Chapter 2
Kitt
Adrenaline pumped through my veins and sweat dripped down my skin as I punched the heavy bag in rapid succession.
Left. Right. Left. Right.
Each contact my knuckles made with the solid surface brought with it a growing sense of satisfaction.
I’d already been at the gym for two hours, working the bag with everything I had. My blood pumped hot in my veins. I was alive.
I was also going to be late.
As much as I’d love to spend the rest of my day letting out my pent-up aggression, I needed to leave soon. I’d never been late to anything in my life, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Grabbing the towel that I’d set aside earlier, I wiped off the sweat from my brow and chest before unwinding the boxing-wraps from my hands.
Ten minutes to shower. Twenty minutes to shave, fix my hair, and apply my favorite black orchid cologne. Five minutes to change into the freshly pressed suit that I’d brought along.
That left me five minutes ahead of schedule.
Perfect.
Saturday night traffic in Baton Rouge wasn’t the worst, but no amount of traffic was enjoyable. I’d considered getting a sports car for the fun of it, but what was the point when traffic wouldn’t let me go faster than any other car on the road.
My reliable Lexus would do just fine.
Traffic was slightly worse than I predicted, so I arrived at Alias Investigations only two minutes ahead of schedule. It was not ideal, but still acceptable.
The door was locked, which was a good idea for Private Investigators who probably racked up a lot of enemies, so I rang the doorbell and waited.
After a punctual amount of time, a young redheaded man opened the door.
“Can I help you?”
Cute. Short and slender with big blue eyes. The man’s style of dress was eclectic, with a bright mix of colors and a cartoon print on a cheap polyester vest, but other than that, he was just my type.
“Kitt Doyle,” I introduced myself, subtly checking the cuffs of my suit to make sure everything was in order. “I called earlier.”
The man’s whole face lit up when he smiled, emphasizing the freckles on his face.
“Oh, right. From the DA’s office. Come in.”
Stepping into Alias Investigations’ office, the first thing I noticed was that everything was brand new. I’d heard that their office had been blown up two years ago when they were hot on the bell ringer case.
Yet, they’d persevered, and in the end, they rebuilt. It was impressive and gave me a sense of confidence to work with them.
Inside the office, I found both of the Roth brothers sitting at their own desks. I’d never met either of the men before, but I could already recognize them just from their descriptions.
“Kitt Doyle,” the brother named Damien said as he stood and held out his hand. “You’re the lawyer from the DA, right?”
It was strange. The brother named Sebastian was sitting closer to the door, yet it was Damien who stood up and greeted me first.
“Yes,” I said as I accepted his hand. “I know my call earlier was probably vague, but I want to talk to you about the bell ringer case.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the redheaded young man helped Sebastian from his chair. The other Roth brother walked with a limp and rested part of his weight on a cane. Overall, he was stable but getting in and out of a chair seemed to give him some difficulty.
The redhead’s hands lingered on Sebastian longer than necessary, even once the other man was on his feet. There was an unmistakable look of affection between them.
It was a pity. The redhead may be my type, but I was no homewrecker.
Although I was being subtle, never looking at the pair directly, Sebastian must have still noticed my gaze. His hand rested on the redhead’s shoulder as he straightened up and came toward me, his cane barely touching the ground with each step.
“What’s there to talk about? Our lawyer left us high and dry, and the case is falling apart.”
Side by side, the Roth brothers made an intimidating wall, like two indomitable pillars. The only hint of weakness was the way that Damien stood just a bit in front of Sebastian, like he was ready to jump in front of a bullet for his brother at a moment’s notice.
“Forgive me if this is insulting, but we don’t really trust the DA right now.
Even before our lawyer abandoned the case, we’d been having trouble getting the DA to return our calls.
It’s clear your department doesn’t really want to deal with our case.
Now, you show up unexpectedly, claiming you want to continue pursuing the bell ringers. Why?”
Taking a deep breath, I walked over to seemingly empty desks—why did they have four desks when Alias Investigations was only run by two people?—and set down my briefcase. The Roth brothers were not the kind of people that could be bullshitted. Only the truth would be accepted.
