Long Hill Home

by Kathryn Pincus

  “Yes, Your Honor,” Chad heard the prosecuting attorney speak.

  Judge Silver raised his eyebrows and looked at Stuart.

  Stuart quickly added, “Defense has no motions at this time Your Honor.”

  “Okay, then, let’s hear from the State.” Judge Silver nodded to the prosecuting attorney as he spoke.

  Chad glanced to his left to see the woman with the grey hair get up from the prosecution’s table. She walked toward the judge purposefully and handed a stapled set of white papers to a clerk, who in turn handed them up to Judge Silver. She turned and handed an identical copy of the motion papers to Stuart. Chad could see Stuart’s lips move quietly as he read them.

  “Your Honor,” the woman in the grey suit began. “The State believes that the Defendant is a flight risk. Accordingly, the State respectfully requests that the Defendant be held without bail, or in the alternative, that bail be set at one million dollars.”

  A murmur rose up from behind Chad’s back again. Stuart leapt to his feet. “Your Honor, you seriously cannot be considering holding this young man until trial. My God, he has never so much as jaywalked, and he clearly poses no threat of flight or any danger to anyone.”

  “Mr. Harlan,” Judge Silver looked at Stuart as he spoke. “I must assure you that it is my job to consider this matter and this particular request seriously, and that there is no evidence as of yet bearing on whether this man poses a flight risk or a danger.” Judge Silver continued, “Certainly, your client has been accused of rather heinous and violent acts, and this request must be considered.”

  Judge Silver looked at the woman with the grey hair. “Would the State proceed with the basis for its request?”

  The woman rose again from her seat, pushed back her chair, and began speaking from the spot between her chair and the table. “Your Honor, in addition to the evidence that the State has tying Mr. McCloskey to the horrific crimes described in the complaint and the indictment, we have evidence that Mr. McCloskey was planning to flee immediately on a plane to Arizona. Attached to the motion papers, at Exhibit A, you will find a copy of a ticket for a flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix, on September 25—one day after Ms. Malloy’s assault and the same day that the police took Mr. McCloskey into custody. Your Honor, you will also see, at Exhibit B, an affidavit by Mr. Kenneth Sumner, the owner of Adventure Travel Agency, and the person who sold Mr. McCloskey the ticket. The affiant states that Mr. McCloskey appeared nervous and paid in cash when he purchased the one-way ticket on September 24-only hours after the crime….” As Chad listened to the prosecutor’s words, and the evidence she described, he felt his stomach lurch. He realized how this must all appear to the average person, not to mention the victim’s husband. He knew that at that moment even his father thought he was guilty of the horrific acts that he was accused of.

  Judge Silver cleared his throat, loudly. “Mr. Harlan. Do you have anything helpful for the Court in considering this motion?”

  Stuart stood up and pushed his chair back. “Your Honor. I have not been given any time to prepare to defend this motion. I have had no opportunity to depose the travel agent and, while we have evidence to explain my client’s travel plans and their timing, I was not prepared to put his testimony on now. I can assure you that Mr. McCloskey is a law-abiding citizen and a decent young man who poses no threat of harm to the public and no risk of flight.” Stuart paused for a moment. “Accordingly, the Defense contends that the State’s motion is unwarranted, will cause undue hardship for my client, and that it should be denied.”

  Stuart sat in his chair, putting his right hand reassuringly on Chad’s back as he did so. Chad was certain he saw a look of defeat in Stuart’s face.

  Judge Silver spoke immediately. “Mr. Harlan. I appreciate your concern with the amount of time you have had to prepare for this motion. However, your assurances are not sufficient to sway me in the face of a plane ticket and an affidavit of the person who sold the ticket to the defendant within hours of the crime.” Judge Silver rubbed his chin for a moment as he thought. “The Court will set this motion for re-argument in two weeks, allowing defense counsel discovery related to Defendant’s travel plans and other issues pertinent to this motion. In two weeks we will reconsider whether the circumstances warrant holding Mr. McCloskey without bail, or with a possibly prohibitively high bail amount, pending trial. Understood?”

