“Hannah had put the ladder up against the window and opened the window. She was supposed to make sure no one else was in the room. I should have known the stupid old cow wouldn’t be able to get it right.
“I had told Mr. Reynolds that she was a loose cannon but he said she would do as she was told. When we got to the top of the ladder, the parents were there. I guess it was the necklace that held them up.”
Mr. Crocker wasn’t objecting to anything and I wondered why.
“What do you mean about the necklace?”
“Well, their daddy was trying to fasten it on their mama’s neck. He was concentrating so hard that they didn’t see us. As soon as they saw us, we popped them and I grabbed one twin in each arm and Hannah said, ‘he only wants one’ and I said ‘we’re not leaving a witness.’
“I handed one of the twins to my buddy and I hit Hannah over the head with the butt of my gun and she was out. We heard someone coming up the stairs and we went down the ladder lickity split.”
“What did you do next?”
“We got the twins in the front of the truck and covered them with the blankets we brought.”
At this point, Mackey laughed, “They were wiggling like a couple of fishing worms, but they were only whimpering. It wasn’t until we were on down the road that they started crying full volume.”
I could have killed him, describing us like we were nothing. Our hearts were broken and he acted like he was on a picnic.
“We drove all night and most of the next day before we got to the Reynolds’ house. I thought he would pay me double since I took both little girls, but he said he didn’t want but one and I could do what I wanted to with the other one.
“So I took the other one to my sister who thought she wanted a kid. After a few days, she called me to come get the kid. She said the brat did nothing but cry. So I took her and put her out along the highway like any stray.” He actually laughed when he said this.
You could have heard a pin drop in the court room. Mr. Graham was looking at Mackey like he was trying to make up his mind whether to kill him or not.
Then he said, “I have no farther questions for this witness.”
Mr. Crocker strutted up to the witness stand, “That was an interesting story you just told sir.”
“No story, all true.”
“How old were you when you first went to prison?”
“You mean real prison or Juvy Hall?”
“How old were you when you first went to Juvenile Hall?”
“The first time I was just a baby. Twelve years old.”
“Objection, your Honor. I fail to see the relevance in this line of questioning.”
“It is relevant, your honor, I promise.”
“I’ll allow it for now but get to it.”
“Thank you, your Honor. So, would it be fair to say that you have been in and out of prison most of your life?”
Mackey had a clear line of vision to us now so he grinned at us.
“I have. I can do time standing on my head. It’s no big deal and it turns some chicks on.”
“The jury will ignore that last statement.”
Now I understood why Mr. Crocker didn’t object before. He was going to wait for Mackey to discredit himself. The other thing I noticed was that Mr. Crocker kept calling Mackey, sir, like a mock of respect.
“Sir, did the FBI offer you a deal to testify against the defendant?”
“Yeah, but I think I would have, on principle. I know what I am and I’ve done a lot of bad things but if I had known what he had planned for that little girl, I would have never kidnapped her.”
There was total silence in the court and I noticed the reporters were writing about a hundred miles an hour.
“Your Honor, I move to strike that last statement.”
“So stricken. Is everybody done with this witness? Bailiff, get the guards to take him back to his cell.”
Mackey was smiling and rubbing his hands together like he was proud of what he had done.
After we adjourned, Mr. Graham said to us, “I remember now. You caught me off guard before although I shouldn’t have been surprised. Here’s the deal. I could add the new charge now or I could charge him afterward and get a new trial.
“I would personally like to have a separate trial. That way, the sexual battery on a child under twelve would be the whole focus. To add it to this trial would kind of dilute it.”
We thought that made a lot of sense. We wanted this one to be over. Then we would have the one last hurdle before we could move on with our lives.
CHAPTER 28
Now it was time for the defense to start calling witnesses. I figured I wouldn’t like this part because they would probably have people getting up there telling what a saint Mr. Reynolds was.
We always had to wait when we got to court. If the judge said the day before we would start at nine a.m. the next day, it could be as late as ten before we got started. I didn’t understand this. But on this particular morning we waited for hours and hours.
We got up and walked around. We went to the ladies room. We came back and sat down and waited some more.
It wasn’t until almost noon, and we were standing in the hall talking, when Mr. Graham came out with Tracy.
“Mackey was beaten to death in the shower last night,” Mr. Graham said. “We think he became a threat when he hinted around yesterday about the reason Mr. Reynolds had you taken, Julia.”
“We can’t prove it but we think someone paid someone off to take care of him and I think we all know who that someone is.” Tracy said.
Mr. Graham had been nodding the whole time and now he spoke up, “The trial has been delayed until they investigate this.
“There are going to be some inmates wanting to come forward to try to get their sentence reduced by telling what they know about this and we’re going to have to try and figure out what’s true and what’s not. It’s a real mess. You can go on home and we’ll call you when we’re going to reconvene.”
On the way back to our bungalow, Mimi said, “This is really frustrating. This could go on forever. I think we all deserve a break from all this mess. How would you two feel about taking off and going on down the coast? We could keep checking back with Mr. Graham and letting him know where we are and we could hop on a plane and come back when we need to.”
