Robert, page 9
“I’m quitting as soon as this sham of a trial is over.” He told her that was probably the smartest thing she’d said all day. “Thanks. I think.” She looked at the judge. “Can we get this over with?”
The small device she took out of her pocket looked like a recorder. Before he could begin to question why she was wearing it, she picked up the statue that was on the desk and smashed it. No one said a word about it, and she sat down. Robert stood up. Then he sat down. Looking at his brother William when he stood up as well, they both looked at Avery.
“What? I didn’t give them anything. That’s what they want, you know. To see what you have so that they can get rid of it or the people you’re using. That’s only one of the reasons that I want nothing to do with these people. They’re corrupt, and I don’t want to go down with them. Or, what I think is going to happen, they’re going to blame it all on me somehow and get my ass in prison. Also, your boy out there. They want him dead too.” William told her that they knew that. “I thought you might. All right. Let’s see what you have for me to work with so that I can go out there and tell someone that they need to plead guilty or face prison time.”
“All of them.” She smiled at Gilbert when he spoke. “No, I mean all of them are going to go to prison. From the governor to just about every mayor in this area. And all for what Lannie knew.”
They were perhaps about five minutes into the first recording when the mayor stuck his head into the room. How he was able to do that was beyond him, but there he stood. Gilbert sat down on the device that Avery had crushed so that whomever it was, they’d not see it.
“Hello. I’m sorry. I need to speak to my attorney.” No one moved, especially not Avery. It was then that he noticed that William had a tight hold on her jacket. “Avery, will you please step out here for a moment. I think we have an issue.”
“We don’t, but you might want to come on in here and have yourself a listen.” Everyone turned to the judge. “Robert, go out there and get that moron of a governor too. Might well get this finished up before we have to waste any taxpayers’ money, don’t you think?”
The room was crowded now, and the stenographer suggested that they clear out the courtroom and have the meeting in there. After making a quick call, not only was the room opened up for them, but there were Secret Service officers all around the room as well. At every doorway and window. Gilbert blew them off as being there for him. He was the VP, after all.
“All right now. We’re going to all keep our mouths shut and listen to this recording.” Robert told him that he could set it up to be able to be watched as well if they had a sheet or two to show it on. “I can do you one better than that. Just down the hall is a projector that works with computers as well as a large screen. I did some digging while I was here yesterday. You set it up, Robert, and we’ll have us a show. I’ll even send out for some popcorn while we’re at it.”
In the end, after setting it all up, lunch was ordered for them all. Robert had a feeling it was to keep everyone close to them. William pulled him aside while they were waiting on their meals.
“I’ve given the officers in here a list of the mayors that have been involved in all this when I was asked. I think they’re sending someone there to have them arrested. I still wonder where Lannie might have gotten that book from. Do you suppose she stole it?” Robert told him that she’d given her life for it, so it mattered little to him where she’d gotten it. “That’s very true. I guess she didn’t know who to trust, did she?”
“Would you?” William shook his head and looked at Avery. “What are you thinking about her? That she might well be playing us? To be honest with you, I don’t think that she is. She is really upset about all this.”
“She’s like the others.” It took him a minute to figure out what he was saying about the other women in the family. “I’m not saying that I want her in my life, not even if she were to be my sister-in-law. I can’t stand her, but I trust her. I don’t know why but I do.”
“That’s good enough for me.” The food was delivered in record time. While they were eating, no one talked but the mayor and the governor, and several messages were given to the judge. “I can’t for the life of me remember if I ever heard his name, the judge, I mean. Usually, I can look up on the dais and remember it that way, but it’s not there.”
“Federal Judge Samuel Haas. I believe that mom knows him and is the one that asked him to come here and sit this one.” He didn’t know why but he wasn’t surprised that his mom would have known the man. “She told him that some shaky shit was going on, and she wanted someone that she could trust here so that her boys, us, wouldn’t be going to prison for helping out the country.”
“Thank god she’s on our side.” They both laughed. “Avery is avoiding them all. I don’t blame her at all, but she is going to be in a world of hurt if they don’t arrest these people today. Understand what I mean?”
“Yes. She’s not helping us, not really, but I know that she will if it comes to that. Also, did you notice that the mayor gave her the eye when she came out of the room and walked away from him? Do you think he knows what she said in there and that she destroyed the recording thing she had on her?” Robert could only nod as the mayor came to sit with them.
He didn’t speak to either of them, but he did keep an eye on them. Like he wasn’t hiding the fact that he was wondering what they were talking about. It looked like he was going to ask them when Judge Haas asked him to get things finished up to watch the recording. Robert was shocked when Judge Haas pointed to the recording of the night of the murder. He did so and then sat back down by his brother. He could almost repeat every word that had been said that night.
“What are you doing here, David? I thought that you agreed to stay out of my life or else.” The mayor was David Sorrel, he remembered now. Lannie spoke again as she stood up and turned toward the two men. “Tommy? You’re here too? Must be a big night for the two of you to be out after dark.”
