Chasing Justice (5 page)

“Hi Scott,” Jules squeaked. “This is Piper; remember Mom was telling you about her? She’s interested in a job at ComCable with you. Remember?” It was as if Jules was willing him to not say something dumb or to admit that he didn’t remember who the hell Piper was or why she was there.

“Oh, yeah we’ll get you a job.” He smiled, flashing the small gap between his front teeth. “I mean, a hot chick like you they’ll hire in a minute. I was afraid you were going to be some cow with a unibrow, and I’d have to find some nice way to tell you no dice on the job. But any of the guys would be all right with you on the crew.” Scott clearly couldn’t see the icy stare of his wife or the enormous, gloating grin plastered across Bobby’s face. Scott just continued to check out Piper’s goods and assess her
qualifications
for the job.

Piper coughed as the water she was drinking lodged slightly in her throat. There was really nothing left to the imagination when it came to why Bobby had been so snarky about the love of his young life marrying a dumbass. No wonder Betty was disappointed in her daughter’s choice for a husband, especially when there was a man like Bobby in the running. Scott was exactly as Piper had imagined him, maybe slightly worse, but he was going to get her a job and access to what she needed. That was really all that should matter to her. For some reason however, a small part of her ached for everyone in that room, excluding Scott.

“Thanks Scott. For the job and the self-esteem boost. I was feeling a little bovine-esque lately.” Piper knew she was speaking to only one person in the room. That was Bobby. She knew her comment would fly over Scott’s head, sting Jules and maybe even Betty, but Bobby would appreciate it, and she found herself wanting to put a point in his column for some reason. It worked, because as she glanced over at Bobby she saw him smiling. Her remark may have been funny, but her timing was terrible, as he too coughed back a sip of his drink.

Bobby shot Piper a grateful look and she felt herself blush slightly.

“Oh good,” Scott said obliviously. “Can we get to eating now? I’m so hungry my belly thinks my throat's been cut.” He reached his large arm across Jules’s plate and began to serve himself.

Getting the dinner back on track quickly became Betty's number one objective. They all ate sheepishly. They knew any amount of fooling around would result in some form of scolding from Betty.

The remainder of the meal was uneventful but delicious. They kept the conversation limited to the unusually warm weather they were having. Normally by September in North Carolina you could count on a break in the humidity and the evenings would be cool enough for a sweater at times. Each of them took turns commenting on how the extended heat had them all anxious for winter. It seemed to be the only common ground they could find.

Piper had barely left room for dessert but decided it would be rude not to partake in Betty’s peach cobbler. She looked around the table, and, although the tension was still palpable, she found herself envious that all these people would be back here next week. The bickering and jabbing that might have seemed annoying to all of them was charming to Piper. No one here was throwing things; no one was threatening anyone’s life or slamming a door. They were simply disagreeing without being overly disagreeable. It was such a stark contrast to all Piper had ever known, and she wished it didn’t have to end after just one night.

Jules rose abruptly from the table after Scott had taken the final bite of his second helping of cobbler.

“Ma, I'll help you clear the table, but I've got a big day at work tomorrow and we’d better get going.” Jules physically lifted Scott upward by hooking him under his arm. He clearly had not gotten the message that she was anxious to go. As far as Piper could tell, he was completely oblivious to any tension circling the table. As a matter of fact, it seemed like there was no shortage of things to which he was oblivious.

“Don't you touch a dish. I know there's a lot going on in your office. It seems like every time I drive by, there is a line practically out the door. That’s what happens in a growing town like ours. I guess everyone needs something from town hall. Permits, licenses, records. In a small place like Edenville they expect you guys to do it all.”

Betty turned toward Piper and said with pride lighting her face, “My Julie is in charge of the whole town hall. Well pretty much.” Piper loved how Betty seemed to be the only one who called her daughter by her full name. She wondered when it had morphed into Jules for everyone else and why Betty had decided that just wouldn’t do for her.

“Not quite, Ma. It’s too bad you quit school Piper. If you ever go back we’d be seeing a lot of each other. All the courthouse documents are housed in my archives. The lawyers, detectives, and such are always pawing through and leaving it a mess.” Jules was still trying to shuffle Scott away from the table as she spoke. “It was really nice to meet you Piper, I’m glad Ma had you over and that Scott will be able to help you get a job.” She leaned in and whispered to Piper. “He means well, you just have to get to know him better.” She smiled through the embarrassment of having to plead her case for compassion for her husband. She pulled Piper in for a hug and continued their private conversation. “And keep your eye on Bobby for me. He’s on a slippery slope. He could use a friend right now.”

