"Oh. No, I hadn't thought of that." I believed that the person who beat me had accomplished what he'd set out to do, so why did he need to do it again?
After Tootsie left, I asked Luke about the hearing. It had been almost two weeks, but I hadn't thought much about the case since the beating.
"We got true bills on both defendants." He sat next to me on the sofa and held my hand. "First degree attempted murder and the other charges. We were afraid they would bring a lesser indictment on Rousseau, but they didn't."
"Has the judge set trial dates?"
"We got the dates today." He held my hand and turned towards me, with one leg bent on the sofa between us. "That's why I'm here early. I had to be in DeYoung's court this morning at ten."
Luke stayed over the weekend and bought take-out food for our meals. He walked into my bedroom with two mugs of coffee at about seven o'clock Monday morning, and I asked him why he wasn't in Baton Rouge, at work.
"I'm going to take you to Dr. Switzer to have your arm X-rayed, and I'm going to convince him to let me take you to New Orleans to stay at Susie's house." He asked me if he could help me get dressed, and when I shook my head 'No,' he laughed and left me in my room to dress and pack a bag.
Dr. David was amazed at how well I was healing. He looked at my X-ray, cut the cast off my arm, and replaced it with a removable splint that I could take off when I showered. "Only when you shower. Otherwise, wear it all the time, day and night. Dr. David agreed I could go to New Orleans. It seemed everyone was worried that the guys who'd accosted me would come back and finish me off.
I wasn't worried or afraid. I figured I had been warned and punished. They were done with me, unless I stirred up more trouble.
*
Luke took me to New Orleans Monday afternoon and drove back to Baton Rouge that evening. Susie and Marianne hovered over me. They worked out a schedule for the week: Susie would stay with me in the mornings, and Marianne would take off from her job early and care for me in the afternoons. I told them I didn't need all the attention. I could walk around, get myself coffee or tea, go to the bathroom. By Wednesday, they realized I was self-sufficient and went back to their regular routines of being gone all day: Susie with Rodney, Marianne at her job with the cardiologists. Susie came home for a couple of hours during the middle of the day and rested while Rodney was in therapy.
Thursday, Susie didn't come home for lunch. When Marianne came in at four o'clock, I asked whether she'd talked to Susie and she said she hadn't. She changed clothes and went to the hospital to make sure Susie was okay. I tried calling Rodney's room, but there was no answer. I called Luke twice to vent, and he was reassuring and said, "If you need me to come to New Orleans, say the word." Of course, I couldn't ask him to drive seventy miles simply because I was nervous.
I was pacing from the living room to the kitchen when Susie and Marianne came home after ten o'clock. Susie looked horrible. She'd been crying, her hair was in tangles, she limped; Marianne was holding her around the waist, and they crept across the floor.
"Oh my God! What happened?" I rushed to help Marianne get Susie to her bed. We pulled off her jeans and got a nightgown over her head.
"Donato gave her a sedative. She should drift off in a minute." Marianne pulled the covers up to Susie's chest and kissed her on the forehead. We backed out of the room as soon as we heard Susie's even breathing and knew she was asleep.
"Rodney had an accident. He's back in ICU." Marianne sat down hard at the kitchen table.
"Accident?" I got a bottle of wine and two glasses and put them on the table.
"I could use something stronger. Do we have any bourbon?" Marianne was pale, and her hands were shaking. I got the Jack Daniels from the cabinet, poured it over ice, then added some Coke.
"Okay, tell me what happened. From the beginning." I put the glass of bourbon in front of Marianne, and she took a long swallow of it.
"He was trying to use a walker. He fell and hit his head against the foot of his bed. He blacked out and couldn't be revived." Marianne took another swallow of her drink. "They worked on him for an hour. I called Donato myself.
"When I left the hospital, he was still out cold. Donato calls it a coma, and is staying with Rod all night. It's serious." Marianne finished her drink and said she really needed to go to bed. We went to our separate rooms, and I couldn't sleep. I thought about how to tell Lilly.
