“Brina,” Ben said. “It’s good to see you.”

  Based on his reaction she had to assume he knew he was meeting with her today. She’d sent over a lot of correspondence to his firm. Nothing that had been returned had his name on it and she was guessing that was on purpose.

  That maybe he’d want to try to ruffle her feathers a bit if he could. Asshole.

  He had another thing coming.

  “Same,” she said back.

  “I asked to be put on this case,” he said. It was just the two of them for the moment. Carol would be in soon to make a presence but for the moment this was preliminary talks.

  “Not surprising. This could be a big mark in your win column...if you won it.”

  “This isn’t your type of case,” he said. “This is a big moneymaker. I was shocked to see your name and wanted to know if you changed everything about yourself that you threw in my face years ago.”

  She wanted to slap her hands on the table and tell him to go take a headfirst plunge off a tall building into a pile of rocks. She wouldn’t. Never.

  That had been one of her problems back then. She’d told him upfront what she wanted. He’d had no problem with it.

  Until he did. He’d said he wanted the same. She was guessing it was all a lie.

  And then she didn’t fight back. Not enough. Why bother?

  If he couldn’t accept her then—if he changed his feelings—she wasn’t going to waste her time. She was who she was and he knew that.

  “I haven’t changed a thing. I’m still the same person I always was. One with values and ethics. What did you say to me? Oh yeah. The underdog only wins so much and there is never any money in it, just a glory story.”

  He laughed at her. “I did say that. One of my better quotes. Glory only gets you so far. I guess you want the money this time.”

  “This is my case, not hers,” Carol said, walking in. “And I asked her to be part of it because she’s the best there is when it comes to representing the underdog.”

  Brina didn’t say anything. She loved the support she got but hated that Carol would walk into this conversation.

  “I apologize,” Brina said. “Ben has a habit of not always being the most professional of people and I allowed him to suck me in. Now, Ben, what is it that you wanted to discuss with us today?”

  “We’d like to settle,” he said, pushing a piece of paper toward Carol.

  Carol didn’t look down at it but rather looked at Brina. “You’ve done most of the legwork, Brina. Do you want to consider a settlement?”

  “No. It’s not about money,” she said. “It’s about what is right. You can go back and let your bosses know that.”

  “You’re just as crazy now as you were then. You have no idea what you are turning down,” Ben said, standing up.

  “Any idiot would know the first offer is the weakest. You’re running scared and you think I’m going to tell you what we’ve got. I’m not. If your firm was serious about this, they would have sent over their lead attorney on this, if not a partner. Not you. Not someone who can’t even put his name on correspondence because you thought you’d try to throw us off.”

  “And you’re still a righteous bitch,” he said, walking out the door.

  “Well then,” Carol said, shutting the door. “That seemed pretty personal to me. I want to say please don’t tell me that is an ex, but I have a feeling he might be?”

  Brina felt her shoulders drop. “Right on the first guess.”

  “I must say I’m shocked based on what I know about you.”

  “He wasn’t that way back in law school.”

  “And you’ve always been the way you are, correct?” Carol asked.

  “Yes. It’s old news. I guess for years I looked at him and thought he might be the one and then when things didn’t work out I realized I just wasn’t meant to find anyone. Or every man I met couldn’t stand my independence. My thought process. My dedication to my work.”

  “I feel there might be a ‘but’ in there.”

  “There is. I’ve been seeing someone and I’ve been holding back and I wonder why now. I guess I’ve given him a bit of a hard time on a few things. He’s a standup guy and knows how I feel about things. He’s good with it all, but I’ve been letting my feelings, or hurt feelings, from Ben dictate things. I shouldn’t do that.”

  “It’s easy to say we shouldn’t do things and harder to follow through with it. And you answered Ben well. You said exactly the same as I would have. They are getting desperate and it’s too early for that. They are hiding something and they think we might find it.”

  “That’s my feeling too. Everyone I’ve interviewed has said about the same thing. Between the ages of thirty-eight and thirty-nine they were laid off, but their positions were filled within months with someone younger. They weren’t called back like they’d said they would be. What I don’t like is the timing of it.”

  “And what’s that?” Carol asked sitting down. “Fill me in.”

  “Four of the five that were laid off for lack of work found other jobs within an average of three months. Almost to the week they were employed again, their old position was posted. It was as if they were being watched to make sure they had another job before they opened it up.”

  “Interesting. So they were watching their employees?”

  “That or following up with the unemployment payments. They’d be notified once those stopped. Like a sign they can hire again. And they were smart enough to change the job description just enough to say it wasn’t exactly the same job. Only it was the same job. Each of the people laid off attested to that. That they all had the same job regardless of what the description or the title said.”

  “What else did you find out?” she asked.

  “The one person that was terminated. They were too busy to lay them off. They overloaded him with work, they put deadlines on him that couldn’t be reached and the first time he couldn’t meet them, they used it as their reason for firing him even though he’d been employed for two years and had glowing reviews previously.”

