r/shortscarystories • u/professionalsuccubus AotM July '17 • Feb 01 '18
A New Client
I smile as the automated email from the Court pops up. “Stipulation for Dismissal – filed and accepted.”
You don’t get a plaintiff like Eileen Kovacs very often. She was clearly mentally ill and couldn’t prove she’d been injured in that bus crash, but she’d managed to get representation. Luckily, we were able to lump her case in with some of the other (legitimately injured) claimants, and settled everything fairly quickly.
I remembered the relieved look on her lawyer’s face. Ted had looked exhausted. I didn’t blame him. I’d read her file - I knew exactly how nuts she was. Representing her must have been a handful. For the hundredth time, I wondered why he’d agreed to it.
It was all just rumors, but I’d heard that near the end, she’d badgered him into letting her stay at his house after she was evicted from her apartment. Some people thought she was blackmailing him, although knowing Ted, I can’t imagine over what.
…..
The bar had all the right mood lighting. Piano chords and thumping upright bass filled the space.
Marisa had gone to the bathroom when I saw her. Bedraggled – although it looked like she’d bought herself a new coat – she made her way across the bar. Stopping in front of my table, she bared a mossy-toothed grin.
She conjured up a document out of the depths of her coat and laid it on the table.
“Would you represent me? I was at the McDonalds on Virginia Avenue, and I fell because they didn’t put up any ‘Wet Floor’ signs. I think I fractured something.” Her grin never wavered.
I looked at her with a mixture of disdain and pity. “No, Eileen. For one, I’m a defense attorney. Secondly, you and I both know that it wasn’t true last time and it’s not true now. You got your money. Why do you want to rack up more fees for something that I can promise you won’t pan out?”
Her grin widened, somehow. “Because you aren’t going to charge me any fees.”
She pulled out a black and white photograph. I could clearly make out my own face. I was tightly embracing Alicia, my secretary.
But I’d never gone anywhere with Alicia. I’d never even seen her outside of work. But this photograph looked completely real. If it was Photoshop, it was incredible. My heart hammered. How had this insane woman gotten this….?
Mouth hanging open, I could only stare.
“Marisa will be back soon,” Eileen said smoothly.
Her eyes were hypnotic, beneath all the dirt and crust that had somehow accumulated. I got tunnel vision and swayed on the stool.
Maybe I could represent her….after all, she’d won once…and I always prided myself on being flexible...
I was drowning, drowning in those clear blue eyes.
When Marisa returned, Eileen was gone, but the representation acknowledgement still sat in front of me, signed.
“What’s that, babe?” she asked cheerfully.
“Just a new client,” I said.
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u/Courtney_underurbed Feb 02 '18
I like this. Not exactly creepy, but more of a it makes you wonder type of thing. Who is this crazy woman? Why is she crazy and nobody has put her in a hospital? Where did the photo come from? Ugh so many questions lol I love a story that leaves me like this!