Point of View: Narrator
Brian's plan had one flaw.
Leighanne was vacuuming when Baylee bounded past her to the door. He flung it opened and greeted AJ with an uproar of excitement. "Hey Uncle AJ!" Baylee squealed.
"Yo lil B," AJ greeted him, giving him a high-five.
Leighanne turned the vacuum off and blinked in surprise at AJ. "You're back fast," she commented, looking at her watch. Brian hadn't even been gone an hour.
AJ blinked, "Say what?"
"You're back early. Where's Brian?"
AJ stared blankly at her.
Leighanne hesitated. "Brian isn't with you?" she asked.
Baylee, sensing the tension in the room, quickly slipped out and disappeared up the stairs.
"Uh, not exactly, no," AJ answered. "Is he supposed to be?"
"Weren't you meeting him?" she asked.
AJ wondered if he'd forgotten plans he'd made with Brian. He racked his brain but nothing came to mind and he slowly shook his head, "Uh.. no. I was coming here to see how him and Kev are doing working on the case, actually," AJ replied. He hesitated, "Kevin here?"
"Kevin's gone, too, he went to a meeting in Malibu. Supposedly." Leighanne dropped the vacuum cleaner and grabbed the phone off the wall and started dialing Brian's cell number.
"Oh," AJ stood there awkwardly.
When Brian answered with his usual hallo? Leighanne sensed a hint of nerves in his voice. "Hey Bri-bear," she said as calmly as she could, "I was just calling to see how you and Alex are doing," she said.
AJ stared at her.
"Oh we're great," Brian answered, his voice shaky and low. "Just great."
Leighanne raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? You and AJ are having fun then?"
"Uh-huh," Brian sounded distracted.
"Can you tell AJ I said hello?" Leighanne asked.
AJ swallowed. Brian was digging his own grave.
"Sure... uh - AJ, Leighanne says hello," he said. He paused. "AJ says hi back."
"Does he?" Leighanne asked.
"Uh-huh," Brian answered.
"Funny," Leighanne said. "Because he's here, Brian."
After a long, resounding silence, Brian muttered, "Shit."
"Yeah, shit is right." Leighanne slammed the phone down and stormed out of the room.
AJ stared at the phone. "I'll uh - I'll just come back - y'know, later," he said to the empty room. He quickly backed out of the house.
"Fuck." Brian threw his cell phone across the passenger seat. It hit the door and fell down on the carpet in front of the chair. Why hadn't he said Howie? AJ always screwed up keeping secrets, even when he wasn't the one keeping the damn secret!
Brian couldn't even remember the last time Leighanne had been pissed off enough to hang up on him.
"Okay, so let me get this straight," Dirk Bentley was sitting across from Kevin, poking at a pulled pork sandwich, a napkin balled up in his fist and a look of bemused puzzlement on his face. "Nick admitted to being higher than a kite, admitted to blacking out on his front lawn, admitted to seeing Krystal's car crash and even to walking down to it to see that she was dead... The state has evidence that she was pregnant, it's widely known she was cheating on him, and he has faced a dropped charge of domestic abuse from another celebrity ex, Paris Hilton."
Kevin nodded.
"Nick's family has an extensive record of abuse cases, including both his parents having been arrested at some point for abusing either each other or their new significant others. Nick's temper is a somewhat widely known fact, and the tire treads that seem to push her vehicle off the road are, beyond a doubt, his Camaro's tread."
Kevin nodded again.
"Your only claim hinges on the fact that while all this stuff is true, Krystal was suicidal and actually killed herself," Dirk continued, "Not that Nick killed her, but that she killed herself."
Kevin nodded once more.
"And you have no evidence, no witnesses, nobody who knows how suicidal Krystal was, nothing. Just a theory."
"Pretty much sums it up," Kevin replied. "So... What can you do, Bentley?"
Dirk laughed, "Christ Kev, did you hear that list?"
"You're a miracle worker, man," Kevin replied.
Dirk laughed again. "Ah Kevin, I'm not God though. And I think even God probably would be like yeah that's impossible looking at this case. But..."
Kevin leaned forward, "But?"
Dirk shook his head, "I can't resist."
