Strong Alibi by K.C. Turner (story reading txt) 📗

night before didn’t keep her from tossing and turning. At least her failure to sleep had kept the nightmares at bay. Hearing China’s shoes clunking down the hallway, she focused her eyes on the doorway.

“Good morning sunshine!” China said. She made herself comfortable and flung her oversized bag in the chair next to her as she sat down. “You would not believe the night I had!” She placed her coffee cup on the desk and fumbled around in her purse as she continued, “You have to read these texts. Chester was blowing my phone up yesterday. The man has totally gone postal.”

Elizabeth leaned back in her office chair holding her coffee mug with both hands and waited patiently with heavy eyes as China scrolled through her phone to reveal her latest drama.

“5:02 pm; ‘Hope you had a good day!’ 5:29 pm; ‘Thinking about you, call me.’ 6:13 pm; ‘I hope I didn’t do something wrong.’ 8:00 pm; ‘I really miss talking with you. Please call.’ What the hell?” Her voice begged for help.

Squinting her eyes and taking a deep breath, Elizabeth was unsure on how to respond. Appearing as if she sucked on a lemon, she looked China square in her eyes and said, “Yikes.”

“Yikes? Yikes is all you have for this?” Sighing, China threw her phone in her purse and grabbed her coffee cup from the desk taking a sip. She looked at Elizabeth closely, “Damn, Liz, you look like shit.”

“Why, thank you, China.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry,” she said realizing her selfishness. “Are you doin’ okay?"

Setting her cup down in front of her, she confessed, “Honestly, I just want this day over with.”

China stared into the bottom of her cup and looked up, rolling her eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bombarded you with my trivial bullshit.”

She shook her head and smiled. “No worries. And it’s not trivial by any means. I’m sorry, I just didn’t get any sleep. I’m thinking about this pretrial, I’m totally considering skipping this whole parole hearing, and Peggy has called a mandatory meeting first thing tomorrow morning!”

Her body became stiff and she perked up abruptly. “Mandatory meeting? What the -”

“Um, yeah. She’s on the warpath. You thought Marilyn was bad? Get ready for Marilyn 2 point O. I seriously don’t have time for this.”

“Okay, first of all, the pretrial? Cakewalk. Who cares about the little girl who married the wrong guy? Lesson learned - or not. Not your problem, Liz. Second of all, the parole hearing? You’re going. No questions asked. Okay? Done deal. Martinez will be there, nothing to worry about. And Peggy? Screw her! Mandatory meeting. Pfft. Whatever,” she said with a wave of the hand.

Wishing she had an ounce of China’s confidence, she starred off into space like a frightened teenager ready to give a public speech in front of her entire graduating class for the first time.

Demanding her attention, China reiterated her position, “Liz, you got this.”

The docket was pretty light on Thursday. It seemed not many people committed crimes midweek. Judge Bennett typically scheduled pretrials on these days, although there were a few stragglers in for their arraignments. As China dealt with an aggressive storeowner looking to hang a thief over ten dollars, Elizabeth sat in the corner of the lobby reading the mental evaluation of Brandon DeFranco. The further she read, the more concerned she became for Pam.

The city prosecutor, Lydia Hamilton, walked through the lobby towards Elizabeth. Her pale skin accentuated her curly, strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. “Good morning, Liz!”

“How are you, Lydia?”

“Ready to get these pretrials over with. I leave for vacation this evening and I still haven’t even packed!”

She stood up to meet her properly. “Going anywhere fun?”

Her eyes brightened at the thought. “Cancun.”

“Nice! I always wanted to go there. Maybe one of these days.”

Lydia grasped her files close to her chest, “This is our second year. It is absolutely fabulous. You really have to go.” Looking over at China who was speaking with a crime victim, she asked, “Old man Kriems is at it again, huh?”

She shook her head empathetically. “That poor man has some kind of theft every week. It must be hard at his age still trying to run a store. Hey, we have a pretrial for the DeFranco’s. I was hoping we could get started as soon as possible because I need to leave by 11:00 am.”

“Of course! Follow me to the judge’s chambers and we’ll get started right now. Is your victim here?”

“I haven’t checked the courtroom yet, but I know she’ll be here. I’ll scope it out and meet you in chambers.”

Standing with an aura of confidence, she looked at her watch and back to Elizabeth, “We’ll get you outta here in time. I’ll see you in there.” She smiled and continued on her path. As soon as Lydia was out of sight, Shawn Johnson came through the metal door connecting the police station to the courthouse. Scurrying over towards her, he reached out and tapped her shoulder. “Hey...”

Elizabeth jumped and shrieked like a child afraid of the monster in the closet. Grabbing her chest and breathing a sigh of relief she giggled, “Shit! Sorry, I’m a little jumpy today.”

“My fault. I didn’t mean to startle you. Do you have a sec? Martinez said I might be able to find you here.”

Looking at her phone she paused, “I guess so. But I need to get to a pretrial soon.”

“DeFranco, right?”

She nodded and looked around the courthouse suspiciously. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Detective Shawn Johnson. I know we don’t really know each other.”

Rubbing her forehead, she was a bit embarrassed. “Ugh. Of course. I’m so sorry. What can I do for you, Detective?”

He moved closer to her and spoke quietly. “Brandon DeFranco has been a thorn in this department’s side for as long as he has been writing for the Tribune. These charges need to stick.”

“I’m not sure what it is I can do about that. Maybe you should be talking to Lydia?”

“You’re the one