Checkmate

35

   Jarred was way off about the cupcake flavors. Two were chocolate, one red velvet, and two peanut butter and hazelnut, one of which I licked off the icing from my fingers as I chewed my last bite. Stepping into the bathroom to thoroughly rinse off my hands, my phone went off on my desk. I ran back in, nearly jumping across the room to answer.

"Talk to me," I said, still with a mouthful of the sweet goodness.

What sounded like a car door shut before I heard her leafing through pages as she spoke, "You were right about your guy. His new record is clean but his old one is full of allegations that never went anywhere. I think that's exactly what you're looking for. Here, I'm sending you pictures."

Barefoot, I paced around the room as I waited for the photos. When my phone dinged, I hurriedly clicked on the notification and began scanning through the page.

"Holy shit," I muttered.

   Mr. O'Day or I should say, Kevin Parker got into his fair share of trouble as a teen, nothing short of what anyone should expect of a teen with a rough background. From fights to a few DUIs that, in normal cases, would've caused him to lose his license, those were the lesser charges leading to things much more sinister. In 1995 when he was sixteen, a girl named Aubrey Sparrow filed a complaint against Kevin. She claimed he'd been following her around, harassing her with frequent phone calls, after the breakup, and suspected him of sneaking into her house when she noticed some of her things had been moved around. When questioned, he claimed it was a miss understanding and a few days later, she admitted to having lied to get his attention.

   In July 1997, Cameron Iris was brought to the ER with a broken wrist. The police were called when a hand-shaped bruise was noticed on her right forearm. She claimed he was trying to get her to leave the party with him but she didn't want to. When she swung at him, he let go of her, and she fell, twisting her wrist at a bad angle. Several witnesses saw the incident and claimed Cameron was inebriated and Kevin was just trying to stop her from doing something she'd regret when the alcohol wore off. Two months later she was back with three broken ribs but that incident couldn't be linked back to him.

   The last case in our entry is a woman by the name of Lisa Miller. They went to the same college and accused him of hacking into her electronic devices and distributing her nude photos to the entire school. She ended up losing her job as a TA and switched establishments the next semester.

"You need some serious money to hide a record like that," I said, in awe of the gold mine we found.

"All the settlements were done out of court, if ever, and all his cases were handled by John Hawthron, Josephine Parker's attorney at the time."

I leaned back in my chair, taking in this information. She must have known what was going on.

There's no way she didn't.

"Is, can you track down all the girls from the reports? We need to locate them and get Josephine's address. I need to pay that woman a visit," I instructed, already getting up to find my shoes.

"Are you sure? It's almost five in the morning, not exactly visiting hours. Believe it or not, some people sleep you know?"

I rolled my eyes at her sarcastic retort.

"I'm just not taking any more risks. If I'm able to get her on our side, then our chance of winning is solid."

Isobel hummed in response.

"Alright, you got it," she simply said and I smiled in relief.

"Thank you, Is. This firm might go bankrupt having to pay for your fees."