“We brought you the conditioner,” Kelly announced when she and Sin went to visit A.J. on Saturday.
Seeing as it was the prison’s official visiting day, the hall was abuzz with the cheerful sounds of chattering, laughing and eating. The circular tables spread around the large room were filled with happy people (some of them children). In fact, if it wasn’t for the beige khaki uniforms that marked some of the people there as inmates, one would’ve mistaken this for a normal gathering.
A.J. snorted. “You probably got the fake kind again.”
“Hey, that happened one time, and it wasn’t our fault.” Sin jumped in. “You’re the one who skipped handwriting class.”
“My handwriting was perfect,” A.J. retorted. “You’re the one who was sleeping during reading comprehension.”
“You little-”
“Okay, children,” Kelly cut in with a laugh. “Time to stop pulling each other’s hair.”
Sin and A.J. traded glares but the amusement glittering in their eyes left no doubt that they were just playing around. The two ladies were as different as night and day. Sin was outgoing, stylish and prone to using her looks and sly tongue to get whatever she wanted. A.J. tended to disappear behind Sin’s shadow, but, as Kelly had discovered, that was deliberate. A.J. liked being in the shadows where no one knew of her razor-sharp intellect or of her body that was as lithe and flexible as a gymnast’s. No wonder she’d been so good at being an art-thief.
However, despite their differences in personality the two got along just fine. They had given Kelly the emotional support she needed to survive in prison.
The topic of the conversation soon meandered into other things including how A.J. was handling her remaining time in the system. As expected, she was doing just fine and had even made a friend in her new cellmate. Eventually the conversation circled back to Kelly.
“So how’s working with Spencer?” A.J. asked. “I hope you haven’t killed him.”
“Not yet.” Kelly made a face. “But I’m not ruling it out.”
Though she didn’t like the fact that Spencer had used her father as a joking point in their conversation the previous day, she was well aware that she’d overreacted. The fact that he hadn’t called her on her overreaction then apologized and even walked her to her door, had left her feeling just a tad bit guilty. Not that she’d ever confess that to him.
“What?” Eyeing A.J., Sin pitched in cheekily, “Are you worried about your boyfriend?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” A.J. countered calmly before turning to Kelly. “You know, I think it’s a good thing that you two are working together.”
“How could that possibly be a good thing?” Kelly asked. “And we’re not working together. We just work for the same firm.”
Ignoring the correction, A.J. said, “It’s a good thing because you two can finally duke it out instead of fuming in your respective corners.”
“You make it sound like we’re in some kind of war.” Kelly wrinkled her nose.
“And Spencer has no reason to fume,” Sin added. “He’s the jerk here.”
A.J. shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Maybe?” Sin glared at A.J. like she’d just insulted Beyoncé. “Whose side are you on anyway?”
“I’m not on anyone’s side,” A.J. said calmly, unaffected by Sin’s burst of temper.
“You’re supposed to be on Kelly’s side.” Sin kissed her teeth. “You know what? Forget about that conditioner. You don’t deserve it. The moment we get out of here I’m taking it back.”
“Take it back then,” A.J. dared her. “It’s not like my hair’s going to fall off if I use regular soap.”
“We’re not taking it back,” Kelly said in an effort to cool the tension in the table. On the inside, however, she was firmly in Sin’s corner.
Although most times, she appreciated A.J.’s no holds barred honesty, this wasn’t one of those times. When Kelly had told her friends her story, both A.J. and Sin had agreed with her that Spencer was a dick who deserved to be hung, drawn and quartered. However, after Spencer had worked to get Kelly out of prison, A.J. had unapologetically switched sides. Another lawyer would’ve tried to bury their mistake, A.J. had calmly offered, but Spencer had done all he could to rectify his. He deserved a break.
Kelly liked A.J., and maybe she had a point. However, the lady was bonkers if she thought that Kelly was just going to let Spencer go scot-free. A.J. often claimed that she was just being objective which was okay, but one could afford to be objective when they were not in the victim’s shoes. If she’d suffered at Spencer’s hands and lost her only remaining family because of his incompetence, Kelly doubted she’d be so cool-headed.
