FiFty Fifty

Chapter Two

KATE

Kate Brooks slept soundly, wrapped in layers of woolen blankets, wearing her Taylor Swift PJs over her gym gear, and two pairs of thick, white tube socks. No matter how much she tinkered with the old radiators in her apartment, she couldn't get them to heat up. The studio apartment had been advertised to let as 'A bijoux living space with central heating throughout'. Two radiators at either end of the room technically counted as heating throughout. As a consequence, Kate got dressed before bed every night. When the winter really kicked in, she didn't know what she was going to do.
An alert signal began to chirp on her phone – an electronic bell that got louder every second. Kate's arm swung out of bed to the nightstand and she swiped at the screen twice to silence it. She quickly tucked her arm back under the duvet, and turned over without really waking up.
The phone began chirping again.
This time she forced open her eyes. The noise coming from her phone didn't sound like her wake-up alarm. She realized it was a call from her boss – Theodore Levy. Not only that, but she'd hung up his first call.
'Hello, Mr. Levy,' she said, with a croaky voice.
'Get dressed. I need you to swing by the office and pick up a document, then meet me at the First Precinct in Tribeca,' said Levy.
'Oh, sure thing. What do you need me to bring?'
'Scott is in the office right now running down some leads, but I need him here. I need you to get a retainer agreement for Alexandra Avellino. Bring it down here. I'll need it in the next forty-five minutes. Do not be late.'
With that, he hung up.
Kate flung the covers back and got out of bed. This was the life of a newly qualified lawyer. She was close to six months in the job, the ink still drying on her law license. Scott, another baby attorney in the practice, was in the office already, and why the hell he couldn't pick up whatever Levy needed didn't affect Kate. Levy barked orders and people jumped. Didn't matter that there might be an easier or quicker way to do something; so long as everyone was in a frenzy, Levy was happy.
She checked her watch. She would need a cab. Twenty minutes to the office
 
from her apartment. She tried to guess how long it would take to get from her law firm to the First Precinct, and decided it would probably take another twenty minutes.
No time for a shower.
She hauled off her pajamas and gym-wear, put on a blouse and business suit. Her skirt had gotten creased, but it didn't matter. A ladder appeared at her right calf as she put her tights on. Her last pair. She swore and went hunting for her shoes. Her head thumped off the archway dividing the bed from the small area where she had managed to fit a couch and a bookcase – the area that masqueraded as her living room. There was a small cut to her forehead, which stung, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath.
'Shitbird,' she said.
A pair of Adidas cross trainers lay by the front door of her apartment. She put them on, grabbed her overcoat and purse and left.
Twenty minutes later she stepped out of a cab on Wall Street, asked the driver to wait and ran toward the entrance to her building. Using her pass to open the front door, she rushed into the glass-fronted reception area where a security guard sat behind the desk. The elevator pinged. The doors began to open and Kate took a step forward, ready to leap inside. Scott came bounding from the elevator, a file underneath his arm. He bumped into Kate, shoulder to shoulder, turning her around.
'Sorry, Kate, I have to dash. Levy's secretary is still printing the retainer. I didn't have time to grab it and Levy wants me at the precinct right now.'
'Wait, I'll be two minutes. I've got a cab outside,' she said.
Scott, nodded, turned and ran for the front door.
Kate pushed the button for the twenty-fifth floor, twenty-five times, counting
out each one as the elevator rose. Levy's secretary, Maureen, was grabbing pages from the printer. She put them in a folder and handed them to Kate.
'Is that the retainer?'
Maureen nodded. The pages were still warm from the printer.
Why couldn't Scott have waited and taken this with him?
She had long since given up trying to answer such questions. In the world of
the big law firm, no one worried about deploying twenty lawyers and fifty paralegals if it gave you a moment's advantage over your opponent. She had been dispatched to get the retainer because she could be dispatched to get the retainer. Kate went back into the elevator, selected the ground floor and then hammered the close-door button with her middle finger. She mouthed 'come on, come on, come on,' under her breath as the doors slid closed.
When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, Kate rushed out. The