One Step At A Time

by Brenda Adcock

  “How far are we from the crime scene?” Nolan asked.

  “Couple of blocks maybe,” Suarez responded, glancing around.

  “Wonder if there’s a more or less straight shot from here to there. Too much risk of bein’ seen if you tried to push a body down the sidewalk out front,” Nolan said.

  “There’s a back alley where the dumpsters and stuff are,” Suarez said.

  “Call forensics to scour the whole area so we can tie up this case,” Nolan smiled, slamming his car door. “Let’s do it,” he said as he pulled his weapon from his holster and approached the side door of the business.

  When the two detectives entered the shop area with their weapons drawn, Beau nudged the person working on an engine in the bay next to him on the shoulder. When Maddie looked up, Beau nodded toward the approaching men. She pulled her earbuds from her ears and frowned. She glanced at Beau and he muttered, “Cops are back.”

  “Looks like,” Maddie muttered in response while she wiped oil from her hands.

  “Hands up!” Nolan ordered loudly.

  “What the hell’s going on out here?” Oscar demanded with a frown as he stepped out of his office a moment later and saw his employees standing with their hands raised.

  Beau wrapped his fingers around Maddie’s arm and leaned closer. “Stay cool,” he said.

  Maddie shrugged. “I ain’t done nothin’,” she said, unconcerned.

  Nolan reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out the warrant, handing it to Oscar. Oscar read the paperwork and stared at Nolan. “This has to be a mistake, Bart,” he said.

  “Not according to my evidence,” Nolan said before approaching Maddie. “Turn around and put your hands behind you back,” Nolan ordered. “Madelyn James, you’re under arrest as a suspect in the murder of Sabreena Douglas,” he said, glaring at her as he reached for his handcuffs.

  For a split-second, Maddie looked shocked, but quickly recovered. “I’m not all that worked up about her bein’ dead, but I didn’t kill the stupid bitch,” she spat, taking a step back. She slapped his hand away when he reached for her. “I didn’t do nothin’! I ain’t goin’ to jail again for somethin’ I didn’t do, motherfucker!”

  As Nolan pulled Maddie’s right arm back to cuff it, he glanced at her damaged knuckles. “How’d you mess up your knuckles, James?” he snapped as she tried to jerk her hand away. He pressed his weight against her and asked, “Do that while you were busy rapin’ and beatin’ Sabreena Douglas to death?”

  “Chill, Dudley,” she seethed as she tried to suck in a breath to calm down while being mashed against a car body. “I barked ’em on an engine.”

  Nolan spun her around and jabbed her in the chest. “What did you call me?” he asked.

  “Take it easy, Maddie,” Oscar warned.

  “Nothin’,” Maddie responded through clinched teeth, staring coldly into Nolan’s eyes.

  “Y’know,” he continued, his eyes locked on Maddie’s, “I didn’t like that mouth eleven years ago and don’t like it much now either, smart-ass.”

  “Cool down, Nolan,” Suarez said.

  Nolan glared at his partner. “Don’t tell me to cool off, Suarez. This bitch killed my best friend,” Nolan ground out. “I arrested her punk ass myself.”

  Nolan grabbed her left arm while she continued to resist. Maddie swung her foot back and struck Nolan hard on the shin. Enraged, he grabbed her by the back of the neck and slammed her face down on the edge of the Camaro engine compartment. He finally finished cuffing her and jerked her up by her shirt collar, smiling when he saw blood running over her lips and dripping from her chin. Despite the injury, she continued to kick and jerk, attempting to wrestle out of Nolan’s grip as he pulled her arms farther up her back in order to keep control of his prisoner as he recited her Miranda rights.

  Nolan dragged Maddie to their car and shoved her into the back seat. In a last act of defiance, she raised her legs and kicked the side window with all the strength she had left, cracking the glass. The beginning of a headache pulsed through her head and she stared sullenly at the floorboard under her feet as the car backed up and drove away.