Still, it wasn’t worth the argument. A.J. had her opinions, and Kelly had learnt to live with them. She didn’t want her friends angry with each other just because of differing worldviews. She changed the topic to something safer; Sin’s newest job. In addition to her ‘job’ as the face of Lani’s, she was now providing fake girlfriend services.
“Do you need a pretty girlfriend to take to your ex’s wedding? Need a beautiful woman to show off at your graduation reunion? Trying to show up your bros? Hire Tamsin Jacobs today,” Sin pitched enthusiastically. Preening to show her pretty features, she added, “She’ll leave everyone burning with jealousy.”
Both Kelly and A.J. burst into laughter, but it was A.J. who voiced what they were both thinking. “Isn’t that basically providing escort services?”
“Escorts provide sex on the side, I won’t.” Sin paused for a moment. “At least I don’t think I will.”
“You don’t think you will?” Kelly stared at her friend in wide-eyed shock then shook her head. “I can’t with you.”
If it was someone else, Kelly would’ve said something, but this was Sin. The woman had unconventional opinions about sex and relationships. Though she was only twenty-seven, she’d already been married three times, with the youngest of her ex-husbands being thirty-five years older than her. Her body, she often said, wasn’t soap. It wasn’t going to disappear just because she rented it out once in a while to lonely men. What could one say to that?
The three ladies were debating the pros and cons of being a girlfriend-for-hire when Kelly’s phone rang, interrupting their conversation. A quick glance at the screen revealed that it was Marie. Why was Marie calling her on a weekend?
Frowning, Kelly swiped her finger over the screen then pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello.”
“Kelly, hi,” Marie’s cheerful voice filtered through. “I hope I’m not interrupting your weekend.”
Of course, she was but Kelly said, “No, you’re not. What’s up?”
“Lawrence wants to see you in his office.”
Kelly blinked. “Sorry?”
“Lawrence wants to see you in his office,” Marie repeated.
“But it’s Saturday.”
“He knows it’s Saturday.” Marie asked, “How fast can you get there?”
How fast can you get there? What about asking her if she could get there? Weekdays were brutal at Chambers & Quinn. Since she’d started working there, she’d never left the office before seven p.m. and not for lack of trying. Something urgent always came up to keep her in the office on weekdays, which was why she was extremely possessive of her weekends. But this was Lawrence, managing partner. She couldn’t say ‘it’s a weekend’.
Kelly sighed. “About twenty minutes.”
“Make it fifteen,” Marie ordered then hung up before Kelly could argue.
Despite her friend’s pleas to stay a little longer, Kelly left for the office. Eighteen minutes later, she got off the elevator at Chambers & Quinn.
“You’re late,” Rita, the fifth-floor receptionist, informed her coolly.
“Sorry,” Kelly puffed out breathlessly even as she noted how formally Rita was dressed. Despite it being a Saturday, the middle-aged woman was wearing a sharp grey suit that left Kelly feeling woefully underdressed. Panic ballooned inside Kelly. Would Lawrence find her disrespectful for wearing jeans and a t-shirt to see him? Maybe she should’ve changed into something more tailored before coming to the office.
“Lawrence is in his office waiting for you,” Rita cut into her panicked thoughts. “Go right in.”
Kelly took a second to catch her breath before heading to Lawrence’s office. She let out a sigh of relief when she noted that Lawrence was dressed more casually than Rita; light-blue polo-shirt, khaki slacks and golf shoes. He looked like he was just about to head out for a round of golf.
At her entrance, he looked up from the paperwork he was reading and smiled. “Kelly, come in. Come in.”
She edged deeper into the room to stop by the coffee table. “You wanted to see me?’
“Yes.” He gestured towards the leather couch flanking his own armchair. “Have a seat.”
“Thank you.” Kelly settled gingerly in the proffered seat.
“Sorry for interrupting your weekend.” Lawrence held out a bulky white envelope. “But I wanted to give you this before I forgot.”
A little apprehensive, Kelly took the envelope then opened it. Her eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when she saw the stack of notes inside the envelope. There had to be at least five thousand dollars in there. She gasped. “What’s this?”
“Your bonus.” Lawrence’s face lit up in a wide grin. “Our firm likes to reward good work and initiative, and you’ve done some very good work since you got here.”