The next morning I called Luke and told him what happened, then I called Brenda. She said she would go to Lilly's dorm that afternoon and tell her. I knew Brenda would handle things well and keep Lilly from total hysteria. Brenda said she would take Lilly back to her house for the rest of the week.
Marianne took a couple of days off from work because she said she needed to take care of Susie and me. She took Susie back and forth to the hospital to see Rodney for ten-minute visits, four times a day. She said Susie would hold his hand and talk to him as though he could understand everything she said. Dr. Warner said that there was swelling on Rodney's brain and that he would come out of his coma when the swelling receded—or not.
Lilly arrived Friday afternoon and went directly to the hospital with Susie. Marianne said she was going to have dinner with Dr. Warner, but would be in early. Luke surprised me when he arrived at about seven o'clock. I was alone and afraid to answer the door until I was sure it was him. Then I unbolted and unlocked it and threw myself into his arms before he could cross the threshold.
We sat on the sofa, and he rubbed my back. I felt sad for Rodney’s setback, and for Susie and Lilly and their anguish. I felt sorry for myself, too; but I didn't admit it. Luke held me, my head on his chest, his arm over my shoulder, the other hand holding mine in his lap. I felt protected and cared for in a way I'd never felt in my life.
Marianne came home at about ten o'clock and Luke and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating ham sandwiches he'd pulled together when we realized we were famished.
"So this is the handsome prosecutor I've heard so much about. I'm Marianne." She stood with her hands on her hips, Dr. Warner standing behind her. "And this is Donato Warner."
"Lucas McMath." Luke stood and shook Marianne's hand, then Dr. Warner's. Marianne hugged him like a brother, and they both laughed. We all sat around the kitchen table, and Warner explained that Rodney was still in a coma, but he was showing signs of coming around.
"We'll have to start at ground zero when he wakes up." Warner seemed concerned and worried, which worried me.
Luke was going to drive home, but it was late, and Dr. Warner suggested that he had a guest room where Luke could stay. Come to find out, Warner lived only three blocks from the house on Jules Avenue. "Marianne won't stay at my house, yet. I think she's afraid of me." Warner reached over and squeezed Marianne's hand.
"No, I'm afraid of me." She laughed, and they looked at each other with something that resembled how Susie and Rodney looked at each other.
Susie and Lilly came home a few minutes later. I introduced Luke to Susie, and she excused herself, saying she was exhausted and needed to go to bed. Lilly followed her to the master bedroom after hugging Luke as though they were old friends.
By the end of the next week, I was feeling almost normal, except for the splint on my wrist. Luke called on Friday and asked whether I felt well enough to go out to dinner in New Orleans on Saturday night.
"Yes!" I shouted into the phone. "That's just what I need. This week has been grueling, but I feel fine; it's just all the stress surrounding Rodney's fall."
"How is Rodney?" The sound of Luke's voice calmed me.
"He came out of the coma yesterday. He recognized Susie and Lilly, but he can't speak at all. Susie said she'll have him talking again soon, and I don't doubt her."
"I know this is self-serving, but I hope he gets well enough to be at the trial next month. He's our star witness and without him…"
*
That night, Marianne didn't come home. When she stumbled in
at around noon on Saturday, she looked as though she hadn't slept all night.
"What happened to you?" I took her hand and led her to the kitchen.
"Oh, Sissy. It's been a long night." She sat down heavily at the table. I went to the counter and started a pot of coffee. "Donato took me to his yacht club on Lake Pontchartrain. He actually has a cruiser, a thirty-six-foot sailboat with a couple of bedrooms below deck. We sat on the back deck, and I told him."
"Told him? What?" I put a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down.
"About being raped by those two white men with the Klan when I was twelve."
"Oh, God. Mari. What did he say?" I leaned forward so I could hear her because she was speaking in a whisper. "By the time I finished my story, he was on his knees in front of me holding my hands. He put his head on my lap and cried." She took a swig of her coffee. "After what seemed like a long time, he stood up and pulled me out of my chair. We stood on the deck of his boat wrapped in each others' arms, both crying.
