Strong Alibi by K.C. Turner (electric book reader .txt) 📕

his hand in the air over the partition and gave Martinez a thumbs up.

Scurrying out the door, Martinez hollered down the hall, “I owe you one!”

“You owe me more than one, Martinez!” Shawn shook his head and raised himself from his desk, slithering into Martinez’s seat. He placed his elbow on the desk and gripped his chin, glancing over the document he was now responsible for. He uploaded the document to the draft email Martinez had ready. Using the mouse, he hovered over the send button before clicking it.

“Johnson...” Chief Holden’s voice was deep and demanding.

His heart skipping a beat, Shawn turned to see Holden standing back in the doorway. “Damn, Chief, give a guy a heart attack why don’t you!”

“I need you to get over to Filmore Street. Got another possible OD.” He glared into Shawn’s eyes. “I want whoever is selling this shit in my city.” He breathed heavy through his nostrils and shook his head before returning to his office.

Shawn visually followed the chief until he was out of sight again and turned back to the computer screen, clicking a few buttons with the mouse. He picked his cell phone from his front pocket and pulled up a contact, sending a text message that read ‘You owe me BIG.’

Standing in line at Jared’s Java House waiting to order, Elizabeth sighed as she said to China, “You know, I don’t understand why the judge is scheduling these pretrials so soon after the arraignments.”

“What do you mean?” she asked as her eyes scoured the menu written on the large chalkboard behind the counter.

“The pretrial for DeFranco is in two days. The parole hearing is that afternoon!”

“Eew. Fun day. Why didn’t you just take the day off for that?”

“No time to ask. Not that it matters. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to get out of going.”

Pursing her lips and scrunching her brows together, China gave her a look of disapproval, “Umm, no.” She glanced back to the menu and sighed with indecision. “Should I get the chicken salad or the egg salad? Egg salad might make me too gassy.”

Chuckling, Elizabeth made her way to the counter. “Hi Kathy, how you doing today?”

She ripped the previous order from her tablet. “Ladies! How are you? It’s been busy! Gimme just a sec, okay?” She turned the order into the kitchen window behind her and spun back around to the counter, her long blonde ponytail following. “So, what can I get you ladies today?”

They both ordered the special brew of the day and a sandwich before finding a table for two in the lunch madness. Swinging her purse over the shoulder of the chair, China sat down heavily. “There has seriously got to be a better way!”

“No kidding. But until one of us thinks of what that might be, we’re stuck with this.” Pulling out her court folder she flipped through to the assessment Pam DeFranco gave her. She leaned in over the table and spoke quietly, “Pam gave this to me at court. It’s a mental assessment from her husband’s doctor, of which she had no idea he was seeing!”

“Ooh, juicy! Have you read it?”

“Not yet. I skimmed through it. He sounds like a freaking psycho.”

“Okay, if you’re not going to bring it up… What-in-the-hell is with this Peggy Cabot character?”

Tilting her head back and twisting her neck around, she locked eyes with China and shook her head. “I don’t know. I wish Marilyn would have given us a little heads up. I’m not happy that we now have to report to two people. And I’m even less happy she’s already trying to call a meeting on her first day. I mean, she could at least feel things out before demanding we have lunch with her. Seems a little presumptuous.”

“Try pretentious. The woman literally talked through her nose. I heard she’s from Beachwood. Fancy smanchy.” She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“I guess the upside is we won’t be taking the rape pager home anymore and in my eyes, not gonna be missed! Those cases are even more frustrating to deal with.”

“Oh, they weren’t that bad.”

“Really China? What about that time we both got called out because there were two girls, first thing in the morning. Remember? They looked like they were both hung over, completely drugged out, and could give a rat’s ass about talking to us. Looked as if they just pulled an all night train and simply wanted to be sure they didn’t get an STD or wind up pregnant the next month! God, that was awful.”

Cupping her hand over her mouth to keep from spitting her coffee out, China continued the trip down memory lane. “What about the time you had that girl who said she was raped in the park and she had her monthly visitor? You had to sit through the entire exam with her.”

Elizabeth’s gag reflux got the best of her remembering the stench in the air that day. She gulped down the bite of her wrap she just took; it slid hard down her throat. “Ugh, damn you, China!”

She laughed so hard tears formed in the corner of her eyes. “I’m sorry!” Still laughing and grabbing her chest she confessed, “I couldn’t resist! Hey, at least Cankles can deal with all that shit from now on, right?”

“Exactly my point. Of course we’ll still have to deal with people like Phil and his girlfriend who decided to brand him with a hot iron.”

“Oh my God! That poor man.” China took a deep breath and looked out the window fantasizing, “That poor, sexy man. I wonder if that left a scar?”

“The man was wearing a wife-beater, in court, so cloth would not stick to his skin. You could literally see the shape of an iron on his back. I’m pretty sure it left a scar.”

Chapter 5

Knowing it was going to be a stressful day, Elizabeth popped a Valium upon waking up. The bottle of wine she drank the