  NOLAN SHOVED MADDIE into a holding cell, not bothering to wipe the blood from her face or remove the handcuffs. Suarez hung back when Nolan walked away. “Turn around,” he said. He removed her cuffs and grabbed a package of wet wipes from a nearby desk, shoving them between the bars of the cell.

  “Thanks,” Maddie said when she sat down and blew her nose, then began running wet wipes over her face, wincing as she reached the area around her nose. She gingerly fingered the skin between her eyes and felt the lump from where she hit the Camaro starting to swell. She laid back and closed her eyes to wait for her headache to pass.

  Nearly an hour later, Maddie opened her eyes when she heard the holding cell being unlocked. Her headache had disappeared, but the moment her eyes opened, it came roaring back, strong enough to make her slightly nauseated.

  “Let’s go, James,” Nolan said. “Time for your close-up.”

  Maddie pushed her body up and walked slowly toward him. He took her by the arm and led her down a flight of stairs into the booking area. An officer took her to a counter and pressed her fingers against an ink pad before taking each of her fingers and rolling them onto a cardboard form. Then he slapped a wet wipe against her chest to clean off the ink before handing her off to a female officer.

  “Hold this in front of your chest and face the camera,” she ordered. Maddie looked stoically into the lens and then turned left and right for her profile mug shots. “Go behind the curtain and remove your clothes,” the female officer said with no inflection.

  “For what?” Maddie asked suspiciously.

  “So we can photograph any identifying tattoos or scars and get you into a jumpsuit so the lab can examine your clothes,” the officer answered. “I’ll also need to get a shot of your knuckles. After that, the detectives will be waiting to ask you a few questions upstairs.”

  Maddie stripped and waited patiently while the officer photographed a tattoo on the back of her neck and the scars down her side where she’d been shanked at Sand Ridge. Her tattoo was a Celtic infinity symbol she’d gotten as a gift to herself on her eighteenth birthday.

  Once she was dressed again, a male officer handcuffed her and escorted her to interrogation. When she was seated, he released the handcuffs, leaving her to wait. She smiled to herself, figuring no one would appear for a while, hoping to make her “sweat” while she waited. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her on the table and rested her head on her forearms. She hadn’t done anything.

  Flo believed Maddie was a sexual predator, biding her time until she could molest an innocent girl like Dani. But Dani wasn’t the innocent woman Flo thought she was. She had practically been asking Maddie to take her, but she hadn’t. If she had, at least there would be a reason for her ass to be sittin’ in another cell.

  The door opened finally and Maddie was awakened as it slammed shut. The noise plus the lights striking her eyes again also roused her temporarily slumbering headache back to life. Nolan leaned against the wall behind her as Suarez sat across the table from her. He pulled a stack of photos from a file and began laying them down in front of Maddie. The last picture was of a bloody and beaten Sabreena Douglas, who was obviously dead. “You told us you knew Sabreena Douglas, Maddie. How did you know her?” Suarez asked.

  “From Sand Ridge. We were there around the same time,” Maddie answered with a shrug. “Along with about fifteen-hundred other women. You gonna question all of them, too?” she smirked.

  “None of them were in Wichita Falls when she was killed,” Suarez said. “Only you were.”

  “Lucky me,” Maddie said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But timin’ is everythin’ and mine sucks,” she grinned.

  Nolan smacked Maddie solidly on the back of the head, not helping her headache. “You think this is funny, James?” he growl
ed, leaning close to her ear.

  “I think you could use a chill pill, chief,” she mumbled.

  “Rumor from Sand Ridge was that Douglas led a prostitution ring inside,” Nolan said. “She recruit you as one of her bitches?”

  Maddie stood up and turned to face Nolan. “I was never anyone’s bitch, you stupid pig,” she ground out, ignoring her headache.

  “That why she shanked you?” Suarez asked.

  “Don’t know who did that,” she said to Suarez.

  “The hell you didn’t,” Nolan laughed. “You found out she was in Wichita Falls, you lured her to Oscar’s, and you raped her until she bled to death, then you hid her body. But, unfortunately, you dumb fuck, you left behind enough evidence that even Mister Magoo could follow it back to you. That gives you motive and opportunity.”

