32. Needed Someone Right Now
32
NEEDED SOMEONE RIGHT NOW
A t ten in the morning on Tuesday, Justine was working when her cell phone rang.
She pulled it out and noticed the DA calling her. “Troy, I’ll be right back,” she said.
She answered the phone and walked to her office and shut the door.
“Hi, Justine,” John Bloom said. “Sorry it’s taken me a few days to get back to you. Between the holiday, some time off, and speaking with the detective on the case.”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m assuming you’re calling about the cameras in the house that we discovered.”
“I am, fill me in on what you know.”
“Not much,” she said. “We aren’t getting anywhere. I sent the company everything they asked for to show that I could access the footage. I’m not even sure how far back it goes. I’m hoping for more than six months at this point. A year would be great. Longer more, but if we could get something for the period of time that Elise shot my father, that works.”
“It does,” John said. “But I have to be honest with you. I don’t have the manpower to go through that much footage right away. There is a good chance once they find out the will is being contested that you’re not going to be able to get the information anyway.”
She wanted to cry hearing this. “John. If my father hadn’t been murdered and was medically not able to make decisions, I still had power of attorney and Jordan the medical proxy. Would Elise be disputing that?”
“Most likely,” John said. “We don’t know and it’s hearsay. If this company declines to release the footage, then we’ll have to get a subpoena, which I have no problem doing. I’m sure it will be granted, but things take time. Then again, viewing the footage. If it’s only back six months, it doesn’t matter.”
“So you’re telling me you’re not even trying?” she asked.
This was heartbreaking for her.
“I’m sorry, Justine,” John said. “It’s not what you want to hear. We are trying, but things take time. Your case isn’t the only one on my desk. Elise’s attorneys keep pushing things back and in our office, we are fine with it right now. It’s not like she is some serial killer on the street.”
Which didn’t make the death of her father any easier to handle.
“My father was a prominent man in the community. His name is being slandered because of her.”
“I know and, again, I’m sorry,” John said.
“If I get my own attorney, will it go faster?” she asked. “To get the footage and have someone go through it.”
“Probably,” he said. “A cost you’ll have to incur and it might just be another dead end. I want to say to let the process work.”
“I can’t,” she said. “I can’t sit back and wait. It’s been almost seven months already. I want this done.”
“Let me know what you decide to do,” John said. “And keep me posted if you get the footage.”
“Thanks,” she said and hung up the phone.
She wanted to call Jordan but couldn’t unload on her sister.
They didn’t have enough facts and maybe the security company would release it to her in a few days. No reason to get worked up over anything just yet.
But an hour later she got an email from the security company saying that they couldn’t release the footage due to the will being held up.
She felt her eyes fill with tears.
There had to be a reason her father went to these lengths.
She’d never heard of something being this tight before with security measures.
That just told her there was more going on than anyone could know or guess.
She texted Garrett saying she had a bad day and wondered if he had a minute to talk.
She hated to bug him, but she needed someone right now that understood what she was going through.
Her phone went off with a reply five minutes later that he’d come down around twelve thirty when he went to lunch.
She got back to work and tried to push everything from her mind, but it wasn’t happening.
She watched the clock waiting for Garrett and then hated herself for doing that.
For putting more on his shoulders with everything else he had.
She should have waited before she texted and then kept it to herself.
But hadn’t they agreed they weren’t going to do that?
If she wanted him to talk to her, then it meant she had to do the same thing.
“Hey,” he said, almost running over. “What’s going on?”
She blinked her eyes a few times, looked at Troy, and said, “Just wanted to see you.”
It was as if he knew she didn’t want to talk about it out in the open like this.
“I always like it when you want to see me,” he said. “Can you take your lunch now?”
“Go,” Troy said. “I’ve got it covered. It’s not that busy.”
It was always busy, but they got most of the lunch rush meds out for people already, though there would still be more coming in.
She locked the door to the meds, leaving Troy to only hand out what was processed for pickup.
“Come to my office,” she said.
He waited for her to open the door off to the side so he wasn’t in the back with the meds.