  “Your Honor,” Stuart shot up from his chair. “What does that mean for my client now?”

  Judge Silver looked at Stuart, and then at Chad as he spoke. “Mr. McCloskey will be held until the disposition of this motion, and then according to the disposition of the motion.”

  The murmur returned to the courtroom as the spectators and reporters reacted. Prison. Locked cells. Violent inmates. Sadistic guards. Chad had seen enough on television to know to be very frightened.

  “The Court is adjourned,” the clerk said loudly and unexpectedly. Everyone rose as Judge Silver got out of his chair and disappeared through a back door of the courtroom. Two men in DOC uniforms came over to Chad. One of them produced handcuffs.

  “Come on!” Stuart complained loudly. “That is not necessary.”

  “It’s procedure; nothing personal,” one of the men said as he put Chad’s hands behind his back and handcuffed him. Chad twisted his neck to see that his father’s seat was empty and there was no sign of him among the other people rising from their seats, gathering their belongings and leaving the room. The tall man in the blue striped shirt, the victim’s husband, stood and looked at Chad, and shook his head gently as if the weight of the moment was rocking him. Chad immediately felt the red burn of shame again creep up his neck and his face. He turned away from the man’s eyes and bit his lip.

  CHAPTER 15

  KELLY: SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

  AS SOON AS he returned home from the courthouse, Dan went upstairs to check on Kelly. A few hours earlier she had showered and dressed in her blue suit, preparing to go to the arraignment. But then Dan saw her crying softly and muttering, “I can’t do this,” as she undressed, popped a blue pill, and climbed back into bed.

  Now it was two in the afternoon and Dan was growing concerned. Kelly slumbered under the covers. The curtains were drawn and the air in the room smelled of dirty laundry. Dan looked at the lump that was his wife and felt a mix of pity and resentment. She had always been so strong, resourceful and optimistic. She was the center and the light of their home and his constant source of certainty about their path together. Now she was sealed off in the dark, away from her family and the world, as if she was dead or wished to be.

  He stepped over to the blinds and drew them abruptly, letting the sun stream in. Then he yanked up the old heavy window, and felt the air come in through the screen.

  “What are you doing, Dan?” Kelly sounded annoyed. “I was sleeping.”

  “It is a gorgeous and warm day, Kel,” Dan said, cheerfully. “I want you to feel it.”

  “Please close it up, I want to sleep.” Kelly mumbled through the comforter.

  “Enough, Kel. That is all you have been doing.” Dan spoke to the open window. “Look, it sucks that you have been hurt so badly and that you have been frightened and I know I can’t ever really know how it feels. But all you have done since you got home from the hospital is sleep in this dark room. This can’t be the best way to deal with this. The girls miss you, I miss you, and you don’t wash or eat or do anything that suggests that you are even trying.”

  “Damn you!” Kelly yelled, sitting up abruptly and pointing her index finger accusingly at Dan. “You have no idea how I feel. I thought I was going to die. I was so scared I almost couldn’t breathe. I thought I’d never see you or the girls again.” Kelly wiped her face with her hand and continued. “And some scumbag fucked me brutally and just for laughs. And then, after I was rescued, strangers took photos of my private areas and went inside of me once again to collect the DNA of the scumbag who had attacked me in the first place!” She took a deep breath a
nd continued her rant. “And this morning I was supposed to go sit in a courtroom and see the monster that did this to me? Oh, and it turns out he’s a teenager who has never committed a criminal act before in his life. Why now?” Kelly started sobbing. “Why me?”

  Dan walked over and gingerly sat on the edge of their bed. Kelly looked up at his face. “I am still really tired. I keep taking these pills and then I sort of lapse in and out of terrified sleep.”

  “I’m sorry, Kel,” Dan said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Every time I fall asleep I dream of it. I am running away through the woods, terrified. A man grabs me; he chokes me and tears at my clothes. The weird thing is, I can’t scream. I open my mouth and nothing comes out. I can see people strolling on the river trails, walking dogs, jogging by, oblivious, and this guy is attacking me in plain sight.” Kelly realized she had tears leaking out of her eyes again.