  “What we need is to talk to someone employed now,” Carol said. “There has to be a lot of talk with the lawsuit. There have to be people who are nervous they might be next.”

  “The question is, how do we get to them?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you to figure out,” Carol said, then stood up to leave.

  No pressure.

  And all Ben’s visit did was light a fire under her to win this. Not for the money. Not even to rub his face in it.

  But to stop it from happening to anyone else.

  25

  Choices and Decisions

  Nathan hadn’t seen Brina in two days. He talked to her on the phone and she was buried deep with this case she was working on.

  He knew there was something going on with her but couldn’t put his finger on it.

  She’d been quiet on the phone and though she tried to push it off like it was work, he knew there was more to it.

  Unfortunately he was on nights and when that happened he didn’t see her at all. Two more days before their schedules could allow them to meet again.

  He was in the cruiser driving around an hour into his shift when he got a call on the radio of a disturbance at an office complex parking lot.

  When he pulled in, there was one person standing in the lot with her arms crossed while another person was behind the glass doors waiting, probably having locked herself in.

  He got out of the car and walked toward the woman waiting in the parking lot. “What’s going on? I received a call of a disturbance.”

  “I’m just standing here,” the woman said. “There isn’t a law against it.”

  “There is if it’s private property,” he pointed out.

  “I used to work here. I have things inside I need. I just want one of my ex-coworkers to go get them for me,” she yelled loudly. “I’m not going to do anything to her. I thought we were friends.”

  “What’s your name, ma’am?”

  “Marcella Grayson. I was laid off six months ago. I was looking for a file that I thought I brought home and I can’t find it.”

  “That would be work property and something you most likely don’t have a right to,” he said.

  “It’s not just that,” Marcella said. “I was looking for a photo album and I can’t find it. I remember bringing it into the office days before I was laid off. They’d packed my stuff up and put it in a box and escorted me out. I was never allowed to go back in. I went through that box for the first time yesterday and it’s not there.”

  He looked at the employee watching them from behind the glass. “And you’re just looking in that box now after six months?” he asked.

  “I was hurt. Things happened so fast. I got another job shortly after, but then someone else got laid off like me. And now there is a lawsuit against the company for discrimination. I’ve been called and asked to be part of the suit. It’s what forced me to go through the box. That’s where the thumb drive of files should have been. It had my personal stuff on it. Along with my photo album.”

  “So you were doing personal stuff at work?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

  “Yes and no,” Marcella said. “Listen, I just want those two things. I’m sure they are in the lost and found. The thumb drive is under my desk taped to the bottom.”

  “Sounds like all the more reason they wouldn’t want you to have it.”

  “I know it sounds bad, but I need it,” she said pleading. “And Michele and I were friends. I can’t believe she is turning her back on me like this,” Marcella yelled again.

  “Even I know when a lawsuit is pending people are told to keep their mouths quiet. I’m sure she doesn’t have much of a choice.”

  Marcella snorted. “Even if it’s wrong and she knows it.”

  “I’m sorry. You’ll have to call your attorney and see if you can get your stuff through them. I’ll have to ask you to leave the premises.”

  “I get it. I’m sorry. I’ve never been through something like this. It’s distressing, to say the least. They were wrong. What they did to me and others, it’s not right and they shouldn’t get away with it.”

  He felt her pain, but he was only hearing her side of the story too. “I can’t do much about it. I’m sure your coworker—”

  “Ex-coworker,” Marcella interrupted.

  “Ex-coworker,” he said, his lips thin. “I’m sure she wants to leave but won’t come out until you’re gone. I can escort you off the property. I can issue you a ticket too for trespassing but I’m asking you to leave now before it comes to that.” Because he did feel for her situation.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll call Brina tomorrow.”

  “Brina?” he asked, his ears perking up. There weren’t too many Brina’s that he knew of.

  “My attorney. Brina Shepard. She’s the one handling most of the paperwork and interviews now. She’ll know what to do, I’m sure.”

  “Sounds like the right thing to do,” he said and watched Marcella climb in her car and pull away.

  Once she was out of the parking lot, he moved toward the door and waved his hand for the employee—Michele–to come out.

  “Thanks,” Michele said. “I can’t talk to anyone right now. We’ve got gag orders on us or we’ll lose our jobs. I’ve only been here about ten months myself.”

  “I understand. You weren’t in any harm by the sounds of it. She just wanted a few things left there.”

  “I know. We’ve been talking off and on since she left but then once the lawsuit started I had to stop. I couldn’t risk my employers finding out.”

  He was looking at her under the lights of the parking lot now as he walked with her to her car to assure she was on her way. She looked familiar to him and then it dawned on him who it was. Michele Gottery. One of the girls responsible, in his eyes, for his sister Cassie’s death.

  “You need to do what you have to,” he said, his voice clipped. He wanted to say something but wouldn’t. She obviously didn’t know who he was. Why would she?