“Why do we need to come back at all?” Julia asked. “I mean, we don’t have to testify or anything, and this next part is where Mr. Crock-of-shit starts bringing in people to tell what a good man my father is. It isn’t something I want to sit through. What about ya’ll?”
I let out a long breath that I had been holding, hoping she was going to say something like that.
“I’m all for skipping at least that part, how about you Mimi?” I said.
“Thank God,” Mimi said, “I was hoping someone would say that. Let’s go talk to Dr. Anna and see if she’ll agree.”
Dr. Anna agreed. She said she thought it would be the best medicine she could prescribe for all of us. We decided to leave the next morning. We were going to drive and not worry about where or for how long we’d be in any one place. I was so excited about it.
That night we were sitting on the porch, all three of us sitting in the swing, just swinging and not saying a word, all lost in our own thoughts. It was so nice and peaceful. Tracy drove up and got out of the car. I dreaded what she had to say and didn’t want anything to disturb our peace. But when she got out of the car, she ran up the steps smiling.
“It’s over,” She said, “We didn’t even have to listen to any bull from any of the other inmates. We took Mr. Reynolds into an interview room, and sweated him. It didn’t take long. His lawyer was there and had already advised him to take the plea.
“I think he was scared about what might come out, and almost came out, about what he did to you, Julia. He was ready to take anything, probably because he knows what they do to pedophiles in prison. He’s getting life without the possibility
of parole.
“The only thing he asked in return was that he sees you one last time, Julia. He said that if you won’t see him, he didn’t care what happened to him.”
Without hesitation Julia said, “I’ll see him. I wanted to anyway, but only if I can have Judith and Mimi with me.”
Tracy nodded, “It’s just what I told him and he agreed. When do you want to do this?”
“The sooner, the better,” Julia said.
“How about, right now?”
We all jumped up and grabbed our purses. We couldn’t wait.
Again we went to Raiford and were led into an interview room. They brought him in shackled and in a red jumpsuit. Tracy told us later that if a prisoner was in a red jumpsuit it meant that he was on suicide watch.
He looked like a beat man, but when he saw Julia he tried to reach across and take her hands in his. He was prevented by the ring on his side of the table that he was chained to.
But then he said, “My beautiful baby. Oh, how I love you. I would give my last breath to be able to love you again.”
Julia was shaking so hard I was worried about her.
She said in a strong voice. “You are a pathetic old pervert. Do you really think I enjoyed your so called loving? It was disgusting and I’m not brainwashed anymore into thinking what you did was out of love. You did it out of your own selfish lust.”
“Oh my darling, what have these people filled you head with? Don’t you see that they’re the ones who have brainwashed you? If only we could be alone together just one more time I could show you.”
“You would show me nothing! I would fight you to the death before I let you lay a finger on me. You got that? You are dirt, slime, scum, and you really believe you are a normal human being.
“I hope they put you into a cell with someone named bubba and he rapes you every night. Let’s get out of here. I don’t have the stomach to be in the same room with him.”
Mr. Reynolds had his head down on the table, crying like a little boy, when we left, but I noticed that Julia was no longer shaking. I was so proud of her and I couldn’t wait for Dr. Anna to hear about it.
I envied her in a way and wished that I could talk to both my foster father and Mr. Lassiter the same way. I thought I would someday. But right now we had all the major hurdles behind us and we were taking some time off.
Mimi said it was now more important than ever to take our trip. Our time was unlimited. She said that whenever we got home, she was going to hire a private tutor to help us catch up, especially me, so we could go back to school next fall.
CHAPTER 29
The next morning we took off down the coast after Mimi paid an enormous bill for both mine and Julia’s therapy and our bungalow. We again drove through Ponte Vedra and into Vilano Beach.
“I guess the house belongs to me, now,” Julia said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. Should I keep it as our beach house Mimi? Or should I sell it?”
“It’s up to you dear, but it might have too many bad memories for you. If you want to sell it we could all three look for a beach house somewhere together. Anyway, let’s not think about it right now. From now on, it’s a rule, we only talk about fun things.”
We passed through a little community called Crescent Beach where there were mostly older houses and restaurants. It was a beautiful drive just following the coast like this.
The road later curved away from the beach and we passed through Marineland. It didn’t look like much but there was a park and Julia said the dolphins put on an impressive show. We decided to see it another time. I liked Flagler Beach when we drove through there because there was nothing built on the beach side of the road and you could see the beach for miles. The waves were gray and choppy. I loved it.
We went through a series of towns after Flagler Beach. When we got into New Smyrna Beach we were able to go across another bridge to get back to beach side. This was one of my favorite places so far. It was like a quaint little village. We decided to stop here and eat and Mimi found another crab shack.
The restaurant was air-conditioned so it was nice and cool. After we had eaten we shopped in the small shops along the beach and bought shorts and tee shirts that said New Smyrna Beach Florida. Mine had a Flamingo on the front and the shirt was yellow.
