by K. C. Turner
Frustrated but eager to help, Elizabeth reached out and gently touched Pam’s forearm, “Hey, everything’s going to be okay. One step at a time. I’ll be right here through this entire process.” She reached in her bag and grabbed a tissue, handing it to the woman. “I have to get in the courtroom now. When the Judge calls his name, come up to the bench and stand beside me. You don’t have to say a word to him. I’ll be there and the bailiff will be there, okay? I have a few other cases as well, but I promise I will take a look at this first chance I get,” she said, stuffing the evaluation in her file folder.
“Thank you, Elizabeth.”
Martinez sat at his desk typing up a request to Investigator McMurphy at Mansfield Prison. The parole hearing was scheduled for Thursday afternoon and it was imperative the request be sent in as soon as possible. Detective Shawn Johnson looked up over the partition at Martinez. “Whatcha working on?”
Leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his neck he replied, “Well, Liz decided to go to the parole hearing, so I’m trying to get this request done to send in to Investigator McMurphy down at Mansfield. He’s going to set it all up for me to escort her.”
Shawn looked impressed, “Wow, how did you talk her into that?”
Placing his fingers back on the keyboard after stretching out his bulging triceps, he winked, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“I would! You know I live vicariously through you, man.” He rolled his eyes as he shook his head and grinned before picking up the receiver of his phone to make a call. After dialing a number and getting a busy signal, he hung up. Rubbing the day old, salt and pepper scruff on his chin, he asked, “So she’s really gonna give a statement, huh?”
Biting his bottom lip and releasing it, he replied, “She is.” He tilted his head to the side, “You know, if it helps in the least to keep that asshole behind bars for another two years, it will be worth it.” He paused for a moment. “You worked that case. I would think you of all people would be vying against his release.”
“Sure, I worked on the case, but it was more of a behind the scenes. I didn’t actually work with Strong. I doubt we even crossed paths through the duration. I just remember a lot and we talked about it amongst ourselves quite a bit; it was a huge case that we were all involved in to some extent.” He laughed and scrubbed through his cropped hair, “Caused a lot of these premature gray hairs!”
Nodding, as if he understood, Martinez said, “I hear ya, man.”
They could hear Chief John Holden’s footsteps coming down the hall. Johnson looked towards the door and Martinez turned in his chair to face Holden looming in the doorway, nearly taking up the entire space. Still studying the papers in his hand, he cleared his throat, “Morning, you guys have a good weekend?”
“I wish I could say mine was as good as Martinez,” belted Shawn. He winked when Martinez glanced his way.
“Well, you’re about to have a better morning than he is, so call it even.” Handing Martinez the paper, his grey eyes peered at him through the top of his black-framed glasses. “Just got our warrant on the suspect from Friday’s shooting. I need you to get over there ASAP. Take Lucas and Duval with you.”
“Nice! Can I just finish this up before I go?” he asked pointing to his computer screen.
“Sorry, you have time to grab your keys on this one Martinez. Boys are waiting for you downstairs. I’m afraid your entire day is going to be tied up. I don’t want this served until the suspect is seen going in or coming out of the residence. This is too sensitive.”
Frustrated, Martinez grabbed his keys and stood from his chair. “Hey Johnson? I really need you to do something for me.”
“I got your six...”
He started out the door. “Email this request over to McMurphy for me? It has to get to him today.”
Shawn lifted his hand in the air over the partition and gave Martinez a thumbs up.
Scurrying out the door, Martinez hollered down the hall, “I owe you one!”
“You owe me more than one, Martinez!” Shawn shook his head and raised himself from his desk, slithering into Martinez’s seat. He placed his elbow on the desk and gripped his chin, glancing over the document he was now responsible for. He uploaded the document to the draft email Martinez had ready. Using the mouse, he hovered over the send button before clicking it.
“Johnson...” Chief Holden’s voice was deep and demanding.
