Chapter Seven

Drowning in Fire

Athena stopped in front of the entrance to the Gatewater Hotel, equal parts nervous and excited to see Lida once more.

Was she crazy? She'd just met this woman in a grocery store and offered to defend her brother out of the blue! What if this was all a mix up? What if Lida or her brother decided she wasn't good enough after all?

Then you go back home with your tale between your legs and mope around your apartment doing chores. Which do you prefer?

"Wow, nice pep talk. Why be a dead lawyer when you could have been such a great motivational speaker?"

I'm not here to console you. I'm here to feel like a lawyer again. What are you waiting for?

His gruff demeanor did nothing to hide his excitement, and Athena felt it. He really missed this, didn't he?

Never find how I feel. Is taking over the only way to get anything done around here?

"Okay, okay. I'm going in." She stepped through the door, taken aback by the luxurious lobby. Before she could spot Lida, a well dressed bellboy with the beginnings of wrinkles on his face walked up to her, a placid smile on his face.

"Welcome to Gatewater Hotel, madam. I'm one of the many bellboys here to assist you. Would you like to try our exclusive Murder Suite? With it comes day tickets to Gatewater Land."

"No, thank you... sir." She couldn't help but notice how he never gave his name. "I'm here to meet with a guest. Said her name was Lida?"

"Over here, Miss!" A bangled hand darted up from over the couch. The woman from before stood, looking far more put together in a knockoff dress and costume jewelry. "Sorry, I don't think I asked for your name earlier."

"It's Athena. Athena Cykes." Athena brushed past the bellboy, shaking Lida's hand with a firm grip.

"My full name is Elide Pakhi. Like I said, friends call me Lida. Which means you can, too!"

Well, she certainly seemed very different from before. Had Athena met the same person earlier? "Nice to see you again. You wanted to go up to town together?"

"Yeah. You can ride in my car. I'll tell you all about the case on the way there. I mean, we need something to pass the time, am I right?"

Alright, Athena had to ask. "You certainly seem better than earlier."

"I know. Crying in a supermarket is so pathetic, am I right?" Lida waved it off. "It was just the shock. When I got back to my room and put my face on, I felt loads better. Still have a killer pain in the head, though."

"Tension headache? I'm no stranger, myself." Because of her ability, Athena used to get them all the time. She still did, occasionally.

"Must be." She mused on the thought. For a minute, Athena could almost see the girl who hit her with a shopping cart. She was gone before Athena could say anything, though. "Anyway, you ready? The car's in the hotel garage." She motioned for Athena to follow. "Come on."

Athena followed Lida out to a rather run down car, scraped up and at least ten years old. "Wow. You've had this one a long time."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, it's actually Khadga's. He's a total cheapstake. He bought the car used and fixed it up himself. It works... so far. Get in."

Athena took to the passenger seat, strapping herself in right away. Lida was a bit of a reckless driver, and clearly wasn't used to the traffic of a big city. That led to a few close calls Athena would rather not think about. There were reasons Athena didn't want to own a car in LA, especially considering how much better they'd gotten about public transportation.

Once they left the city limits, things improved considerably. Athena finally felt safe enough to speak again.

"You wanted to tell me about your brother's case?"

"Oh yeah!" Lida sounded surprised, like she just remembered. "So I called the police station while you were gone. They weren't willing to tell me much, but I do have a few things that might help your case."

"Tres Bien! What did you find out?"

"Well, this one guy on the phone is super easy to flirt with, so getting information out of him with be a pinch for a girl as cute as you. But I think he's like, thirty, and you're...?"

"Eighteen."

"Oh good! It's not weird. Wait... a lawyer at eighteen?"

"Yeah..." Athena blushed.

She scoffed, but not in a mean way. "You go, girl! I'm still not done with college. Anyway, just be mindful of that if you need any hints. The police officer guy's an easy sucker."

"What did you get out of him?"

"Well, he mentioned my grandma's autopsy report is done. The doctor finished it late last night, and they think she died roughly a full day before they found her. That's the night Khadga and I got into town. We spent the day in the city."

"Were you with your brother that evening?" Athena asked. "You could give him an alibi."

Lida frowned. "No, not the whole time. We ate dinner together, and I wanted to go see this play in People Park, but Khadga thought it was stupid, and went back to our hotel room. I don't know what he did after that, but he was there when I got back."

"What time did you get back?"

"Like, four hours later." She cringed. "Kinda got lost on the way back. But it takes, like, an hour and forty minutes to get to Grandma from our hotel, so if he did go out, he wouldn't have had a lot of time. It just makes this whole story that much more ridiculous."