“Wait a fucking minute here. Just wait a fucking minute. Where the hell did you get this tape?” Judge Haas told him that he’d better be sitting down and shutting up. “I will not. They doctored this up so that it looks like me and my nephew were there. I won’t have it. Avery? Get up off your ass and object to this?”
“Object to what? They’re only playing the recording of the night that Ms. Jacobson was killed. Why do you care? You told me that you weren’t involved, didn’t you? Said you weren’t there. If you’re not lying to me, then sit down like you were told.” Avery stood up when Sorrel walked to her. “You touch me, and I’ll show them what you did to me to make me be here today.”
He only had a moment to wonder about that when Sorrel laughed. “Your little girl is going to be all right, Avery. So long as you play with the grown-ups.” She looked around Sorrel, and he turned. There was a SS man standing behind him. “No need for you to get your drawers all bunched up, sir. We’re just having a friendly—”
“He threatened her.” Everyone turned to look at William. “I believe he also has her daughter too. I’m not sure about that, but I’d say that’s a good guess. Does he have her, Avery?”
Tears formed in her eyes as she nodded. However, before anyone asked her to say it aloud that he did indeed have her, Sorrel was on the floor with a gun at the back of his head. It took a shot to his shoulder, which surprised the hell out of him to get him to tell them where she was.
“Tommy has her. The fucker said he’d take good care of her.” The Servicemen, Army, Robert thought, that seemed to appear out of nowhere, got the address and left as a unit. “You’re going to pay for this, Avery. You’ll never work as an attorney anywhere again. I’ll see to that personally.”
“Good luck with that, moron.” Avery thanked William and then turned to the judge. “I have a lot of shit to get cleaned up before this moron is out of here. Can we please get this show on the road so that I can go to my little girl?”|
“Yes. I’ll have them bring her here for you. After she goes to the hospital.” Judge Haas stood up. “If there is one hair on her head out of place, I’ll tear you apart. On that, you can bank. Get this started, Robert. I suddenly feel nasty all over my body.”
Sorrel was jerked up from the floor laughing. As soon as he was put in a chair and handcuffed, the laughter stopped. He looked at the screen that he’d been playing the recording on. There wasn’t going to be any doubt that the two men standing there with Lannie were anyone but him and his nephew Tommy. They had their guns out and pointed at her when he paused it.
~*~
Elizabeth checked out young Penny. Avery wanted her daughter in her arms, but she was waiting on her to finish with her exam. The hospital had been very accommodating, especially after the president called and told them that Elizabeth could practice anywhere he said she could. And that she’d better be treated like he was there talking to them. Katie, who had been at the hotel with her this morning, was talking to the nurse about the weather while Avery and she watched Penny.
“I did what you told me to do, mom.” Avery, still on the verge of tears whenever her daughter spoke, nodded. “He didn’t stand a chance once I found the iron pipe. Hitting him in the balls and then in the head while he was down wasn’t fair play, and I know you like only fair play, but he took me right out of my bed when I was sleeping. Mom, I don’t want that stuff in my room anymore either.”
“All right. I don’t think I’d want it, either. We’ll get you something completely different.” Avery was finally able to touch her daughter when Elizabeth stepped back. “I was terrified for you, honey. My heart nearly stopped beating when I didn’t find you in your bed the other morning. I want you to know that I was going to do whatever they told me so that I could get you back.”
Penny was nearly ten. She’d told them that every time they said she was nine. But unlike other nine year olds that she knew, this kid was smart. Not just book smart but street smart too. Her mother had taught her how to defend herself, hide and how to get out of a bad situation. When the two of them seemed to be finished hugging, for the moment anyway, it was Katie that asked the questions.
“You hit this grown man with a pipe, then cuffed him to the chair that he had you in. May I ask you how you got out of the cuffs?” She handed a pretty little ring to Katie. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s a cuff key. Mom wears one too. I’ll show you how it works.” After flipping the rose that was the center of the ring upward. A key was there. “It’s made from a real key too. Mom knows some guy who makes them for young women who are on their own. But when dummy cuffed me to the chair, I waited until he was sleeping or high, I can’t tell the difference, but when he was out, I uncuffed myself and found me a weapon. Mom told me that all the planning in the world won’t help you if you’re stupid enough to go back in the house where the killer was without something to defend yourself with. So I waited for him to wake up and beat the snot out of him.”
“The Army showed up just as she was leaving the building. After making each one of them show her some identification, she took them back into the building to get Tommy. He was out cold with a concussion. He’s been arrested for kidnapping for now. The rest will come as soon as they get him stitched up.” Robert kissed her on the mouth and then kissed his mom on the cheek. “The men that were there to save you are so impressed with what you did that you’ll be all around the world about your bravery once they’re back on base.”
“Gee, that’s neat. I did what my mom told me. Well, one of the things she told me. Another one is telling people to back off first. If they don’t, then I’ve done my part in having to hurt them when they don’t do what I tell them.” Elizabeth laughed with Robert. “Also, this is really important. I have to make sure that she knows when I’m going to be in trouble at school. I get that way sometimes when the teacher says things that aren’t true about me and my mom.”
