Melinda Holmes came up and gave her son a hug. “Daniel, you were great tonight. Your singing and guitar playing were fabulous. I am so proud of you! You filled up that hall with your music!”
Daniel’s father, Gary, shook his hand and gave him a quick embrace. “Your mother and I were having an argument over which side of the family you got your talent from. I say my side, because of your ability on the guitar. She says her side because of your singing ability.”
Daniel laughed and replied, “Mom, Dad, I think I got it from both of you! You are both my parents, right?”
Mrs. Miglione added, “When you were singing those songs about those kids, you brought tears to my eyes. How those children suffered so and what pain and agony they endured!”
“Look at what Jason gave us just before the performance!” Daniel held out his wrist and showed off the rubber wrist band with the kids’ names on it. “That’s what gave me extra inspiration tonight.”
Nick was standing with his mother and former piano teacher, Mr. Ponticelli. Caterina was in seventh heaven, so proud of her son and his incredible accomplishment. Mr. Ponticelli said to Nick, “I guess I was wrong. You can serve two masters. Your composition was quite impressive for someone so young, Nicolo. How did you learn to orchestrate so well? Those movements from the requiem mass were masterful in their handling of the instruments.”
“Like you taught me to do, Mr. Ponticelli, I carefully studied the music. Once I had the basic ideas written down, I looked at a number of orchestra and vocal scores to see how other composers handled their orchestrations. And there are books about it by Berlioz and Rimsky-Korsakov. It doesn’t take long to absorb some of the basic principles and apply them. Plus Mr. Molinari and Mr. Moss gave me good suggestions if something wasn’t working very well. A few revisions on the computer, and I could easily print out corrected parts for the musicians.”
“Well some day I can tell people that I taught Nicolo Feraducci way back when!”
“No, Mr. Ponticelli, I want to continue my piano lessons if you will have me back. I know I still have lot to learn. I will need a schedule that is less intense than I had before.”
“But you live here now,” Mr. Ponticelli replied. “How will you get to your lessons?”
“For now, Mom can drive me, if we can work out the times. In less than a year I will turn sixteen and then be able to drive myself!”
“So you have decided that the classics are still the best thing to study?”
“Not just the classics,” Nick said, “but more modern music. Bartok, Shostakovich, Scriabin, and Ravel. There is so much more music out there!”
Just then an elderly couple walked over to where Nick was standing. It was his grandfather, Enrico Feraducci, and his grandmother.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” Caterina said with a little frostiness in her voice.
“I invited them, Mom,” Nick replied. “I wanted them to experience the new direction of the Feraducci family, at least the direction of this generation.”
Nick’s grandmother kissed him said, “That was a very beautiful piece of music, Nicolo. When I closed my eyes and listened to the parts of the mass you wrote, I could just imagine myself seated in the cathedral at Palermo.”
Enrico Feraducci then shook Nick’s hand. “Grandson, you have done the Feraducci name proud this evening. Your musical skills continue to develop inside you. Clearly one day you will be a true master. I want you to have this.” Enrico handed his grandson a small envelope. Later when he opened it, Nick found that it contained five one hundred dollar bills.
After his grandparents left, Nick turned to his mom and said, “Can we go home now? I’m exhausted!”
“Oh yes, Nicolo,” Caterina responded. “You have had quite a day!”
Chapter 36
Epilogue: Justice is Served
(Six Months Later)
It was now early spring and many interesting things had gone down in the lives of Jason, Daniel, Nick, and Jonathan since the performance of Nick’s Requiem for the Lost Children. Because of the notoriety received from that concert, Daniel and his band had been approached by several talent agents who were considering taking them on as clients. But first what the band had to do was complete a demo recording of their music, and this needed to be original music. That was a lot of work to do, with school and their other activities. Jason told them to not stress about it about it but take their time and do things right.
Over the past few months, Jason had worked on putting up a website for the band. He had been taking a multimedia class all year at school, developing more skills in web design, writing copy, and working with photos and graphics. Ruth Fiorre, the publicist for the Whatever Foundation, had given Jason some tips and suggestions about how to get the word out about the band.
Sales of the DVD from the requiem’s performance ended up covering most of the costs of the concert. The evening of the performance over 800 copies were sold, and in the following month nearly 500 more were sold online by the video company who did the sound and recording for the concert. The income derived from DVD sales and the ticket receipts easily covered all those expenses and the cost of renting the California Theater. Jason and his business manager at the Whatever Foundation were very pleased about that. They donated most of the profits to the Merriam High music program and paid for a pizza party for the performers.
