Chasing Justice (13 page)

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.

God bless search engines, she thought to herself. Over the last few weeks the Internet had provided her with ample sites that sold interesting spy gear. She had invested in a small hearing enhancement system that would help amplify any conversations she was trying to overhear. She decided she needed some form of protection so a stun gun had been her weapon of choice since she assumed her background, or lack thereof, may keep her from being able to secure a gun permit. She had two micro cameras that she still couldn’t figure out how to work. Hollywood had certainly made all this espionage stuff look much easier than it was.

She pulled a dark pair of jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a baseball hat from her closet. The key to all of this would be to continue to maintain anonymity. The advantage of not being a professional was she didn’t have to pretend to be a nobody in their world because she genuinely was.

Piper knew it was important to sleep. She had triple-checked her alarm clock to ensure it was set for four a.m., but she still couldn’t manage to quiet her mind long enough for sleep to come. She watched the minutes tick by and thought of the different things tomorrow’s meeting could be about, or who it could be with. She was hoping it would be Christian Donavan. She was dying to see the dynamics between the two men. It was important for her to know if they had a reluctant or tenuous business relationship or if they were as close as family. Knowing this would help her determine how irrefutable her intended evidence against the judge would need to be in order to sever their ties.

Arriving under the cover of early morning darkness to set up her hearing enhancement equipment was important. She wanted to be settled in hours before their arrival and have an opportunity to find a sufficient hiding spot. The mill was at least a thirty minute walk from her house, but she didn’t want to have the hindrance of finding a covert place to park her car. It was a cool morning, and she wasn’t looking forward to the long trek, but her adrenaline had her body moving without much thought at all.

As she finally approached the mill she waited until there was no sign of a car coming down the quiet street. She looked around for any sign of life, and when she felt sure the whole world was still asleep she made her move through the parking lot and toward the stairs. Her heart jumped in her chest as she reached the door and pulled at the knob.

Why had she not assumed that the door would be locked? Of course an old abandoned mill wouldn’t simply be left wide open for anyone to come and go as they please. She berated herself for such an oversight. She remembered the lock-picking set she nearly bought the week before and realized it wouldn’t have done her any good. She’d probably be as hopeless at that skill as she had been at working the micro cameras.

She climbed back down the stairs and started looking for an alternative entrance. There were multiple windows she could shimmy through but they were out of her reach. She could touch the bottom of the sills with her fingertips but her embarrassing lack of upper body strength would keep her from being able to pull herself up. She searched around for something to stand on. She found a rusty barrel around the back of the mill that seemed like it would do. She climbed onto it awkwardly, steadied herself, and peered in. She’d need to break this window. She pulled her sweatshirt over her head and wrapped it around her arm like she had seen this in a movie. She cocked her arm back and punched at the glass. It made a thud and she squeaked at the pain vibrating its way up her arm. Perhaps there was some movie magic involved in the window breaking she had seen. She unwrapped her hand and put the sweatshirt over her elbow instead. She was losing the advantage of her early start and felt panic set in. With all her might she slammed her elbow into the glass, and it shattered. She broke away the remaining shards and while pulling at a few stubborn pieces she felt the window tilt out toward her. It had been unlocked the entire time. She cursed herself for not simply trying to open it first. These were the moments she was glad she didn’t have a partner.

Piper lowered herself through the window and into the large open space of the mill. She pulled a flashlight from her pocket and put her sweatshirt back on. Using her foot she swept the glass from the unnecessarily broken window under a nearby shelf. The floor was loaded with dust and she realized too much moving would leave foot prints and possibly draw attention to her presence if someone was astute enough to notice. She could see a large area of the floor with most of the dust already disturbed. It was under one of the only hanging lights that still had a bulb in it and she deduced this was probably where the judge held his surreptitious business meetings. With that in mind she began searching for the right spot to settle in and wait.

A few steps to her left were some stacked crates pushed catty-cornered against the wall. There was enough space for her if she curled up the right way. The small spaces between the crates would give her a possible line of sight and at least a place to point her microphone for the hearing enhancer.

Time seemed to be moving at warp speed as she set up her equipment and wedged herself behind the crates, trying multiple positions in an attempt to give herself the best chance to have a view of the meeting. She knew full well this was all a gamble. Maybe the meeting would be held at the complete opposite end of the mill. Maybe they’d sit outside in a car and never even come in. She knew she needed a lot of stars to align in order for this to work, but she was willing to have some faith. Something out there kept sending her signs to will her forward. She knew she wasn’t very skilled and maybe she made some rookie mistakes, but so far when it counted she’d been successful.

She had done one final run-through of everything and decided she wouldn’t emerge from her hiding spot again until either the meeting had taken place or it got late enough that she was sure it wasn’t going to happen.

Her watch read seven-forty-five and she knew this last stretch of waiting would be the hardest. She refused to let her mind fall into thoughts of Bobby or what would happen if she was caught here. She decided, instead, to think only of old songs she loved and her favorite books. She would fill this time with quiet reflection on things she enjoyed rather than regret and fear.

Not sleeping the night before was proving to be more detrimental to her mission than she had anticipated. The dark, quiet mill was lulling her into an overdue sleep. Time and again she felt her head slipping downward and repeatedly she jolted back up.

When the sound of a key in the door came into Piper’s ear through the headphones of her hearing device she instantly felt the exhaustion fall away. She had never been more awake in her life. She realized she would need to move her head backward in order to get a better view and see who had come in, but she was frozen with fear. She heard the large, metal door slam shut and the amplified noise shocked her ears.

Her fear hadn’t just limited her ability to move, she also found herself unable to breathe, blink, or swallow. It took a full minute for her to realize if she didn’t do these things she might pass out.