His heart skipping a beat, Shawn turned to see Holden standing back in the doorway. “Damn, Chief, give a guy a heart attack why don’t you!”
“I need you to get over to Filmore Street. Got another possible OD.” He glared into Shawn’s eyes. “I want whoever is selling this shit in my city.” He breathed heavy through his nostrils and shook his head before returning to his office.
Shawn visually followed the chief until he was out of sight again and turned back to the computer screen, clicking a few buttons with the mouse. He picked his cell phone from his front pocket and pulled up a contact, sending a text message that read ‘You owe me BIG.’
Standing in line at Jared’s Java House waiting to order, Elizabeth sighed as she said to China, “You know, I don’t understand why the judge is scheduling these pretrials so soon after the arraignments.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as her eyes scoured the menu written on the large chalkboard behind the counter.
“The pretrial for DeFranco is in two days. The parole hearing is that afternoon!”
“Eew. Fun day. Why didn’t you just take the day off for that?”
“No time to ask. Not that it matters. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to get out of going.”
Pursing her lips and scrunching her brows together, China gave her a look of disapproval, “Umm, no.” She glanced back to the menu and sighed with indecision. “Should I get the chicken salad or the egg salad? Egg salad might make me too gassy.”
Chuckling, Elizabeth made her way to the counter. “Hi Kathy, how you doing today?”
She ripped the previous order from her tablet. “Ladies! How are you? It’s been busy! Gimme just a sec, okay?” She turned the order into the kitchen window behind her and spun back around to the counter, her long blonde ponytail following. “So, what can I get you ladies today?”
They both ordered the special brew of the day and a sandwich before finding a table for two in the lunch madness. Swinging her purse over the shoulder of the chair, China sat down heavily. “There has seriously got to be a better way!”
“No kidding. But until one of us thinks of what that might be, we’re stuck with this.” Pulling out her court folder she flipped through to the assessment Pam DeFranco gave her. She leaned in over the table and spoke quietly, “Pam gave this to me at court. It’s a mental assessment from her husband’s doctor, of which she had no idea he was seeing!”
“Ooh, juicy! Have you read it?”
“Not yet. I skimmed through it. He sounds like a freaking psycho.”
“Okay, if you’re not going to bring it up… What-in-the-hell is with this Peggy Cabot character?”
Tilting her head back and twisting her neck around, she locked eyes with China and shook her head. “I don’t know. I wish Marilyn would have given us a little heads up. I’m not happy that we now have to report to two people. And I’m even less happy she’s already trying to call a meeting on her first day. I mean, she could at least feel things out before demanding we have lunch with her. Seems a little presumptuous.”
“Try pretentious. The woman literally talked through her nose. I heard she’s from Beachwood. Fancy smanchy.” She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“I guess the upside is we won’t be taking the rape pager home anymore and in my eyes, not gonna be missed! Those cases are even more frustrating to deal with.”
“Oh, they weren’t that bad.”
“Really China? What about that time we both got called out because there were two girls, first thing in the morning. Remember? They
looked like they were both hung over, completely drugged out, and could give a rat’s ass about talking to us. Looked as if they just pulled an all night train and simply wanted to be sure they didn’t get an STD or wind up pregnant the next month! God, that was awful.”
Cupping her hand over her mouth to keep from spitting her coffee out, China continued the trip down memory lane. “What about the time you had that girl who said she was raped in the park and she had her monthly visitor? You had to sit through the entire exam with her.”
Elizabeth’s gag reflux got the best of her remembering the stench in the air that day. She gulped down the bite of her wrap she just took; it slid hard down her throat. “Ugh, damn you, China!”
She laughed so hard tears formed in the corner of her eyes. “I’m sorry!” Still laughing and grabbing her chest she confessed, “I couldn’t resist! Hey, at least Cankles can deal with all that shit from now on, right?”
“Exactly my point. Of course we’ll still have to deal with people like Phil and his girlfriend who decided to brand him with a hot iron.”