  “These your tools?” Suarez asked.

  “Could be. We all have the same tools.”

  Pointing at the screwdriver and creeper, he said, “These two have your prints on them.”

  “Then, I guess they’re mine unless someone borrowed them,” Maddie admitted.

  “Bam!” Nolan shouted, pounding a fist on the table. “This is just too damn easy!”

  Maddie’s head was killing her and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyelids to relieve the pressure in her head. Suddenly, she jumped up and ran to the garbage can in the corner and vomited.

  Nolan continued to laugh. “Knowin’ you just got nailed for murder should make you sick, James. Not everyone believed you killed Bryan on purpose, like that soft-hearted judge, but now you’re really gonna pay.” He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the interrogation room, back to the holding cell, where she fell onto the cot to wait for her stomach to settle.

  That gave her plenty of time to think, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. There wasn’t much to do in an eight-by-ten cell except sleep and think. She felt like everyone she’d started to trust lied to her, given her false hope that she could finally have a life. Dani led her to believe there could be something between them one day, but she’d lied. Had she only been playing with Maddie? Tempting her to do something she wasn’t ready for? Maddie squeezed her eyelids shut, forcing her headache away. She rolled onto her side, hoping sleep would make her feel better. While anything was possible, having Maddie arrested seemed a little over-the-top.

  A FEW DAYS later, the County Attorney dropped a file on Danielle Hunter’s desk, along with a note that there was a possibility it would be brought before a jury as a capital case due to the circumstances and viciousness of the crime. When Dani flipped open the file, she was stunned that a case had actually been brought against Madelyn James. Even though she had to admit that Maddie was a complex and distrustful woman, she couldn’t force herself to believe Maddie was a killer.

  Going over the material a second time, Dani noticed that Maddie never asked for an attorney even though it was her right. She never refused to answer questions, essentially admitted the tools were hers, and she acknowledged knowing the victim. Dani considered not accepting the case, but if she could help Maddie in any way, she had to be in a position to know what was going on. The first thing she needed to do was speak to Maddie.

  Late that evening she walked into the county jail and presented her credentials to the night jailer. Dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt she didn’t look like a county attorney, but claimed there were a few questions she needed to have answered before proceeding.

  “I’ll ask her,” the jailer said, “but she’s refusin’ to talk to anyone. Just lays there, starin’ at the ceilin’.”

  “Tell her I insist,” Dani said in her most official-sounding voice, even though she was shaking inside.

  “County Attorney’s here to ask you a few questions, James,” the jailer said after he entered her cell block. “Get up!”

  “I’m not talkin’ to anyone and you can’t make me, Goober. Tell him to go away,” Maddie said, rolling toward the wall.

  “Then you can just listen,” Dani said from behind the jailer.

  Maddie turned her head toward the door to her cell and then rolled back to stare at the wall. “Go away,” she said.

  Dani patted the jailer on the shoulder. “I need to speak to her alone,” she said. Certain the jailer was gone, Dani wrapped her hands around the cell bars and said, “The police believe you raped the victim with a foreign object and, as a result, she bled to death from internal hemorrhaging due to being repeatedly penetrated by that object, which they have identified as yours. Help me refute that, Maddie. Please,” she begged.

  In the middle of Dani’s description of how Bree died, Maddie leaped off her cot, and rushed at the bars of her cell, “You’re prosecuting me? I would never rape a woman because I know what it’s like and how much it fucks with your mind. You should know that after all the times you’ve tried to tempt me.” Maddie grabbed her head and mumbled, “I couldn’t. I...wouldn’t. You betrayed me, just like...everyone...else,” she forced out as Dani watched the light and rage disappear from her eyes before she collapsed to the floor next to her cot.

  “Jailer!” Dani called out. “Call an ambulance!”