The door once again squeaked open and slammed shut, and Piper heard a conversation start up and two hands slap together for a handshake.

“Sorry to take you away from a busy day in court, but you know I wouldn’t have done so if it weren’t critical. The good news is, I think the situation is pretty well contained at the moment.” The voice sounded like that of an older man, not Christian’s, which Piper had heard on two occasions when watching him walk his son home from school.

“I certainly hope so. If not what the hell am I paying you for? Tell me everything.” The judge seemed as aggravated as he had the previous night on the phone. Piper was relieved to know her equipment was working properly. She’d be able to hear the conversation clearly as long as they kept talking at this volume.

“There’s this rookie cop who’s got a little too much free time on his hands and apparently some lofty goals for his first year. Remember the kid who dug up that stuff on Manton and tried to take him down? Well he damn near would have done it if you and I hadn’t intervened. It’s not like we give a damn about Manton, but he was set to have a meeting with our guy that day for some guns. If we hadn’t gotten Manton’s guys off, they would have flipped on Christian. That was a complete nightmare, but I thought we put the kid through the ringer enough to knock him down a few pegs. I guess he’s back at it and interested in your extracurricular activities. He came to me yesterday with a couple of photos of you leaving the motel. He said he hadn’t dug into it enough to give any details yet, but he thought he spotted two of Christian’s guys out front and that you might be involved in something worth checking out. I told him to hit the brakes and let me look into it a bit, that those kinds of accusations against someone like you were nothing to mess around with. Now I’ve got to figure out what to do.” The man’s voice was quiet as he broke the bad news.

“Are you sure he hasn’t been flashing the pictures around anywhere else? Why would he bring them to you? We can’t be that lucky.” The judge’s tone changed from frustration to alarm.

“I know the kid. You’re going to be pissed to hear this, but he was Grafton’s neighbor. He practically idolized the guy. Grafton’s the reason he became a cop in the first place. He thinks I’m one of the old timer good guys like Grafton was. He thinks he can trust me,” the man said and Piper could hear his growing irritation with the situation.

“So let’s take care of him the same way we did Grafton, and let’s do it quickly before he realizes you’re not quite as good a guy as he thinks,” the judge retorted sarcastically.

“Things are different now. We can’t go around taking guys out anymore, Randy. Luring a cop into a building, shooting him, and pinning it on some mystery criminal won’t fly anymore. There’s too much technology, too many people with damn camera phones everywhere. Not to mention, Internal Investigations isn’t on our side. We don’t have as many of the guys as we used to in there. They’ve all retired. We’ve got to be smart about this.” The man’s voice was forceful as he tried to deter the judge from making a rash decision.

“Come on, Red. Buy him off, everyone has a price. If he’s such a determined kid I’m sure we can find a place for him in our organization,” the judge snapped, clearly underestimating the situation.

“You don’t get it,” the other man roared, pounding his fist against a desk or a wall that Piper couldn’t see. “He’s like Grafton reincarnated, it’s actually scary sometimes. I can tell you right now a payoff wouldn’t have worked on Stan and it won’t work on this kid either.”

“So what exactly are you proposing? I’m hearing a lot of objections and not too many solutions. You know this kid, what’s it going to take to get him off this?” The Judge was now pacing the room and Piper could hear his voice growing louder as he came closer to her, then fading as he headed back in the other direction.

“I’ve been wracking my brain and the only thing I can come up with is we hit him where it hurts. He’s got a thing for Grafton’s daughter I think, and I know he’s real close with Grafton’s old lady too. Maybe we let him know if he doesn’t drop this then they’re not safe.” The man cleared his throat frequently as he spoke and Piper tried to make a mental note of this habit. If she couldn’t turn and get a good look at him, then she’d need to try to piece together his identity any way possible.

“If we can’t kill him, and we can’t buy him off then let’s scare the hell out of him and see if that works,” the judge said arrogantly.

“I’m going to try one more time to get him off this whole kick first. Maybe I can get through to him. I really don’t want to start messing with anyone’s damn family, especially a dead cop’s wife and kid. I’m getting too old for this shit.” The man’s voice trailed off as he turned in the other direction away from where Piper was hiding.

“Well if you find yourself getting cold feet about this then I’ll have Christian take care of it for me. He’s got no problem doing what needs to be done. Maybe that’s why he’s stepping on your toes so much lately. Maybe it’s time you retire.” The judge knew this was a hot button and he enjoyed exploiting it.

“Christian might have the stomach for all this, but he’ll never be able to give you what I do as a cop on the force. We haven’t found one decent officer to recruit, and I’m one of your last guys left on the inside. You might want to drop the retirement bullshit. If anyone should be bowing out of this game, it’s you. You’re getting sloppy. We wouldn’t be in this position right now if you could keep away from teenage girls.” The tension in the room was palpable. Piper could sense it even from behind the crates.

“You take care of this kid before I decide your pussy diplomatic approach is a sign of weakness. Get your hands on those pictures, and put this to bed. Now get the hell out of here. I’m supposed to be in court in fifteen minutes.” As the first man, the one the judge called Red, left he mumbled something under his breath that Piper couldn’t make out.

A few minutes later the door pulled open and slammed shut again. Piper heard the key turning in the door again. She sat motionless. The amount of information buzzing in her mind was almost too much to process. The meeting wasn’t between the judge and Christian, it was much bigger than that. The meeting was between the judge and a corrupt police officer, and more than that the rookie cop causing trouble was Bobby. As all the pieces came together, her head spun with the reality of it all. The person they were talking about murdering ten years ago was Betty’s husband.