“I have?” Kelly stared at him in wide-eyed shock. As far as she could remember, she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary – certainly nothing that deserved this kind of money.
“Don’t be modest.” Lawrence gave her a fatherly smile. “Not many first year associates would be able to bring in as many clients as you have.”
Oh, so that’s what it was about! Spencer had been right! She also noted Lawrence’s use of the plural ‘clients’. It probably meant that he knew that Yuri wasn’t the only client who’d showed up to the firm looking for her to represent them on the strength of her father and Teddy’s name.
A more materialistic woman would’ve shut up, taken the money and run, but Kelly didn’t want this coming to bite her in the ass later. She corrected, “I didn’t bring them. They just followed me in here because of my dad.”
“Same difference.” Lawrence dismissed her protest. “You keep working this hard and you’ll be able to make junior partner soon.”
Junior partner? At Chambers & Quinn? Her breath locked in her throat. With her record, she’d thought that that was a pipe-dream; something she didn’t even dare imagine.
“You know, I wasn’t quite sure about you when I decided to hire you,” Lawrence said as he sat back in his seat. “I mean you practically ruined my godson’s life.”
Kelly’s eyebrows shot upwards. “I ruined his life?”
“Yes.” Unaffected by her outraged tone, Lawrence went on, “Do you know why Spencer decided to become a prosecutor?”
“No.” And to be honest she didn’t really care.
“He became a prosecutor because of his parents,” Lawrence said. “Both of them were lawyers here, and very good ones at that. Especially his mother, Susan. Ah, Susan.” His eyes glazed and his lips turned upwards in a fond smile. “She was a samurai in the courtroom. We used to call her The Jury-Whisperer because whenever she stood before them, they did exactly what she wanted. Unfortunately, she was too good at her job.”
Lawrence sighed. “One of the clients she saved was a murderer. One week after she got him acquitted of his charges, he came to their house and murdered her and her husband. Spencer was only eight at that time but he would’ve been murdered too if he was in the house. He only got away because he was spending the night at a friend’s.”
Shock ricocheted through Kelly. Despite the very active rumor-mill in their office, she’d never heard this story before. Spencer looked so well put together, so stable, so unaffected. Who would’ve thought that he had such a painful incident in his past? And to think he was only eight at the time. A stab of pain seared through Kelly. Now it all made sense – why Spencer was so dogged about putting criminals in prison. And could she really blame him? After what he’d gone through, it was a wonder he’d decided to go legal instead of vigilante.
“Because of Susan and Eric’s murder, Spencer made it his mission in life to make sure that no murderers like that man got put back on the street.” Lawrence smiled, but there was no humor in his expression, just muted pain. “Working in the District Attorney’s office was always his dream. He loved that job enough to even defy me and refuse to work here. He thought that it was the only right side of the law and that it was his duty to get justice for victims of crime.”
Lawrence continued, “But because of you he quit it. Because of you, he got to see the dark side of the law. He got to see how people with power frequently use his side of the courtroom to fake justice and oppress the weak. And it left him feeling betrayed and discouraged. It didn’t help things that he ended up putting the very person he admired and considered his mentor behind bars.”
Lawrence’s words left Kelly stunned speechless. Even though she knew that she wasn’t in the wrong, it was hard not to feel responsible for derailing Spencer from his chosen cause. As much as she’d gone into law to prevent people like her father from being railroaded by the system, she knew that people like Spencer were the rails that kept the train from falling off the tracks. They were the net that caught the bad fish and kept the streets from being a Utopia from Criminals.
Sadness streaked through her. She’d been so wrapped up in her grief that she’d never once considered Spencer’s perspective of the events that had happened, didn’t think she needed to. But Lawrence’s assessment of the situation, though biased, was eye-opening. She could only imagine the crisis of conscience that Spencer had gone through before deciding to quit being a prosecutor.
“At first I thought that your opening his eyes was a bad thing.” Lawrence’s expression was more serious than she’d ever seen it as he continued, “But I’ve changed my mind. You made him look past his side of the fence into the other field. You showed him that there color gray exists and the justice system isn’t as black and white as he’s always assumed. Plus…” he paused for a moment and smiled. “You brought him back to me. So just count this bonus as my way of thanking you for that too.”