In The Valley In The Shadow Of Death

The ride to Hunstville Prison was a strangely silent one the next morning...Larry North was visibly hung over from the night before and looked like walking death...I sat up front with him, while Olivia and Beverly sat together in the back...

Beverly came to me this morning and begged me to sit up front with him today...I reluctantly agreed...

I wanted to sit with her Auntay in the back...We had had an incredible night....I was exhausted...I wanted to go to sleep while we drove, but Bev needed a favor...I was inclined to grant her one.

"Oh D.R. thank you soo much...I owe you big time...I know you want to be all hugged up with Auntay, but I just can't sit next to Larry on that ride to the prison...It'll be so awkward.."she said.

"It's cool babygirl...I don't have to be all hugged up with Auntay...provided she uh makes it up to me tonight." I said looking at Livy slyly...

"Oh, you know she will."said Beverly.

Olivia's mouth flew wide open in mock surprise...

Olivia looked at Bev and I and just shook her head laughing.....

"You know something?  You two are just too extra..." she said and we all laughed...

II-

We had studied the case files a little bit...From what I could see initially there wasn't much to work with...It looked like an open and shut case and it looked like this guy was guilty of first degree or at least 2nd degree murder....But...my years as a Homicide Detective had taught me that some times...things aren't always as they seem...

I looked in the back seat...Olivia and Beverly were both sound asleep..

Larry peered at them from the rear view mirror.....Then he looked at me.....

"Most men would envy you you know...Living with two beautiful women...but uh....Doesn't it bother you always having a third wheel ?" he said matter of factly...

"She's not around us as much as you may think...When we are home...she's usually out with her boyfriend,over his house or he's downstairs with her..."I said...

"Oh..so she wasn't lying...It is serious between her and Nelson huh?"he said.

"Pretty much."I said.

"How long they been seeing each other?" he asked..

"I don't know...it's been awhile..."I said.

"You know..I know him...He had a real bad crush on your wife for awhile.." he said.

"Oh really?" I said...Olivia had told me that Nelson had had a little crush on her at one time...but I pretended to be surprised....I wanted to see how far this guy was going to go with this.

"Oh yeah...Liv would come around the office and he couldn't finish a sentence....He'd melt like butter when Liv was in the room....He never acted on it...but we all knew around the office...Livy knew...She thought it was cute, but she never took him serious.....Could you blame her? She was about eight or  nine years older than him and he was still living with his mama...He was way out of his leauge.. So I see that since he couldn't get Livy...He's settled for uh Livy Junior..." he said snidely....

I just nodded, I said nothing...

"Nelson East, nice guy, pretty fair attorney as Public Defenders go...but a real lightweight....I think he was living with his mama up until about a year ago.." he said with an air of superiority..."Bev could do better." he added..

''Like with you right?" I said..

''Exactly."he said...

In this one moment...He had just lost whatever respect I had had for him...He had violated a man law...Pouring salt on another man out of pure spite...Nelson had never done anything to him...He was purely jealous because Nelson had something he wanted...Someone he wanted.. I was silent the rest of the ride. I was glad that both Olivia and Bev were sound asleep and hadn't heard him.

III-

Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "The Walls" is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately 54.36-acre (22.00 ha) facility, near Downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, administered as within Region I. The facility, the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849.

The unit houses the State of Texas execution chamber. It is the most active execution chamber in the United States, with 500 executions after 1982 when the death penalty was reinstated in Texas.

As we walked into the huge Prison...Larry slyly put his arm around Beverly...She slyly and very discreetly removed his arm....He smiled...He realized that both Olivia and I had witnessed what had happened..

He put his arm around her waist again and Beverly sternly looked at Larry and said-

"Would you knock it off please?"

He removed his arm....I couldn't surpress a snicker...Olivia punched my arm, though she was smiling herself...

Larry looked like he had just drank a can of paint...

****************************************************

Tony James was tall, six foot four, muscular and athletic with movie star good looks...He had what you would call a kind face...But so did a lot of serial killers...

I overheard Beverly whisper to Olivia... "Auntay ,he's cute."  Olivia smiled and replied -''Yes..He is.."

I just smiled...Larry ,still in a funky mood said nothing...He introduced us all as the guard walked Tony James into the room...he was wearing a white jump suit and white sneakers...The uniform of a condemned man...His cell was just 100 feet from the death chamber...

 We actually saw the room where people would be executed...I had a very cold feeling as I viewed the room...

Larry introduced us...

