. The only upside of knowing that everyone would be at Betty’s house was it meant no one she knew would be at the diner. At least she could get a bite to eat and even sit in the seat she knew Bobby had sat in earlier that day.

As she pushed her mashed potatoes around on her plate she realized how quiet the diner was this time of night. She was ready to pay her bill and slink back to her lonely apartment when the booming voice of a man broke the silence as he pushed his way through the front door. It was Judge Lions, and his face was flustered and dotted with beads of sweat.

“You better believe I’m pissed,” he thundered as he hastily settled himself down into his booth. “I can’t talk about this right now, but I want to get it resolved as soon as possible. Meet me at nine tomorrow morning at the mill.” He punched a button on his cell phone and slammed it down on the table. He pulled a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped the sweat off his brow. Something had flustered the normally even-keeled judge, and Piper was determined to find out what.

Over the last few weeks, she had been able to identify which school young Chris Donavan attended by researching the crest she had seen on the picture Sean had shown her. She had finally settled on Chris being the linchpin, that, if pulled, would collapse the relationship between the judge and the Donavans. Her best bet was to combine two cardinal sins, “don’t mess with the kids and don’t have an unhealthy interest in young boys.”

Determining how that would play out had slowed Piper down a bit. She was certain that she never actually wanted Chris to be in any danger, it would only need to look as though the judge was targeting him. She had begun spending time watching Chris’s comings and goings. He was a simple boy who didn’t seem as though he had been tainted yet by the power of his family. He played fairly on the playground and took time to stop and watch the bugs crawling across the sidewalk on his way home from school. He was always accompanied by someone. It was either his father or another man who Piper didn’t recognize.



She thought that she may, at some point, have to lay eyes on Sean again if he was ever appointed to walking-home-from-school duty, and she had decided it didn’t matter. She intended to seek retribution at some point, but she could be patient. She wouldn’t let her personal vendetta overshadow her main objective.

The judge’s presence at the diner tonight and his cryptic conversation had Piper’s senses tingling with excitement. She didn’t know what had upset him or who was on the other end of the line, but she was pretty certain she knew which mill he was talking about. Back when she was tailing him more closely he had pulled into the old complex of mills that had once housed a textile company years ago. She wasn’t able to follow him into the long empty parking lot, but from the street she had seen him pull up to a loading dock and climb the stairs to a side door.

She had become savvier at using the database at the cable company to find the information she was looking for. Both Christian and the judge had a GPS system on their cell phones that was tied to their data plans. The information ran through a sister company of ComCable. She had access to their information and could track their past locations as well as anytime they had been in close proximity to each other. After seeing the judge enter the old mill she had cross-referenced their two phones to see if Christian had ever been in that area at the same time. With this information she was able to determine that the mill was a preferred meeting place for the judge and Christian.

She paid her bill and hustled out the diner while the judge was chatting with the waitress. Piper slipped out the door and quickly crossed the street. If she was going to be ready to do surveillance on that meeting tomorrow she’d need all night to prepare.