Brain Storm, Cat Gilbert [read books for money TXT] 📗

without too much effort. Hurrah for me! I abhor exercise, but consider it a necessary evil. Any completion of intent where exercise is concerned, I consider a reason for a mini-celebration.

Picking up my mug, I wandered over to the dining room. Spotting the pizza box still on the table, I went over to flip the lid and peruse the leftovers. Surely pizza was good after six hours. I mean it was still in the box. I started with picking off a couple of rounds of pepperoni and then gave up and grabbed a whole piece. I decided I’d munch standing up as I’d be sitting down again at the computer later. Looking at Trinity’s half finished salad reminded me how angry I had been with her earlier, when she had abandoned me. Or rather, when I thought she had abandoned me. I should have known better. That I didn’t, told me just how shaken up I had been.

Trinity Davis, tall, dark and gorgeous, was a force to be reckoned with. I had met her about six years ago when I landed in Little Rock on a case. I had been working a freelance investigation for a woman whose ex had run out on child support. His last known was Little Rock, and I had come here to search records and ask around to see if I could find any indication of where he had gone to. Trinity, being a criminal lawyer specializing in Family Law, was one of my first stops when I hit town. I had done my homework and knew she had gained a reputation as being one of the most passionate and fierce prosecutors in town. My kind of lawyer. She was nothing like I had expected.

The tall, graceful black woman who stood up from behind the desk and took my hand was not the image of the woman nicknamed “Pitt Bull” that I had in my head. Beautiful and elegant, were words I would use to describe her. Scrappy and cute were words people had used to describe me. I barely topped 5’6, and Trinity all but towered over me, a good six feet tall, not counting the ridiculously high heels she sported on a regular basis. You could practically see the Southern warmth and charm oozing out of her, whereas aloof and distant were adjectives I’d heard used to describe me when people thought I wasn’t paying attention.

Her wardrobe was designer all the way, every nail buffed and polished, every hair in place. I stood there in my boots, jeans and leather jacket, my unruly, plain brown hair going every which way, my nails trimmed short and bare. I didn’t have time for manicures and hair salons. I was busy tracking wife abusers, child molesters, missing children and deadbeat exes who wouldn’t pay child support. This Amazon woman, sitting in her posh office, certainly didn’t fit the information I had on her, and I was halfway convinced that I made a mistake until she excused herself to take a call she had been waiting on. I listened in awe as she skewered whoever was on the other end, glad it wasn’t me.

This was more like the woman I had researched. I had the basics on her. Oldest of two children, she had been raised in the all too common family unit of an abusive father and an overworked mother trying to keep what was left of her family together. When Trinity was 12, her mother died, and her Dad had taken off. She and her brother had gone to live with her Grandmother, who took on extra work in order to support the extra mouths. I saw the same story often in my line of work. Good people ending up in low-income housing, scraping by with low-paying jobs, life a never ending struggle, stuck in a never ending cycle of barely surviving.

The difference here was that Trinity had clawed her way out. A brilliant and determined student, she had ended up with a full scholarship, graduating top of her class and landing a position with one of the most prestigious law firms in the state. Her high profile cases and the high fees she brought into the firm gave her the standing and the freedom she needed to follow her real passion. Never forgetting her childhood, she went after those who abused; white or black, man or woman, rich or poor, it didn’t matter. And if you hurt a child? Well, Heaven help you, because once she got her teeth into you, you were caught and caught good. Her record proved it.

As with most research, though, you never know the whole story, until you talk to the people. Records are just that – records. Facts can be misleading. A good investigator talks to people to get a sense of what’s happening. What motivates people. What makes them tick. You have to keep an open mind and learn to listen. Sometimes, the pieces all fall into place. Other times, it just comes down to following your gut instinct.

As it happens, I have exceptional instincts. They were telling me that Trinity Davis was just what I needed to get my job done, and they’d been dead on the money. Becoming good friends was an added bonus. Becoming a part of her extended family even more so.

I finished my pizza and closed up the lid. Carrying it and the wilted salads to the garbage can in the kitchen, I thanked God that I had Trinity in my life. She had persuaded me to come and do investigative work for her in Little Rock. I had accepted on the condition I could still freelance cases on occasion. She agreed and the rest, as they say, was history.

We had supported each other over the years in good times and bad. Trinity had been there when I met a great guy named Keith, stood by me when I married him and held me together when he was killed a year later in a traffic accident. I celebrated when Trinity was named Lawyer of the Year, spent the holidays with her family, and cried with her when Kevin, her brother, was killed in a drive-by shooting.

I filled my cup with fresh coffee, added my cream and headed back to the study. I owed Trinity an apology. I had been furious with her for leaving, but she knew me and knew I needed to find my own way through this mess. The one thing we both had learned over the past six years and all the pain and loss we had both endured, was that you had to be strong for yourself. Friends could support you, but in the end, it all comes down to you.

I sat down at the computer with a new determination. Whatever was happening, whatever was going on, I would survive it and move on. I had forgotten that. Trinity had reminded me.