  “Yeah.” Michele got to her car and opened the door, then turned. “Thank you again.” Her eyes moved to his name on the uniform. “Nathan?”

  “That’s me.”

  “Cassie’s older brother?”

  “Right again,” he said.

  “You know who I am, don’t you?”

  At least she was upfront and not trying to pretend and drive away. “I do.”

  “I’m sorry. I wish I’d said it back then. I wish I could have had the courage to say it before now. Even now it hurts to say it to you.”

  “Why’s that?” he asked, crossing his arms. “Are you saying it because I’m standing here in front of you as a trooper? If you saw me or my family on the street would you have just walked past us?”

  “I tried to talk to your mother about five years ago. She called me every name in the book. I suppose I had it coming. I’ve had to live with that. It wasn’t just Cassie’s life that changed but mine too.”

  “You were able to live your life and make choices and decisions.”

  “She made her choice,” Michele said, the tears in her eyes. “It’s wrong to say that, but we were all bullied that year. I was in the group so I wasn’t bullied anymore. I should have stood up to the other girls and tried and they turned on me. I wasn’t strong enough so I caved and stopped.”

  “Neither was Cassie,” he said.

  “I know. I have to live with that for the rest of my life. I’ll never forget I could have said more. I could have tried to be her friend and stood up to everyone. Those years, they are hard years for a lot of kids.”

  “Harder on some than others. The things that were said about her. That she was accused of. None of it was true and you know it. You could have said that at any point even after the fact.”

  “I did,” she said. “I told the school counselors. I told the school board. They didn’t want to hear it.”

  He wasn’t surprised to hear that. That the school wanted to brush it off as if it wasn’t something they should have had a handle on.

  “You’re an adult now. You can do the right thing now in a lot of ways.”

  “So you’re saying I should stand up to my employers?” she asked.

  “I’m not telling you to do anything. I’m saying you’re an adult and if you want to make a difference in life, then start doing it.”

  He turned and walked away.

  When he was back in his car he drove around and then found a parking lot to type up what just happened so it was on record. Having the computers in the cars made it so much easier.

  Before he pulled out, he called Brina when he never did during working hours.

  She answered on the second ring. “Nathan,” she said. “Everything okay? You never call me when you’re working.”

  “Yeah. I just wanted to give you a heads up of something that happened.”

  “What?”

  “There was a call into AEA that I responded to.”

  “That’s my case,” she said.

  “I didn’t realize until I pulled into the parking lot where I was. You’ve never said the name of the company. One of your clients was trying to get an employee to get a thumb drive and some personal stuff inside the building. That employee locked herself in and called 911. They’d been put on gag orders.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’ve tried to call a few and none will return the call. Not surprising. Can you tell me who my client is?”

  “Marcella Grayson. I wouldn’t have even called you, but when I told her to call her lawyer to get what she needs, she said she’d call Brina.”

  “It’s easy enough to figure out it was me, but you would have asked to verify. I’m sure you didn’t say we were dating.”

  “Of course not. When she left, I went to talk to the employee that locked herself in. It happens she was one of the girls that bullied Cassie in school.”

  “Oh. That had to be hard. Did she know who you were?”

  “She did. I thought for sure she would have walked away without saying anything, but she didn’t. She acknowledged it.”

  “And?”

  “And she apologized. It doesn’t make it right. What she said, her excuses or reasons. None of it made it right and none of it will be forgotten.”

  “You would have told her that too, didn’t you?”

  “Not in those words. But I told her if she really wanted to make a difference in life then it was time to stand up for right and wrong. She may or may not contact you or the firm. I have no idea.”

  “But your words might be enough for me to try again. Thank you. I won’t ask you for her name. I can get that from Marcella without you saying.”

  “Thanks,” he said. He felt he was pushing it saying what he did, but it wasn’t anything too out there. Marcella was going to call Brina anyway.

  “Was Marcella arrested or ticketed?” Brina asked. “That won’t help my case at all.”

  “No, she wasn’t. I didn’t do it because of you. At the time I told her to leave before she was ticketed for trespassing, she hadn’t mentioned your name yet.”

  “I’ll give it a day and see if she contacts me. I hope she does.”

  “I have a feeling she will based on what she said.”

  “And you aren’t going to tell me what it was?”

  “No. That’s up to her,” he said. “How have you been?”

  “Busy,” she said. “You?”

  “The same.” He paused and then finally went with his gut. “I miss seeing your face on these night rotations.”

  “I miss seeing yours,” she didn’t hesitate to say. It made him realize that maybe he was looking for something that might be wrong with her the past few days when there really wasn’t. He was seeing something that probably didn’t exist.

  “If you happen to get out of work on time, maybe you wouldn’t mind stopping over to say hi on your way home before I go in?”

  She started to laugh. “I want to say I will, but you know...”

  “You’re never on time. I know.”