''Tony...This is Attorney Olivia Bennett-Alexander....She's an attorney from Philadelphia...She's going to help me try to save your life...,This is her husband, Donnie Ray Alexander, he's an Investigator and this is uh, her niece, Attorney Beverly West...." he said.

He looked at us and smiled...

"Such a nice looking group of people Larry, but I don't see what they can do that everybody else didn't try to do." he said.

"Fresh eyes....They're not from here, they can't be uh ruh intimidated....Tell them your story.."he said.

"Aww come on Larry...Thank you for all you've been trying to do..but I'm done...I've accepted my fate....There's no more that can be done." he said.

"Tony ,Did you kill Darla Houston?" asked my wife Olivia...

"Noooooo...I loved her...I didn't kill her...but I can't prove that I didn't." he said.

"Well tell us your story...Tell us what happened.?" I said.  "I used to be a Homicide cop...before I became a private investigator...Tell me what happened." I said.

IV-

"It all started with Ice Cream...Cherries Jubilee ...She was enjoying a bowl at the local diner the first time I laid eyes on her...I sat down and began a conversation with her...It was refreshing that she didn't know who I was...I uh used to be a big deal around here if you followed local football....She was refreshing...I paid for her ice cream and I asked her if I could see her again...She said yes...And I did.....We would always meet at the same cafe and walk to her house...Just talking...At first...Some of the local guys probably didn't dig it...Me, this Black football player and this white gal....But none of em stepped to me about it....."

"It was nice...It hadn't gotten serious or intimate....It was just nice to hold her hand and walk down the street with her...It was nice just to talk to her ,hear her voice....Sure...I wanted to have sex with her...I won't lie...but for the first time I met a girl who made me look beyond that."

"We didn't get intimate for at least three months...and by the time we did..I realized that I had something special..." he said.

''Was there anybody else in her life?" Asked Beverly....I noticed that Larry grimaced when she asked that, but it was a good question..

"Yeah..she had had a pretty rough break up with her ex-boyfriend...Albert Jenkins... Another Black guy...And he kept calling, kept pleading with her to come back to him...Even threatened to kill himself if she didn't come back to him..."he said.

"Did you and Him have any words?" asked Olivia.

"No ,not really...I barely knew the guy...Just from seeing him around..." said Tony James.

"Did anyone interview Albert Jenkins?" asked Olivia...

"He was interviewed only once....He claimed he had an alibi....They didn't really dig much further." said Larry.

"Everytime someone tried to dig a little deeper, a police officer kind of leaned on them a bit.."said Tony James..

"Let me guess...Bart Snark right?" I said.

Tony managed a smile...Strange for a man just days from dying....

"So you've met him...Huh?  Wow...He works fast...He won't stop with a warning ..He'll arrest you ,follow you, try to jack trumped up charges on you...He  and his father run most investigators off!" he said.

"I'm an ex-cop...I know how to deal with him..."I said.

"He used to like Darla too...but she couldn't stand him...Said that he gave her the creeps...Wouldn't take no for an answer.." said Tony...

"Yeah, I know how that feels." smirked Beverly...

Larry stomped his foot and grimaced...

Olivia looked over at him and then turned and smiled...

This wasn't lost on Tony James who laughed himself and then changed the subject...I liked Tony James already...

"Did you know his dad was the arresting officer."said Tony...

"I heard...Heard he got fired for perjury..."I said.

"Not just fired...locked up...He's in county.....Only place he could be safe from the many he has locked up.."laughed Tony...

"Tell me about the day of the murder." asked Olivia....

"She called me...She had just had a knock down drag out fight with Albert Jenkins...Not physical...An argument on the phone...She asked me to come over for awhile...I did....I had just been with her the night before,so I was surprised that she was calling me so soon... I didn't have a car...My car was in the shop...So I had a friend...Buddy Simpson to drive me by her place...When I got there...The front door and the back door was wide open...I walked in and there she was on the living room floor..She had been beat to death with a golf club....I presumed it was her father's golf club...I held her in my arms and cried...Then I heard police sirens....I knew how this would look, me, a Black guy with a dead white woman in my arms...So I got the hell out of there...I tried to wipe down my prints...but I didn't do a very good job of it...I ran out the back door...It was already opened..." he said.

I was studying the evidence folder....

"They found a condom with your DNA in the trash can in her bedroom.."I said.

"Yeah...I had been there the night before...We had had sex...consensual...I admitted to that..."he said.

I took out my Ipad mini....

"D.R. What are you doing?" asked Beverly...Smiling...

