Authors: Synthia St. Claire
“Yes,
your honor, I realize that. I apologize to the court for submitting such late
evidence to trial, but it is of the utmost importance that the jury be given
the benefit of seeing it,” Shane answered, and then added, “In the spirit of
justice, of course.”
The
judge looked at him with narrowed eyes. “The defense here was just making a
motion for a mistrial, Mr. Logan. Please do tell me that whatever it is you’re
introducing to evidence has some bearing on that, or I’ll be inclined to
support them.”
Shane
glanced over at the opposition and replied, “Oh, yes, your honor. I think this
evidence will bring crystal clarity to that unfortunate incident. May I
proceed?”
The
judge nodded gracefully and sat back in his big chair as if he couldn’t wait to
watch the show that was about to unfold. I doubted he got many thrills or
nearly as much drama out of his normal docket of cases.
“The
prosecution calls to the stand Mr. Hale Ellis,” Shane said.
“I
object,” barked Crenshaw James, the celebrity attorney hired by Reid. He stood
up and leaned across the table like he was trying to force his voice to
mentally command the judge. James’s dark, thick eyebrows were scrunched up in
the middle of his forehead but there was not a wrinkle or crease to be found in
his absurdly expensive suit.
“On
what grounds do you object?” the judge asked James.
“Your
honor, we have not been privy to any of this new evidence, or this witness.”
The
judge seemed to consider it for a moment, but then smiled and told him,
“Objection noted…and denied. Please continue, Counselor Logan.”
Hale
stood up and walked to the small witness box beside the judge. He stood out
like a sore thumb amongst all the suits in the jeans he usually wore when
working on equipment, and thought better of it to remove his oil-stained hat as
soon as he sat down. Another deputy, the bailiff, walked up to him and held out
a bible, which Hale placed his hand on.
“Do
you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?” the bailiff asked.
“Uh,
yeah,” Hale answered clumsily, and then added, “I do.”
“Your
honor, I’d like to introduce exhibit…
err
…fifteen,” Shane said, pausing
as he tried to figure out what exhibit number belonged to the phone he’d just
submitted only a few moments ago.
“Go
ahead, Mr. Logan.”
“Thank
you, your honor.” Shane stepped back over to the hearing officer’s table and
took the phone. He walked it over to Hale, held it up in front of him, and
asked, “Mr. Ellis, do you recognize this phone?”
Hale
bowed towards the microphone and replied, “Yeah. That’s my phone.”
“Did
you, Mr. Ellis, at any time, communicate with Miss Cindy Reid on this phone
about events surrounding this trial?”
“I
did.”
“Objection,”
James called out again. “How is this relevant to whether or not Counselor Logan
breached the ethics of interest or demonstrates anything of substance besides
hearsay, your honor?”
Before
the judge could answer, Shane spoke up, “Your honor, I’m getting to that
directly.”
“See
that you do,” the judge said and continued to recline in his chair.
“Overruled.”
Shane
turned his attention back to Hale. “Mr. Ellis, there are several text messages
in this phone that you sent to Miss Reid, is that correct?”
“Yes,”
Hale responded.
“And
there are messages from her to you as well, correct?”
Hale
nodded. “There are.”
“And
at no time before today, did anyone else have access to your phone to, say,
plant these messages?”
“I’m
the only one who’s used it.”
Shane
stepped over to the prosecution’s desk and spoke briefly to the woman I
recognized from the coffee shop and Shane’s address on the courthouse steps.
She slid him a thin stack of papers, which he took and handed to Hale. At the
same time, the woman stepped across the aisle and gave some similar papers to
Crenshaw James, who began speed-reading them with a look of disbelief.
“Mr.
Ellis, we’ve taken the liberty of printing out the text messages, a copy of
which has just been given to the defendant as well, that were discovered on the
phone between you and Miss Reid. Can you confirm if these print-outs are the
same as the ones on your phone?”
Hale
looked through the papers slowly, reading line by line to himself, and then
answered, “Yes. These messages are the same.”
“And
these
are
exchanges, to the best of your knowledge, between you and Miss
Reid?”
“Yeah.
That’s her phone number, right there next to her name. I called her a lot when
we were datin’. She texted me from the same phone, so I know it was her.”
“Mr.
Ellis, you’ll find bolded numbers beside each message. Can you please read them
to the jury, beginning with message number sixty-four?”
Hale
flipped the page and found it with his finger, then carefully read the message
out loud, word for word, “I saw you on the tv. If we’re going to make this
work, I have to know what really happened. Was that really you kissing that
guy?”
“Read
the next message, please,” Shane said, and then explained to the jury, “This
next one is from Miss Reid.”
I
watched Cindy out of the corner of my eye. She was staring at Hale with a fury
I’d never seen come out of her ever before and had pulled on her hair so much
that it was quickly becoming a frazzled mess. Little miss perfect was falling
apart at the seams.
Hale’s
amplified voice rang out as he read the next line on the page, “It was all just
a prank, baby. Daddy told me to do it so the camera could catch us and it’d
look like we were together.”
Shane
nodded to Hale and said, “Go on, keep going. They’ll get a copy to examine
later.”
Hale
started reading and didn’t stop, going through the messages with only a slight
pause between each one, “So it wasn’t for real? … No, sugar. … Why did you do
it, then? … Hale, how hard is it to understand? We did it to get that damn lawyer
out of our hair. We’re going to bury him with the pictures when I take ‘em to
the news.”
“Very
good, Mr. Ellis,” Shane broke in to stop him. “Your honor, at this time I’d
like to object to the motion for a mistrial.”
The
judge moved to the end of his chair and nodded his head in a lively way. “Oh
yes, Counselor Logan. Objection sustained. The motion to mistrial is vehemently
denied.”
