Cascade (44 page)

“
Rape?” Mr. Blanchard
sneered.

“
Mr. Blanchard I will not
warn you again,” the Judge said.

“
Your honor, may I address
the witness?” the assistant District Attorney stood. “Ms. Roper has
her own set of photos.”

The judge nodded to Ann Campbell.

“
Did you bring the
photos?”

Jill nodded toward Jacob. Jacob held out
photos for the assistant District Attorney. She took the photos and
brought them to Jill. The photo showed the bruise on Jill’s cheek,
hand marks on her arms, scratches along her back. She was wearing
the jeans Trevor ripped while trying to get them off her.

“
My brother, Mike, took
these pictures right after Trevor left. The dogs brought all my
neighbors out. Mr. Wilson and Ted from across the hall and Marena
from down the hall and Mr. Rodriquez and …”

“
Your neighbors witnessed
this?”

“
My neighbors witnessed a
lot. I don’t think they saw him hit me or rip my pants. They saw
Trevor do a lot of things to me,” Jill said. “They came out when
the dogs barked. Mr. Wilson chased Trevor out of the building with
a baseball bat.”

“
Why did you take these
pictures, Jill?” the assistant District Attorney said.

“
Mike made me take them,”
Jill said. “I don’t know why. He’s in Prague. That’s why he’s not
here. But, if he has to, he’d come back to testify.”

“
Thank you,” the Assistant
District Attorney said. “Your witness.”

“
Plus,” Jill was so upset
she couldn’t keep herself from talking. “We just saw the video
where he says, ‘You’ll fuck the rich boy, but you’re too good for
me.’ If I’d tried to seduce him, why did he say I thought I was too
good for him?”

The defense attorney stared at her.

“
Watch it! It’s right at
the beginning.”

“
Your honor,” Mr.
Blanchard said. “I don’t see the relevance.”

“
You brought it up, Mr.
Blanchard,” the Judge said. “Bailiff, play the video tape
again.”

The camera came on when Jill whirled around
the corner with champagne and chocolate strawberries in her hands.
They watched Trevor hit her then repeat what Jill had just said.
Jill felt very smug when the Bailiff shut off the tape.

“
Why did you keep your
daughter from my client?” the defense attorney changed
tact.

“
I didn’t,” Jill said.
“Trevor signed over full custody to me. He never really had
anything to do with Katy. She was a girl and he wanted a boy. I
didn’t know your… client wanted to see Katy. Trevor
didn’t.”

“
As a concerned parent, he
went to the hospital when your mothering skills put Katherine in
grave danger.”

“
You mean when Katy got
stung by a bee?” Jill asked. “He blew up there. He had to be
escorted out. That’s when I got the restraining order.”

“
It’s only natural a
father would be concerned…”

“
Concerned?” Jill cut in.
“He went ballistic. If you don’t believe me, look at the record. We
brought that too. There’s a tape of his freaking out. They thought
he’d kill Katy or me.”

“
Oh please…”

“
All right, that’s
enough,” the Judge said. “Mr. Blanchard, do you have anything of
value to ask Ms. Roper?”

“
Ms. Roper’s malicious
deeds provoked my client into justifiable action.”

“
Yes, I certainly heard
that.”

The courtroom tittered with the Judge’s
sarcasm.

“
Your honor, Ms. Roper
harassed my client. She attempted to seduce her fiancé, ruined her
engagement party…”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

“
I heard all of that
before,” the Judge said. “Do you have more questions for Ms.
Roper?”

The defense attorney opened his mouth.

“
I didn’t think so,” the
Judge said.

“
I ask the right to recall
this witness,” Mr. Blanchard said. “We still haven’t gotten to how
she is responsible for my client’s husband’s death.”

Startled, Jill blanched white.

“
Fine,” the Judge said.
“Ms. Roper, you’re dismissed. This court is adjourned for the day.
We will start bright and early tomorrow morning with the testimony
from Homeland Security. That means we will have a closed courtroom
tomorrow. If you’re not family or government, don’t
come.”

