Lawyer Trap

20





DAY FOUR–SEPTEMBER 8

THURSDAY MORNING


On Thursday morning, Aspen’s fourth day of work, every attorney in the firm must have found out that she existed, because they paraded through her door with big smiles on their faces and dropped files on her desk.

“It’s called getting rid of your dogs,” Christina Tam warned. “Everyone’s dumping their crap on you, either because the client’s a no-pay or a slow-pay, or because they finally figured out the case is a loser. The end result is that you’ll work tons of hours but won’t bring any money through the door. That’s not good. No matter what anyone tells you, this firm is driven by the bottom line, so the sooner you learn to say no, the better off you’re going to be.”

More work landed on her desk.

More dogs.

Dogs with fleas.

She didn’t say no, though, not wanting to burn bridges. So instead she smiled and said thanks for the work.

Then Christina walked in shortly before noon. “Want to get some lunch?”

Aspen couldn’t afford it.

Not with only $82 in her account.

But couldn’t afford to not have friends, either.

“Great,” she said.

They milled through the crowd down the 16th Street Mall under a perfect Colorado sky and ended up at the Hard Rock Café, eating salads at the bar.

“So what’s the scoop with Jacqueline Moore?” Aspen asked at one point.

“Cruella?” Christina asked. “Don’t even think anything bad about her. She has radar. And definitely don’t cross swords with her. She’ll gut you like a fish.”

Aspen frowned.

“I may have already done that.”

“Already?” Christina said, slapping Aspen on the back. “Congratulations girl, that’s a new law firm record.”

“Lucky me.”

“Why, what’d you do?”

Aspen explained about how she contacted Dr. Beverly Twenhofel and then got a tongue-lashing from Moore, after which Christina said, “Yeah, you’re on her short list, all right. If I were you, I’d snuggle up to Blake Gray. He’s the only known antidote to Cruella.”

Aspen chewed.

“What’s the scoop with him?”

“Blake?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s a good guy.”

“He seems like a good guy,” she said. “He took me to lunch and told me his door’s always open.”

“It is,” Christina agreed.

“Really?”

She nodded.

“Yeah, you’d think it’s just empty bullshit, but it isn’t,” Christina said. “I had a case during my first year here, where I didn’t get our expert disclosed in time. The other side got anal about it and persuaded the judge to exclude his testimony. We lost the case and the client ended up paying about fifty grand, when we should have had a defense verdict.”

“Ouch,” Aspen said.

“Major ouch,” Christina agreed. “Anyway, there was some talk in the halls as to whether I had what it takes to be here. Blake stepped in and brought that to a screeching halt. Even more than that, he paid the client a chunk of change out of his own wallet.”

“Damn.”

Christina nodded.

“I’d be washing dishes right now if it wasn’t for him.”

The TV monitors over the bar interrupted the current programming with a newsbreak. Two more bodies had been discovered at the abandoned railroad spur north of town, bringing the total now to four. Footage of the Crime Unit working the scene filled the screen, and then switched over to reporter Jena Vellone interviewing a man.

The detective in charge, apparently.

Aspen had seen him before somewhere.

He had one of those faces you don’t forget.

“We’re very interested in talking to the person who called us last night,” Teffinger said. Looking straight into the camera, he added, “If you’re that person, please call us as soon as possible.”

Aspen dropped her fork.

“What?” Christina asked.

She tried to not appear shaken. “Nothing, just clumsy. Scary stuff, all those bodies.”

Christina made a disgusted face. “There’s no shortage of sickos in the world, that’s for sure.” She wiped her mouth and added, “I love that guy’s eyes.”

Aspen studied them.

“They’re two different colors,” she said.

“I know,” Christina said. “He should be in that Right Said Fred song, I’m too sexy for my eyes, too sexy for my eyes, that’s no lie.”

Aspen laughed.

But stayed focused on the news update to see if they mentioned that one of the new bodies was Rachel Ringer’s. They didn’t, probably because they still needed to verify it conclusively.

So, who was the fourth victim?

No doubt someone who had also disappeared in early April. With a little work on the Internet, Aspen should be able to figure it out in short order.

She paid for lunch, for the both of them.

$22.00, including the tip.

Meaning $60.00 left.