“We’re not really friends. He’s been kind of rude actually. All we’ve done is argue with each other,” Piper whispered, with a confused look on her face as they broke their embrace.

“Well that’s how most epic love stories begin,” Jules insisted, as she turned away from Piper and toward her husband who had his fork back in the serving dish of peach cobbler. “Are you kidding? Let’s go already Scott.” She yanked on his arm and he finally moved in the direction of the door.

“Come down to the office tomorrow, Pepper. I’ll have everything set up for you,” Scott mumbled, his mouth full of cobbler.

“It’s Piper, Scott. I swear you have the memory of a gold fish.” Jules physically shoved him the rest of the way through the door and toward the porch. “Bye Ma,” she called out behind her.

Betty walked out behind them and waved from the porch until they were out of sight. Bobby and Piper had begun clearing the table, and she quickly hustled back into the dining room to stop them.

“You put those dishes down and get on out of here. Go sit out on the porch, and I’ll bring out some tea. Dishes keep, good company doesn’t.” She shooed them out the screen door, and they found themselves standing there awkwardly, not sure exactly what had just happened or how they ended up alone again, something neither of them wanted.

“I should actually get going,” Piper said just louder than a whisper. “It’s getting dark and I don’t know these roads very well. It’s taking me a while to get accustomed to things down South, especially no street lights on these country roads.” She fished in her pocket for her car key and looked through the screen door, hoping to see Betty on her way back out.

“I know, moving down South takes a little while to get used to. I was young when we moved here from New Jersey, but it took me years to get accustomed to things like chicken fried steak and grits. Listen, you might as well have a seat. Dark or not, Betty won’t let you go without a little time on the porch, it’s what we do on Wednesday nights. She’s been letting Jules off the hook, but I think that’s only so she doesn’t have to listen to Scott snoring after he falls asleep on the swing. If you want I’ll follow you home, make sure you get there safely.” Bobby flopped down on the squeaky swing whose chains groaned under his weight.

Piper forced herself to brush past his offer. She pushed out of her mind the thoughts of him getting her home safely, and the even more dangerous thought of him getting her to her bed safely. She did not like how she felt in Bobby’s presence, how caught up in him she was getting. He was taking up far too much space in her head. Instead she went right for the other interesting part of his statement. “You’re from New Jersey?” Piper asked, intrigued enough to sit down next to him without thinking of how boorish he had been toward her.

“I knew you weren’t charming enough to have been born here. You lack the innate warmth of a southerner. I mean you have that endearing little drawl and the
yes ma’am
thing going on, but I knew you were too brash to be a good ol’ boy. Northerners are a different breed. We’re skeptical and hotheaded. I could tell you had a little of that in you. I blame it on the cold winters. There is something about dredging through icy puddles before the sun comes up that makes it impossible to love thy neighbor the way people do down here.” She poked his chest accusingly with her finger. It was firm and muscular and bent her finger back slightly.

“I guess that’s one way to look at it. I like to think I have more than a yes ma’am and a drawl. I learned the exaggerated wink, and I’m practically a professional chitchatter in the supermarket. You’ve got the wrong idea about me. If you had met me a month ago, you’d think I was the poster child for southern gentlemen. You, on the other hand, are clearly from the north. Which frosty New England town do you hail from?” Bobby asked, starting to realize Piper hadn’t said much at all about herself in their few encounters. She had clearly tried to drop her accent but it still lingered enough for him to hear it occasionally.

Piper wasn’t sure how she had let this conversation get away from her. This is what happened when she let little pieces of her former self show through, people always wanted to dig deeper. If she hadn’t been lost for a minute in the majesty of the setting sun falling behind the tree line, then she would have been more effective in guiding the conversation.

“We moved around a lot. But this is as far south as I’ve ever been, and sometimes I feel like I’m on a different planet. What’s this whole sweet tea thing about? They know it tastes terrible, right? I can’t tell you how many glasses I’ve had to choke down since I moved here just to be nice.” Piper hoped a little commiserating about the
swill of the south
, as she liked to call it, would have them focusing on something other than her mysterious past.