"I should have asked the bellboy if he left that night." Athena mused. "Darn!"

"Aw, sorry. Oh wait!" she nearly swerved off the road. "There was something else!"

"Um... you should be careful." Athena was starting to fear for her safety again. "If you need to focus on driving, I can wait."

"It's not me! It's the damn car. So hard to steer!" She let out a few swear words before continuing. "Anyway, let me tell you before I forget: the police guy on the phone mentioned a witness. I don't know anything about them, but the guy said he thinks he saw my brother. But really? I bet he's an old man. Everyone who lives in that area is old. It's, like, really depressing."

"Did the officer on the phone tell you any names?"

"No, sorry." She hit her head on the steering wheel, beeping the horn in the process. "I can't wait for all this to be over."

Athena would have to seek them out herself, then. Maybe Juniper would know. She was in town while the investigation was going on, after all. Until then, she guessed it wouldn't hurt to ask Lida a few more questions. "So what brought you out here in the first place?"

"Like I said, my brother and I were going to visit our grandmother. We didn't know she was going to die, obviously."

"Do you come out here a lot?"

She snorted. "As if! Khadga and I live eight hours away from here. My mom hated growing up in this old town, and she used to fight with her mom all the time. This would have been the first time Khadga and I met the lady. All I'd ever done before now is talk to her on the phone. And... now she's dead." Lida threw her hands in the air, seemingly uncaring. "I tried mourning her, but... it's hard, you know? I mean, when I heard the news... sure I was sad, but it was really just a shock, you know? Especially when it came to Khadga."

"Yeah..." Athena did her best to understand. "It would be like if I found out who my father was, only to learn he died months ago. It would be sad, but I'd probably recover." At least, that was what she thought.

She gave up thinking about her father years ago, but in the years after her mom died, she used to always wonder if her father would show up one day and tell her why he hadn't been there for her. It never happened, of course. When Athena was fourteen, her uncle convinced her to give up once and for all. Whoever her father was, he didn't deserve to know her.

She started listening again in the middle of Lida's explanation. "...odd, but see? You get it. But yeah. It took my mom forever to tell us who our grandmother was, and even longer for her to fess up to where she lived. Khadga and I just wanted to meet her for the first time. No way would he kill her!"

Hm... If what Lida said was true, it didn't sound like Khadga had a motive. That could help her in court later. What else could she ask Lida about?

"You were the one who called the police yesterday, right? About your grandmother being missing?"

"Yeah, I did. Kinda regret it, now that I think about it. We were supposed to meet her in front of this place's city hall, but she never showed up. Khadga and I waited for hours. We eventually found her house, but nothing. I thought she might have fallen in the woods somewhere, so I filed a Missing Persons report. Turns out, she'd been missing for a whole day before we even showed up! Weird, right?"

Weird, indeed. Athena couldn't shake the feeling that was going to be important later. She wished she knew ahead of time what the police were going to say about the matter. It was times like these when "Detective Fulbright" would have been helpful.

The rest of the drive over didn't reveal anything of interest, but Athena did learn a lot about Lida's sorority in college, her twenty-third birthday party, and how often she skipped class. She seemed nice enough, but Athena wasn't convinced. She couldn't hear any discord in Lida's voice, but something was off. Nothing about the Lida here was reminding her of the Lida from the grocery store. Had she really just been shocked by all the news, or was there more than met the eye here?

By the time they pulled up to the actual town (not the bus stop a half mile out), Athena still didn't have an answer. She decided to keep silent for the moment. "Do you know where the detention center is?"

"Huh?" Lida raised an eyebrow. "It's just a part of the police station, right?"

"Not necessarily, but I'm sure the police will know where it is." Athena tried to be positive. After she talked to Lida's brother, she could go find Juniper and investigate with her.

Gavin spoke up for the first time in hours. He'd been oddly quiet on the way over. Why do you need an investigation partner?

"Four eyes are better than two." Athena muttered, doing her best to keep Lida from hearing.

Depends on what you're investigating. And what your intentions are.

Turns out, the detention center was connected to the police station here. Not just that, this detention center only had three holding cells total, with no visiting area. Visitors went straight to the cells to speak with people.

As Athena approached, she got her first look at Khadga Pakhi. He had wavy black hair covering his face, brown eyes, and a worn leather jacket with a band tee underneath. He stared at her with a neutral expression, and didn't attempt to return Athena's smile when she offered it. Not that she blamed him, but... wow. Lida was the older sibling by a noticeable margin. No way was her brother older than sixteen.