“Like what?” Robert seemed to be enjoying the little girl and sat down in one of the chairs that were in the room. “I would think that your teacher would be a little afraid of you and your mom.”
“Oh, she is now. Last month I got sent home because some boy was pulling on my hair, and I put up a fuss to him to the teacher. Bobby, the boy, said that it needed to be off my neck so that he could see it better. I didn’t understand that, so I asked my mom. She told me that it was sexual harassment.” Elizabeth asked Penny what grade she was in. “I’m a senior in high school. I have a very brilliant brain. Anyway, after I went to school the next day, he did it again. I asked him if he thought my ten year old neck was going to give him a hard-on. He was so embarrassed that he slapped me. After that, he was suspended for a month and not able to play football for the rest of the school year. Which is very bad on his part. He’s a good player when he’s not been an idiot, and no one will see him in his senior year. Oh well. I had to get three stitches in my mouth for it. No one believed him when he told them what I said to him. And I didn’t say anything either.”
Robert laughed. So did she, but Robert looked like he was losing it after the kid told him what she’d done. He finally asked her if she was always so straightforward. When she nodded, her mom told her to use her words. The kid didn’t seem to have any trouble with that rule either.
“I don’t want to brag, but I have a very good vocabulary. I sometimes have to talk down to adults because they don’t believe that I know and understand the words that I’m using. Teachers have the worse time with me about it. If they make fun of me, I simply talk over their heads until they get frustrated with me and send me to the office. The Spanish and French teachers, which is what I’m taking as an elective, hate when I’m in their class because I can speak several languages without any trouble.” Katie asked her if she was planning to go to college. “Yes. That’s what I want to do. I’ve been applying at different ones, but I’m having trouble getting anyone to give me a recommendation. They don’t like me much, I guess.”
It didn’t really seem to bother the young girl that no one liked her. If that was true. But Elizabeth had an idea that Katie was going to take care of that for her. Either she’d write her one, or she knew a few people that would do it. William joined them in the room when his mom stepped out to finish her calls.
“I’ve just spoken to Haas. He said that with all the tampered blood work that he’s gotten as well as the things from Elizabeth, they’re going to charge both Tommy and Sorrel with witness tampering as well as the attempted murder of Penny. There are other charges as well, but I thought those would be the ones that you’d want to know about first. Seventeen mayors or their equivalent have been arrested and charged with a pleather of items on the book that Lannie had. Oh, you asked me how she ended up with the book. I asked Lance. He said that she told him that she’d been in the office one day and found it out in the open. I don’t think that he believed her.” Robert asked him what he thought had happened. “Lance believes that she was raped and beaten by Tommy or both him and Sorrel. Lannie was forever telling him that she was clumsy, but he figured out that she was being hurt. The reason that he’d go to the shop with her when she went there alone. There is no way for us to know for sure now.”
“No, I guess not. But I was wondering why she didn’t go to the police sooner and was told that she didn’t have anyone to trust. She’d been terrified that someone would hold her brother for it.” It was Elizabeth who asked why they’d not done that. “They never told anyone that they were related. It wasn’t in any of Lance’s paperwork. And she wasn’t the next of kin on his life insurance policy. Lannie and Lance were never together unless it was at the shop. They only thought that she had hired him to keep an eye on her. As for the puddings and water, they were all laced with fentanyl. I guess they weren’t taking any chances that she didn’t get the right one. The one that Lance ate and threw up, it was just lucky for him that he’d gotten most of it out of his belly and that he was a strong, healthy man. Otherwise, this might not have ever been solved.”
Elizabeth found that to be not just scary but sad as well. From everything that she’d heard about the two of them, they were about the nicest people ever. It’s a real shame that she had to die so young and so violently so that some ass wipes thought that they were better than anyone else could get away with murder.
She didn’t want to release Penny just yet, but she knew that Avery would feel better if she had her at home. However, it was William that suggested that they go to a hotel until the new force that was at the stationhouse could go over her place. Almost as soon as both of them agreed it might be a better idea than going back to a tainted home, Sherman called.
“I have some paperwork here that I need to have signed by Avery and her daughter. The state representative is giving them a reward for figuring this out for the state. Also, mom made a few calls, and there will be a letter of recommendation at the hotel for Penny from the President for her to use as a recommendation for her college entrance. He also is making sure that she has a full ride to any place she wants to go in the United States.” Penny squealed with delight, and her mom seemed shell-shocked. “Also, I will need to talk to Lance. There is some money coming to him as well. Also, a recommendation for him to not go back to work at the station. I’m going to see if we can get him to come to Ohio with us and run our department. It needs a good man like him.”
“Great idea.” Elizabeth was excited for all of the men in her family. “Maybe we can talk Avery and her daughter to come out for a long visit too while we’re at it. Just to be away from all the crap that has been going on around here.”
“Yes. I’d love that.” There was no hesitation on Avery’s part about saying that was what she wanted to do. Elizabeth didn’t know why she agreed so readily but was happy for all of them. “Penny and I talked it over when I came here, and there is very little at the house that we want. It’s all been dirtied, and neither one of us what any memories of the night she was taken from me.”
