"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.
"Do you remember the name of the restaurant?" I ask after a moment.
"Cafe Pinot." She says with her face still glued to the table.
"Spencer." I say, reaching over and lifting her head with my index finger. You know that saying, that someone's eyes are like windows to their soul? Well, I never believed that saying, in fact I thought it was a bunch of bullshit...until now. I'm looking in Spencer's eyes and it's like I'm feeling everything she's feeling right now. Every emotion, fear, heartache...everything. "He was fool." I say and she blinks a few times erratically. "You are beautiful and clearly smart and funny. He was crazy to cheat on you." I finish and she smiles a little.
"Thank you." She says softly as I pull my hand back.
"For what?"
"Trying to make me feel better." She says and stares at me.
"I wasn't..." I shake my head at her. "I mean every word of that, Spencer." I tell her firmly as she continues to stare at me. She knits her eyebrows together like she's trying to figure out if I'm being serious or not.
But I am serious...
And that scares me.
Falling for your client is Attorney 'no no' 101.
–
"Mom!" I call into the house as I open the door with the key I was given three years ago. I've only ever used it a few other times. Shows you how much I visit here.
"Ashley." My mother says in a surprisingly pleasant tone as she emerges from the kitchen. "What a wonderful surprise." She smiles a half smile and hugs me.
"Asheeeeee."
"Hey buddy." I catch my little brother as he full-out leaps into my arms and hugs my neck tightly. Matthew and I are twenty years apart if you're wondering.
Yeaaaaaah...
Just imagine how I feel. Here I am, a twenty-six-year-old woman with a six-year-old brother. If it makes it any better my mom had me really young so she was still well below forty when she had Matty.
"Where you been Ashee?" He asks me when he pulls back from his hug.
"I'm sorry Matty, buddy. I've just been super busy at work that's all." I tell him as I sit him down.
"That's okay." He says cheerfully hugging my leg. "I love you, Ashee." He hugs my leg tighter.
"Matthew go play or something." My mother says to him in a forceful tone. I hate the way she talks to him sometimes. Like my God, it's not his fault you'd rather be doing other things with your life.
"Okay." He beams up at me, then runs off.
"He misses you when you don't come around you know." My mother tells me as I follow her into the kitchen.
"Well if you weren't such a..." I trial off, realizing who I was talking to. She turns her head around and gives me a look but keeps walking. "If you weren't trying to force guys on me all the time then I'd probably visit him ore often." I say in a snarky tone.
"Ah." She gasps out as Paul—her hired help—hands her a glass of wine. "You make me sound like some kind of Abadesa." She says and feigns insult.
Abadesa?
Really mom?
"Right, cause I mean... that's not what you are or anything..." I trail off leaving the door open for her to rebuttal...she fakes a smile and sips her wine.
"Why are you here, Ashley?" Her tone switches from loving mother to annoyed psycho in a matter of seconds.
See...
This is why I've only used my key a few times.
"I wanted to ask you something." I reply honestly, taking a seat on a stool positioned in front of the island.
"Ask away." She waves her hand in a 'get on with it' gesture.
"Well, what do you do when you have a particularly tough case that you can't really put together?" I ask and she sips more of her wine before sitting the glass down on the counter.
"This isn't about that Dennison murder trial is it?" She asks and I roll my eyes. She's a lawyer so she knows I can't talk about it.
"Mom." I give her a look and this time she rolls her eyes.
"How am I supposed to help you if I don't know what you're referring to Ashley?"
"Just think of this as a hypothetical question." I say.
"Hypothetically speaking, are we talking about the Dennison murder?" She counters.
"You know what mom, never mind." I say and hop down off the stool. "I don't even know why I came here." I shake my head and make my way to the door. My mother doesn't even attempt to stop me.
"Bye Matty." I yell down the hall to his room and I hear something being thrown, probably a game controller and his little footsteps as he runs down the hall to me.
"Bye Ashee." He says and squeezes me tightly. I can't help but smile down at him.
I really should hang out with this little guy more often.
–
"Judge Hallawell called again." Madison tells me as I go into my office.
"Still not available." I turn to her and smile.
"Gotcha." She nods once before I shut my office door. I walk over to the leather couch in my office, kick off my shoes and flop down on it. After leaving my moms house I talked with a blood splatter expert and grabbed an early dinner. After that, I was entirely too tired to drive to my condo in Westwood Village so I opted to come back here.
It's been a long week. I think to myself. Then the realization hits me. "It's only Wednesday." I groan out and turn over on the couch.
I fell asleep quicker than I thought I would...