Shane
smiled over at Patterson Reid, who was sitting there with a scowl very much
like his daughter’s. His gaggle of lawyers were poring over the sheets of paper
they’d been handed and arguing quietly amongst themselves.
“Thank
you, your honor,” Shane said and continued, “Mr. Ellis, there’s another message
under the last one you read, I believe it’s number…seventy. Could you start
reading there again, please?”
Hale
found his place and picked right back up again, “I thought your father had
taken care of everything with that guy, the one who used to work for you? …
That was different. It only took money to make him change his mind.”
“Now
Mr. Ellis, who were you referring to when you said, ‘that guy, the one who used
to work for you?’”
Hale
replied, “Oh that was Frank. Everybody knows him. He worked at the phosphate
plant for…forever, till he got sick.”
“Frank
Miller, correct?”
Hale
nodded. “Yeah. That’s the guy.”
“Well,”
Shane slapped his hands together and them held them out to his sides. “That
about does it. No further questions, your honor.”
Twenty
“How’d
you sleep?” Shane asked as he walked into the kitchen. I finished taking a sip
of the coffee, a special blend he’d ordered from Indonesia, and put my head
against his hand when he placed it on my shoulder.
“Wonderfully,
thanks to you,” I answered and gave him a lingering kiss. “By the way, your new
place is fantastic, Shane.”
“The
land came at a good price.”
He
walked over to the steaming pot still in the machine and poured himself a cup.
While he stirred the dark brown liquid, Shane looked out the window towards my
family’s farm house, which was situated on the other side of a newly-planted
corn field in the distance.
“Looks
like your father is out there working on that tractor already. He sure is a
morning person. Are all farmers the same?” Shane pondered aloud as he watched.
“Early
to bed, early to rise. I think all of them live by that saying. He likes to get
things done before the late afternoon, though. It gives him time to relax and
enjoy the day before it’s over.”
“How’s
he dealing with everything Kat, now that your mom’s been gone a few months? I
remember how rough it was on him.”
I
folded over the newspaper I was reading that had the prominent headline,
Reid
Found Guilty
, and propped my feet up on a nearby stool. “He’s coming along
ok. Abby keeps him busy, that’s for sure. He told me the other day that her new
boyfriend is coming over to pick her up for a date on Saturday.”
“Uh-oh,
I know what that means,” Shane replied with a chuckle and mimed aiming a
shotgun.
Shane
sat down across from me and playfully put his feet on top of mine. He wouldn’t
dare try and tickle me while I was drinking coffee, never mind how early it was
for that type of goofing around.
“He
got seven years. Not to ruin the surprise for you or anything,” Shane said when
I started reading again.
“You
think he’ll actually serve that long?”
“I
doubt it, Kat. He’ll be in there for at least three though, and the fines have
put a serious dent in his accounts. I hear the feds have some plans for Cindy,
too. She’s really not going to like what they’re going to throw at her.”
“Oh
yeah?” I smiled knowing that the woman who’d tried to make my life hell at
every twist and turn would be suffering a little herself. There wasn’t much of
a chance that she’d change her ways, but a girl has to hope.
“She’ll
be appearing before a grand jury on conspiracy charges. Turns out there’s just
enough evidence to show she knew about her father’s dealings and witness tampering
to get her a chance in the spotlight. She probably didn’t actually contribute
to any of the really bad things that went on at the plant, but she had
information about Miller that she didn’t bring to the court’s attention.”
“Plus,
she tried to wreck the case and turn it into a mistrial. Isn’t there a charge
for mischief or something?” I said and shifted my feet out from under his when
they started to tingle before going on, “Anyway, I bet you wish you’d stayed in
long enough to prosecute that case. What I’d pay to be a fly on the wall in
there while she’s trying to answer all those questions.”
“Ah,
you know I’m done working for the government. The Kirkland office is nearly
finished being built, and I’m sure the folks that live around here will be glad
to have an attorney that they won’t have to travel all the way to Wilmington to
see.”
I
flipped the paper over to the want ads. School would be finishing up soon and
then I’d need to start seriously looking for a job.
“Well,
you shouldn’t have a problem getting people through the door, Shane. I can’t
begin to tell you how happy Miss Pauline was that her husband could keep
working. She said his job didn’t even really change that much. Instead of
digging up more pits in the ground, now he’s digging up contaminated areas so
all that stuff can get cleaned up properly.”
“Yeah,
the auction of the phosphate plant went well. I never doubted for a minute that
Patterson would get rid of it if he got convicted. A bunch of people have
already told me that things are infinitely better under new management.”
Shane
reached across the table and found my hand. He caressed my fingers with his
thumb and then lifted my hand to his mouth for a few light kisses. When he was
done and I was fully buzzing from caffeine and the tingles his lips sent
through me, Shane examined the band, composed of white gold with a marquis
diamond in the middle, which rested on my ring finger.
“Have
you told anyone yet?” he asked.
“Not
yet,” I answered bashfully. “Geez, Shane. You just asked me last night.”
“The
answer’s still yes, isn’t it?”
“
Hmmm
…I
don’t know. Maybe I need some convincing, just to make sure,” I teased.
He
stood up and walked behind me, and began rubbing my upper back in smooth,
relaxing motions. “How about a back massage?”
“And
what else?”
Shane
moved down my back and said, “Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.”
“Ooh,
now you’re getting somewhere, handsome. Anything else?”
“I’m
just getting warmed up,” he offered, and slipped one warm, devious hand through
the part in my robe. There, he cupped one breast and gently stoked the embers
of my arousal. Our lips met and a passionate, soul-capturing feeling rushed in
as his love lifted me away once again.