Betty pushed the screen door open with her elbow while balancing a tray of empty glasses, a bowl of ice, and pitcher on her forearm. “Who’s ready for some sweet tea?” Betty sang with an enormous grin. Piper had made the idiotic assumption that Betty was inside brewing some hot tea and coffee for an after-dinner treat. But obviously she was inside mixing up the simple syrup and black tea bags to pour over large glasses of ice.

Bobby’s face was bright red as he tried half-heartedly to stifle his laughter. Piper plastered a gigantic smile across her face and said with as much conviction as she could muster, “Yum.” At that, Bobby let loose his poorly contained amusement. His body shook as tears began to roll down his cheeks, and soon Piper followed suit. The two couldn’t catch their breath long enough to give some explanation to Betty, not that they would have told her the truth anyway.

“Are you two on drugs? I mean it’s nice to see you getting on so well but someone’s going to pull a muscle.” The two had begun to gather their composure, sit upright again, and wipe the wetness from their eyes. “Well that’s better,” Betty sang, grabbing the handle of the pitcher she had placed on the small outdoor table. “Now we can have our tea.” Piper and Bobby erupted once more in irrepressible laughter.

Piper found the cable company to be a relatively good fit in her life. She had made it easily through her training as well as her thirty day probation period. She was ready to get started on her unaccompanied installations and repairs. The work was repetitive but gave her time to think, and she appreciated that.

For the last month she had continued to join Bobby, Scott, and Jules for dinner at Betty’s every Wednesday night. Because of her rotating schedule she didn’t have the ability to tail the judge as well as she had before. It also meant fewer breakfasts at the diner with Betty, which was disappointing.

These new friends and a new job were beginning to lull her into complacency. The world was looking a little shinier and brighter these days, and the memory of the judge’s assault was becoming fuzzy. Her nights were spent dealing with long, internal battles between what she thought was right and what she currently
felt
was right in her life. She had spent so much of her adolescence immersed in turmoil that for the first time she was feeling a sense of normalcy. Who in their right mind, she wondered, would give that up for the sake of traveling the moral high ground? There were days when she was convinced she had the righteous fortitude to continue chasing down information. Then there were other days she could easily picture herself being quite content swinging on the front porch and counting the lightning bugs after a home-cooked meal at Betty’s house.

Piper wasn’t inclined to believe much in fate, but it seemed hard to deny as she pulled her white cable van into the driveway two doors down from the judge’s house. She sat for a moment staring over at his door. She told herself if a sign of some sort presented itself then she’d let it reignite the spark that had seemed to be burning so brightly a month ago.

Piper’s attention was drawn from the judge’s door to the entry of the house she was parked in front of. A tall, voluptuous blonde woman stood waving and practically bouncing out of her much-too-tight clothes. This woman looked as though she was greeting a ship coming home on military leave rather than a stranger from the cable company. Piper liked playing a new game she called “What would Betty say?” Betty would probably describe this woman’s clothes as being tight enough to see her religion. She loved Betty’s unique colloquialisms and found many of them stuck in her head.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she called to Piper as she stepped out of her van. “Oh, you’re a woman? Well I wish I had known that, I wouldn’t have gotten all gussied up for nothing.” The overwhelming excitement that had seemed to fill the woman left her body all at once.

“Sorry, Mrs. Jenkins, right? I got a call that you’re having problems with your cable connection.” Piper looked down at her clipboard and read through the brief notes left by the dispatcher.

“Yes, I’m Mrs. Jenkins. The box thingy won’t come on. I didn’t realize they let women do this kind of work now. I was hoping I’d get one of those tall, handsome men with a baseball hat. Are you one of those lesbians or something? It’s okay if you are. I’m no bigot or anything, not like Mr. Avery down the block. If you tried to fix his cable he’d be standing behind you quoting the Bible to you like he was performing an exorcism or something. But I applaud you people really, bless your heart.” The woman clasped her hands together and tilted her head in a look made up of pity and encouragement.

“I’m not a lesbian,” Piper said flatly, completely puzzled by how the conversation had turned from a faulty cable connection to her sexual orientation.

“Oh, thank Jesus. I didn’t think so because you’re so pretty, it really would be a shame,” the woman said as she showed Piper into the house.

Piper considered starting a long conversation about how assuming that the outward appearance of someone somehow contributed to her sexual orientation did, in fact, make this woman a bigot. But she had to remember that this was a customer, and pissing her off certainly wouldn’t help her in the long run.

