Watercolored Pearls

by Stacy Hawkins Adams

  His emotional exit had stunned each of them.

  "Things must be bad over at Standing Rock," Erika said as she chopped cabbage. "That's what they get for treating Micah the way they did."

  Serena paused from adding sharp cheddar to the macaroni and cheese.

  "You know how furious I was right after they fired Micah, but we've moved on. Since the church is still spreading a message to people every Sunday, both in the building and over TV, I just pray that it's coming from God's Word. Otherwise, a lot of people are going to get hurt."

  "Like Deacon Ames," Ms. Carter interjected.

  "That's what worries me more than anything," Serena said. "The people who have been faithful members of that congregation for years may be finding out that what they've put their faith and trust in isn't of God."

  Ms. Carter was sitting at the kitchen table, stirring a bowl of ingredients to make cornbread.

  "When that happens, Serena, maybe they can find their way back to the one true God," she said. "All of us here know the truth shall set you free. You can't walk in darkness forever. God's light always shines through, so we don't have to worry about what's going on over there; God's going to take care of it."

  Tawana looked at her mother.

  "When did you become an evangelist?"

  Everyone, including Ms. Carter, laughed, and she shrugged.

  "This summer in Richmond has been a good one," Ms. Carter said. "I've learned a lot attending church with Ms. Brenda and by coming to New Hope occasionally. I've found myself reading the Good Book more. But I've also kept my ear to the streets. I know what's going on in the dark, too."

  Serena turned to Ms. Carter and raised an eyebrow.

  "Who you got dirt on?"

  Ms. Carter smiled and shook her head. "It doesn't matter; we're all on a journey, and it takes some of us longer to get there than others. We have to be patient with each other and love each other no matter what."

  Tawana, who had been stirring a pot of hot water filled with tea bags, laid her wooden spoon on a dishcloth and walked over to sit at the table across from her mother. Her eyes swelled with tears.

  "You know, don't you?"

  Ms. Carter gazed tenderly at her daughter.

  "Do you know what your middle name means?"

  Tears slid down Tawana's cheeks. She shook her head.

  "Elise means 'God is my oath' by some definitions and

  'Belonging to God' in others," Ms. Carter said.

  She chuckled.

  "I didn't know that myself when I gave you that name, but that's another sign of the role God plays in our destiny. Serena had one of those baby name books lying around, and I picked it up one afternoon when I was babysitting.

  "When I heard that you were going by 'T. Elise Carter' at work, I was really hurt that 'Tawana' wasn't good enough," she said. "It made me feel like I wasn't good enough for you anymore, and that once you got your law degree, you'd run from everything in your past, including me and Misha."

  Tawana raised her eyes. "I'm sorry, Mama. I'd never do that."

  Serena and Erika had joined the mother and daughter at the table.

  "Never say never, baby," Ms. Carter said softly. "We hope that we won't do certain things, but when we find ourselves in tough situations, we never know what choices we’ll make. Did you plan well ahead of time to alter your name?"

  Tawana bowed her head.

  Ms. Carter reached across the table and covered Tawana's hand with hers.

  "It really doesn't matter, Tawana," she said. "I've been told how tough it can be in the corporate world. You do what feels best. Elise is part of your name. Use it, if that's what you prefer."

  She went back to stirring the cornbread. "Just so you know, though, 'Tawana' is perfect for you, too. It means 'tan hide' or 'created.'"

  The women erupted in laughter.

  "Where did I put my baby naming books?" Serena asked between her giggles. "Let's all double check our names."

  When they had settled down, Serena stood awkwardly, with her growing belly, and hugged Ms. Carter's neck.

  "It's so good to have some wisdom at the table," Serena said. "I've been wanting to say something to Tawana about the calls we had been getting for 'Elise,' but I didn't know how without sounding like her mama."

  Tawana sighed. "I don't know why I did that. I got to Wallace, Jones and Johns that first day and for some reason felt inadequate."

