A Blade of Glass

Chapter 2

It wasn't hard to find where Hanna Kallie was, a simple search of her name had revealed that information, not to mention plenty more. It seemed that she'd stopped shouting into a mic and become a lawyer, not something that Julian would have thought back in school, but apparently, she was rather good at it, becoming a junior partner at a small, but rather prestigious firm.

But more than that, he'd found a ton of hits on her, some of them being rather unsavory, in relation to calling her the 'Buff Barrister'.

It turned out that after she'd won her first case, she'd cheered just as someone from one of the papers had snapped a shot, which made her look like she was flexing. The shot had gone viral and soon enough she decided to capitalize on it, spinning it into a rather successful channel where she answered legal questions, reacted to law videos and gave workout advice.

Her secretary had said she was in when he'd called and could fit them in right away, obviously not wanting to get on the wrong side of the police and probably mistaking what Julian did for what she'd seen in the movies, which led to him and Nickie riding the elevator up to the third floor in a nice brick building where Hanna worked.

Julian punched the button on his phone, hanging up and leaned back, eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly.

When he finished, Nickie asked "So, what did you learn?"

"Well, I left a message with someone at the record company that Mr. Erakangas is with, they said that his manager wasn't available, but that they would pass along the message. I also found out that Dusty Renolds was in California at the time of the crime and that there was no way that he could have participated."

What he didn't mention was that he'd already known that. Out of all of his classmates, only Dusty had become a hero, using his super-speed under the name of DustDevil. At the time of the crime, he had been fighting a fire and even with his speed, there was no way he could have crossed the country and back. Still, Julian had made the call to the Bureau of G.E.P. Affairs to cover for that knowledge.

"I still need to contact the school and see if they've been in contact with anyone. Should have done that before I gave it to King." He shook his head, wondering if he was more tired then he'd thought. He'd spent the last few nights sleeping at the precinct, getting the little sleep he needed there, but it was starting to catch up to him.

He knew that Nickie was trying to cover how tired she really was, she had some strange notion that she should be working as hard as him, instead of working as much as she could. He'd always needed less sleep than those around him, so it worried him when his officers over-extended themselves. He knew that they each needed a different amount of sleep and wouldn't hold it against them if they left to get it. Rance was the only one that left at a decent time every night, so Julian wondered if he shouldn't ask him if he couldn't get the others to take some time to themselves. But that was for later, right now, he had to prepare for an interview.

"Well, you did what you could. Maybe we'll have some wait time when we get to her office, you could call them then," Nickie said, obviously trying to be helpful.

Before Julian could answer, the elevator dinged and the doors slid open, revealing a tasteful office done in blond wood and plush carpets. A curved desk sat opposite them with the name of the firm behind the secretary, who looked up at the sound of the elevator opening and wasn't able to hide the look that flickered across her face at the sight of them, though to her credit it was replaced with a professional smile so fast that Nickie wondered if she'd imagined it.

"How may I help you today?" she asked with a warm tone.

"We have an appointment with Hanna Kallie." Julian replied, voice crackling and echoing in his mask.