Afternoons are for watching over Leo, whose mother is now attending junior college. I'm no match for this boy. At three in the afternoon, I'm nodding off in my recliner while Leo builds with his Legos and suddenly blasts my ears with his walkie-talkie. I need two of me, one dedicated 24/7 to Leo. We've also had his blood tested twice—negative for HIV both times.
Cache has announced her plans to attend law school. Today, as I sit and develop her case in my head, she's attending a junior college class in biology—the delicate task of separating a frog into his component parts with a scalpel. She still has her nose pierced. The lip ring has been removed, but the neck tattoo remains, of course. Who doesn't like looking at Harley roses on his daughter's neck? The real truth? She can pierce away and tattoo away her entire geography; I'm just happy to see her alive and living maybe her first dream ever. She is also connecting with Leo in a way I can tell was absent before. He's loving every minute of having his mom home and managing his 1000-questions-per-day habit.
Mikey and Dania and Annie—my other at-home kids—haven't broken stride since the newbies came onboard. Their lives have continued unfettered from all care and shortages and fears. Mikey's constant disturbance in his equilibrium is that, as a first-grader, he has so many school days yet ahead. A playground friend explained they were all looking at eleven more years, and Mikey has been downcast ever since. Until he remembers his new friend Leo is waiting to explore the world outside our new home in Liberty Lake. Then he's a happy young lad.
Dania looks more like her mother, Danny, with each new day. She is lengthening and achieving the willowy Vogue look every day. She has no interest in boys, yet, though she did complain last night about Daniel J. Stevens kicking the back of her chair all through reading studies yesterday. Maybe the assault of the citadel has begun? I shudder to think.
While the two younger kids are dealing with school and extreme youth, Annie, my second-most-recent daughter (by adoption) is now part-timing for the City of Spokane police department. She profiles criminal cases that have stumped the detectives. It's paying off, too: a string of sexual assaults has ceased thanks to Annie's work on the case where she was given the profiles of twenty parolees. Working backward, Annie was able to rule out nineteen of the twenty, leading to an arrest that coincided with the cessation of sexual assaults against women in late-night parking lots. I applaud Annie and keep her close; we need each other more than any of the others need either of us. The apple of her dad's eye, it might be said. Or the genius under my roof, it might be even more accurately said. She is happy and becoming better adjusted. Her penchant for swallowing coins and batteries has ceased since her one-year stay in a hospital where such behaviors got sorted. She still calls me "Michael," so, in my worldview at least, we haven't arrived yet, the two of us. But we shall.
Marcel's life has taken a turn: he spends his mornings with me, assisting with Cache's lawsuit. Then he spends his afternoons writing his memoirs. So far he's refused all my requests for a preview. I don't blame him. I'm a harsh literary critic, especially the cops and robbers stuff. An interesting development, however: he has been out on several dates with Eleanor Riddell, the pediatrician who offices off East Sprague in Spokane, the doctor who treats all the runaway girls. She just turned fifty-one—we all attended her birthday dinner—and Marcel, as per my wishes, still hasn't impregnated her. I know; I'm kidding Marcel. A man after my own heart.
Oh yes, one more note about Marcel. An Instagram page for Kelly Larsyn was opened. A hundred photos or more of Mr. Larsyn in bed with an unidentified woman was posted on his page. He is seen in the most outrageous poses with the woman, various fruits and utensils and crude sexual positions. The pictured subjects are all nude, of course. The Instagram link was emailed to all clients and family and the entire Spokane Bar Association. The links had been sent from his laptop computer using his Contacts file. It is said his business is evaporating and the Bar Association has begun an ethics and decency investigation. They are trying to establish just why he would post such an outrage for everyone he knows. Larsyn is experiencing such sweet bliss in the photos his eyes are shut. I can only wish him well.