  She looked at her mother sheepishly.

  "I felt like my name told them more about me than my Harvard education could mask. I'm struggling with trying not to be ashamed of my past, both the things that happened here and things I've done at Harvard, but it all seems to be catching up with me."

  "What do you mean, T?" Serena asked.

  "I can't tell you much right now, because it has to do with Neal Lewis's murder case," Tawana said. She looked at her mother and took her hand.

  "Some of it may become public, Mama, and it may be embarrassing, but I hope you can forgive me," she said. "You're right; I'm going to have to deal with my past and confront the truth head on. That's the only way the shadows are going to lose their power."

  45

  Erika waited until Gabrielle returned the phone to its cradle before stepping inside her office.

  "Got a minute?"

  "Sure, what's up?"

  Erika leaned against the door frame and glanced at the clock on the wall to the right of her friend and colleague.

  "Can you take an early lunch? I need to talk."

  Gabrielle checked the calendar on her Blackberry.

  "My next appointment isn't until two. I'm all yours."

  They wound up at Sine' Irish Restaurant in Shockoe Slip, and both ordered fish and chips.

  "You okay?" Gabrielle asked between sips of sweet tea. "I've noticed you poking around the office this week looking pitiful, and in the evenings too, when I've stayed at your house."

  Erika chuckled.

  "What kind of friend are you? You waited all week to ask."

  Gabrielle gave her a knowing look. "I figure it has some- thing to do with Derrick or Elliott; I thought I’d give you space, until you were ready to talk."

  "Has Derrick been in touch?"

  "About the business, sure," Gabrielle said. "But he's called every day this week, when I usually hear from him once or twice, except through email. And each time, he asks, 'How's Erika?' before moving on to something else."

  Erika leaned toward Gabrielle.

  "What have you told him?"

  Gabrielle smiled. "Don't worry, I haven't mentioned how you've been acting like a sick puppy. He knows you're busy with the Short Pump account; that's the story I've stuck to all week, without revealing anything personal."

  Erika sagged in her seat. "Thanks."

  "What is going on? Are you two finally trying to get together, now that you've made up your mind about Elliott? If so, what's with all the coyness? You're both grown. Call that man up and tell him you love him. He'll take the lead from there."

  Erika willed herself not to cry.

  "I tried that already and it backfired. He's already taken. I waited too long to make up my mind."

  Gabrielle frowned.

  "Taken? Derrick? Not after ..." She caught herself. "Never mind. I promised both of you a long time ago that what you told me would stay with me unless you gave me permission to share."

  Gabrielle looked pointedly at Erika. "I don't know what you've heard or have been told, but you need to double check your information."

  Erika shook her head. The waitress placed a heaping plate of food in front of her, and although it smelled delicious, she suddenly wasn't hungry.

  "I need your help, Gabrielle. I have to find a job with another interior design firm. I'm going to have to quit this one."

  46

  Neal Lewis's day in court had finally arrived. It was as much a pivotal day for Tawana as it was going to be for him.

  The bailiff declared the court in session. Everyone ros
e, including Neal, flanked by his team of lawyers, when Judge Roberts entered.

  They were instructed to take their seats before the court clerk detailed Neal's charge of first-degree murder and the accompanying crime.

  Bob Wallace, Kent Jones, and Vincent Johns stood with Neal when he answered the charge as he had during his arraignment several months earlier.

  He said the words clearly and confidently: "Not guilty."

  Murmuring filled the courtroom. Judge Roberts banged his gavel to silence them.

  Knowing how Drew died, Tawana also cringed. She calmed herself by reflecting on what was to come. She and this team had spent hours hammering out their strategy, and finally, she had been able to sleep at night, confident that in staying on the case, she wasn't outside of God's will.

  Tawana turned and surveyed the courtroom, which was packed with Drew's family and friends on her left, and Neal's family and friends on the right, just behind the defense team. TV, radio, and newspaper reporters were scattered between both groups.