"Finally I whispered into his ear, 'There's more,' and he pulled his head back to look at me. I told him that I'd dated women, that I hated men, especially white men, 'Like you,' I said. He stared at me as though I'd grown two heads and I knew the news about me being with women had finally turned him away, but you and Susie both told me I had to tell him the truth."
"Mari, I'm so sorry." I took one of her hands in both of mine and realized I hadn't taken a breath until that moment.
"He said, 'Mari, look at me.' He lifted my chin, and I met his eyes." Marianne put her mug down and looked at me for the first time. "I stared at him, unblinking. I figured I could take it, whatever criticism he had. I had prepared myself for that moment. Then he said, 'I wouldn't expect you to react any differently.' I was so shocked; I sat back down in the deck chair.
"'Aren't you repulsed?' I asked him. This is what he said: 'You were twelve years old.' He knelt in front of me on the deck and took both my hands in his. I looked him straight in the eye, and he said: 'White men did unspeakable things to you. Of course you should hate them and blame all white men for what they did. Of course when you wanted companionship, you felt more comfortable with women.' I started to cry and couldn't stop. I was heaving, shaking. He pulled me out of my chair and held me.
"I was hysterical. I couldn't control all the grief that had built up inside of me for twenty years."
Marianne and I sat in silence, both absorbing her story. I was proud of her for being honest, and I was equally shocked that Dr. Warner proved he was a man of character. I had him pegged as a player. She told me that he took her to his house and put her to bed in his guest room, and that he'd been the perfect gentleman.
*
The next night, Luke took me to dinner at K-Paul's on Chartres Street in the French Quarter, which was owned by Paul Prudhomme, the famous French and Creole chef who invented blackened dishes. After dinner we walked down to Jackson Square, where Luke talked me into letting an artist sketch me.
When I asked him whether the detectives on Rodney's case had talked to ex-Sheriff Guidry, Luke said he had given Guidry's name to Detective Schiller but didn't know whether he had spoken to the former sheriff.
"Should we talk to anyone else?" Luke squeezed my hand while we walked from Jackson Square to the bar at the Royal Orleans Hotel. "I mean, do Thevenot and Rousseau have any friends who are high up either in politics or finance?" He squeezed my hand while we walked.
"I wouldn't know." I thought about seeing Thevenot and Rousseau at James's house, but I didn't think they were friends. "It's just that Rousseau was one of Guidry's deputies, and when Desiré was elected, Rousseau quit his job, and I think he went to work for Guidry, who has a plumbing business."
I asked Luke about Thevenot's trial, which would be held in a few weeks. Luke said that the prosecution really needed Rodney's eye-witness testimony or Thevenot might get off Scot-free.
He took me back to Susie's house at about ten o'clock and said he was driving back to Baton Rouge. We'd had several drinks, and I didn't think it was a good idea for him to drive to Baton Rouge, so I persuaded him to stay over, and I put him in Marianne's room since she said she would be staying at Don Warner's house that night.
Susie and Lilly were asleep when we crept into the house, and I showed him to Marianne's room, which had its own bathroom and a queen size bed. I shared a bedroom with Lilly, but she slept with Susie, so I had the room to myself. Luke brought his gym bag into the house, and I shut him up in Marianne's room. I wrote a note to the girls that said a man was sleeping in that room and taped it to the outside of Marianne's bedroom door.
*
I slipped into a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and stumbled into the kitchen the next morning. Luke was sitting at the table with Susie and Lilly, and they were laughing and drinking coffee and juice. I filled a mug with coffee and sat in the only available chair, across from Luke, between Susie and Lilly.
"What's so funny this early in the morning?" I took a sip of coffee and burned my lip. "Ouch. It's hot."
"Well, sunshine." Susie teased me in the mornings because it took me a while to wake up. "You are your regular morning bundle of joy, aren't you?"
"Don't tell Luke. Maybe he won't notice." I took another sip of coffee and grinned at him over the top of my cup.
"You are ravishing this morning." He winked at me and smiled.
"How do you start the day so chipper?" I put my cup down and my chin in my hand, elbow on the table.