Once the door was shut, he pulled her into his arms. “Hey,” he said. “What happened today?”
She didn’t want to cry. She hated it felt like she did so much of that in her life now.
Instead she held onto the hug and gathered her thoughts, then stepped back.
“I heard from the DA today first.”
“What did they say?” he asked.
She moved to sit in the chair behind her desk and he sat in the one in front of it. They were the only two chairs in the room.
“He said that if the company won’t release the footage, which they won’t, because I heard from them too, that they will have to subpoena it and they will. I already forwarded the email back to the DA and the detective on the case.”
“You expected that might happen,” he said.
“I did. I had hoped not. Then the DA pointed out that they don’t have the time or manpower to go through a ton of footage right away. I’m not even sure how much footage is stored. If it’s only six months, it’s too late. The footage is gone that we would need.”
“I don’t know that anything is ever gone for good, Justine. Things get archived.”
She frowned. “I didn’t think of that.” She waved her hand. “Either way, right now, I have nothing more than they will subpoena the information. We should get it at some point, but who knows how long any of it is going to take.”
“Did you get the whole ‘let the process run its course’ spiel?”
“It’s like you were there on the call,” she said. “I want to move on with my life. We can’t with this hanging over us. It’s been seven months and I know things take time, but I want my father’s name cleared. I want Elise behind bars where she belongs.”
“Her defense attorney needs to prove self-defense and that isn’t easy.”
“No,” she said. “But the DA is overworked and stretched thin and I don’t like that things might be missed. As John pointed out, this isn’t a priority because Elise poses no threat to society. She’s released on bail and living her life as if this didn’t happen.”
“What are you and Jordan thinking?”
“I haven’t talked to Jordan yet. I hate bugging her. She has so much more she needs to focus on,” she said.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Don’t take it all on yourself.”
She sighed. “I know. I think getting our own attorney is the way to go. I want that footage. I want to know that the footage has been gone over promptly. I don’t care the cost.”
“Do you want me to reach out to Hailey? Actually, I think it’d be Roark.”
“Roark?” she asked.
“Roark French. That’s Emma’s brother. He’s Hailey’s right-hand man. They are first cousins, and you could say he’s second in command at the firm. He oversees the defense and trial lawyers. Hailey is a business attorney and primarily deals with family businesses.”
“Okay,” she said. “I don’t want to put anyone out.”
“You’re not,” he said. “Stop thinking that. Roark and his wife have a house on the island and both work out of the island and in Boston. Before they had a child, Chelsea was here more than in Boston, but now with their daughter, they are splitting their time together. I’ve got Roark’s number and I’m going to text him the situation and hopefully we’ll hear something by tonight. I’m not sure what states he can practice in, but if there is someone on staff that can practice in Indiana, then you’ll find out.”
She nodded her head. “Thanks. Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said. “Not many know this, but Laine had a legal issue when she was at a gallery showing in Chicago a few years ago. Roark was called right away and they had an attorney on staff that could practice in Illinois and they got it taken care of quickly.”
“It’s not like I need someone to be in Indianapolis. Just someone to get this footage and go through it and then talk with the DA.”
“One step at a time,” he said. “And I’m glad the first step was to call me.”
“Me too,” she said. “I feel bad that I’m adding to your mental load with this.”
“Don’t,” he said. “What did we talk about recently?”
“I thought of that too,” she said. “But I still hate asking people for help.”
“We all have our pride. But I love you. We haven’t said it again, but I’m going to. Love doesn’t come with strings, Justine. It doesn’t come with answers or guilt either. It’s just there. And I know you feel it too because you reached out when you needed me.”
She felt her eyes itch some. These damn tears never wanted to stop.
“I love you too. We are feeling our way around things. There are going to be hits and misses like anything else in life. We’ll get through this together. Thank you,” she said, standing up and moving toward him.
He pulled her down onto his lap.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for coming into my life. I think we both found the other when we needed it the most.”
“I’ve never thought that way before.”
She wouldn’t admit that the lore of the island just popped into her head either.
Justine never believed in anything like that before, but it was hard to dispute it when she was living it now.