"Khadga, say hi to Miss Athena Cykes. She's offered to be your lawyer."

He cocked an eyebrow, clearly not impressed. "You? A lawyer? Are you even out of high school?"

Athena was getting really tired of this, but she did her best to remain professional. "Yes. I've had my badge almost a year now."

"How old are you? Fifteen?"

"Eighteen." Athena could see Widget changing color. "And you?"

"Twenty-one."

Well, Athena guessed that one horribly wrong. "Great. So we're both older than we look. Do you want my help in court?"

She heard a scoff in the back of her head, followed by tangible disappointment. Don't do it like that. It's sloppy and unprofessional. Is this how your agency always looks for clients?

Athena ignored him, waiting for Khadga's response. He actually seemed to be considering it.

"Khadga?" Lida tried to push him along. "What do you say?"

"...I say you're cute. Wanna go out later?"

"Um..." Athena was not expecting that. "How about we look at your case first? Do you know anything about their evidence against you?"

He shrugged. "A guy questioned me. Thinks I came up here late at night to see my grandma."

"Did you?"

"No. I came here with Lida yesterday. But some village idiot thinks they saw me."

There was that witness again. "Did the man questioning you tell you who the witness was?"

"No."

"Do you have an alibi proving you didn't come up here the night Ms. Singh died?"

He sounded confused. "I was in my room that night. Took a nap."

"Did you talk to anyone when you went back to your hotel? Can anyone testify that you didn't leave that night?"

"I don't know!"

Athena frowned. "Mr. Pakhi, this is really important. If we can find evidence that proves you weren't here the night of the crime, we can prove you didn't kill Ms. Singh. If you're telling me the truth, this can be over before we even go to court."

"Are they really gonne try Khadga tomorrow?" Lida asked. "It's Christmas Eve!"

"That's not a holiday according to the legal system. But Christmas Day is, as of recently. So if your brother's trial takes more than a day, it would resume the twenty-sixth." For Athena's sake, she hoped it only took a day. Any longer, and she wasn't sure how long she'd be able to hide this from the boss. "But if I can prove you have a solid alibi, it could all be over today. So I need you to think: is there anyone or anything that can prove you never came here until yesterday?"

"Oh! I got one!" Lida smiled. "The bellboy at the front desk said Gatewater uses cameras in their parking garage for security. If Khadga never took his car out of there that night, would that prove it?"

"Hm..." Athena thought about it. "It would prove he didn't drive his car up here, but I know the bus schedule to this place. It stops about a half hour away from Ms. Singh's house at seven and ten pm. The ride up takes almost two hours-"

"Lida saw me at five."

"It also doesn't prove you didn't call a cab." Athena flicked her earring as she thought. "Do you have anything more solid? Did any of the hotel staff ever visit you in your hotel room? Did you order room service?"

"No. I didn't even eat dinner."

"So there's nothing? That's not good." Athena looked at their alarmed expressions. "I'll find something, don't worry. Does this mean you want me to take your case?"

"Depends." Her client was smirking now. "If I'm free tomorrow, will you go to dinner with me?"

"Khadga," Lida scolded. "We were supposed to leave town today. Mother wants us home for Christmas."

"We can drive at night. If we leave after dinner tomorrow, we'll be there by Christmas morning." He turned to Athena. "So what do you say, lawyer doll?"

"I... would think you'd be more interested in an acquittal." If Athena was honest, she thought he was being creepy. "Besides, why go out if we're never going to see each other again?"

"I want something to look forward to when I'm out. Christmas at my mother's house just doesn't do it for me."

"Khadga, are you really going to refuse her because she won't go out with you? Don't be an idiot."

"She hasn't said no yet."

Lida turned to Athena. "Miss Cykes, do you want to eat a romantic dinner with my little brother?"

"Not one bit!"

"Widget!" Athena cried, covering Widget with her hand. "Sorry, sometimes this little guy says what I'm thinking."

Lida laughed. Her brother scowled. "Fine, be like that. Just get me out of here, will you?"

"Will do!" Athena smiled, hitting her hand with her fist. "Just sign this letter of request, and I'll be back as soon as I have what I need."

He signed it, if reluctantly. Guess he didn't like being rejected.

"Good luck!" Lida called right as Athena was leaving. Athena waved as Lida sat down to talk with her brother, then left the detention center at full speed.

First stop: Juniper's house. If nothing else, her grandmother would have food, and Athena was getting hungry.

