1.
Kristin watched the hands of the clock ticking opposite her. Every second seemed to drag and she bit the edge of her pen as she turned to look out of the office window. After working so hard to get there, now all she wanted to do was run. The thought of spending another week in that place was making her skin crawl.
Outside, in the corridor, she could see the male partners all patting each other on the back and boosting each other’s egos. She was never invited into their little office chats, ones where she could be a part of the boys club. In the center of it was Pete, grinning from ear to ear, taking the odd glance back to her office because he knew she would be watching.
Fucking Pete, she thought.
She knew at home later he would be full of it. He’d swagger in, puffing his chest and try to make her feel inferior. It was how it always went… She got ignored and he made her feel like crap about it. She knew she needed to change firms…and boyfriends…but she had wanted to be a partner at Anderson and Coleridge Law so much that she just didn’t think she had it in her to walk away.
She realized she was holding the pen so tight, it was almost snapping in her hand.
“Shit,” she breathed out and dropped it on the desk. She was going to have to calm down. She didn’t need to work herself up like this… She was bigger than them and she wasn’t going to rise to it. Instead, she got to her feet, walked over to the door and lowered the blind so the pane of glass allowing her to see the little boys club grooming each other in the hallway was blocked out. She went back to her desk, sat down and closed her eyes.
She was reaching her limit. She and Pete had been together for almost a year, and while it had started out really well, it had rapidly declined into something rather sinister. Pete was a control freak. He loved making her feel inferior, and even though she was a strong woman who could see right through him, there were times when she was afraid of what he was capable of. She could hear him out in the hallway, laughing and joking with the other male partners. She was the only female partner at the firm and was regularly left out, and although she was used to it, she was still struggling to accept it. Deep down she knew it was time to move on.
Her phone rang and made her jump. “Hello?” she answered.
“Hi, Kristin,” her PA Sally said from the other end. “Did you finish with the paperwork for the Green Case?”
“Just give me five more minutes and I’ll bring it out to you,” she said with a sigh. She hated to admit it, but her work really was starting to suffer. She could never seem to keep her mind on the job.
She looked down and scanned the explosion of files on the desk in front of her and wanted to scream. She rubbed her eyes and massaged her temples with her fingers.
“I need to get out of here,” she whispered.
She got to her feet and looked out across the skyline. It was almost five and the sun looked like it was already on its way down, which was impossible for summer, but she felt it all the same.
“I guess it’s always night somewhere,” she said to herself.
Her telephone rang again and she jumped. She turned around and grabbed the receiver. “Just five more minutes, Sally,” she snapped.
“No,” Sally said quietly, clearly taken aback by her boss’s tone. “It’s a call from the police department. They have someone in custody who wants to talk to you.”
“What?” she said rubbing her temples again. “Can’t it wait? We have a duty lawyer who could deal with that.”
“They asked for you specifically,” she said nervously. “The cop said his name was Dan Lockhart.”
Kristin paused for a moment, her heart rising into her throat at the sound of the name… A name she hadn’t heard for years.
“Did you say Dan Lockhart?” she repeated as she sat back down at her desk.
“That’s what the cop told me, yeah,” Sally confirmed.
“Okay,” Kristin said quietly, “Put him on.”
The line beeped, and there was a click before Kristin could hear shallow breathing on the other end of the line.
“Dan?” she whispered, still unsure of whether she believed it.
“Kristin?” he replied.
Her skin went cold when she heard his voice, but she instantly found herself smiling.
“How the heck are you?” he asked, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“I’m wonderful,” she smiled. “I take it things aren’t so great for you?”
“Haha,” he chuckled. “They’re certainly not… I could do with your expertise.”
“Which station are you at?” she asked as she grabbed a pen.
“South,” he sounded as if he was smoking. “I would normally deal with this sort of thing myself, but I thought it might be a nice excuse to see you again after all these years.”
“Just stay put and don’t say anything. You can explain to me when I get there.” She hung up the phone and grabbed her jacket.
The Green case file would have to wait…