The entryway and formal living room were massive. Piper had never been in such a stunningly decorated home in her life. There were multiple bouquets of fresh flowers adorning every available nook and mantle. Beautiful artwork was hung thoughtfully around every corner. Either Mrs. Jenkins was a designing genius or she had an amazing interior decorator. Considering how hideously and inappropriately Mrs. Jenkins was dressed, Piper assumed it was the latter.

“You have a beautiful home, Mrs. Jenkins. Now which television is giving you the problem?” With her frighteningly long candy apple red fingernails, Mrs. Jenkins pointed to the spacious media room that had more audio equipment than the local cinema. Piper said a silent prayer that the problem would be something minor and she wouldn’t need to call for any assistance. She wasn’t sure she could stomach one of her coworkers pawing at Mrs. Jenkins and belittling Piper for not being able to do the job.

In the center of the room, sitting crossed-legged on the floor in front of the coffee table was a girl. She had dark brown hair cut in a short pixie style that suited her sharp-edged features. She had three large textbooks open in front of her as she tapped her pencil to the beat of whatever pop song was playing through her iPod. She looked up at Piper and Mrs. Jenkins and rolled her green eyes that were covered in far too much pink eye shadow and black eyeliner.

“Are they finally here to fix the cable? It’s about time. I told you to tell them to hurry up, Mom,” she huffed loudly in the way only a teenager could.

“Nikki, what are you still doing here? You’re supposed to be over at Judge Lion’s house already. Get your things and go,” Mrs. Jenkins spoke in a hardline voice significantly different than the bubbly exuberance she had shown Piper—well, prior to insulting a whole subset of the population by announcing that Piper was too pretty to be a lesbian.

Upon hearing the judge’s name Piper stumbled and knocked over the tool bag she had just placed on the side of the cable box. Had she really just heard Mrs. Jenkins tell her daughter to go to Judge Lion’s house?

She quickly tried to gather up her loose tools from the hardwood, praying one of them hadn’t scratched it and the commotion wouldn’t push the conversation into another room.

“Mom, I told you I didn’t want to go there anymore. It’s boring. All we ever do is talk about old court cases and look through stupid photo albums of people I’ve never heard of. I wrote one paper on the guy because I figured it would get me a good grade, and now he thinks he’s my mentor. I’m over it.” Nikki’s argument didn’t seem to faze her mother, who had begun closing her books and shoving them into her backpack.

“You are going. Having a man like Judge Lions take an interest in you is an honor, and you aren’t going to blow it because you think it’s boring. The man is very important in this community, and if he sees potential in you then you should take it seriously. Do you want to end up working at the cable company like this poor girl? She has people thinking she’s a lesbian all day, and do you know what? She isn’t. Do you want that to be you? Do you want to wear that unflattering shirt and khakis, crouching down behind people’s televisions all day?” Mrs. Jenkins continued to gesture over at Piper as though she were an exhibit at a museum rather than a person with feelings who might take exception to the insults being hurled in her direction.

“No, I don’t want that. Fine, I’ll go.” Nikki snatched her backpack from her mother’s hands and stomped heavily out the door.

“Kids—they think by thirteen they have it all figured out,” Mrs. Jenkins sang to Piper, seemingly unaware of how wounding her little speech may have been. “Just let me know when you have it fixed,” she said, sauntering out of the room.

Piper went from her crouched position behind the television to sitting with her back up against the wall. She thought if she didn’t lean on something she might just fall over. Her mind swirled with thoughts.

Was Judge Lions so brazen that he would groom his neighbor’s daughter for some kind of sick purpose under the guise of mentorship? Was that the real reason Nikki didn’t want to go there? It was infuriating to think that he had this community so blinded by his prominence that people were begging to send their daughters to him.

Maybe it wasn’t like that with Nikki. She seemed very strong-minded and self-confident. She didn’t seem like someone who would carry that weight around with her, even under the pressure of her mother. Either way, regardless of Nikki’s situation, the thought of Judge Lions being allowed in the presence of a young girl was sickening to Piper. Here was her sign; the flame inside her that had dimmed over the last few weeks was officially reignited.

The image of the powerless girl in the alley, bleeding and petrified, was once again as clear as it had been the day she had witnessed it. The nights she spent parked outside the motel watching the judge exit the back door and arrogantly pull away in his black Mercedes were now all she could think of. She had assumed her sign would come in the way of seeing the judge. Instead, the possibility of another victim was enough to remind Piper why she started this endeavor in the first place.