“Oh my God! That poor man.” China took a deep breath and looked out the window fantasizing, “That poor, sexy man. I wonder if that left a scar?”
“The man was wearing a wife-beater, in court, so cloth would not stick to his skin. You could literally see the shape of an iron on his back. I’m pretty sure it left a scar.”
Chapter 5
Knowing it was going to be a stressful day, Elizabeth popped a Valium upon waking up. The bottle of wine she drank the night before didn’t keep her from tossing and turning. At least her failure to sleep had kept the nightmares at bay. Hearing China’s shoes clunking down the hallway, she focused her eyes on the doorway.
“Good morning sunshine!” China said. She made herself comfortable and flung her oversized bag in the chair next to her as she sat down. “You would not believe the night I had!” She placed her coffee cup on the desk and fumbled around in her purse as she continued, “You have to read these texts. Chester was blowing my phone up yesterday. The man has totally gone postal.”
Elizabeth leaned back in her office chair holding her coffee mug with both hands and waited patiently with heavy eyes as China scrolled through her phone to reveal her latest drama.
“5:02 pm; ‘Hope you had a good day!’ 5:29 pm; ‘Thinking about you, call me.’ 6:13 pm; ‘I hope I didn’t do something wrong.’ 8:00 pm; ‘I really miss talking with you. Please call.’ What the hell?” Her voice begged for help.
Squinting her eyes and taking a deep breath, Elizabeth was unsure on how to respond. Appearing as if she sucked on a lemon, she looked China square in her eyes and said, “Yikes.”
“Yikes? Yikes is all you have for this?” Sighing, China threw her phone in her purse and grabbed her coffee cup from the desk taking a sip. She looked at Elizabeth closely, “Damn, Liz, you look like shit.”
“Why, thank you, China.”
“Oh honey, I’m sorry,” she said realizing her selfishness. “Are you doin’ okay?"
Setting her cup down in front of her, she confessed, “Honestly, I just want this day over with.”
China stared into the bottom of her cup and looked up, rolling her eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bombarded you with my trivial bullshit.”
She shook her head and smiled. “No worries. And it’s not trivial by any means. I’m sorry, I just didn’t get any sleep. I’m thinking about this pretrial, I’m totally considering skipping this whole parole hearing, and Peggy has called a mandatory meeting first thing tomorrow morning!”
Her body became stiff and she perked up abruptly. “Mandatory meeting? What the -”
“Um, yeah. She’s on the warpath. You thought Marilyn was bad? Get ready for Marilyn 2 point O. I seriously don’t have time for this.”
“Okay, first of all, the pretrial? Cakewalk. Who cares about the little girl who married the wrong guy? Lesson learned - or not. Not your problem, Liz. Second of all, the parole hearing? You’re going. No questions asked. Okay? Done deal. Martinez will be there, nothing to worry about. And Peggy? Screw her! Mandatory meeting. Pfft. Whatever,” she said with a wave of the hand.
Wishing she had an ounce of China’s confidence, she starred off into space like a frightened teenager ready to give a public speech in front of her entire graduating class for the first time.
Demanding her attention, China reiterated her position, “Liz, you got this.”
The docket was pretty light on Thursday. It seemed not many people committed crimes midweek. Judge Bennett typically scheduled pretrials on these days, although there were a few stragglers in for their arraignments. As China dealt with an aggressive storeowner looking to hang a thief over ten dollars, Elizabeth sat in the corner of the lobby reading the mental evaluation of Brandon DeFranco. The further she read, the more concerned she became for Pam.
The city prosecutor, Lydia Hamilton, walked through the lobby towards Elizabeth. Her pale skin accentuated her curly, strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. “Good morning, Liz!”
“How are you, Lydia?”
“Ready to get these pretrials over with. I leave for vacation this evening and I still haven’t even packed!”
She stood up to meet her properly. “Going anywhere fun?”
Her eyes brightened at the thought. “Cancun.”
“Nice! I always wanted to go there. Maybe one of these days.”