Ironically, the one person who never viewed the DVD was Nick! He could never square himself up to watch it. When Jason asked Daniel why Nick would feel that way, Daniel told him, “To me it seems pretty obvious. The requiem is a death mass and written about a very traumatic experience in Nick’s life. The requiem represented closure of that whole incident for Nick. By viewing the DVD he is reopening that whole tragic part of his life again. Remember that Nick came very close to death! I think that is why he doesn’t want to ever relive any part of that again! Can you blame him, Jason? For you it would be like playing a DVD of your kidnapping!”
Jonathan was the happiest he had been in a long time. With his mother free from her dependence on drugs, his father back in the picture, and his aunt living with him and his mother, Jonathan had a family life again. His musical life was very satisfying also, now that he was actively involved with Daniel and the others in writing and recording original music, and performing in the Merriam High School jazz and concert bands. He had money to take private lessons again so the quality and technical skills of his playing continued to improve.
There was one more important thing to be resolved in his life, however, as the wheels of justice slowly moved forward in the case of Scott Brewster. After he was arrested, the district attorney and Captain Garcia met to discuss the charges to be filed against Brewster. They both agreed that this trial should send a message to people like Brewster and to the community that you don’t mess with a young person’s life in the very dangerous and cruel way that Scott Brewster did to Jonathan. Brewster was indicted on multiple charges of kidnapping, child endangerment, false imprisonment, several accounts of assault and battery, not only for the beatings he gave Jonathan but with special circumstances for forcibly injecting him with an addictive drug. There were also charges for operating an illegal drug lab and manufacturing and selling methamphetamines.
The district attorney wanted to have Scott Brewster remanded in custody until the time of the trial, but since it was not a capital case, Brewster’s attorney was eventually able to arrange for bail of $750,000. Brewster did have a stash of money hidden somewhere which he use to hire an attorney and cover his bail. The district attorney thought that Brewster would end up plea bargaining this case, since there was eye witness testimony against him and other physical evidence from the burnt out meth lab.
However Scott Brewster was as stubborn as ever, felt he was innocent and being persecuted by the government, and that he could intimidate the main witness against him, Jonathan Kowalski, in court. The district attorney’s office and Brewster’s attorney actually had a couple of confer
ences to discuss a possible deal, but Brewster would have none of it. He wanted his day in court so he got it. But things didn’t turn out the way he expected. Scott Brewster had greatly underestimated Jonathan as a person. Sure he was physically weaker but he forgot how Jonathan had doggedly fought against him when his mother was under his influence. Plus Jonathan was determined to get even with Brewster for what he did to him and to his mother. Now he had the power of the district attorney’s office and the police department behind him.
Brewster’s trial began during the first week of March. Because Jonathan was still a minor, and attending school, he was not required to be in court until the days of his actual testimony. This prevented Scott Brewster from trying to intimidate him by staring at him while other witnesses were on the stand and perhaps getting an idea of how Jonathan would behave in the pressure of a public trial. The prosecutor worked with Jonathan to make sure that he understood what could happen in the courtroom, and to practice his testimony.
On the day he was called to the witness stand, Jonathan dressed in his nicest school clothes, but not a suit, so he would look like a typical teenager. His testimony was devastating to Scott Brewster’s chances for an acquittal. When Jonathan described how Brewster would verbally abuse him when he complained about living in a house with drugs around, how he would often have to go through his mother’s purse to find cash to buy food, or how Scott would hit him when he protested what was going on there were frowns on the jurors’ faces. When Jonathan described what it was like to come home and constantly find furniture or other possessions taken to a pawn shop for drug money, and the great despair he felt when his musical instruments were taken from him some jurors looked angry. When Jonathan explained what it was like to be beaten down, kidnapped from his house, tied up and gagged, and forcibly injected with meth so he would become a drug addict, there was clearly hatred for Scott Brewster in the jury box and in the courtroom.
Jonathan ended his testimony this way: “If it wasn’t for the help of my friends Jason Hunter and Daniel Holmes who rescued me and the Silicon Valley Police who were able to capture Scott Brewster, I would probably be a burned out drug addict, lying in the gutter somewhere!”
While the defense attorney objected to that statement and got it stricken from the record, Jonathan had made his point: Scott Brewster was a danger to society and had been especially cruel and brutal toward an innocent kid who got in his way.
On cross examination Brewster’s defense attorney tried to get Jonathan to admit that it was his mother, not Scott Brewster, who was responsible for their deplorable living conditions. Jonathan would not back down. “My mother was under that man’s control and would do anything he asked just to get more drugs,” he stated emphatically.
