by Bailey West
JD opened the floor after he had finished his introduction and we discussed everything from marriage to masturbation. No subject was off limits, and no man was made to feel less of a man for having a question or concern.
I never missed these meetings, even if I had to video call from another part of the world, I was always here.
After the meeting was over, Xavier, Ray, Morris and I stuck around and chopped it up with JD.
“Morris, it’s good to have you here,” JD said.
“I’m glad I was able to make it. This is the first time I’ve ever been to anything like this. I appreciate the energy and wisdom you put into this.”
“How’s your family?”
“I am fighting for custody of my girls. They live with their mother, and I need them with me. It’s been hard because I respect their mother and I never wanted to go through the legal system with her. We were working well together until she met her current boyfriend. Now, she doesn’t communicate with me like she used to. It’s almost like she views me as the enemy now and we were always friends. She was the best mother to my girls now she picks them up late from school and drops them off late in the mornings. Their uniforms aren’t pressed, and their hair isn’t combed. Their teachers have contacted me because they are concerned. I have to get them out of there.”
“Do you think she is using drugs or something?” JD asked.
Morris took in a deep breath and exhaled before he answered.
“I’ve asked the same question even though I haven’t seen any evidence of it, but there really is no other explanation for the change in her behavior.”
“Were you married to her?”
“No Sir. We were never married. We had our first daughter during her senior year of high school. Then we had our second daughter two years later. We planned on me finishing law school then getting married, but we grew apart and decided it was better to separate. I didn’t think twice about her taking the girls because she was an amazing mother to them. Much better than my mother was to me. I grew up in foster care because my mother couldn’t get it together.”
“Is your mother still alive?” JD asked.
“Yes, she’s cleaned herself up, and she contacted me, but honestly, she’s dead to me. I don’t want her around my girls or me. My girls have already been through enough. I don’t need them to see another woman who can’t take care of her kids.”
“If I offered my services, would you be willing to sit down with your Mom and talk about some things, so you can heal?”
“I don’t have anything to talk to her about,” Morris answered quickly.
“I understand. Can I leave the offer on the table just in case you change your mind?”
Morris agreed.
“Can I pray for you?”
“Yes Sir, please.”
We all touched Morris while JD prayed for him and his family. Then JD prayed for all of us and Roc’s case. He prayed God’s strength and protection. I appreciated the prayer, we all needed it.
Averie
“Vee,” Liddy said. “The car is here for you.”
I was at my office catching up on some business and waiting for the car to arrive that would transport Samuel and me to Countee’s office.
“Please let them know I am on my way down.”
I gave myself a once over in my full-length mirror. I wanted to make sure my black and white plaid suit with red stripes was not wrinkled. I passed the brush over my tapered sides a couple of times before rubbing my lips together to evenly distribute my red lipstick. I grabbed my leather tote and walked out of my office to meet Samuel.
“Somebody lipstick is poppin’,” Liddy smiled as I passed her desk. I smiled and continued on the elevators.
“Averie!” Caroline called out behind me.
I looked at my watch to make sure I had time to stop before turning around. She had made it to me, out of breath.
“Whew, I’m glad I caught you,” she smiled.
“Hi, Caroline. What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to check on the status of the case you’re working on. How is everything going? I heard Valentine could be sort of a diva.”
Diva is not how I would have described him. Powerful. Smart. Handsome. Not Diva.
“Everything is going as scheduled. We are still doing a lot of pre-trial work, so I can’t call it either way, but I believe it’s going well.”
“Great, any interesting finds along the way?”
“No. Nothing interesting or out of the ordinary but if I do come across something interesting I will be sure to share it,” I smiled.
“Great. Well, okay. Have a good day.”
“You too, Caroline.”
I pushed the elevator button, and the doors opened immediately. I stepped on and smiled at her again as the doors closed.
Humph…she knew better than to ask me about a case I was working. I tucked that conversation in the “to be examined” file in my mind.
I stepped off the elevator and was met by Samuel.
“Good morning, Averie.”
“Good morning. You must have been coming up to get me because I was taking long.”
“No, you weren’t taking too long. I was waiting to show you to the car.”
“Really?”
“What?” He shrugged.
“You went from being mean to me to waiting for me by the elevator? My Midwestern charm must be wearing you down.”
“Or…”
“Or what?”
“Or you’re directionally challenged, and I didn’t feel like helping you look for the car over the phone by saying things like, ‘no Averie, your other left. Turn to the left.’” He chuckled.
He teased me because the first time I worked with him at his office, he’d given me directions to the women’s lounge, but I went in the opposite direction and used the male lounge. I was curious about the urinals but thought maybe they had an employee who was going through a sex change or something. When I asked him about it, he laughed at least fifteen minutes before telling me I’d gone the wrong way.
“Awww,” I laughed. “Well thank you either way.”