  Dan softly raised his hand to her face and brushed the tears away with his fingers. He said nothing and just sat with her.

  “I know it’s not what you want to hear, Dan, but I need to lie down again. I’m sorry.”

  “Okay, babe, whatever you need.”

  Kelly rolled over and pulled the bed covers over her head. Dan walked back to the windows and closed the heavy blinds again, making the room very dark.

  “Wait, Dan! What are you telling the girls?”

  “I have been telling them that you are not feeling well, and that you will get better with rest.”

  “I wish it was that simple,” Kelly mumbled to herself as Dan left the room.

  CHAPTER 16

  MARIA: SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

  “IT’S A BOY!” The doctor shouted through his surgical mask as he held up a kicking baby with black hair that was slick with fluid from Maria’s womb.

  “Oh, my God, Maria,” Juan whispered as he stroked his wife’s head, “look at our beautiful baby boy.”

  “Is he okay, doctor?” Maria sat up to get a better view of her baby as the doctor carried him to a little table in the delivery room.

  “He looks very good.” The doctor responded as he proceeded to suction out the baby’s nostrils and mouth. A high-pitched wail filled the room as their baby made his presence known. “He has a good set of lungs, too. Probably be a famous singer someday,” the nurse beside the doctor joked. The doctor quickly cut and tied the baby’s umbilical cord and, after a quick swabbing of his head and face, the nurse placed the infant on Maria’s chest. Juan bent down to look right into his baby’s face, with his cheek pressed against Maria’s.

  “He is beautiful,” Maria sighed, exhausted and completely overwhelmed with love for her family.

  “Does this little guy have a name?” the nurse asked.

  Maria and Juan looked at each other and nodded. Maria spoke softly, her breath on her baby’s face, “Miguel Juan Reyes. We are naming him after Juan’s Uncle Miguel, who has done so much for us and who we love dearly.”

  Juan added quickly, “That is his name on the birth certificate. We will call him Michael mostly, and that will be his name at school.” He leaned over and whispered into Maria’s ear. “And I want you to be Maria Reyes, my lawful wife. Just hold on, that is coming soon.”

  Juan’s overwhelming joy quickly washed away and was replaced by anxiety. He rubbed his left temple as he looked around the room at the nurses and doctors and all of their fancy medical equipment. He knew that an overnight stay in a hospital room with meals and continuous care would add up to a whopping bill. He had a job, but no medical insurance.

  “I’ll be back soon with some decent food for you.” Juan walked toward the door purposefully. He was going to arrange to pay whatever it took to bring his son safely into this world, and he was going to return with food to nourish the mother of his son. Although he was tired after being up all night, he oddly felt stronger and more complete. As soon as Juan entered the hospital corridor, however, the sight of Detectives Becker and Hahn brought back the fear of forces larger than himself. He shuddered at the horror of Maria’s deportation.

  “Hello, Juan,” Detective Becker waved slightly. “Is everything okay?”

  “Oh, yes,” Juan answered while purposefully striding by them. “We have a baby son, Mig, uhm, Michael.”

  As he walked away, he heard Detective Becker say to his back, “Juan, we’ll leave you and Maria in peace right now, but we do have some unfinished business we’ll have to attend to soon.” Juan focused on the sound of his own footsteps on the linoleum floor and tried to calm himself with deep breaths, as he followed the signs to the hospital’s Administrative Offices.

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAD: SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

  CHAD LOOKED OUT the window of the van as it idled. The prison’s grey concrete walls, metal bars, and tall iron fence topped with rolls of prickly barbed wire evoked a sense of impending doom. His hands shook uncontrollably, even as they rested, handcuffed together, on his lap. The two DOC employees in front of the van chatted easily with each other about the Philadelphia Eagles. As they went about their normal workday, Chad’s own world was collapsing. Just at the time that he thought he would be happily reunited with his mother somewhere warm and safe and filled with promise, he was instead shackled in a van with metal bars on its windows, and about to be locked into a prison with ruthless and dangerous men.

