A few days later, the same young man, Bobby Mackey was just exiting his weekly session with his counselor, Ruby Avery when Hamilton Burger entered the building. He nodded politely to Ruby and casually proceeded down the hall to Alexandra's office. They had made lunch plans and like the gentleman he was, arrived to pick her up.
Bobby Mackey watched the district attorney disappear in the room before scowling darkly. "He's the district attorney, isn't he?"
Ruby frowned at her client's dark expression with concern. "Mr. Burger? Why yes he is. Is something wrong, Bobby?"
"Yeah, there's something wrong!" The young man said, his light green eyes still glaring daggers down the hall. "That's the guy that got my older brother, Johnny convicted of murder and sent to prison for life."
"Well I'm sure that's possible," Ruby said. "I understand how upsetting it must be for you, but your brother did have a fair trial. The DA was just doing his job."
If Bobby scowled any longer or harder, Ruby feared that expression might become a permanent fixture on his boyish face.
Ruby continued toward the entry to the building and regarded Bobby with growing concern. "We can certainly discuss your feelings on the matter next week if you'd like."
Bobby nodded and opened the door. "Thanks, Ms. Avery. I might. I'll see you next week then."
He pulled the door closed behind him and made his way to his car, but he didn't drive off immediately.
W^^^W^^^W
"Guess who I saw today?" Bobby said grumpily to his older brother, Tim after he arrived home and entered the den. The two young men were in their early twenties. They were both in college at the local university and so still lived at home with their parents.
"No clue," Tim said, looking up from his studies. "Why don't you tell me so I don't have to play twenty questions. I get enough of those in my homework."
Bobby leaned against the side of the desk and looked down at his brother with a scowl. His brother's lack of a sense of humor was maddening at times. It had been that way since their oldest brother, Johnny had been locked up for life.
"I saw Mr. District Attorney himself when I was coming out of my session with Ms. Avery today. He's apparently rather cozy with a friend and colleague of Ms. Avery."
Tim's eyes widened at that. "Hamilton Burger? Are you certain? What did you see?"
"Well, Ms. Avery and I were exiting our session when Mr. District Attorney entered the building and vanished into Ms. Mullen's office. Knowing it was almost lunch time, I waited in my car to see if they came out; and sure enough, I caught them heading out to his car, looking all lovey dovey."
Tim snorted. He had absolutely no idea where his baby brother was going with this. Sure they were both upset by the fact that Johnny had been sent to prison for life, but what the DA did with his private life was none of their business. Tim couldn't imagine why Bobby cared about this so much.
"So what's the big deal, Bobby? His private life is none of our business and ruining it won't get Johnny out of jail. Just let it go. And me, so I can get back to my studies."
"Yeah sure, Johnny," Bobby mumbled disappointedly as he retreated from the room. Tim could be such a passive fellow and it was a trait that frustrated Bobby to no end.
W^^^W^^^W
The following evening, Alexandra was just finishing up her client notes for the day when Ruby Avery tapped on the slightly cracked open door to Alexandra's office. Alexandra looked up and smiled.
"Just a head's up," Ruby smiled back. "I'm going to be staying late to work on that article for that psychology journal I mentioned last week so don't wait up for me. And don't worry about locking up. I'll do that when I leave."
"Sounds good. I'm glad you caught me because I was just finishing up actually. I'm going to run home and get out of my work clothes and then go over to Hamilton's. We have so much to talk about these days. Maybe we'll rediscover fun one of these days," the blonde chuckled as she locked her file cabinet and retrieved her coat and purse.
Ruby laughed and waved as she exited Alexandra's office. "Alright then. Have a good night. Try not to have too much fun."
Alexandra exited her office and pulled the door shut behind her. She didn't bother locking the door usually because any confidential client information she kept locked in her file cabinet when she wasn't in the office.
The front desk clerk, Evelyn was locking her own cabinets and drawers as Alexandra passed by. "Good night, Evelyn. See you in the morning."
Evelyn smiled. "Good night, Ms. Mullen."
W^^^W^^^W
Alexandra arrived at work earlier than usual the next morning. It was something she did a few times a month to accommodate a particular client's schedule. She opened the door to her office, trying to ignore the morning sickness that was starting to expand passed the nausea she'd experienced with second hand smoke to pretty much the smell of anything in general.
Taking a few steps in, she hunted in her purse for the keys to her file cabinet. Finally locating them, she pulled them from her the dark recesses of her purse (she swore the thing was a black hole) and finally looked up and gasped in shock and horror.
Her best friend and colleague, Ruby Avery, was lying dead on the floor.