Stones Don’t Bleed

"Welcome back, stranger!" Madison said, sitting up into a more attentive position. "Do you have anything for me?"

"Actually, I do," said Andrea, pulling some papers out of her briefcase. "Can you do a rundown for me on these cases. I'm particularly interested in the defendants and their known associates, as well as if any of them who were sentenced are already released."

Andrea hadn't wanted to ask Madison to 'pull up everything Kyle has worked on,' so she had done the initial work of printing out the summaries of Kyle's cases that had resulted in the longest sentences, and then threw in a number of unrelated cases Kyle hadn't worked on.

She hated to make more work for her friend, but it was the only way Andrea could think of to keep things secret. She hoped that the unrelated cases would be enough to prevent Madison from spotting the common element. Having a sharp and insightful paralegal working with you could sometimes be a double edged sword.

"You got it, Andi. I'll get on this right away. I figured that you might have something for me to work on, seeing how much time you've been spending running around. Although," she said, leaning in, "what I was really hoping you could tell me was some more about Mr Mysterious…"

Andrea had been expecting this, and still the question brought those same feelings into her mind. The thoughts made her heart race just a little, and she hoped it didn't show.

"Mads, I already told you I can't talk about the case…"

Madison gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "I don't care if you can't talk about the case, I want you to tell me about the guy! Come on, Andi. You can't tell me anything?! Old, young? Fat, thin? Muscled? Does he have a beard?"

"I shouldn't even tell you that much…" Andrea still didn't want to lie, and feared that even the vaguest description of Kyle might be too much to prevent Madison from identifying him.

Madison sniffed and started leafing through the pages.

"Well if you're going to be like that, then I suppose I'll just have to use my imagination. You'd have thought you could tell me just a little…" She trailed off before looking more closely at one of the pages she had just turned to. She looked up at Andrea with wide eyes. "Noooo…" she whispered.

Andrea couldn't believe she had figured it out so quickly! It was work that needed doing, and Andrea didn't have time to do everything, but she thought she could have kept Madison in the dark a little longer. "Look, Madison, you have to keep this quiet, okay…?"

"The Spolano crime family!" Madison hissed quietly, waving the page with the mob conspiracy case Kyle had been a small part of. "Mr Mysterious is in the mafia!" Madison grabbed Andrea's arm and hauled her in close so she could speak more quietly.

"You're defending a mafiosa? That's huge, Andi! Is he a made man? Did he kill someone? Is he testifying against the rest of the family? Does he look dangerous? Do you feel safe when you go there? Do they have to keep him chained up like an animal?" Madison stopped to lick her dry lips. "Is he hot? I bet he's hot! I bet he's one of those swarthy Italian types with slicked back hair and a Godfather accent!"

"I thought you said no more Italian men!" Andrea whispered.

"No more for ME! That just means there's more for you, Andi! So. Am I right? Is he tall, dark and brooding? Does he have a sexy accent? Is he hot?"

Andrea took a deep breath as she thought how to word this. "Madison, I can neither confirm nor deny that this case has anything to do with the mafia, okay?" She felt bad even letting Madison believe she might be right.

Madison rolled her eyes in frustration. "I swear, Andi, getting gossip out of you is like getting blood out of a stone. Fine! Keep your secrets! You promised you'd tell me eventually though! You should get a photo with him so you can show me later. And ask him if he has a good recipe for spaghetti sauce!"

Andrea didn't remember ever actually making that promise. She suspected that Kyle probably had a recipe for sauce that required going out into a field somewhere to pick your own tomatoes, but she wasn't about to ask him about it.

"Can you just let me know when you have the results from your research?" she said, disentangling herself from Madison's grasp. "And if you find something significant, send me a message right away, okay?"

"Sure thing, Andi. Only… what kind of thing is significant? You said you're looking for defendants and associates, but what kind of thing do you want me to tell you about?"

That was a fair point. Andrea knew what she was looking for: someone who might have had the motive to go to such lengths to frame Kyle that they were willing to kill to do so. But how to explain that to Madison without giving the game away?