I noticed as we drove on down the coast that not only did the weather get warmer, but the water in the ocean got clearer and more bluish green. When we got to Cocoa Beach, Mimi said we should stop there for the night since we had no schedule.
We checked into a hotel right on the beach and the view was beautiful. We were told by the concierge that if we walked down about a block we would see a pier and on it were restaurants and shops.
When we got up to our suite Mimi told us to go ahead and take a shower.
“I’m going to call Mark and see how he’s doing,” Mimi said. “He’s running the company while I’m gone.”
Since the sun was going down, it was getting chilly, so after our shower we put on jeans and sweatshirts then Mimi got in the shower. She had been quiet since she got off the phone and I sensed that something was wrong.
We were on the balcony watching the waves when Mimi came out wearing a pair of navy blue cotton slacks and a white cotton long sleeved sweater. She still looked worried and Julia and I looked at each other with questions in our eyes.
Mimi didn’t say anything during our walk to the pier. Julia was talking her head off, pointing out everything from a good looking boy, to a pelican diving for fish. Mimi was quiet as we walked out on the pier and shopped along the way in little shops that sold things made out of seashells. Julia and I bought seashell bracelets.
When we were seated in the restaurant, Mimi pointed to an item on the menu and still didn’t say anything until we got our food.
Finally I said, “Mimi what in the world is the matter?”
She looked up from her food, “I’ve been trying to decide if I should tell you this or not, but I guess it would be better to hear it from me, than possibly see it on the news on TV or in the newspapers, though it probably wouldn’t make it down this far.”
“Mimi, you’re rambling like Julia. Tell us.”
“I do not ramble!” Julia said.
“Sorry Julia, I didn’t really mean that. I was just getting frustrated. Go ahead Mimi, you’re on.”
She took a long deep breath, “I don’t know how to soften the blow and I don’t know how to tell you, Julia, except to say it out right. Your adoptive father hung himself in his cell a couple of hours ago.”
“WOW, I don’t know what to feel. A part of me feels sad because he’s the only father I ever knew, but I’ve never felt this free since I’ve been away from him. He smothered me. I didn’t realize it until after I was in that hospital and away from him. But… oh I need to talk to Dr. Anna.”
“Mark said he talked to her about you. He was worried about you when Tracy called him and told him the news. So he called Dr. Anna. She said you can call her tonight at her home. She doesn’t usually give out her home phone number to anyone but would make an exception in this case. You can call her when we get back to the hotel.”
After Julia got off the phone with Dr. Anna, she came back and sat down next to Mimi. Mimi was sitting on a pretty little love seat with pastel seashells on it. She put her head on Mimi’s shoulder and Mimi put both arms around her.
“Dr. Anna suggested that I might want to go to the funeral, that it might help me get some closure. What do you think, Mimi?”
“Is it something you want to do? Do you think it will help? You’re the only one who can decide, Julia.”
“I guess this is part of growing up isn’t it? I have to learn to make decisions for myself and then take responsibility for my decisions and how things turn out as a result of those decisions. That’s what Dr. Anna said anyway.
“It’s funny but that’s the one thing I’ll miss about my dad. I didn’t have to decide anything. He made all the decisions but, in doing s
o, he wouldn’t have let me grow up so it was a double edged sword, again according to Dr. Anna. And she said that when I was fully grown, I wouldn’t even need to quote her.”
She looked over at me, “You know, Judith, in some ways you had to grow up fast. You had to make decisions on your own for a while now. I’m not saying you had things easier but look how strong it made you.”
“Are you kidding me? I watched you telling off your father and I envied you. I hope one day I can confront both my foster father and Mr. Lessiter.”
“You will Judith. I know you will. You know what? I’m glad you reminded me of that. I think that’s all the closure I need. I know there are still some tough times ahead for both of us, but I think we will both be all right as long as we have Mimi and Uncle Mark.
CHAPTER 30
The rest of the trip was wonderful. We made it all the way down to Key West then across the Everglades of Florida and up the West Coast and along the Pan Handle.
We decided to stop in New Orleans and see John and Rosa. When we got there, we found out that they had eloped and didn’t invite anyone to the wedding. I think Mimi was more disappointed than anyone else. She said she would have enjoyed planning a wedding and that her house would have been perfect.
Mimi decided we would fly out of New Orleans because she was tired of driving. We flew Southwest Airlines and the flight took only forty five minutes. Mimi said it would have taken about seven hours by car. Arnold drove us home and Mark came running out of the house to meet us.
We were all so excited to see each other again. Mark had news of his own. He and Tracy were getting married in the spring. This made Mimi so happy. Now she had a wedding to plan.
Julia and I had a private tutor to help us catch up with our school work, Tracy and Mark had a beautiful wedding in the gardens in the spring and moved into the servant’s quarters. They had made it a home with the help of Tracy, who turned out to be a great interior decorator. Of course, Julia helped with the decorating and even painted some pictures for their house, but none with unicorns.
Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 01 - Blood on White Wicker Page 19
