The Employer

Chapter 26

Marc Nassar

In all my years as a lawyer, I've never seen a case so locked up tight as this one. Usually there are legal databases with court records and transcripts, hell even legal commentary among academics. But for whatever reason, the details of Noah Peters' case are strapped about as tight as a death sentenced prisoner in an electrocution chair. All I can find is that there was indeed a case and the access is restricted to only the legal representation assigned to it--one of whom is a shit lawyer the county assigns at random to low income residents.

All of that means it'll take a lot longer to figure out how to help. I'll need to make some calls, talk to whoever I can who might be connected to it. But before I go ruffling my colleagues' feathers, the best first step is hearing it as directly from the source as possible.

"It all started about a year ago," Louisa starts, just as Celeste says, "Here's what happened."

"Are you saying it or am I saying it?" Louisa turns, cradling Theo across her body. He fell asleep on her shoulder less than a minute ago.

"I'll say it! You take forever to go through a story," Celeste responds before turning to me. "So-"

"No I don't!" Louisa interrupts. "You're the one who misses all the important details. Besides, Noah is my husband. I get to tell the story!"

Celeste playfully rolls her eyes before crossing her arms. "Fine. Go ahead."

A smile tugs at my lips as I nod at Louisa to start.

"Thank you! Anyway, as I was saying. It all started about a year ago. Noah got this amazing job for this maintenance company. It gave us steady income and he was great at it. Won all these employee of the month awards for the fastest worker. He could fix your light bulb in under a minute and of course look really damn good doing it."

"See? Unnecessary detail," Celeste adds with a hand raised.

"Anyway," Louisa continues without pause, "his company would contract him for various jobs at various apartment sites. Someone had a leaking fridge? Or a faulty fire alarm? Noah would get called up and would fix it right away. And the places he'd get called to go were always very fancy complexes and buildings," she pauses and sighs, "which meant the clientele weren't exactly the nicest people."

"Sorry, before you continue, what was the name of the company he worked at?" I ask, with a pen at the ready.

"Lux Maintenance," Celeste answers. I quickly scribble the name on my legal pad.

"Actually, it's Luxurious Maintenance," Louisa clarifies.

"No, it's not," Celeste shoots back before turning to me. "It's just Lux. Louisa always adds extra letters and words to things."

"I don't!"

"She calls tissues 'Kleenex wipe tissues' as if no one will understand her if she didn't say all those words together."

"But that's exactly what they're called! Kleenex wipe tissues!" Louisa says with sisterly annoyance in her voice. It's like I'm looking at a crystal ball right now, watching Laila and Nina when they're older. I force myself to contain the smile that's bubbling up.

"Anywho!" Louisa shifts her gaze back to me. "A couple months into the job, Noah came home telling me about a woman whose stove stopped working. He went to her apartment to fix it and came home that evening saying how nice she was. She was the one of the only people he'd gone to help who didn't treat him like scum when he walked in. She even offered him a drink and snacks while he worked."

"At first we thought she was some sweet old lady," Celeste adds, "but we soon realized she's far from sweet. She's one million times worse than the others."