Case Open, Case Shut

A few days later I was sitting in the boardroom of the office where I worked. We were having lunch to celebrate the last day of one of our staff.

She was a woman a little older than me, and had been working for the firm for a couple of years. She was pregnant and today was her last day before taking time off, however instead of taking maternity leave she decided to throw in the towel at this firm. ‘I’ve been a lawyer for a while now, and I’m not enjoying it. I’ll stay in the legal business, but I don’t wish to be a lawyer anymore’ she told me. It made me a little freaked out; after all I was only just beginning my career. But people are different, and what some people enjoy others don’t.

I gave a glum look to the receptionist, who was darting in and out of the boardroom to answer calls. She was a sweet girl, only nineteen years old. She had taken a year off university to work full time, as her dad was ill and could no longer work. Although she came from an upper middle class family, she still didn’t want her sick father to have to support her financially. I felt sorry for the poor kid, everyone treated her horribly just because she was the lowest in the company and piled their work onto her. Then management would complain to her that she wasn’t getting enough done, when she was doing the work of at least three people. I had also once stumbled across one of her payslips, she was on minimum wage.

But yet she still turned up to work brightly everyday with a smile, and cheerfully answered every call. I once overhead Steve the boss say she’s saved the firm thousands of dollars through doing the work of more than one person, excellent phone manner that pulled in lots of high rolling clients, as well as saving his arse by easily rescheduling his double booked appointments. Then as soon as he finished telling me this, he walked up to her desk and screamed at her for not keeping the kitchen clean the previous night, even though we all knew it was the other offices in the building who used the kitchen after we all left at night.

After she had finished the phone call, she sat back down and gave me a weak smile, however the phone then started ringing again. She sighed, but before she got up I shot up and patted her on the shoulder. I tried to help her out as much as I could, but usually my own workload was humongous. I try whenever I can, and answering one call is something I could do.

“Good afternoon, Steven Hollis Lawyers. Audrey speaking.” I answered, using my most professional tone as possible.

“Audrey? Is this Audrey Bell?” I heard a male voice ask.

“Yes it is, may I ask who’s calling?” I answered.

“Um, it’s me. Peter Bristol. You came to my interview late on Saturday night.” The male informed me.

“Hi Peter, how are you going?” I asked, unsure of what else to say. Chances are that it’s not good if he’s calling the office, but there’s no other way to address what the call is regarding without beating around the bush.

“Um, not too well. You see apparently the police have enough evidence to arrest me, and have arrested me. So yeah, calling you because I need you.” Peter said to me, and I giggled a little at how forward he was, before quickly composing myself.

“27th precinct? I’ll race down there now. Don’t say a word until I get down there. No matter how much they try and stir you, at the beginning of the interview make a statement that you choose to remain silent until I get there. If they keep pressing only say ‘no comment’ do you understand me Peter?” I asked my client.

“I do Audrey. I’ll see you soon.” Peter informed me, and I slammed the phone down.

I took no hesitation into running into the boardroom, where all my co-workers were looking at me with worry.

“Peter Bristol has been arrested for the murder of Kerry Houston. I got to race down to the 27th precinct where he’s being held. I’ll see you all later.” I breathed out loudly, where everybody yelled out a ‘good luck’ to me as I grabbed my coat and bag.

“Audrey wait! Before you go, if you get stuck on anything, don’t panic. Excuse yourself for a moment and call Blake or myself. It’s better to look a little slow than make a fatal mistake.” Steve called out to me.

I nodded, before rushing out of the office building into the car park so I could jump into my car.

When I first started studying law I thought majority of my clients would be people of a low socio economic background when it came to criminal proceedings. What I failed to realise is that this is Manhattan, and you get people here from every walks of life. You don’t need to be a certain person to commit a particular crime.

I drove this kid home early on Sunday morning after his interview. He was in community college studying engineering. He was quite polite, and he seems to have his life on track.

He told me the full story of why he’s a suspect on the car ride home. I advised him against it. As sick as this makes me feel, it’s not a lawyer’s job to prove their clients innocence in most cases. It’s our job to poke enough holes in the other party’s stories to raise reasonable doubt. But Peter assured me he was innocent and I let him proceed.

His ex girlfriend had many mental issues. He was with her for four years, and in that time she did many crazy things. He wanted to leave her after the first few months, but she kept threatening to kill herself if he even hinted about breaking up. After a while his patience grew thin, and he made serious plans to leave her. She conveniently ended up accidentally pregnant, but apparently had a miscarriage a short time after.

Anyway, long story short. After his concerned family did some digging around, it turns out she never really was pregnant in the first place. His family and friends finally got him to leave her, and after a few court proceedings he managed to get a restraining order on her.

Which makes my job easier. Unfortunately there’s lots of circumstantial evidence about why Peter may have killed her. But it doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill someone he’s gotten a restraining order against?

Hopefully that will be enough reasonable doubt for the jury when it comes down to that.