The defense attorney then asked why Jonathan hadn’t gone to the authorities right away if his mother was acting so irresponsibly.
“The last thing I wanted to do was break up the only family I had left,” Jonathan testified. “I love my mom and since her divorce from Dad she had no one else to look after her. I wanted to get her into rehabilitation, not report her to the authorities and end up being placed in the foster care system!”
Members of the jury were clearly bristling at this line of questioning, which was backfiring on the defense. Sensing that more questioning would only make things worse, the defense attorney ended his cross examination and sat down.
There were smiles at the prosecutor’s table as Jonathan left the witness stand. Clearly they had scored the proverbial home run.
Neither side decided to call Madeline Kowalski to testify because they felt she would make their side look bad. Since the police and other experts had testified about the drug lab, and Stan Henderson had testified about the helicopter rescue of Jonathan, saving Jason and Daniel from having to testify, the prosecution rested.
There wasn’t much of a defense. Brewster’s attorney strongly recommended that he not testify, because he was pretty sure that Brewster would get trapped somehow in cross examination or lose his temper and say something that would make things even worse for his client. So after a few “character witnesses” for Scott, the defense rested.
The next day closing arguments were heard, the judge gave his final instructions to the jury, and the jury was sent out to deliberate the case.
It didn’t take the jury very long to come to a decision. It probably took them longer to decide on their lunch order than it did on the guilt or innocence of Scott Brewster. In two hours time, the jury was back with guilty verdicts on all counts of the indictment.
Today was the day of sentencing for Scott Brewster. On this day all of Jonathan’s friends wanted to be there with him. Luckily, there was a teacher inservice day at school, so Jason, Daniel, Eric, Tim, and Nick were all seated in the courtroom with Jonathan. All during the trial Madeline Kowalski had stayed away from the courtroom. Madeline still couldn’t face up to Scott Brewster and still felt incredible guilt for what had happened to Jonathan. Jonathan’s Aunt Eileen ended up bringing him to court or to meet with the prosecutors. Like Jonathan she wanted justice served on Scott Brewster. Also seated in the courtroom were Captain Garcia and Jaime Orlando, who would be reporting on the sentencing for the evening news.
Everyone rose as the judge entered the courtroom. After everyone was seated again, the judge asked Scott Brewster, “Before I pass sentence on you, do you have anything to say in your behalf?”
Scott Brewster stood up, shuffled around a little, and with his head bowed said, “Your honor, I guess I would like to say I am sorry for what happened. I didn’t mean to hurt that kid. I guess I just got carried away with things.”
The judge looked over at Scott Brewster and lectured: “In all of my years on the bench, I cannot remember such an egregious set of cruel acts and behavior against a young boy who did nothing more to you than speak for his rights. The things that you did to Jonathan Kowalski were unconscionable! And all to protect your illegal meth lab that was a blight on our community! Scott Brewster, I hereby sentence you to forty years in state prison without the possibility of parole. Bailiff, take this prisoner into custody!” He banged his gavel. “This court is adjourned!”
Upon hearing the sentencing, Jonathan, his friends, and a lot of other people in the courtroom stood up and cheered. Jonathan had a big smile on his face as all of his friends pummeled him and gave him high fives and knuckles.
Later outside the courtroom, after thanking the prosecutors and Captain Garcia for their efforts, Jonathan, his aunt, and the others were talking excitedly.
“I’m sure glad that loser got what he deserved,” Tim said with determination.
“I have more good news!” Jonathan announced. “My dad sent me $100 with instructions to be sure and take all of you out to lunch. I am so happy that I can treat you all as a way of saying ‘thank you’ for everything you have done for me! Aunt Eileen, will you join us also?”
“Sorry, I can’t today. I have a class to go to at the college.” Looking at the others, she continued, “You boys take good care of Jonathan in my absence!”
“You can be sure that we will, Miss Behr!” Jason said with a big smile.
Eileen went up to Jason and gave him a big hug and a kiss. “Call me Eileen. I consider you one of the family now, after all you have done for us!”
“I say let’s get some sandwiches and then have a jam session at the studio,” Jonathan exclaimed. “I can’t think of anything I would rather do right now than play music with you guys!”
Jason and Daniel were very pleased at how things had worked out for Jonathan. And while they had no regrets about getting back into their regular routine, it wouldn’t be long before Hunter & Holmes were called into action again.
-webkit-filter: grayscale(100%); -moz-filter: grayscale(100%); -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
Eyewitness News Page 27