"A hundred sit-ups and fifty push-ups." He bent his arms to show his biceps, like Popeye the Sailor Man.” We all laughed. "Then a pot of coffee and a two-mile run."
"No. You're pulling my leg." I sat up straight and put both my hands around my mug.
"Maybe just a little. I did go for a run this morning, then took a shower." He got up and went to the counter to refill his cup. "Anyone need a refill?"
I put my mug in the air but didn't look at him. Everyone laughed at me.
"She'll be fine in about an hour." Susie poked me in the ribs. "By the way, Sissy, where'd you find this dreamboat?"
"Don't give him a big head." I watched him fill my mug, and he poked out his bottom lip as though I'd hurt his feelings.
"Do you want to have lunch before I head back to Baton Rouge?" He winked at me.
"I usually go to Mass at St. Agnes at eleven." I looked at Susie and Lilly. "Did y'all go yesterday afternoon?"
"Yep. We went to the four o'clock vigil so we could spend the day with Rodney today." Susie stood up slowly, and I could tell she was still in pain. "We're heading to the hospital in a few minutes."
"I thought you could only see him ten minutes at a time." I tried to wake myself up so I could understand the confusion around me.
"Dr. Warner moved Rodney to the Neurology floor yesterday." Susie pushed her chair from the table and stood up.
"Wow, that's good news. He must be doing better." I swallowed as much coffee as would fit in my mouth, and grinned.
"Yep, now we can get back to therapy. We need to have him talking in the next few weeks so he can testify at the trial."
"Do you think that's possible?" Luke leaned against the counter and looked at Susie.
"It's a long shot, but we're going to work hard to make it happen." Susie and Lilly hugged Luke, kissed me on the cheek, and left for the hospital.
"Do you want to go to Mass with me, Luke?" I looked at him as he leaned against the counter, looking sexy as hell. "We can grab lunch afterwards."
"I guess you could drag me back to church. I've been lax ever since…" He dropped his guard for a split second, then recovered. I figured it had something to do with Sheila. "Well, sure. It would do me some good."
We went to St. Agnes Catholic Church, which was just a few blocks up Jefferson Highway from Ochsner Medical Center. We had lunch at Jefferson Seafood Shack and sat around drinking iced tea and laughing until almost three o'clock. Luke drove me back to Susie's house,
and we went inside. I stood in the living room and waited while he got his leather bag from Marianne's room.
We stood next to his car, and he kissed me so passionately, it left me out of breath. I stared at his license plate. The number was 36H989, easy: 36—one year younger than James; H—for Heart, mine—the one beating so hard it felt as though it would burst from my chest; 9—the last number before10; 89—the last two numbers before 10. I had it memorized before the taillights on his Beemer were out of sight.
Part 2
The Fallout
Chapter Twelve
***
Jury Selection
1985
THE HOUSE IN Baton Rouge was perfect. It was located in a residential neighborhood off Lee Drive near Robert E. Lee High School. Luke's house was about eight blocks away and had the same floor plan, but after I took Susie to see the house, she gave me a credit card and a list of things she wanted to have done to make it more comfortable. When I told the property owner all the things I wanted to do to the house, he thought I expected him to pay for the renovations, so he suggested we buy it. Susie agreed, and she returned to Baton Rouge in the middle of January to sign the papers.
It was a busy spring.
Luke filed several motions, and the judge heard arguments as to why The State should be allowed to present evidence that the defendant, Thevenot, had a history of tormenting and attacking black folks. I went to the hearing and listened as Luke argued that the behavior showed a pattern which was consistent with the shooting at the church. John Perkins, Thevenot's attorney, argued that past acts were not relevant and would sway the jury against his client. In the end, the judge decided to allow the testimony by people who were actual victims of Thevenot's abuse, "within reason," something the judge referred to as, "other crimes evidence."
Lilly had a full load of classes and studied when she wasn't with Bobby, who'd become a fixture around our house. The Baton Rouge house was larger than the one in New Orleans: four bedrooms, three baths and a powder room, and a large kitchen with separate dining and living rooms.
Sissy Page 19
