Hot Pink

Two weeks later...Ralph Scallion gave us a very thorough list of sightings of Ginger outside of his apartment in the parking lot, standing there for hours taking photos....He gave us accounts of his neighbors and fellow tenents being asked questions about him, some of them personal...and he had photo shots of nude photos of Ginger that she texted and emailed to him...

Ginger had been spotted at Victoria's Secret where Minay worked and also outside of Minay's Loft where she lived taking photos...

He couldn't prove it...but Minay complained of getting several calls with nothing but heavy breathing...

Olivia felt she had enough that she could argue for a restraining order.

We were talking outside of the courtroom where Olivia had successfully argued an unrelated case when her niece, Attorney Beverly West joined us.....

"Hey What you guys got there?" she asked.

"This is for Ralph Scallion..He wants to fire that female chef working there and get a restraining order against her." said Olivia..

We showed the file to Beverly and her eyes got as wide as saucers...

"Is this her?   Oh My God...I saw her standing outside our house snapping pictures a few weeks ago... Nelson said she was standing outside his apartment complex, snapping pictures...and I was over at Bridget Jone's Lingerie store last week and she showed up there out of the blue...Talked my ears off about her and Ralph...."said Beverly...

"You were at Bridget Jones's lingerie store? Hmmm What were you doing there?" I mused..

Beverly slapped my arm and giggled...

"Hush Up Smarty....She told me she saw you and Auntay in Victoria's Secret...What were YOU doing there?" she laughed.

''We grown folks" I joked. Olivia just shook her head...Giving both of us the side eye!~

"Anyway...I think we got enough here for a judge to sign a restraining order.."said Olivia..

"So she's not Ralph's girlfriend?" asked Beverly...

"No....Ralph goes with Minay, who works over at Victoria's Secret." I said.

"Cherry Johnson's friend?  I know her..."said Beverly...

"Ralph slept with this chick and apparently...She never got over him...She's gone crazy...Any woman who gets too cozy with him...She follows...She followed you...She knows all about us..Our names, what kind of cars we drive..What we do for a living..She's got the book on Minay too..." I said.

"Oh hell, she's creepy..." said Bev...

"Walk us to see the judge...His name is Turner S. Freeman...ADA Keith Wallace swears by him..says he's a good Judge..."said Olivia...

"Okay Auntay.....I haven't hung out with you in weeks." said Beverly...

II-

The Judges' Administrative Assistant was not at her desk.....So we walked past it down the corridor to where his office was...

The door was unlocked...I could swear I heard moaning and groaning ....I cracked the door and Olivia and Bev walked past me ...In light of what happened next,I'll bet they wished they hadn't...

There dressed in women's hot pink bikini panties..a  hot pink bra and a light pink sheer babydoll was Judge Turner Freeman...A brown skinned man, about six foot two..roughly 190 pounds... He had on hot pink lipstick and a woman's blond wig...and pink eyeliner! He was wearing , you guessed it, pink stillettos...

Olivia's mouth dropped.....Beverly's eyes got as large as saucers and her mouth opened just as wide...

"Oh My God!" said Olivia....

"What the hell?" exclaimed Beverly..

Me, the ex New Orleans Homicide Detective who thought he had seen it all in the Big Easy was stunned...

He spun around, astonished and embarrassed!!!

Olivia put her hand over her mouth and walked into the hallway.. I knew she was laughing...Beverly's mouth hung open...

  I just said-"Whoa" and stood there....Olivia re-entered the office...

Judge Freeman turned and looked at us.....

"Uhhh, You-You-You must be Ms. Bennett..Uh I mean Mrs. Bennett-Alexander....My Secreatry told me you might be dropping by......Uh this...look,....I'm not gay...I'm not...I just like to wear women's panties and bras... They're so soft, so frilly, they just get me all excited....oh lawd...I'm getting excited just talking about it!! Ohhhhhhhh..Excuse me..." he said.  "What do you have there?" he asked.

Olivia tried to compose herself...She showed him the folder with all of the information she had and she asked him to sign off on a restraining order...

He barely read it...He just signed off on it...My back was turned....I couldn't look at him...

"That's good for 90 days.." he said..."After 90 days, you can resubmit...She is not to go
within a mile of this man.."he said...

Beverly walked outside...I stayed put, but I smiled...

"Mrs. Alexander...I remember you when you were a Public Defender...You and your niece were fine lawyers with the utmost professionalism...I implore you to please be discreet about this...Please!!!...I implore you...Tell your husband and your niece  to please not to repeat or discuss this...Let's all be adult about this!!! Please!!!! This is just something I do to relax.."he said.

"Yes Sir.. and Thank you sir."said Olivia.

I said nothing... He signed the restraining order and passed it to Olivia....who had managed to keep her composure without laughing, but just for the moment...I was still too disgusted to laugh.

Beverly was in the hallway, a good distance away, bent over ,laughing her head off...

By the time Olivia got up where her niece was, She finally exploded with laughter...The two ladies held each other to keep from falling down...I was a bit confused...

