“Thanks, Elaine. I’ll call just the same and make sure she’s all right.”
Sabre passed David’s office on the way back to hers and saw him sitting at his desk. David had moved into the middle office right after Jack leased the building. He and David had been friends in law school and had both worked for the same insurance defense firm after graduation.
She stopped for a minute to chat. She seldom saw him because he spent little time in the office. He had tired of practicing law and stayed away as much as he could, spending his free time helping his wife in her ice cream shop. Sabre listened to David complain about working too many hours and his plan to quit practicing, but she had been hearing the same story since she moved in. She doubted he would ever leave.
Back in her office, Sabre dialed the phone. “Hello, Detective Carriage. This is Attorney Sabre Brown. We spoke last Saturday morning.”
“Yes, ma’am, I recall, and I want to apologize again for waking you.”
“No need to. I needed to get up anyway. You did me a favor,” Sabre reassured him. “You called a bit ago. Did you get any information for me on Murdock or Smith?”
“Yes, ma’am, I did, but I don’t know if it’ll help. As you know, the Murdocks are very well-liked and respected in this town. There’s not a one of them, including Gaylord, with any kind of criminal record. They’re pretty powerful, though, so I’m not certain any record would remain if they ever did get in trouble. Gaylord married a beautiful, local woman named Elizabeth Sterling about ten years ago. Some say Gaylord married way below his class.”
“Below his class?” Sabre replied, with obvious indignation in her voice.
“Ma’am, you have to understand. This is the South. People here still think that way. Elizabeth didn’t come from old money. Heck, she didn’t come from any money – not exactly trailer trash, but not a socialite either. Her father taught at a local high school and her mother worked in a bank. Anyway, about five years ago she disappeared. It seems she dropped Alexis off at her mother’s house on her way to the gym, but she never made it there. The department investigated every lead they had on her disappearance, but nothing ever materialized.”
“Was Gaylord a suspect?”
“No, ma’am. No one thought for a minute he had anything to do with it. Nothing in the file indicated he might be involved, and Gaylord seemed devastated by his loss. He appeared distraught and genuinely upset about the whole ordeal. From all outward appearances at least, he was a very loving husband and father. He and his wife seemed to be the perfect couple. No one ever saw them fight. If they did, it was out of the public’s eye.”
“Seems almost too good to be true.”
“Not really, ma’am. Well-bred southerners don’t generally fight in public,” he instructed her on their culture. “But here’s the odd thing. Yesterday, my boss approached me about looking at the file and told me in no uncertain terms to ‘leave the past in the past.’ Then later, when I went to look something up in the file again, it was gone. I’ve had a clerk looking for it all day, but it seems to have disappeared.”
“That’s odd,” Sabre said, but she thought it equally odd he had tried to look in it again after his boss told him not to.
“Well, we’ll see if it shows up. In the meantime, I’ve made an appointment to speak with Ruby Sterling tomorrow afternoon. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Please don’t get me wrong, because I really appreciate your help, but why are you doing all this?”
“I just want to make sure those children are safe, ma’am. Isn’t that what you want?”
“It sure is. Thanks, and I’ll let you know if I find out anything more on my end. Oh, by the way. Would you please check the report you sent us and resend page eight? Mine was illegible.”
“Sorry about that. I’ll send it again.”
Sabre hung up the phone, wondering why Detective Carriage was being so helpful. Maybe that’s just more of the “southern way.”
Sabre returned the rest of her calls, checked on Carla, then gathered up her files and left for the day. For the first time in months, she left the office before the others.
On Monday, Sabre spent most of the day in court. She had a jurisdictional trial in the afternoon. She represented a non-offending mother, which meant she didn’t have to do much. Her thoughts turned to the Murdock case. About a quarter to three, the court took a recess. Sabre called her office, hoping to have a message from Detective Carriage regarding Ruby Sterling. It had been almost a week since she had last spoken with him. Either he didn’t have anything to report, or he was just too busy to call. Elaine read her the list of calls. No message from Carriage.
By the time Sabre returned to the office, everyone had already left. Elaine had placed a stack of phone messages and her opened mail on Sabre’s desk. Sabre laid her files down and started through her routine. First, she separated out all of Carla’s messages, eleven of them today – not the record of seventeen, but a bad day nevertheless. She punched in number four on the automatic dialer and heard Carla’s voice on the other end ranting, as usual. Sabre turned the volume down like she always did and commenced sorting her mail.
On the top of her stack of mail lay Alexis’ letter to Mattie, marked “ADDRESS UNKNOWN” across the front in big, red letters. Sabre wondered if Mattie had moved or if Alexis had just written the address incorrectly. Sabre sat, staring at the letter, flipping it over and over again in her hand, tempted to read it in order to learn more about Alexis and hopefully provide her better representation. However, the private, personal letter belonged to her client, and reading it would undermine the trust her client had in her. While those thoughts went through her mind, she realized she had pulled the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it. Her eyes caught the greeting. It read,
“Dear Honey, I’m sorry . . . .”
“What am I doing?” Sabre said aloud and quickly folded the letter back up, stuck it in the envelope, and set it aside.
She heard the pitch in Carla’s voice start to lower and the speech pattern slow down. Sabre knew Carla would take a short hiatus from her ranting soon and she would have a few seconds to cut in so she prepared for her counseling session. “Butterflies and green pastures . . . .” Sabre said. When Carla seemed calm enough, Sabre hung up the phone. She would be all right for a while. She wished she could do more for her.
Sabre tapped the receiver for a dial tone and made another call. “Detective Carriage, this is Attorney Sabre Brown.”