Luckily, I came armed with plenty of that.
“I’ve been reviewing your case for a while now. You have plenty of evidence, but the problem is the human element. It doesn’t matter how many facts you throw at a jury. People are always willing to trust other humans before they are willing to trust emotionless numbers and facts.”
I opened my briefcase and had halfway pulled out the stack of files I’d brought, when a hand pushed the lid of the briefcase closed again.
“No, I’m not asking about the case,” Damien said, pushing my briefcase farther away.
“I mean, why are you here? The DA won’t say it, but none of their lawyers will touch our case with a ten-foot pole.
Someone is obviously putting pressure on them to bury the case.
So, what does that make you? Because I can only think of two reasons for you to be here.
Either you’re extremely altruistic, or you’re here to sabotage us, and I don’t really believe in altruism. ”
After the way my colleagues at the DA had already treated them, I wasn’t surprised that they were skeptical. I’d hoped to avoid this, but I was also prepared. Pulling out a smaller file that I’d stored in the inner pocket of my suit, I handed it over to the brothers.
Damien hesitated, but after a nudge from the redhead, Sebastian at least accepted it.
“What is… oh.” It seemed Sebastian had been ready to dismiss me, at first, but upon seeing the contents of the file, I obviously had his interest. He started flipping through the information more carefully.
“Five years ago, I worked for an independent law firm. I ended up representing a case of attempted kidnapping. The child’s parents were divorced, and full custody was given to the mother, so it was assumed that the father had been the one to try and take the child in revenge.
It seemed like a domestic affair, and no one took it seriously enough. Including me.”
Damien took the file from Sebastian, also looking through the information I’d brought them. “Let me guess, it wasn’t so simple.”
I’d had five years to get over my failure, but admitting to it out loud still pricked at the back of my throat like a swarm of bees trying to escape my stomach.
“No, it wasn’t that simple, but I didn’t catch it soon enough. In fact, I was the one who convinced our client to drop the charges, as it didn’t seem worth the cost and effort to pursue a case that wasn’t going anywhere.”
Over the years, I’d retold this story several times before. However, no matter how many times I repeated the same words, I always hesitated at the end of the story.
“Shortly after the case was dropped… both the mother and father turned up dead. It was labeled as a random mugging, but the details didn’t add up.
They weren’t living in a dangerous area, and nothing was stolen from them.
I don’t have any evidence to prove it, but I’m certain now that it was the bell ringers who tried to kidnap the child the first time, and once the case was dropped and they were in the clear, they came back to finish the job. ”
The file I’d given them wasn’t very large, yet the paper made an impressive sound when Damien tossed it onto the desk beside me.
“So, in the end, you failed your client, and the bell ringers got what they wanted.”
Picking up the file, I tapped the pages back into perfect order and stored them inside my laptop case. In the process, I accidentally disturbed a nameplate sitting on the desk.
Gabriel Long.
I recognized the name but couldn’t immediately place it. That bothered me. I was usually very good with names.
“I won’t try to argue my failure, but miraculously the child in question was saved before they were taken.
The bell ringers didn’t get what they wanted in the end, but that doesn’t change the fact that the child will still have to grow up as an orphan.
If I’d handled the case differently, maybe it would have turned out differently, but there’s nothing I can do about it, now.
Now, all I can do is try to make up for my mistakes. ”
The Roth brothers shared a look, and Sebastian even leaned down to whisper with the redheaded young man at his side. If I wanted, I could have read their lips to figure out what they were saying, but I turned my attention away to give them their privacy.
“All right,” Sebastian eventually declared, and nodded toward the empty desk. “If you’re looking for some sort of redemption, we’ll give you a chance. You can take Gabe’s desk. He’s out and won’t be using it for a while.”
As I sat down, I glanced at the name place again.
Gabe Long. Now I remembered the man. He never went by his full name, so I hadn’t recognized it at first, but I’d met the man before back when he worked for the FBI. I’d heard that he’d left to a private detective agency instead, but I hadn’t realized he was working for Alias Investigations.
“Where is your third partner? I’m assuming he’s involved with this case as well.”