"This cat is a judge? He doesn't dress like that in court does he?" I asked...They continued to guffaw...

I drove ....Olivia and Beverly were still laughing as I drove..I finally broke down and laughed too, but I was mystified that this was going on almost in plain sight...

I was trying not to think about what I'd just seen...

III-

We stopped by Bottom of The" C" and handed Ralph Scallion the restraining order...

He smiled...

"This is great guys thanks....I got some good news too..." he said.

"We could sure stand to hear some after what we had to go through to get this.." said Olivia...

"She quit yesterday....I might not need this.."he said.

"Really?" said Beverly...

"Yup she said she got another job...A job she couldn't afford to turn down she claimed....But I'm gone hang on to it anyway...Oh yeah and I moved out of my apartment...My friend, Clerow and his guy,Owen Todd and three guys that work for them went and got my stuff out of my spot while she was here working and quietly moved it into Minay's Loft...I made sure I wasn't followed and went over to Minay's spot after work...So if she is hanging around my old spot...She'll be standing there wasting her time...cause I'm gone." he said smiling..."How can I ever thank you Livy?" he said.

"You'll be getting my bill." she said and winked...

We all laughed....

"Another Happy Customer." I said.

What We couldn't realize then was that this was far from over!

III-

We drove up to our home and Attorney Nelson East was standing outside...Talking to our Office Manager, Josie Boyd...

"Hey guys."I said as we parked our cars in the garages...

"Hey...You guys had a visitor today...."said Josie...

"A Visitor? "I said.

"Two visitors..."said Josie...

"One was Reverend Cecil Copeland..."said Josie...

"Oh yes..Him? He called me yesterday...He wants me to represent him..."said Olivia.

"And the other person was this chick...Ginger Jones..."said Josie...

Bev, Livy and I looked at each other...

"She was here most of the morning...She wanted to know what kind of business you had with Ralph...I told her that I didn't know and that even if I did,I wasn't at liberty to discuss it with her...Oh My God...She talked my ears off about the night of lovemaking she and Ralph had and how he told her he loved her and how she loves him and how his British girlfriend is getting in the way and all....She was here three hours...I told her
that you guys were in court and that your case load had nothing to do with Ralph..."
said Josie...

Beverly and Nelson were in the corner kissing...They came up for air and Nelson said.

"She was in the barbershop I go in last Saturday...She talked my head off ...Asked me how long I had been seeing Bev, asked me if Bev and Ralph Scallion had ever had a thing...All kinds of stupid questions...I told her that as far as I know she and Ralph were nothing more than just friends...and maybe not even that close...We went there to eat and only occassionally....She asked me if Ms. Olivia and Ralph were just casual friends...I told her to the best of my abilities they were...And that he was just a client of hers...She then talked my ears off about the night of lovemaking she and Ralph had and how he told her he loved her and how she loves him and how his British girlfriend is getting in the way and all...Man,I didn't want to hear that...The entire time I was getting my hair cut ,she was there...She was a real pain."said Nelson..

"This girl has some serious issues.... She seems to know a lot about us....I think I'm going to take a look into her." I said.

"Heyy, why don't you guys stay with us tonight? Go home,pack a bag and come back...I have an extra room...Josie, you can stay in there, Nelson and I will take the back room..." said Bev...

Josie looked a little withdrawn...For the past month she had seemed quiet, almost sad, like something was on her mind...

Bev put her arms around Josie-

''Come on Josie...If you hang out with friends...you'll feel better...Come on..Me and you aint hung out in a long time.." said Beverly..

''Yeah ,but you got your man here and all and ..."said Josie..

''And what? We are all friends here.." said Beverly...

"Okay...Okayy...I'm in."said Josie.

"That's a good idea...With her out there...I'm a little worried about you guys.."said Olivia..

We drove them to their  respective places...Josie packed for three days..So did
Nelson and we stopped, got some take out and came back to our spot...

It was kind of nice... Olivia and I and Bev and Nelson and Josie all hung out in Bev's spot downstairs...We played cards, watched a movie and had Nelson and Josie dying laughing when we told them about the cross dressing judge....

"Hey guys...Do you hear something?  Something that sounds like springs..." said Nelson...

"I hear it too."said Olivia...

"So do I."said Josie...

We looked out the window...

To our surprise and astonishment!!! Ginger Jones was on a , get this...Hot Pink Trampoline...Leaping up and down and peering into the front window of Bev's room...
She couldn't see us because we were in the living room...but she was bouncing up high!!!

"I don't believe this...A hot pink trampoline??" I said.

"Looks Like Hot Pink is the color today." said Beverly with a laugh....

"I'm thinking maybe We should have gotten the restraining order to protect us." said Olivia shaking her head in disbelief!...

A Police car drove up....Appparently one or two of our neighbors had called the police..

Two police officers grabbed her and handcuffed her....She remained eerily silent...

She looked up at us and smiled....Her smile sent a shiver up my spine...

TO BE CONTINUED