Jill got up, wobbled, and then sat down
again. She felt as if a gust of wind had pressed her back into her
chair. She steadied herself on the railing and was able to stand.
When she looked up, she saw the step-sister give her the darkest,
most evil look. She staggered but made it into Jacob’s safe
arms.

She’d done it! She’d survived a day of
reliving Trevor and all this madness! Smiling, she was very
relieved. This trial was almost over!

~~~~~~~~

Thursday — 4:30 P.M.

“
So how did it go?” Mike
had been waiting for her call. It was just after midnight in
Prague.

“
Horrible. Really awful,”
Jill said.

“
Ah Jilly, I’m so sorry,”
Mike said.

Jacob had set up Skype on all of their
computers so Jill could talk to Mike at least once a week. She
called Mike the moment she walked in from the trial. As always, she
delighted in the Jetson’s like technology that allowed her to see
her brother’s face via webcam. Sitting in her safe office in their
lovely loft, she couldn’t bring herself to review the horrible
day.

“
You’re growing your beard
out,” Jill said.

“
It’s damned cold here,
Jilly,” Mike said.

“
Are you feeling
uncomfortable? Anxious?”

“
Maybe,” Mike said. “Val
doesn’t care and there are lots of hairy guys here.”

Jill laughed at his excuse for his anxiety,
his cover up.

“
You don’t want to talk
about the trial,” Mike said.

Jill nodded.

“
Must have been bad,” Mike
said. “What happened? Just give the highlights.”

“
They’re saying the
step-whore’s actions were justifiable because I provoked this poor
fragile girl.”

“
How did you provoke her?”
Mike glared into the webcam.

“
I tried to seduce Trevor
and I ruined her party and…”

“
That’s just crap!” Mike
said.

“
Lucky we had those
pictures,” Jill said. “Without them, we had no proof that Trevor
tried to rape me. Thanks.”

“
It’s the least I could
do.”

“
The defense seems to be
looking for someone to blame.”

“
That’s so like her,” Mike
said.

“
So like Trevor. You
should see the witch and her lawyer. I wonder if he’s Trevor’s
replacement,” Jill said.

“
That’s a disgusting
thought.”

“
You know they’re going to
blame MJ for Honey’s injuries. Next week. Anyway, I’m sick of this
trial. How’s Prague?”

“
Wonderful,” Mike said.
“Val’s having a great time. She’s really happy to be working. The
babies are doing well. And I’ve met a bunch of great guys
here.”

“
You have?” Jill couldn’t
keep the surprise from her voice.

“
I know, Mike the hermit
enters the world,” Mike laughed. “I drop Val off at work everyday
and go drawing. I met this guy on a bench at the park. He
introduced me to a bunch of his friends. We hang out in the
mornings and play chess. I have lunch with Val. I come back here to
work in the afternoons. Wanna see some of my stuff?”

“
I’d love to,” Jill
said.

Hearing a noise, Jill turned to pull Katy
onto her lap. Following Katy, Anjelika stood in the doorway.

“
Mom’s here,” Jill said.
“Say hi to Uncle Mike, Katy.”

“
Hi Uncle Mike,” Katy
said. “Are you coming home soon? ‘Cuz we miss you.”

“
I’m coming home for a
visit in a couple weeks,” Mike said. “Hi Mama.”

“
You look good Mikhail,”
Anjelika said. “How is Prague?”

“
When are you coming back
to live with us?” Katy said. “I like it when you live
here.”

Overcome by Katy’s sweet statement, Mike
flushed red. He stammered a little. He shifted his attention to his
drawings to gain control.

“
I’ve been working in
pencil,” Mike said.

Anjelika moved closer to Jill’s laptop to
see the drawings. Mike held up an intricate drawing of the outside
of the Prague Castle.

“
I spent a
couple of days at this Castle. It’s the seat of their government,”
Mike said. “I usually paint people. I thought it was good practice
to work on a building. Plus, it inspired Kafka’s story
‘T
he
Castle.
’ I figured I should
hang out there.”

He flipped through drawings of a long
hallway, intricate drawings of a column, and then pictures of a few
of the rooms. He was flipping so fast that they leaned forward to
get a better view.

“
Wait,” Anjelika said.
“Who was that?”

Mike flipped back a page to a drawing of a
man working to clear a garden at the Castle.

“
That’s a gardener,” Mike
said.

“
No further back,”
Anjelika said.

Mike flipped through drawings.

“
One more,” Anjelika said.
“That’s it. Who is that?”

“
That’s a drawing of the
man I was just telling Jill about,” Mike said. “I met him the
second day we were here. We play chess every morning. His name is
Otets or Otits or something like that. I call him Otis, like Otis
Redding. He thinks that’s funny. Why?”

“
That’s my father, your
grandfather. Otets means father in Russian.”