Lydia grasped her files close to her chest, “This is our second year. It is absolutely fabulous. You really have to go.” Looking over at China who was speaking with a crime victim, she asked, “Old man Kriems is at it again, huh?”
She shook her head empathetically. “That poor man has some kind of theft every week. It must be hard at his age still trying to run a store. Hey, we have a pretrial for the DeFranco’s. I was hoping we could get started as soon as possible because I need to leave by 11:00 am.”
“Of course! Follow me to the judge’s chambers and we’ll get started right now. Is your victim here?”
“I haven’t checked the courtroom yet, but I know she’ll be here. I’ll scope it out and meet you in chambers.”
Standing with an aura of confidence, she looked at her watch and back to Elizabeth, “We’ll get you outta here in time. I’ll see you in there.” She smiled and continued on her path. As soon as Lydia was out of sight, Shawn Johnson came through the metal door connecting the police station to the courthouse. Scurrying over towards her, he reached out and tapped her shoulder. “Hey...”
Elizabeth jumped and shrieked like a child afraid of the monster in the closet. Grabbing her chest and breathing a sigh of relief she giggled, “Shit! Sorry, I’m a little jumpy today.”
“My fault. I didn’t mean to startle you. Do you have a sec? Martinez said I might be able to find you here.”
Looking at her phone she paused, “I guess so. But I need to get to a pretrial soon.”
“DeFranco, right?”
She nodded and looked around the courthouse suspiciously. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Detective Shawn Johnson. I know we don’t really know each other.”
Rubbing her forehead, she was a bit embarrassed. “Ugh. Of course. I’m so sorry. What can I do for you, Detective?”
He moved closer to her and spoke quietly. “Brandon DeFranco has been a thorn in this department’s side for as long as he has been writing for the Tribune. These charges need to stick.”
“I’m not sure what it is I can do about that. Maybe you should be talking to Lydia?”
“You’re the one Lydia will listen to.”
“Well, if my victim still wants to follow through, that is who Lydia technically listens to.”
“So, get your victim to listen to you.” He grinned devilishly and winked before going back over to the police station.
Elizabeth shook the confusion from her face and walked through the large wooden doors on the opposite side of the hall, her eyes circled the courtroom until she saw Pam sitting wi
th Brandon. Awe shit, she said to herself. She called out Pam’s name and upon recognition and waved her hand motioning her to follow. Pam quietly spoke a few words to her husband before getting up from her seat and following Elizabeth into the hallway. The look on her face was pure shame.
Taking a deep breath as they sat on a bench just outside the courtroom, Elizabeth attempted to assess the situation. “Pam, how are you doing?”
Apprehensive, she tried to explain, “Well, as you can see, we’re trying to work things out.”
“I see that. But how are you?”
“I’m tired and I just want things to go back to normal.”
“You know, I read through the evaluation you gave me. Things do not seem too normal.”
Crossing her arms defensively she asked, “What do we need to do to make all this go away?”
She refrained from rolling her eyes. “This isn’t just going to go away. Right now all I can do is tell the prosecutor where you stand. Brandon’s attorney will take care of the rest. The prosecutor could give him a plea deal.”
“A plea deal?”
“Yes. That means he could be offered a lesser offense to plead guilty to.”
Sighing, she placed her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands.
Touching her forearm, Elizabeth tried to console her. “Look, this is typically what happens. At least he wouldn’t have a domestic violence conviction on his record.” She could tell her efforts were for naught. “Let me talk to the prosecutor and see what is going on, okay? Sit tight.”
Making her way through the clerk’s office, Elizabeth opened the door to the judge’s chambers and took a seat in front of the desk across from Lydia who was thumbing through DeFranco’s small file. She grabbed the police report, scanning it. “What do you have for me? Did you talk to your victim?”
“They’re working it out, of course.”
Lydia looked up at Elizabeth and smiled, “Of course. You know he doesn’t have an attorney?”