  Paramedics arrived and examined Maddie, noticing the pronounced lump between her eyes and the fact that her pupils were not dilating equally. At the hospital she was rushed in for a CAT scan, which revealed a moderate concussion. She was admitted for observation and handcuffed to her hospital bed.

  Dani stayed with her a few minutes, leaving orders that Maddie was to have no visitors without the consent of the County Attorney’s Office, regardless of who wanted to see her or the reason.

  When she finally got home that night, she made two phone calls, one to a private investigator she worked with during her time with the Innocence Project; the second to an attorney who was her mentor with the project. She hoped she could convince him to represent Maddie, even though she hadn’t requested an attorney. Without representation, the County Attorney’s case could be thrown out on a constitutional violation. In the meantime, she planned to do everything she could, legally, to prevent the case against Maddie from going before a judge and jury.

  EARLY THE NEXT morning, Dani flashed her credentials at the officer behind the main desk of the Wichita Falls Police Department and asked for directions to the Homicide Unit. She had the preliminary reports concerning the death of Sabreena Douglas, but wanted to see their evidence against Maddie first-hand and get answers to any questions she might be able to come up with. She tried to take deep breaths to calm down and appear non-threatening.

  Then she almost laughed out loud at the idea anyone might find her threatening. After all, she was a twenty-seven-year-old woman who was just embarking on her legal career and certainly didn’t appear very intimidating. Even her mentor, Saul Orbach, advised her she might not be tough enough for defense work and being successful as a prosecutor would depend on her win-loss record. However, from the time she was a little girl, Dani had wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps. Glenn Hunter was a successful and sought-after defense attorney, a lion in the courtroom. Although she wasn’t as flamboyant as her father, Dani’s mind was just as sharp and she believed others probably underestimated her ability based on her reticent, girlish demeanor.

  She walked into the squad room and spotted Detective Nolan quickly. She marched to his desk and dropped her briefcase on it to get his attention.

  Nolan glanced up and grinned at her. “What can I do for ya, Counselor?” he asked, sounding slightly bored.

  “I hope you’re aware that, according to witnesses to Maddie James’ arrest, you came dangerously close to crossing the line,” Dani said quietly.

  “I was defending myself during the apprehension of a suspect,” Nolan said, leaning back in his chair. “Wanna see my bruises to prove it?” he sneered.

  “No, but I do want to see the file on the Sabreena Douglas murder,” Dani said. “There’ve been some questions raised by her attorney a
bout the information you provided on the affidavit for the arrest warrant. I’ll need to double-check the information personally.”

  “Is the County Attorney requesting the file?”

  “As the Assistant County Attorney and the Counsel of Record assigned the Douglas case, it is my job to verify all information, Detective. The County Attorney doesn’t want this case to cross his desk again due to a constitutional issue on appeal,” Dani explained matter-of-factly. Then her voice hardened. “Do I need to go over your head about this matter, Detective Nolan?” she asked.

  He patted his hand on the wooden top of his desk and stood up. “Grab a chair and I’ll go get the file,” he relented.

  “Thank you,” Dani said. “Is there a room where I can examine the file without being disturbed?”

  “Suarez, show Assistant CA Hunter where the conference room is located,” Nolan huffed.

  “And I need to see the whole file,” Dani called out to Nolan’s back. “Even if it’s something you considered not pertinent, in case it becomes an issue at a later time.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Nolan mumbled as he shuffled away.

  Chapter Eleven

  SAUL ORBACH, A distinguished-looking gentleman in his sixties, walked into the Wichita County Memorial Hospital ward where injured or ill detained persons were held. He stopped at a desk manned by a uniformed officer and presented his credentials. The officer examined his identification and searched Saul’s briefcase and person. It reminded him of what most prisoners were subjected to and why he chose to work on their behalf. He was finally escorted by another armed officer to Maddie’s locked room. When he entered, he found her handcuffed to a hospital bed, lying on her side, staring at the wall. He cleared his throat and she glanced over her shoulder at him for a moment before resuming her examination of the wall.

  “What the hell do you want?” she asked. “I didn’t ask for a fuckin’ lawyer.”