  Chad was led down a hallway to a small room with a sign above its door that said Intake. Once inside the room, he saw a tall muscular guard with a shaved head. As he stepped closer, Chad saw tiny beads of perspiration on the man’s shiny head. “Get undressed,” the man ordered.

  Fear seized Chad as he began to loosen the tie and unbutton the shirt that he had worn to court a lifetime ago. He looked around the stark room and noticed a mirror. He wondered if anyone was watching from behind the mirror, and then he realized that he hoped someone was watching. What did this scary man want with him? His heart pounded in his chest as the large sweaty man approached him.

  “These will be returned to your attorney,” the man said as he bent down to pick up the clothing on the floor and shoved them into a plastic bag. He put the bag down and then produced a pair of blue pants and a matching shirt that resembled surgical scrubs, along with a pair of shoes that looked like cheap sneakers with Velcro fasteners.

  “Here’s your new wardrobe.”

  Chad quickly stepped into the baggy pants and shoes, and he decided against telling the man that the shoes were a little too big for him. As he pulled the shirt on he saw the letters DDOC printed in black.

  “You’re lucky, kid. Since you were coming from supervised custody, I didn’t have to conduct a cavity search on you.”

  Chad did not know if the man was joking or serious. He shuddered again with fear as he wondered if a body cavity search might be a routine ordeal here.

  Another guard yelled out, “McCloskey, he’s in D-3-5-1.”

  “Got it,” the sweaty man said. Together they escorted Chad through a series of doors in a long hallway. Each door opened in the middle and then shut tightly with a bang after they had passed through. Finally, they entered a loud, open area, with cells on every side. Chad glanced up and saw about five tiers of cells, one after the other, stacked sideways and vertically, like an enormous beehive constructed with grey bars, and layers of concrete flooring. Almost every cell in the hive had men in the same blue uniforms, leaning against the bars, sitting on their cots, or pacing in their cells. Their voices and sounds mixed together and reverberated throughout the entire space, filling Chad’s ears. Men of all ages, sizes and colors talked, laughed, fought and yelled all at once.

  They walked up two flights of stairs with Chad between the two guards. At the third level, they turned and walked along a narrow hallway in the middle of the beehive. Chad walked within inches of the bars to the cell on one side, and on the other side he could look straight down or up past iron fencing into the heart of the beehive. A sudden shrill whistle from a nearby cell startled Chad. A tall wiry man w
ith black hair and the same blue uniform reached through the bars of his cell as if he wanted to touch Chad. He wolf-whistled loudly and then yelled, “Fresh Meat! I got dibs on this one. He is sweet! My, oh my, Fresh Meat!” The man grinned evilly and opened his eyes wide at Chad. The dark blue ink of tattoos covered his forearms and the backs of his hands, and ran up out of his collar and around his neck to his chin.

  They walked past the tattooed man’s cell, but not far enough for Chad. “This is it. D-3-5-1. This is your new home; all six feet by eight feet of it.” The bald guard motioned for Chad to step inside. He slammed the cell door.

  Chad stood still on a small square of dark grey concrete enclosed by cinderblock walls. Two narrow bunks came out of the wall, one over the other. Each bunk held a thin, striped mattress and a beige canvas bag. A small metal sink and toilet were bolted to the floor against the wall opposite the bars, and Chad would have no choice but to use them in full view of guards and prisoners. He scrambled on to the top bunk and flopped down on his back, with his right arm over his eyes to hide the tears.

  “Hey, Fresh Meat!” The tattooed man’s voice boomed down the hall to Chad’s cell. “What’s the matter, Fresh Meat? You don’t like it here? You feel lonely? You just wait until I get close to you. You won’t feel lonely anymore. You will be my new best friend. And it will be all my pleasure. Ha, ha, ha!”

  Chad sobbed quietly into his arm.

  CHAPTER 18

  KELLY: SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

  KELLY DREAMED THAT a large man with a beard and terrible breath had pinned her down and was tearing her clothes off. Despite his brute force, he was gently tapping on her arm. When Kelly opened her eyes, Anna was standing at her bedside and tapping her on her left forearm.