Chapter 6 - The Midnight Lawyer-6
The night air outside the police station was cold and wet. A fine mist hung over the empty asphalt parking lot, reflecting the yellow glow of the streetlights. It was 3:42 a.m.
I stood on the sidewalk outside the station doors, shivering violently in my damp sweater. My phone was in my purse, but when I pulled it out, the screen showed zero battery. Daniel had my car keys. I had no money, no car, no baby, and no home.
A white sedan pulled up to the curb. The passenger side window rolled down, revealing a woman in her late forties with sharp, dark eyes, her dark hair pulled back into a sleek, professional bun. She wore a dark trench coat over simple clothes, her expression razor-sharp.
“Emily Carter?” she called out over the hum of the engine.
I stepped back, wary and exhausted. “Who are you?”
“My name is Evelyn Cross,” the woman said, opening the passenger door from the inside. “Get in before you freeze to death. Your sister called me an hour ago.”
My sister. Sarah lived three states away in North Carolina, but the moment I had been processed, I had used my one phone call to leave a frantic, weeping voicemail on her cell phone. Sarah hadn't panicked—she had called the fiercest family law attorney in Ohio.
I climbed into the warm leather interior of the sedan, pulling the door shut. The heat blasting from the dashboard immediately began to thaw my frozen fingers.
“Is Sarah okay?” I asked, my voice cracking.
“Sarah is currently driving six hundred miles on I-70 to get here,” Evelyn said, pulling the car away from the curb. She handed me a bottle of water and a portable phone charger from the center console. “Plug your phone in. We don't have much time. CPS safety hearings in this county are scheduled within seventy-two hours of emergency removal, but Marianne Carter’s attorney has already filed an expedited motion to hold the hearing tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock.”
I looked at Evelyn in shock as I plugged my phone in. “Tomorrow? That’s in twelve hours!”
“Marianne knows what she’s doing,” Evelyn said coldly, her hands gripping the steering wheel with practiced authority. “Her attorney is Arthur Vance—her cousin. They are using their political influence in this county to fast-track the temporary custody order before you can assemble a defense. If that judge signs the temporary custody agreement tomorrow, Marianne gets physical and legal guardianship of Noah for up to six months while you are forced into mandatory state psychiatric treatment.”
“Six months?” I choked out, a wave of nausea washing over me. “Noah is six months old! In six months he’ll be a year old! He won't even know who I am!”
“Not on my watch,” Evelyn said, her tone as hard as iron. “I’ve dealt with the Carter family before, Emily. Ten years ago, when Marianne’s husband was commissioner, they tried to land-grab a farm belonging to a client of mine using forged county deeds. Marianne Carter is a sociopath wrapped in pearls and church charitable work.”
I looked at Evelyn, a flicker of genuine hope finally lighting up the dark void inside my chest. “Detective Miller is looking into the pharmacy records. I told him about Brenda—Marianne’s sister at the clinic.”
Evelyn offered a tight, grim smile. “Good. That gives us a thread. But police investigations move like glaciers, Emily. We need hard, undeniable proof before two o’clock tomorrow afternoon. If we walk into that courtroom with just accusations against a prominent local family, that judge will side with Marianne.”
“Where are we going?” I asked as the car sped down the dark highway.
“We are going to my office,” Evelyn said. “We are going to pull every digital record, every camera feed, every bank transaction, and every text message you’ve ever exchanged with your husband and his mother. Marianne built a trap out of paper and lies. We are going to find the one thread she forgot to burn, and we are going to tear her entire world down with it.”
Ten minutes later, we pulled up to a small, two-story brick building near the county courthouse. Evelyn’s office was filled with towering oak bookshelves, legal volumes, and a massive mahogany desk covered in dual computer monitors.
I sat in a leather chair while Evelyn plugged my phone into a high-speed forensic extraction dock connected to her computer.
“While the software pulls your phone data,” Evelyn said, sitting back in her chair, “I need you to tell me everything about tonight. Not just the hospital—start from the moment Marianne walked through your front door at six o’clock.”
I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, forcing my tired mind to retrace every second.
“She arrived at six,” I remembered aloud. “She brought a casserole dish. She was wearing her beige coat and her pearl earrings. She made a comment about how terrible I looked. Then she went to the bouncer... she picked up Noah... she told me to take a shower...”
“Stop,” Evelyn interrupted sharply. “The casserole dish.”
I opened my eyes. “What about it?”
“Where is that casserole dish right now?” Evelyn asked, her dark eyes narrowing.
“It’s... it’s sitting on my kitchen counter,” I said. “I didn't eat any of it because I wasn't hungry, but she set it near the stove.”
Evelyn leaned forward, tapping her fingers against the desk. “Emily... when Marianne fed Noah the bottle, where was she sitting?”
“In the rocking chair in the living room,” I recalled. “The lights were dimmed when I came downstairs. She was rocking him.”
“Did she bring a purse into the house?”
“Yes,” I said. “A small leather handbag.”
Evelyn stood up from her desk, pulling her coat back on and grabbing her car keys.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Your husband locked you out of the house, correct?” Evelyn asked.
May you like
“Yes. He took my keys at the hospital.”
Evelyn smiled—a dangerous, predatory smile. “Your husband took your car keys, Emily. But you are a co-owner on the deed of that house. Which means I, as your legal representative, am going to hire a locksmith to open your front door right now. We are going to secure that kitchen, that living room, and every piece of trash Marianne Carter left behind tonight before she realizes she forgot to clean her crime scene.”