~~~~~~~~

Thursday evening — 7:00 P.M.

Sandy heard the landline ring but didn’t
respond. She’d never owned a landline. Her ears were used to
picking up her cell phone. Her cell phone had a distinctive
ringtone for everyone who called.

This phone just rang. Until it stopped.

It wasn’t until the phone rang again that
she realized it was ringing. She ran to the phone.

“
Hello?”

“
Will you accept the
charges from Aden Norsen?” a tinny electronic voice
said.

“
Yes,” Sandy said.
“Aden!”

“
Hi honey,“ he
said.

His voice was strong and confident but she
could hear the sorrow as well.

“
I only have a few
minutes. There’s a line of guys waiting for the phones. I’ve been
waiting for more than an hour.”

“
You must really want to
talk to us,” she said.

“
I really wanted to talk
to you,” he said. “God, I miss you so much. I feel like such an
idiot for bringing all of this down on you and the
kids.”

“
I miss you too,” Sandy
said. “But sometimes people spend time apart so they know how much
they mean to each other.”

“
You’ve been talking to
Sam,” Aden said.

“
He’s been really great,”
she said. “He stopped by this morning and made us get going today.
I think it was good for everyone. How are you?

“
I’m all right,” Aden
said. “Pete is my cellmate.”

“
Pete? Molly’s Pete? He
went in a couple of months ago,” Sandy said. “Missed Christmas and
everything.”

“
Yeah, he’s been here for
a while. They put us together because we knew each other. I guess I
have a reputation.”

“
Why?”

“
Beating up a pedophile is
a big deal in prison,” Aden said.

“
But you’re okay? No
harassment or getting beaten up or…”

“
I’m okay. I miss you and
the kids so I’m miserable company. But I’m okay,” Aden said. “How
are the kids?”

“
Noelle is frantically
working on her semester assignment. She’s way behind because she
was off for so long. And Nash is asleep.”

“
Nash is
asleep?”

“
He went to work with Sam
today,” Sandy said. “They really worked him and his friend, Teddy.
Made them shovel and clean up all day. When they were done, Sam
dropped them at my salon. Sam made them clean up the place. He ate
dinner then went to bed.”

“
Your salon?” Aden
asked.

“
It’s a long story,” Sandy
said.

“
I want to hear all about
it. Every detail. But I…”

“
You want to talk to the
kids.”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
I understand. Here’s
Noelle.”

”
Daddy?” Noelle
asked.

As Sandy left the room to get Nash, she
heard Noelle talk about her project and how far behind she was.
When she returned with a sleepy Nash, the little girl was weeping
on the phone.

“
I miss you so much,
Daddy,” Noelle said. “Sandy and me didn’t sleep one wink because we
were so lonely.”

Sandy put her arm around Noelle. The little
girl leaned on Sandy while she listened to something Aden said.

“
Nash is here,” Noelle
said. “Love you too Daddy.”