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Bridle and Partners was sandwiched between a doughnut store and a pizza place. George caught me looking longingly at both and was sympathetic.
‘No. You ate popcorn and an entire candy store for breakfast. Give your poor stomach a rest.’
Yeah, that’s why I was looking at the pizzas, for vegetables. On the cheeseburger pizza, that is. Screw it, I was so ordering it afterward.
‘What’s the plan?’ he asked, diverting my attention briefly.
‘I’m gonna walk in there, hope she recognizes me and runs out screaming. Then, I’ll follow.’
‘Why did I ask?’ he moaned, massaging his temples.
I’d already let him in on the actual plan. He hadn’t been too enthusiastic about that, either.
‘Well, I’m already here and it’d be a waste of gas if I left.’
‘No, it wouldn’t, because you’re going to buy doughnuts.’
‘Pizza, actually. Come on, Negative Nelly,’ I urged him.
He followed me as I headed inside. I don’t know anything about law firms, so it could’ve been big or small. There were four or five people milling about a wide open office, with a couple doors leading off to other rooms. I walked up to the first desk I came to. I did not see Zainab.
‘Can I help you?’ asked the occupant.
‘Is Zainab here? I need to speak with her.’
‘Sure. You a friend of hers?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, Brianna.’
Now, why’d I go say a foolish thing like that?
‘Zany!’ he yelled out, turning toward the back of the room. ‘Your friend Brianna’s here!’
If he was just going to shout, I could’ve done that myself.
‘Thanks,’ I told him. Felt like giving him a pat on the head, too.
Zainab shuffled through one of the doors, looking like she’d seen a ghost. Hey, that was my job. Once her eyes locked onto mine, her shock turned to a scowl.
‘What are you doing here?’ she asked relatively quietly.
‘Well, it’s about-’
‘Smoke break,’ she suddenly yelled out, running for the door. I’m guessing she realized I had nothing to lose and would immediately start yammering about ghosts.
‘Hey, your plan’s working,’ George encouraged me as I followed her outside.
I found her leaning against the wall, shaking a little. I saw so much pain and anguish in her little face that a better person would just leave her be. Luckily, I’m the worst of the worst.
‘If this is about her, I’m begging you, don’t do this,’ she whispered, closing her eyes.
‘It is, and I’m sorry, but I need your help. I’m not doing this for fun. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t need you,’ I assured her.
‘Is she here now?’ she asked.
‘No, she’s meeting me later at my house.’
She turned to me, disdain in her eyes.
‘Meeting you later?’ she repeated slowly.
‘They come and go. Free spirits,’ I half-joked.
She did not laugh.
‘I need your help,’ I said again.
‘With what?’
‘Long story short, she said some guy killed her but I’m pretty sure she lied and it was actually her mom. I’m hoping we can stage an intervention and get her to tell the truth.’
She blinked at me a few times and gaped.
‘What?’
‘Short story long, forty years ago-’
‘Shut up,’ she blurted out, closing her eyes again. Maybe she was praying. I tried another tack.
‘Forget all talk of... that, for a moment. Listen to what I’m saying. I think it was her mom. You’re not going to her vigil and you didn’t post anything on her page. Why not?’
Tears started rolling down her cheeks. Wow, I really knew how to talk to people.
‘Don’t tell me anything if you don’t want to,’ I said, since it was clear that she probably wasn’t going to. ‘Think about it, alright? If you change your mind, I’ll be home. You know where I live.’
Feeling a little mean, I walked away from Zainab after bringing up her dead friend so callously and headed for the pizza place.
‘Her mom hated her,’ she called out.
Great. No pizza for me.
I trotted back over as she wiped her eyes, not even smudging her mascara. Ugh, lucky. If that was me, I’d look like a half-dead clown right now.
And that was without makeup.
‘They argued over everything. Her mom was a tiger mom, always pushing her to go to college and study.’
‘She wanted to be a doctor, right?’ I nodded, recalling the local news story. She shook her head vigorously.
‘No, she didn’t. Leesha wanted to be an artist,’ she said, her voice shaking slightly over the name. ‘Not Van Gogh or Michelangelo or anything. She wanted to sketch, and take a chair and table downtown and sell little sketches for a couple dollars apiece. Her real dream was to move to New York and sell to tourists. She wanted her art to go all over the world, but to people who’d appreciate it in that little moment. That’s all she ever wanted.’
You mean, that moody bitch was actually a wannabe hippie?
‘That is not the impression I got from her,’ I euphemized.
‘She only told me once. She broke down one day from all the pressure from school and just vented. She wanted to purposely flunk her exams so her mom would get off her back, but I told her that wasn’t the way. I said if the sketch thing didn’t work out, her grades would be a backup. Imagine that,’ she chuckled. ‘Having a college degree as a backup.’
How the other half live. Hey, maybe I should get a degree as a backup. You know, in case the whole sit-around-at-home thing doesn’t work out.
‘What about her dad?’ I asked.
‘Died when she was little,’ Zainab said, risking a wary glance at me. Like I know all the dead people in the world or something. ‘She’s an only child. Before she knew she had ADHD, her mom would deny her everything until she finished homework. She made her do extra work, as well. She’d snap a belt on the table whenever her attention wandered, but never actually hit her. It was awful. Once she was diagnosed, her mom didn’t change. In fact, it made her worse. It was like she was trying to force her not to have it. As if she thought she could grow out of it with enough training.’
And I thought I had it tough. Poor Leesha. Might not like her, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
‘Do you know what happened that night?’ I asked her.
‘She didn’t tell you?’ she said a little sarcastically.
‘No, that’s the problem. She did tell me, but I think she lied. I think she’s trying to pin it on David to protect her mom.’
‘Who’s David?’
‘Like I said, it’s a long story. And your boss probably thinks you’ve had about eight cigarettes by now,’ I pointed out.
With a jolt, she looked back at her workplace and remembered where she was and who she was talking to.
‘Why a law firm, anyway?’
‘I want to go law school.’
‘Why do you want to go law school?’
‘To become a lawyer,’ she sighed, irritated. I could see this was going to be a long and fruitless conversation. I gave up with the small talk.
‘Cool story. Look, will you come by my place later? I’ll explain it all then, and hopefully Leesha will be there and I can talk sense to her through you.’
I could see her wavering, but I think she was still put off.
‘If she’s there, you can ask me things I won’t know to prove it’s her.’
‘Only if she plays ball, though,’ George coughed.
‘Shut up, George,’ I told him.
If she wasn’t put off before, she was now. She charged past me and ran into the safety of her law firm.
‘Smooth,’ he said.
We were lucky in that the entire street was devoid of people, so I could bicker with him and not look totally insane.
‘It was only a matter of time. I’m blaming you for that, though,’ I sulked.
‘Thanks. You think she’ll come tonight?’
‘Sure. She might not believe me about you guys, but I’m the only one who suspects her mom. She’ll come for that alone.’
‘And what if Leesha decides she isn’t going to play?’ he went on. ‘Or even worse, she doesn’t turn up at all?’
I admit, the thought of faking it crossed my mind, but only briefly. It wouldn’t exactly get me far. And it would probably be what she was expecting, anyway. To be honest, if Leesha didn’t turn up, it’d probably go in my favor. We’d have to work this together, without the help of the spirit world.
It’d be interesting, for a start.
‘I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I think that actually went well,’ I said, changing the subject to a more positive note.
‘Yeah, it did. It only means that tonight has to go doubly worse to make up for it.’
He was right about that. The second I turned around, the pizza place closed.