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

her seat and immediately stood to receive the news from him. “Brandon, are you okay? Please say it wasn’t Pam?”

He paced back and forth in front of her desk. “Why? Why on earth did you tell Detective Martinez I was with you?”

Her eyes looked up at him from under her full black bang, the remaining of her long hair flowing over her shoulders. “Oh my God. It was her, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Sam! It was Pam. For the love of God it was Pam and you told the man investigating her death that I was with you!”

She cupped her mouth with her right hand in shock. “Oh my God. Brandon, I’m so sorry!” She started around the desk to comfort him.

He raised his hands as a warning. “Please stop.”

Her face became sullen. “I’m sorry, Brandon. It just came out! I thought I was helping you!”

“How the hell are you helping me by lying to a police detective? Please, do tell.”

“Really Brandon? What the hell were you going to tell the man? ‘Well, I worked late at the office and then I went home to cry again in my beer, alone.’ I gave you an alibi. One that we both know you didn’t have.”

He stopped pacing and looked at her knowing she was right. “We’re reporters, Sam. We seek the truth on a daily basis. We value the truth! I can’t go talk to this detective and lie to his face!”

She grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to look into her eyes. “You are the number one suspect here. The husband is always numero uno. If you don’t have an alibi you know damn well they will build a case against you no matter what. For Christ sake, Brandon, you were just in court for domestic violence!”

He began pacing again mulling over the truth in her words.

“Look, I left before you did yesterday. I didn’t speak or talk to anyone. You left here and went straight home, right?”

He nodded affirmatively.

“It’s perfect! As long as we stick to the same story, everything will be fine. Everyone here knows you’ve been staying with me and everyone knows you guys are on the rocks. This isn’t far fetched and I know you can sell it without a problem.”

The look on his face showed he still needed to be convinced.

“Look at it this way; cops lie all the time to get what they need from someone. Well the shoe is on the other foot in this investigation. You just need to tell a little white lie to get them sniffing somewhere else and find the actual person who did this. It’s that simple.”

“I’ll tell you what, Sam, if you think it’s such an easy sell, you go talk to Detective Martinez for me and then you can bury my wife.”

Chapter 8

Elizabeth sat at her desk organizing her files for the upcoming week. There was a stack for letters that needed to be drafted and mailed in order to advise of pretrials and a stack for phone calls that needed to be made before the end of the day. Deciding to get the phone calls out of the way she picked up the receiver to dial a number. Getting a busy signal, she hung up the phone, closed the file and set it to the side for later.

As she opened her next file, her cell phone vibrated against the desk. She picked it up to see a text from Martinez. Call me when you get a chance, she read. She heard footsteps coming down the hall. God, please let that be China!

Peeking around the doorway, China said, “Hey! It’s Friday!”

Looking up and smiling back, Elizabeth’s eyes showed signs of exhaustion. “If it’s not the Friday of my retirement, I’m totally not interested.”

“Awe, come on, Liz,” said China as she plopped her files and her purse on the seat in the chair next to her.

Elizabeth’s phone vibrated again from another text. Liz, it’s really important. She took a deep breath and released it, making a motorboat noise between her lips.

“Who was that?”

“Martinez,” she replied as if it hurt her to say his name.

“Okay, what’s up?” She became defensive for a moment. “Did he do something wrong?”

“No, no. Nothing like that…”

“Okay, so, is it because you feel guilty about eating pork?” China laughed so hard her eyes welled with tears.

Elizabeth couldn’t help but join in, shaking her head the entire time.

Her hand on her chest, China tried to calm herself. “Oh, oh-my-God. I’m sorry, Liz, it’s just too easy!”

Trying not to laugh, Elizabeth couldn’t keep a straight face. “This is serious!”

China took a tissue from Elizabeth’s desktop and proceeded to pat the tears from under her eyes, careful not to smear her mascara. “Alright, alright. What’s going on?”

Her phone vibrated again. “Shit. Hold on a second. I should really call him and see what’s so important.” She rolled her eyes placing the phone to her ear as China sat patiently checking her own phone.

His voice was melancholic. “Hey, I know you’re busy and probably trying to get some things out of the way before the weekend but I have some bad news.”

“Well, I guess that’s par for the course,” she said shaking her head with a grim look on her face while she looked at China.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted you to hear it from me, I guess.”

Her eyebrows scrunched together. “What’s going on?”

“We found Pam DeFranco’s body this morning, Liz.”

“What?” she asked in disbelief.

“It’s been confirmed. I’m so sorry, Liz. I know this was the last thing you wanted to hear. I’m afraid I’m going to be tied up this weekend with the investigation.”

She placed her elbows on her desk to rub her forehead, her left hand still holding the phone to her ear.

“Liz?”

“I’m here.” She sat back in her chair and let out a sigh of sadness mixed with disgust. “I wasn’t expecting that at all. You do what you gotta do and I’ll talk to you when I can?”

“Alright. Again,