“No problem.”
We walked toward the car together when Barry turned the corner.
“Ah, just the people I wanted to see.”
He stopped in front of us with a smug smirk on his face.
“I wanted to let you know in person the deal for Mr. Elkanah is off the table. We’ve come across some new evidence which makes the offer null and void. Also, you will get an official notification, but we are amending our charges to include, first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping. Your clients are going to jail for the rest of their lives. Hell, we may even ask for the death penalty since they are both such menaces to our beloved society,” he smugly smiled.
I felt the anger running off Samuel in waves. His expression was not affected, but I felt it.
“The next time you have something you need to inform me of concerning this case, send it through official channels. Don’t come near my office again. You are not welcome here.”
“Whatever, Averie. You still have time to switch to the winning team.”
“I would suggest you make your way back to your part of town, DA Leathen,” Samuel rumbled.
“Let’s just hope you can keep your little practice after this is over, Ms. Patterson,” Barry chided.
“Let’s just hope you find that dick I mentioned the other day you cock-less eunuch,” I threw back.
I felt a light tug on my arm, I knew it was Samuel directing me from the confrontation.
“You can scurry back to the DA’s office now,” Samuel instructed again.
Barry slowly turned and walked away in the same direction he came.
Samuel kept a loose grip on my elbow when he led me to the car. He opened the rear door and held my bag when I got inside. He walked around to the other side and got in.
“Hi, Ms. Patterson,” Ray said as he navigated onto the high
way.
“Hey, Ray. Good to see you again.”
“See, I turned to Samuel. That’s why I can’t stand him. Taking the deal off the table…amending the charges…keep my firm? He is out of his mind!”
“They obviously have more evidence,” Samuel said thinking out loud.
“Or a witness that can corroborate those statements.”
“Yeah…” He sat back in his seat and looked out the window of the car.
We rode in silence for a while listening to Miles Davis’ Blue in Green.
Going over Barry’s statements over and over again in my head had almost driven me insane. I needed to have a conversation to steer my thoughts somewhere else.
“Are Torrey and Princeton your only siblings?” I turned and asked.
He stared out the window and didn’t answer.
“Samuel,” I grazed his hand.
“Yes?” He responded quickly. “Did you say something?”
“It’s okay. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can leave you to your thoughts.”
“No, I need a break. What did you say?”
He turned his body to face me.
“I was being nosey and asked if Torrey and Princeton were your only siblings?”
“Yes. Torrey and I have the same mother. Princeton and I have the same father.”
“Is Deyshonda someone you would have chosen for him?”
He chuckled. “Dey is loyal. She is a rider. I believe in loyalty so, yes, I would have chosen her. She loves him and treats him well. Plus, she is the mother of my niece and nephew, both of whom I adore even though my niece has a love/hate relationship with me.”
“What does that mean? How old is she?”
“She’s five and is her mother’s clone. She has a mini attitude so sometimes she is happy to see me and other days she says, ‘oh no not Uncle El,’ and rolls her eyes,” he chuckled.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing!” He laughed. “She’s a Princess, and that’s her name.”
“Princess, after her dad?”
“Yes. What about you? Are Keeva and Kenzie your only siblings?”
“You remembered their names?”
“I did. They are unforgettable.”
After the taste testing at Untraditional, my sisters had drank enough liquid courage to challenge each other to an old-school dance competition. Skip, Frannie, Raymond and some of the workers were encouraged by my sisters to dance along.
“Don’t you think those two are enough?” I laughed. “Key is older than me, and Ken is younger. My daddy wanted a boy but didn’t get one, so we call Kenzie, Ken to make him feel better about his ability to produce a male.”
We talked until Ray pulled from the road onto a parking lot of a two-story brick building.
We pulled to a stop in front of the building who’s sign read: “Chambers Security Consulting.”
“I will get your door,” Samuel said when the car stopped.
We walked to the door of the building. Samuel had motioned to ring the doorbell when Countee rounded the corner and walked from the back of the building to open the door. He held the door while Samuel and I entered.
“El,” he and Samuel gave each other dap. “Averie,” he extended his hand. We shook. “You can follow me.” Samuel motioned for me to follow behind Countee. We followed him to a door in the rear of the building. He opened the door, and there was a woman already seated at the table.
“This is Ms. Patterson. Ms. Patterson, Laila.”
Laila was a tall, naturally beautiful woman with mahogany skin and big beautiful eyes. She wore a polo shirt with the Chambers Security logo on it. Her arm and shoulder muscles were massive. She looked like she could handle any physical threat with ease.
“Ms. Patterson,” she smiled. I was all prepared for a deep husky voice to come out of her, but her voice was soft and sweet.
“Nice to meet you, Laila.”
“El, you remember my colleague, Laila.”
“I do. Nice to see you again.”
“Same here Mr. Valentine,” she responded.
