Beyond A Reasonable Doubt (2012 Watty Winner)

Clues

"So he just told you that if you don't win this case you're fired." Jackson asks and I nod.

"Yep, just came right out and said it." I tell him and he shakes his head in disgust.

"There's gotta be a law against that or something."

"I don't think so." I tell him and shrug. "It's fine, Jack. I planned on winning this case anyways." I tell him and smile my best smile.

"There's the Ashley I know and love." He winks at me and picks up the file he was reading. "You watch the news lately?" He asks looking up from the paper.

"Desperate housewife murder's husband for two million dollar insurance policy. Yeah... I've seen it." I tell him complete with an eye roll. "How do they even get this information, the insurance policy information wasn't released to the public." I point out.

"Scott." Jackson and I say in unison. Something you need to know about Scott is that when he's confident he's going to win a case he doesn't care about the information the public knows, in fact he'll tell them his whole case plan if one of them would be smart enough to ask.

"I really don't like that guy." Jackson says and I laugh. He really doesn't like him. We were all friends at one point in Law School. Well I was friends with the both of them so I guess I kind of forced them to hang out on occasion. The only difference between the two is that Jackson continuously tried to get in my pants and Scott tried maybe once or twice and when it didn't happen it gave up. Jackson didn't and I oddly, we grew closer because of it.

"He's so freaking confident." I say in an annoyed tone. I really need to find something that will blow this whole 'she did it for the money' thing to shreds.

"Billings said it should only be a couple more days before we get the ballistics back on that bullet." He tells me and I nod.

–

"I was at the house yesterday going over the crime scene with an expert." I start and she stares at me waiting for me to finish. "Spencer how come you didn't hear the gunshots?" I ask and her eyes widen a little before narrowing, scrutinizing my face. "I'm only asking because there was a full two minutes in between the first and second gunshot. You didn't hear anything?" I asks. Her face softens and she shakes her head.

"I took something to help me sleep." She says softly and I get it.

"Oh." I say simply.

"My parents came to see me today." Spencer says with a smile, changing the subject. I can tell she's replaying every moment of their visit in her head.

"You didn't..." I trail off.

"No." She says quickly and shakes her head. "I didn't tell them anything about the case. Actually, they didn't even ask." She says and smiles wider.
"They must really miss you." I say and her look grows sad.

"You know parent's, always worrying." She tries to force a smile but fails. "And with my mom's high blood pressure, all this stress doesn't help." She says softly and I only nod, not knowing exactly what to say. "My dad had a mild heat attack a few years back but now he's strong as ever, it's my mom I worry about." She continues and I can tell she just needs someone to listen so I do just that. "Yesterday, after you left... I was thinking about something..." She trails off and looks at me.

"What was it?" I ask and she looks away. It takes almost a full minute before she speaks again.

"About a month ago I was doing laundry and I found a credit card receipt in Aiden's jean pocket. It was for a restaurant near his job." She speaks softly, almost in a whisper. I have to lean in close just to hear her. "I didn't think much of it at first but now, I know that I'm right." She stops again. I can see her eyes glass over and all I want to do right now is get up and go wrap my arms around her. Tell her that everything is going to be okay. But I don't, I sit and wait for her to continue. "Clearly he paid for two meals and the time on the receipt was for when he should have been at work. I asked him if he'd left work to go to lunch with one of his buddies or something and without knowing that I'd found the receipt, he told me that he didn't have time to grab lunch because he was slammed at work all day. Why would he lie if he wasn't doing something he wasn't supposed to be?" She questions herself as she continues to look down at her hands.