Some friends who follow my legal exploits have grown increasingly outspoken about the after-effects of some of my younger dalliances. That's right, some who know me well know about my conquests and subsequent defeats by my own hand. I'm talking about unwanted pregnancies and unwelcome affairs of the heart. As time has passed, my roving eye has settled down for what looks like a long, but warm, winter beside Verona, the love of my life. She has remained true to me in word and in fact. She is my north star, my sine qua non, my fellow traveler, and my friend. She is also my lover; advancing age and familiarity haven't quelled that inferno one bit. For which I am grateful. And so is she.
What remains, for Cache, is a lifetime of choices. Happily, these will be choices she makes rather than choices someone else makes for her.
There remains only this one comment to Millie: it was a mistake all those years ago, but it's no longer a mistake today.
One afternoon I answer a knock at the door. It's UPS. The driver, wearing brown shorts and brown shirt, holds a box up for me. It's about the size of a world globe. I accept the delivery and retreat inside.
The mailing label has my name handwritten as the recipient. It says it's from Taos, New Mexico. I rip it open and find, inside, submerged in bubble wrap, a green bowl such as you would use to serve baked beans out on your patio at noon in August. There's a note inside, handwritten. I read:
Do you think I can sell this shit?
THE END
Afterword
The Death Penalty raises serious philosophical questions and quick arguments on both sides. People become angry talking about the death penalty and rightly so. Both sides make sense to this author and yet neither side makes sense. A total conundrum.
However, this book is not a tract about the death penalty. The author is a writer, not a priest or rabbi or politician or philosopher. Each individual will deal with the reality of the ultimate penalty in his or her own way.
In this book, which takes place in the State of Washington, there is a moratorium on the death penalty. Despite that, literary license was taken to make the story what it is.
There is no purpose intended for this book. I’m not out to change anyone’s mind. I only wanted to tell Cache’s story, the story of a young woman completely of my imagination.
Finally, it’s the story of a death row inmate who has been wrongly convicted.
It happens.
What that might mean to you is your own private concern. I practiced criminal law for forty years. While my health and stamina allowed, I felt like I was doing my part in all this.
That’s the thing about law, and courts, and juries. We seldom know for sure what’s what.
That’s how it goes for the lawyers on both sides of the fence.
This book is for them.
Also by John Ellsworth
THADDEUS MURFEE SERIES
Thaddeus Murfee
The Defendants
Beyond a Reasonable Death
Attorney at Large
Chase, the Bad Baby
Defending Turquoise
The Mental Case
Unspeakable Prayers
The Girl Who Wrote The New York Times Bestseller
The Trial Lawyer (A Small Death)
The Near Death Experience
SISTERS IN LAW SERIES
Frat Party: Sisters In Law
Hellfire: Sisters In Law
MICHAEL GRESHAM SERIES
The Lawyer
Secrets Girls Keep
The Law Partners
Carlos the Ant
Sakharov the Bear
Annie’s Verdict
Dead Lawyer on Aisle 11
30 Days of Justis
PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
The Empty Place at the Table
About the Author
John Ellsworth 2016
USA TODAY Bestselling Author John Ellsworth practiced law in Flagstaff and Chicago. As a criminal defense attorney he became expert in defending state and federal criminal defendants. Some of that experience and knowledge led to his writing this book.
Since 2014 John has been writing legal, crime, and psychological thrillers with huge success. He has been a Kindle All-Star (Amazon’s selection) many times and he has made the USA TODAY bestsellers’ list.
Reception to John’s books has been phenomenal; more than 1,000,000 have been downloaded in 40 months. All are Amazon best-sellers.
John lives in Southern California where he makes his way around his small beach town on a yellow Vespa motorscooter.
He is married and has lost count of how many grandchildren his five daughters have produced.
ellsworthbooks.com
[email protected]
Copyright © 2018 by John Ellsworth. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design by Nathan Wampler.
Published by Subjudica Press, San Diego.
First edition
Ellsworth, John. 30 Days of Justis. Subjudica House. Kindle Edition.
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30 Days of Justis Page 24