“Hello, ma’am, I was just about to call you. Sorry I took so long, but I was hoping I’d have more to report. Ruby Sterling refused to see me. I could’ve gone over there, but I doubt she would have told me anything. She doesn’t have much trust in the Atlanta Police Department. You may want to give her a call. I think she has a genuine interest in her granddaughter’s welfare. Maybe she’ll talk to you.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” Sabre said. “Detective, would I be imposing too much to ask you to check out one more thing?”
“I’d be delighted, ma’am. What do you want me to do?”
“Well, Alexis wrote a letter to her best friend, Mattie, and it came back. She was her classmate. Perhaps you could see why the letter returned and maybe check with the school as well to see what you can learn about her.”
“I can. Has Alexis tried calling her friend?”
“No. Mattie’s deaf. That’s why I suggested she write to her.”
“I’ll take care of it right away. What’s her name and address?”
“Her name is Mattie Sturkey.”
“Are you sure the last name is Sturkey?”
“Yes. Alexis even explained it is spelled turkey with an ‘S’ on the front. Why?”
“Because Ruby Sterling’s maiden name is Sturkey. Something’s not right. I’ll check out the address as soon as we hang up. First thing in the morning, I’ll go over to the school. I’ll call you tomorrow. Oh, what’s the address?”
Sabre gave him the address, and he gave her Ruby’s phone number. Sabre hung up the phone and called Ruby Sterling. A voice on the other end said, “Hello.”
“Hello, may I speak to Ruby Sterling, please?”
“Who is this?” the woman said curtly.
“My name is Sabre Brown. I’m the attorney for Alexis Murdock. I’m calling from California,” Sabre stated as politely as she could.
“Ruby’s not here. Bye.”
“Wait!” Sabre said before she hung up. “Please ask her to call me. It’s very important. Her granddaughter needs help.”
“Okay, what’s the number?” the woman said, still sounding agitated.
Sabre gave her the number, thanked her, and hung up. Before she could make another call, the phone rang.
“Hi Marla, what’s up?”
“I wanted to give you the latest info on the Murdock case. Peggy gave birth to a baby girl this morning and she was born positive.”
“So she was using drugs like Alexis and her father said,” Sabre mused. “How’s the baby?”
“She’s so tiny. She only weighed six pounds. She’s going through some withdrawals, mostly restlessness, and she isn’t sucking very well. No signs of fetal abnormalities or convulsions, so she could be worse, but she’ll have to stay in the hospital for a few days anyway.”
Sabre cringed. The baby would likely have severe tremors, eating problems, restless sleep, and a lot of pain. In addition, who knows what damage the drugs would cause down the road?
“What did they name her?”
“Haley. Haley Murdock.”
“Pretty name,” Sabre said. “So, how’s Gaylord reacting?”
“He’s pretty upset at Peggy. I can’t say as I blame him.”
“Do you think he uses?”
“It’s hard to say. There haven’t been any indications of it so far. He’s been drug testing for the past couple of weeks now and has had nothing but clean tests.”
“I assume you’re filing a petition on the new baby?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Yes, the detention hearing is set for Thursday. I don’t think the baby will be released from the hospital before then, but if she is she’ll be detained in a foster home. The mother says she’ll get into a drug program, but we’ll see what she actually does. The father wants the baby home with him. Since they’re not married we’ll need to establish paternity first. He seems to be a pretty decent guy from all outward appearances. It looks like he’s been a good parent to Alexis. She never says anything bad about him. So, if everything checks out, maybe we can get those kids in his care. The problem is Jamie isn’t his child, and it’ll break Alexis’ heart to separate them.”
“And hard on Jamie, too,” Sabre said.
“Anything new from Atlanta?”
“Nothing concrete, but I have a call into Alexis’ maternal grandmother and Detective Carriage is checking on the school for me. I hope we have some information before the detention hearing.” Sabre loathed the tough calls, dealing with people’s lives, knowing her decisions could affect them forever. She hated this part of her job, but she hated it even more when people in her position didn’t care.
For the next couple of hours, Sabre prepared her other cases, but her mind kept returning to Alexis. Mattie’s last name being Sturkey seemed pretty strange. With a name that unusual, she had to be related. If so, she wondered if Alexis knew. If she did, why didn’t she mention it? The greeting of the letter really nagged at her,
Dear Honey.
She tried to think of the reasons why Alexis would call her best friend “honey.” It must be just some term of endearment. After all, Sabre often used it herself with her buddy Bob. Reading the letter might give her the answer, but she resisted the temptation.
Sabre got ready to leave for court. She felt comfort in the fact nothing odd had happened tonight at the office. It seemed there had been something strange every night she had worked late for the past few weeks.
When Sabre reached the back door to leave, she noticed the porch light was out. She reached for the switch to flip it up, but it was already in the “on” position. She set her files down, walked over to the cupboard, and took out a light bulb and a flashlight. She turned the flashlight on, but nothing happened. “Damn it,” she said out loud, remembering she forgot to buy batteries.
Though not afraid of the dark, Sabre felt some trepidation after all the things happening at the office recently. She cautiously opened the door and looked around. Seeing nothing, she reached up to unscrew the bulb; it jiggled. When she tightened it, the light came on. Just then, the phone rang and Sabre jumped. She jerked her arm back inside, slammed the door, and locked it. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and answered the phone. No one responded. Her hand shook as she hung up the phone. Her heart pounded like a drum in her chest, and her muscles tightened. She had to tell herself to breathe.
“Okay, Sabre,” she said, as she breathed deeply, “it’s time to calm down. It’s just a stupid, loose light bulb and a wrong number. Stop acting crazy.”
She sat down at her desk for a few minutes to gain composure. Once her hands stopped shaking, she picked her files back up, walked to the door, and peeked out again. With her key in her hand she stepped outside. Still looking around, she locked the door and darted to her car, feeling a mixture of fear and paranoia as she drove away.
8