"Anyone… dangerous. Anyone who might hold a grudge, especially against people involved in their conviction."

"Andi, that does sound dangerous." Madison wasn't laughing about the idea anymore. She reached out and took Andrea's hand. "You're being smart, right? Keeping yourself safe?"

Andrea patted Madison's hand back. "I'm pretty sure I'm safe, Madison. It's not me that needs to be worried."

Though she didn't know how 'smart' she was being.

Slipping back into her office, Andrea couldn't avoid the habit of quickly checking her inbox. With her cases reassigned, the incoming volume was way down from its usual flood, but there were still a number of messages. She had to remind herself that the clock was still ticking, and opened up the court filing application.

Andrea agonized a little over the wording of her complaint. She wasn't a stranger to filing for cause, it was the standard process of lodging an appeal in the event of a mistake or malpractice. It was just that usually it was over the mistakes made by others. She didn't want to deny that Kyle's absence for the original arraignment was her mistake, but Kyle made a good point; there were a lot of people who had also dropped the ball.

In the end, she crafted something that was vague enough to imply some undefined breakdown of communication and coordination that was no-one's fault. Hopefully the argument would be acceptable.

She deliberated one last time if she should ask for a later date. Right now she still didn't have anything new to go on to change the outcome. Unless she figured something out over the weekend, the new arraignment would go exactly the same as the first, except with Kyle there to watch.

But every day they delayed, there was a greater chance that Kyle would end up getting transferred to the county jail, with everything that entailed. Printing off the list of cases Kyle had been involved in really emphasized how many people were imprisoned because of him, and many of them were the dangerous kind of person who would jump at a chance for some retribution. They should be safe over the weekend, but the longer she delayed, the greater the risk they would run out of time.

She decided that she had to trust herself. She hadn't had time to research Kyle's alibi before her court appointment. Maybe they would be lucky and there would be a traffic camera that caught Kyle's face in the photo. Maybe someone at his building saw him leave.

Unfortunately, the court submission system was very slow, especially if a lot of people were using it, as they would be this time of the afternoon. While Andrea waited for the process to complete, she decided to follow up on another lead.

Triss still hadn't answered her phone, or responded to any of Andrea's voicemails or texts. It was past the point where Triss working a long shift would explain the lack of communication, so Andrea decided to follow up at her job. She grabbed the note Kyle had made for her with Triss's full name and the hospital she worked at.

Andrea looked up the number for St Terry's and had the reception connect her to the hospital Human Resources department. Andrea knew they might not be willing to give out a home address, but they might at least confirm what hours Triss worked so Andrea could catch her at work, or pass on a message.

Andrea clicked another couple of steps on the court submission process, setting the hourglass spinning again as she waited to be connected. After a moment, a lady from HR asked how she could help.

"Yes, this is Andrea Mason. I'm a lawyer with the public defender's office. I'm trying to contact a nurse named Triss Davis who works at the hospital, and I was hoping you might be able to help me get in touch with her."

Andrea gave the rest of the information she had, and there was the sound of typing as the HR associate entered it into a computer.

Meanwhile, Andrea hit the final confirmation for her filing. All there was to do now was wait to see if Kyle's plan would work, and when their next court date would end up being.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm afraid no-one by that name works here."

That was unexpected. Andrea asked if the lady could check, and repeated Triss's name, including the spelling. The lady rather brusquely said that there was no mistake, no-one by that name had ever worked for the hospital.

Andrea thanked her and hung up. This was an unfortunate development. Andrea wondered if Kyle had made a mistake about where Triss worked, or maybe Triss had lied to him? Either way, this was going to make proving his alibi even more difficult.

She decided she probably needed to talk to Kyle again to see what other leads he might have for tracking Triss down. The police precinct wasn't far away, but this was already more times than she would normally need to go there on an average case.

Kyle was right, at this rate she WAS going to make the other inmates jealous.