Right as she was about to knock, Juniper opened the door. She looked surprised to see her. "Thena?"

"Hey, Junie. I came to see you again!"

"I thought you were the police." Juniper let Athena in, then locked the door behind them. "They've been back and forth all night. They questioned Grandma earlier."

"Grammie?" It couldn't be. "She's a witness in tomorrow's trial? The witness who saw the defendant with her own eyes?"

Juniper shook her head. "No, she only heard noises. Who told you there was a witness?"

"The defendant's sister. She asked me to take the case."

"You're the defense attorney?" Juniper sounded a lot more surprised than she was expecting. Was it really that odd? "But... last week was so crazy for you. Don't you want to rest?"

"I can just sit around and do nothing for three more days! Don't you understand? If there are people out there who need my help, it's my duty to help them. That's why I'm a lawyer! I can't just sit back and watch someone suffer."

"I know how you feel, I do." Why did Juniper look so uncomfortable? "But isn't Apollo preparing for a funeral?"

Huh? "Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"

Juniper looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. "And Mr. Wright... Athena, you're all alone. Are you sure you want to try this again so soon?"

What was Juniper implying, here? That she didn't think Athena could handle a case without someone else holding her hand? "What do you mean 'try this again'?"

She gulped, breaths getting shaky. "Thena, I know you want to help them. But are you sure you can?"

The color drained from Athena's face as she caught on. Her hands flew to her cheeks as she stepped back, face slack with shock.

"Wait... that isn't what I meant." Juniper realized her mistake right away. "I meant, after everything you just went through! With... with the Space Center and everything!"

Memories of the courtroom bombing flashed before her eyes. And then, the trial after. Juniper on the stand, freaking out. That cruel, horrible prosecutor...

And that time Athena froze. Completely, utterly froze.

And it all came together from there. "You don't believe in me."

Juniper gasped. "No, wait! Thena, you're going to be a great lawyer someday. Don't say that."

"No. You think I can't do anything without my boss or Apollo." She clutched her arm to her chest. "You're not the only one, you know. Mr. Wright said the same thing to me yesterday. I bet Simon would, too. But for some reason, I thought you'd be different."

"Thena... does Mr. Wright know you're here?"

"Yes." Technically. "But that's not what matters. What matters is... you're wrong. You're all wrong."

"Wait..."

"I was asked to take this case. I'm going to take this case. And you what I'm going to do with it?" Athena felt her shock turning to anger. Her fire was coming back. But not in the way it should.

Juniper tried to speak, but Athena cut her off.

"I'm going to win. If you don't want to help me, fine. But I hope you come to watch. I want you to see just how wrong you were."

What had been a calm, consistent campfire the past few days was raging to a blaze. And it was burning the whole forest with it.

"Wait!"

Athena felt strong. Athena felt powerful, as she stormed out of that house before "Grammie" could say hello.

That was quite moving, back there. Are you ready to investigate in earnest now?

"I guess I have to, if Juniper doesn't want to help me."

Hm... perhaps I could me your third and fourth eye. Would you like that?

Athena nodded, hoping Gavin got the message. It was a sad day when a demon from hell was the only one on her side. But that didn't have to stop her, now did it?

The blazing energy was impressive, but Athena had to wonder how long it would last.

A/N's: Hey, everyone! Sorry for the wait. I was at choir camp while this chapter was almost ready, and only just got around to finishing it. But I'm so close to my Camp NaNo goal! I can't wait. I only need a half chapter more and I'll reach it!

But I hope you're picking up on some of the more subtle clues and changes occurring in this chapter. Being around Kristoph constantly is definitely starting to have an effect on Athena. And he's about to become her assistant, of sorts. That's going to an interesting chapter. I expect the investigation to only take a chapter, and court to take two or three. This isn't the main arc of the story, but it is building up to it.

Also, an explanation of Lida and Khadga's names. Khadga is the name of a dynasty that ruled modern day Bengal on the Indian subcontinent, and their last name, Pakhi, means bird in the same language (best Google Translate can tell me). Since Khadga sounds a bit like "caged", he's the caged bird. Lida sounds like "little", so she's the little bird who tells Athena about the case. Since birds are such a recurring motif for Athena (along with hearts and the moon), I felt this was appropriate. There's another sort of meaning hidden in Lida's name, but that has spoilers for the case. Let's just say she reminds me of another character and leave it at that.

But yeah. I have another chapter to write, and I hope you'll find it worth your time to leave a review! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the far side!