Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unfit to Practice

“You goddamn lying, cheating, scum-sucking piece of-” Thwack.

“Where do you get off coming here with an attitude like that? Phoebe chose me, Cody, not you. C’mon, baby.”

“Phoebe’s been two-timing them,” Brandy guessed. “I think the one who spent the evening tucked into the tent with her is named Mario.”

The thunk of a fist contacting skin was followed by a shoving match.

“Round Two, I guess,” Angel said wearily. “Well, we were warned. Should we do something? Get the ranger?”

“A hundred people are listening to this. Someone else will get him eventually.”

They sneaked a look through the netting, hiding in toward the edges.

“She looks scared,” Angel said. “You know what? I don’t like the way this looks at all. We should do something.”

The studly camper, Mario, shoved by Cody, the biker with long hair, landed against their tent, almost crushing Brandy’s leg. “That’s it,” Brandy said, as he lurched back to the fray. “I’m going for the ranger!”

“They’ll see you,” Angel said. “I don’t want them to know anything about us. Use your mobile phone and call.”

Brandy dug around in her bag while the fistfight escalated into a free-for-all just a few feet from their tent. Incoherent screams and cries rent the night. Only Phoebe made any sense at all.

“Help!” she screamed. “Help!”

After the ranger came to bust it up and Cody thundered away on his bike, things settled down at last, the dogs quit howling, and the kids stopped crying, but now neither Brandy nor Angel could sleep. They lay in their bags for the next couple of hours checking their watches and chatting quietly.

“I have to pee,” Brandy said.

“So, enjoy. You know where the bathroom is.”

“Come with me.”

“What?”

“C’mon, Angel. Don’t make me go alone. Remember that story Sam told about the night the bears came to your cabin and broke into that refrigerator you keep in your garage?”

“There was only one bear and he was dinky.”

“Sam said that dinky bear knocked the refrigerator over, broke open the door, and ate all the frozen meat. When you came out in your nightgown to scare him off, he chased you across the yard. You screamed, too.”

“Oh, chill, Brandy. I haven’t heard a peep from anything or anyone since the ranger came.”

“Please? I’m scared.”

They pulled on flip-flops and sweaters, examined the road carefully for shadows, and stepped outside into the stinging-cold night. Brandy waited for another latebird lady to finish washing up, then used the bathroom in private while Angel stomped the concrete to heat up her toes, keeping a watch outside for bears or strangers or anything at all, but the dark made it hard to see much except lights reflecting off the lake in the distance. Hard to believe they were right in the middle of the city of South Lake Tahoe.

“Gag me,” Brandy said, when she finally came outside. “It smelled like vomit in there. That poor woman partied too hearty for her own good.”

“She did look terrible, except that I loved her hair,” Angel agreed. “Should have stuck to chocolate and wine like us, huh? No ill effects, except maybe that we’re jumpy as little bunnies.” They walked through the darkness toward their camp.

“Wait!” Brandy whispered suddenly, putting a hand out to stop Angel. She pulled her sister back toward the side of the road.

“Is it a bear?”

“Shh!”

“Let’s go. You’re not three years old anymore. No need to be so damn scared of the dark.”

“Shut up!” Brandy hissed.

Angel shut up and looked in the direction Brandy’s nose pointed, seeing nothing.

“It’s so dark,” she whispered. “What are you looking at?”

Brandy’s finger shook as she pointed toward the orange tent next to their site. “There’s enough moon to see.”

Angel stared but saw nothing special.

“He’s gone now.”

“Who?”

“I saw someone leaving that tent.”

“So what?” Angel said. “When you gotta whiz, you gotta whiz. You’re living proof.”

“But, Angel, didn’t Cody-the biker-leave after the ranger came around?”

“Yeah.”

“How come he’s back, then?”

“No idea. You sure you saw Cody, Brandy?”

“Unless Mario suddenly grew his hair long, has lost about fifty pounds and gone all ugly, and looks just like Cody.”

“Where’s the bike, then?”

“He knew he’d wake up the whole camp if he came in on that thing so he parked it out on the street?” Brandy guessed.

They puzzled about it for a minute or two, but the camp remained silent and peaceful, so they went on back to their tent, slept for the few remaining hours of the night, and got up the next morning, deciding to strike out early for a hike up to Beauty Lake and a new campsite at Wright’s, out of town and out of the whole city campground B.S.

“They found her body in her sleeping bag, dead, the next morning when the ranger tried to roust them out of the site,” said Brandy. “Mario was still asleep, right next to her!”

“You seem sure Cody is responsible for the woman’s death,” Nina said. She had paused in her note-taking. The office door, slightly ajar, told her Sandy was probably listening.

They stared at her. “Well, heck, I don’t think there’s much doubt,” Angel said. “Cody came back, Brandy saw him. And even a drunk wouldn’t jump back into his sleeping bag and pass a peaceful night next to the dead body of his girlfriend like Mario did. If Mario had done it, he would have run straight across the state line, across Nevada, and all the way to Colorado before he stopped to breathe.”

“Ms. Guillaume, Angel, you mean to tell me your husband didn’t mention a murder at a campground to you over the weekend? We don’t get many up here.”

“He never saw the story or he would have freaked.”

“Why didn’t you go straight to the police when you got back to town on Tuesday?” Nina asked them.

“I’m ashamed to say, we don’t always read the papers,” said Angel. “We just saw an article about what happened this morning. It’s so sad! It’s just terrible! That poor girl. Cody must have snuck back and strangled her in the night. Mario was so drunk, maybe he didn’t even wake up.”

Nina picked up the phone. “I’ll arrange for you to speak with the police or the D.A.’s office as soon as possible. They should know what you saw.”

“Hold on. Did you read about these people?” Brandy said. “The camper, Mario Lopez, the one they arrested, had just gotten out of prison that day! He’s a violent felon. He was in for assault for years. The other guy, Cody, he was in for drug trafficking last year, plus he has a whole bunch of other convictions. The truth is, we’re scared to death to tell anybody.”

“If I have your story right, no one, except for the tourists you replaced, even knows you stayed at that campground that night,” Nina reminded her.

“Which is the one reason I can still sleep at night,” Angel said.

“I just don’t want to talk to anyone about this until I’ve had a chance to talk to my fiancé,” Brandy said. “So we came here today for your free consultation. Besides, Angel told me all about how you kicked butt in the Misty Patterson case, even though you got hurt in the process. You’re tough.”

“I’m lucky,” Nina said. She touched her hand to the scar on her chest. Did anyone realize how superstitious even the most pragmatic lawyer could be?

“Will it make any difference to Mario if we don’t come forward today? I mean, is he in some horrible place where he’s going to get brutalized or something?” Brandy asked.

“No. Remember, this man just got out of state prison. The jail in Placerville can’t compare to that. But, Brandy, you have to tell the prosecutors what you saw as soon as possible.”