“Please have a seat,” Countee said.
Samuel and I sat next to each other while Countee and Laila sat across from us.
“Laila, some other members of my team and me, have been looking into the case. The DA has a solid case, and we can’t find anything on the surface that would make us question the validity of anything we’ve seen. The warrant was administered the correct way. The officers didn’t destroy the house or stop the surveillance cameras from running during their seizure. You can clearly see the cop open the compartment in Coco’s desk and find the drugs and money in there,” Countee explained.
“We installed the security system at Roc’s house. We keep the surveillance recordings on a hard drive off site just in case something happens, and the perpetrator is smart enough to destroy the equipment at his house, we have a back-up. We compared the footage we have on file to the footage the DA has, and it is the exact same,” Laila said.
“We’ve even looked into every single cop who entered the residence, and we can’t find anything on any of them,” Countee added.
Countee and Laila explained everything they’d examined and demonstrated how each thing could be used by the prosecution to prove their case. We looked at the video surveillance from the night of the arrest. Laila explained how to determine if a video is authentic, it was. We sat for two hours discussing their findings until we agreed with their assessment, the DA’s case was air-tight.
That was the worse, possible news we could have received after our impromptu visit by Barry.
“Barry Leathen from the DA’s office, paid us a visit earlier today. He informed us they were amending the charges and adding more. They have something or someone, and we need to find out who or what it is,” Samuel said.
“You don’t think he was just trying to get under your skin?” Countee asked.
“No, we received the official notice while we were on our way here,” Samuel said in a somber tone.
I hadn’t checked my phone on the drive here but did see Samuel look at his. The official notice must have been what sent him deep into his thoughts.
“What could he have that would give him enough confidence to come to your office and deliver the news in person?” Laila said.
“They have a witness,” Samuel and I said at the same time.
“Since everything that prompted this case is false, who could they have that would go along with this rouse?”
“I have no idea. We’ve vetted everyone on our side. Maybe a neighbor?”
“No, because they never conducted business from their residence. Only select people were welcome to their house, and they entered through the garage so the neighbors couldn’t have seen anything if there was something to see,” Countee explained.
“It must be a solid person to boost Leathen’s confidence the way that it has,” Laila finished.
“We will keep looking. If you figure out what Leathen was talking about, let us know. We will do some snooping of our own,” Countee said.
“As always, I appreciate you and your team. Let me know if you find anything, and we will keep working on our end,” Samuel said while standing from his chair.
Countee and Laila walked us back to the front of the building. Samuel followed the same routine and opened my door and helped me into the car. Samuel rested his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. I checked my phone and saw the official notification that the DA had amended the charges.
This was not the end of the world…we would figure out another angle…we had to figure out who they had that had given them the confidence to pursue the additional charges…
“Hey,” Samuel opened his eyes when I spoke. “We are going to figure this out.”
He turned to look out the window and loosened his tie.
“I was in this same situation. You know, being accused of something I didn’t do. Except, in my case, I didn’t have a team of people to
fight for me, but even with this whole team, the outcome might be the same. I remember thinking, ‘if someone with some power or influence would just listen to me then I know I can beat this.’ We have power and influence, and we still can’t help,” he shrugged.
“We are going to win this case. Princeton and Deyshonda have the smartest team of lawyers in the Midwest, hell maybe even the country. We will figure it out.”
He didn’t respond immediately. After a few minutes, he replied.
“I would say the smartest in the entire country as well,” he smiled and finally looked at me.
Seeing him smile helped relieve some of the pressure of the news we’d received today.
“When I am really bogged down with something, I have a special place I go to clear my head. Would you like to see it?”
“I would.”
I gave Ray directions. We sat in mutual silence until we stopped at my destination.
“We’re here,” I smiled.
“The Arch grounds?”
“Yes. Come on.”
He got out the car and opened my door. Ray offered us a blanket from the truck. Samuel took the blanket and turned to me.
“Follow me. I go to the steps under the Arch and watch the Mississippi River.”
I showed him to my favorite spot on the steps. He put the blanket down, and we both sat down on top of it.
“I love all bodies of water, but I particularly enjoy the Mississippi because it’s always moving. It never stays in one place. If you get in its way, it will carry you away with it. It doesn’t move in silence, it makes noise. It wants people to see it and recognize its power. Some people just see a brown body of water. They believe they can control it or play around with it not realizing what you see on the surface has nothing to do with what’s going on underneath. There are layers of currents ready to sweep you away if you test them. I want to make a mark like this river and make all my tributaries proud that took the time to pour into me. I want to be strong, powerful, and resourceful. So somedays I sit here, think and let the mighty Mississippi wash those concerns away.”
We settled on my step and looked out toward the river. I didn’t know what Samuel was thinking about, but he was silent for a long time, and I didn’t disturb him.