"I'm checking the local weather reports for that year and that date...The temperature was 50 degrees....It was a week before Thanksgiving....Why would the front door and the back door already be open at that time of year?  Not only that....I don't see how anyone could have missed it...They found your fingerprints and an unidentifiable fingerprint on the front door....but NONE at all on the back door...That was wiped clean!!!" I said.

''What does that mean?" asked Larry... Olivia Answered for me..

''What my husband means is that somebody else was there that night...Before Tony got there..That somebody being ,the killer."said Olivia...

''And now we have days to prove it...I hope we can." said Beverly...

"I've been living on hope for three years....I hope you can find that proof too...but if you can't...It's cool...I've already made my peace with my fate." he said... "GUARD!" he called out!  He shook our hands and he hugged Larry..."Thanks man..Thanks for still trying.." he said and the guard walked him back to the row...

As we walked out...I stared at the execution chamber- I didn't have a good feeling about this...And I sure wished that I had more time..

V-

On the ride back....Larry looked at Beverly...

"Ride up front with me Bev....Let D.R. and your Auntay cuddle..." he said....

Beverly looked at us....and surprisingly ,she agreed...

"Okay!"she said.

"I won't bite." he said.

''I know you won't." she said as she sat up front. He smiled...

Olivia and I sat in the back, I put my arms around Olivia and she rested her head on my shoulder...Larry eyed us through the rear view mirror and smiled...He peered at Beverly, Who peered at him just as stone faced as she could be...Her face betraying no emotion whatsoever!

"You think we can win this one babes?" I asked...

" We have a punchers chance...I saved a guy from the needle one time before within three days and the investigator I hired was nowhere near as good as you Donnie Ray." she said and kissed me softly...

"I remember that case Livy...We worked that one together...I was your second attorney."said Larry North...He peered at Beverly again...

"You had just passed the bar exam that year Bev...You hadn't gotten your feet wet yet."he said.

Beverly smiled ....

"I remember...I was so proud of Auntay...So glad to be an Attorney...The story even made the newspapers."she said proudly. The mood had lightened a bit.

"Yeah.. We were all proud of your Auntay...And that's why I called her in on this case..Along with other reasons, Heh ,Heh ,Heh.." he said and slyly put his arms around Bev, letting his arm slip down around her hips....Olivia and I saw what he did...We looked at each other and smiled....

Beverly just as slyly removed his arm...Smiled mischieviously at him and moved over, closer to the door..

"Heyyy ,what'cha movin over there for?" he asked...

''You've got to drive Larry...You can't drive safely with your arm around me..."said Beverly with a sweet innocent look on her face...

Olivia dug her face down into my chest...Trying to hide that she was laughing...I had to remain stone faced...

"I think I can manage it...I think I could do a lot of things with my arms around you...Come on over here girl." said Larry ,smiling...

"No...I'm good right where I am." said Beverly, again with that sweet innocent smile...

Larry leaned over and pulled Beverly to him at the next stop light.....

"I could do a lot of good things ,snuggled up with you...I miss this so much babygirl."
he said.

"You didn't miss it that much...I haven't heard from you in three years."said Beverly..

"But I'm here now baby...This is now.."he said hugging Beverly...

Beverly again moved his arm and slid over near the door.

"You know, you've got the softest , roundest little waste." said Larry...

"Funny you say that...my boyfriend tells me that all the time."  said Beverly ,smiling sweetly.

All at once, Larry's mood became somber....He said nothing...He just drove....

Olivia concealed a laugh....She dug her head down into my chest...Beverly eventually dozed off to sleep in the front seat...

"I don't understand this girl...She won't give me a break." he said banging his hand on the dashboard....

Neither Olivia ,nor I responded...

We stopped for some Cheeseburgers, Fries and Milk shakes and gas at a rest stop ..

Olivia and Beverly  got out to get the food... I stayed in the car.. Larry gassed up the car while they were gone.

They  came back with the food...Neither Larry nor Bev said a word to each other...and Beverly moved right back to the edge of the seat..Olivia and I cuddled up in the backseat and enjoyed our burgers, fries and milkshakes... Beverly passed Larry a burger and a cup of coffee..

"How much I owe you?" he said  tersely...

''Nothin...It was on me." she said just as tersely....He took the food but he didn't say thank you...He was still frosty that Bev wouldn't cuddle up front with him.

Larry looked at us and then stared at Bev, who didn't look his way..He started the car back up and then we headed back to Dallas....

A Philadelphia winter was  only mildly colder than the mood in that front seat!

No one said much of nothing the entire ride back...

(TO BE CONTINUED)