Sunset Beach(30)

“And a little girl lost her mom,” Drue said. “I just lost my mom too. Maybe I’m just overly sensitive about this stuff right now.”

Jonah nodded. “I gotta get back to my cube. Gotta make my granny quota. One down, two to go.”

“One down, two to go,” Drue mimicked. She needed to get back to her own cube, but her heart wasn’t in it. She kept thinking about that Aliyah with her shy smile and her Band-Aid-rigged eyeglasses. Who was working the Justice Line for her?





12


Drue’s phone lit up and she eagerly stabbed at the button on her console. It was Friday and she still hadn’t booked a single nursing home case referral. In fact, she hadn’t had anything close to a solid case lead in the two weeks since she’d started work.

“You’ve reached the Justice Line at Campbell, Cox and Kramner. This is Drue speaking.”

The caller was a youngish-sounding woman. “Hi. I wanna talk to somebody about how I fell in the 7-Eleven and broke my tailbone, and I got doctor bills and so I went over there to tell them they needed to give me some financial help, and the store manager called the cops on me.”

“Okay,” Drue said slowly, wishing she’d let the call roll over to the off-site phone center.

“First, what’s your name?”

The woman on the other end of the line paused. “Why do you need my name?”

Drue inhaled and exhaled. “If you’re going to be a client of the law firm, and we file legal action on your behalf, we need your name. And your address, and all your other personal information.”

“Oh. I got ya. Sure. It’s Vyckylynn. With y’s instead of i’s.”

“I’ve never seen a name spelled like that,” Drue said as she typed.

“Yeah. My mom always liked to be unique. You want my real last name?”

“That’d be best,” Drue said.

“Okay. It’s Young. Spelled the usual way.”

“Okay, Vyckylynn. Why don’t you tell me about your accident?”

“I already told you. I was at the 7-Eleven in Pinellas Park, well, me and my boyfriend were there, and he’d already left, and I was about to leave, and I slipped and fell, like, really hard on my ass. I, like, passed out. And when I came to, they were putting me in the ambulance. They took a bunch of X-rays and did some tests, and finally just said I broke my tailbone, which I coulda told them my ownself. I was bruised all up and down. Had some cuts, too, from all the broken glass. My boyfriend took a bunch of pictures on his phone. I can send ’em to you.”

“Maybe later,” Drue said. “Let’s go back to the part about the broken glass. How did that happen?”

“He dropped the bottle of Smirnoff Ice, when the lady at the counter started chasing him, and it busted all over the floor, and that’s when I slipped and hurt myself.”

“Who’s ‘he’?”

“My boyfriend. Glenn. I already told you that part.”

Drue was having a bad feeling about this call.

“Why was the clerk chasing your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know. I guess she thought he was trying to steal something.”

“Was he? Trying to steal the Smirnoff Ice?”

“Why are you asking me all these questions? I seen a billboard, right across the street from that 7-Eleven, it said, ‘Slip and Fall? Give Brice a Call,’ so that’s what I’m doing.”

Drue felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked up. Ben and Jonah were standing by her cubicle. “It’s quitting time,” Ben said. “We’re headed over to the Chattaway. Wanna come?”

“Hello?” Vyckylynn said. “Are you even listening to me?”

“I am,” Drue assured her. “But one of my colleagues has an important matter to discuss. Can you hold for a moment?”

She took off her headset and rotated her shoulders. “Sorry. I need to finish this call. You guys go on without me.”

Ben’s face fell. “We can wait a few minutes.” He looked over at Jonah. “Right?”

Jonah shrugged. “Why not. Is the call legit?”

She rolled her eyes. “Her boyfriend got caught trying to shoplift a bottle of Smirnoff Ice at a convenience store, and he dropped it when the clerk chased him, at which point she slipped and fell and broke her tailbone.”

Ben snickered. “Go ahead and disconnect. This one’s bogus.”

But Jonah leaned over the cubicle to read what she’d typed on the intake form. “Hang on. A slip-and-fall at a franchised store could be golden. They all carry major liability insurance.”

Jonah looked at Drue. “You need any coaching? I can walk you through it.”

“I think I can handle this,” Drue said.

“Suit yourself,” Jonah said. “If you get done anytime soon, you know where we’ll be.”

He started to walk away, then came back. “Okay, I know you don’t want to hear it, but ask her if either she or the boyfriend were in any way detained or arrested. Find out if the store filed charges against them. If they didn’t, you’re golden.”

“I got this,” Drue said, turning back to her phone.

“Hi. Vyckylynn? Are you still there?”