  Tawana gasped when she saw her mother and Serena sitting in a far corner of the gallery, on the last row of seats. They smiled in encouragement.

  Bethany and Ian were there, sitting opposite Serena and Ms. Carter. Victoria had been called as a witness and couldn't sit in the courtroom, but obviously her parents had come to support her.

  Tawana surmised that Bethany, who was wearing oversized tinted shades that hid most of her face, was going to listen to all she could and coach her daughter before Victoria took the witness stand. She wondered if she should alert Bob, Kent, or Vincent and suggest that Bethany be restricted from the courtroom too.

  Before she could decide, she saw him. He sat in the middle of the fifth row and stared at her. When their eyes met, he gave her a weak smile.

  Seeing Grant Parker took her back to a night she wanted expunged from her history.

  Tawana took a deep breath and remembered Mama's words from a few weeks earlier: We hope that we won't do certain things, but when we find ourselves in tough situations, we never know what choices we’ll make.

  Tawana scribbled a note on her pad and passed it to Arlen, who sat next to her.

  He's here.

  Arlen read it, wrote a brief response, and returned his attention to Judge Roberts, who was giving the twelve jurors trial instructions.

  Tawana swiftly read his one-word reply: Perfect.

  47

  On the third day of the trial, prosecuting attorney Scott Rodham called Victoria to the witness stand.

  Rodham and his team had interrogated everyone from Neal's best friend, Steele, to several dozen teens who met Neal at Victoria's pool party. Some of them testified to witnessing the hostile exchange between Neal and Drew.

  After being sworn in, Victoria recounted the story she had shared with authorities in recent weeks, once her connection to Neal had been leaked to the media.

  "He was cute, he was nice, and I was glad he came to my party," she said. "I hadn't told my parents about him because they knew I sort of liked Drew, and Drew had been coming around. My dad would not have liked me dating two guys at the same time."

  She hesitated and looked toward Ian.

  "Plus, he didn't know I had gone to Washington, D.C., and met Neal. I went with one of my girlfriends from school, on an afternoon that Daddy thought I had a modeling session. The day of my party, Neal and Drew argued; but when I left them in the pool house utility room, they were talking sports," Victoria continued, as Scott Rodham talked her through the sequence of events leading up to Drew’s disappearance. "I came back about twenty minutes later and they were gone. I thought they had decided to leave together because they were angry with me for dating both of them.

  "Neal didn't call me for a couple of days, but I had expected him to snub me and play hard to get," Victoria said and shrugged. "When I heard Drew was missing, I didn't connect the two guys. I mean, we're teenagers; who would get mad enough over a girl to kill someone?"

  Tawana gave Victoria credit: she was beautiful and convincing. When she left the witness stand, Ian and Bethany walked out of the courtroom with her, hugging her.

  The prosecution informed the judge that Victoria was their final witness. They were resting their case on the strength of her testimony. After a lunch break, the Wallace, Jones, and Johns team would present its defense.

  Ninety minutes later, Neal sat before the jury, trying to contain his nervousness. He continually brushed away a strand of hair that flopped over his forehead.

  Tawana gave him a thumbs-up, then surveyed the courtroom. Victoria and Ian were nowhere in sight, but Bethany, still hiding behind her shades, had returned. Tawana passed a note to the bailiff in the rear of the courtroom.

  Neal fixed his eyes on Kent, who led the questioning, and told his version of how he and Victoria met, why he kept sneaking to Richmond to visit her, and why he had been upset on the day of the party to find Drew there, claiming to be her date.

  Then Neal dropped the bombshell.

  Bethany leaned forward in her seat while he spoke, as if she were straining to hear.

  "I pinned Drew down with one of my wrestling moves and held him there," Neal told Kent. "I guess I blanked out. The next thing I knew, Victoria was standing over me, trying to pull me off of him. She asked me what I had done."

  Neal looked toward Bethany, who had risen from her seat and was pointing at him with a French-manicured nail.

  "You stop lying on my daughter!" she screamed.

  Judge Roberts pounded his gavel and ordered the bailiff to remove her from the courtroom. Arlen stood and requested permission to speak.

  "Your Honor, if we could keep a deputy with her to make sure she doesn't leave the premises, that would be helpful. As you'll hear shortly, she may be an integral part of this case."

  Clearly intrigued, Judge Roberts complied.

  "Call Deputy Woodson and tell him to wait with her in the interview room next door."

  Kent asked Neal to continue.

  "Drew wasn't moving. He just lay there, with his eyes open, but fixed."

  Neal's voice began to crack. "Victoria was about to run for help when her mother came in and saw Drew on the ground. Victoria told her she was going to call 911, but Mrs. Miller stopped her. She said she didn't want to ruin the party by calling an ambulance."

  A low roar of gasps and murmuring filled the courtroom. Tawana sat back in her chair and folded her arms.

  She had no doubt this boy was telling the truth; he had Bethany pegged.

  "She said she didn't want to ruin the party?" Kent repeated.

  Neal nodded. "She forced Victoria to go out and mingle with her friends and told Victoria that she and I would figure out what to do."

  Neal shook his head at the memory. Tears filled his eyes, and he looked at jurors.

  "Since I'm trained in CPR, I checked his pulse and tried to revive him," he said. "But Mrs. Miller stopped me. She said we couldn't have ambulances and police coming to her house. So . . ."

  He bowed his head and lowered his voice.

  "Speak up, son," Kent said gently.

  "By the time I finished arguing with her about how crazy that was, there was no hope. I tried CPR for about five minutes and got no response."

  Neal looked up again, but this time at his family and at Drew's.

  "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to, but I killed Drew Thomas, and I helped Mrs. Miller hide his body."

  48

  Serena couldn't move. The judge had ordered a recess, and the families and other spectators filed into the courtroom lobby. However, she was glued to her seat.

  Bethany Miller had aided in the commission of a murder? The wife of her husband's best friend? A socialite mother?

  She pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, or suffering from "baby brain" pregnancy hallucinations.

  Ms. Carter, who sat next to her, was speechless, too.

  "I'll never watch another episode of Law and Order in the same way," she said, then ask
ed, "What kind of profession has my daughter gotten herself into?"

  Serena knew she couldn't use the cell phone inside the courtroom, so she forced herself to join the throng outside.

  Reporters with notepads were jotting down comments from friends and relatives who had just heard Neal's testimony. Some were asking them to speak into mini-recorders. Others were on cell phones, filling in editors or producers on the recent development.

  She tried to find a quiet spot so she could call Micah.

  "Hey, babe," she said when she reached him, "you need to get here quick, for Ian. He's going to need you."

  "You called me before I could call you," Micah responded. "I've already talked to Ian, and I'm on my way to the courthouse to meet him."

  "He heard about Bethany already?"

  There was a long pause before Micah responded.

  "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but they've asked him to bring Victoria back for further questioning. He's worried."

  Serena sighed. "He should be. Get here as fast as you can."

  49

  Court resumed with Bob Wallace's request to call a surprise witness.

  Scott Rodham objected to someone whose name wasn't revealed in the discovery phase of the trial being allowed to testify.

  Bob convinced Judge Roberts that the witness, who had only recently surfaced, was significant.

  Tawana held her breath when Grant Parker's name was called. He walked to the witness stand with his head lowered and his hands shoved in his pockets.

  The series of questions and answers began with him identifying himself as a Harvard medical student, with an emphasis in plastic surgery. He explained that this was his first visit to Richmond, then acknowledged that he had relatives in the area with whom he had recently been in contact.

  "With whom have you been talking and corresponding via email?"

  "My aunt," was Grant's nervous reply.

  "What is her name?"