Bennett Family Secrets

Green Hill State Prison, Pennsylvania-DEATH ROW!

I don't know why it was always raining on nights like this...When someone was about to be executed...but it was pouring..


I am Donnie Ray Alexander, Investigator for my wife's law practice, Alexander and West...I stood in the lobby of the prison , awaiting my wife , Attorney Olivia Bennett-Alexander and her niece and partner, Attorney Beverly West...

I was drinking a tumbler of coffee when they both appeared in the lobby, both girls were bone tired..near the point of exhaustion...It showed...

''We got a stay of execution Donnie Ray." said Olivia..

"This was the closest we've ever come ..I mean I know we've saved three other guys from a needle ,but this was right up to the last minute...."said Beverly...

They had been arguing the case of Billy Harris of Philadelphia...A Black man accused of murdering his white wife..a wealthy socialite...Emily Grayson Harris..It looked like an open and shut case...and that was coming from me, A seasoned former Homicide Detective...but a closer look at the facts and the investigation came up with enough for us to create doubt...

We had been been turned down by the District Appellate court  State Appellate court and had gone to the State Supreme Court ...losing all three appeals...

An appeal to the court the second time resulted in the first light of day...we had seen in awhile...We won a thirty day stay of execution..

What my wife likes to call "Wiggle room." but it wasn't much...

It was a testimony to what an incredible litigator both my wife and my niece were....

''Where is Kayla?" I asked.

"She's talking to Billy in one of the holding cells..." sighed Olivia...

"You want me to go get her Auntay?  We got a long drive back to Philly." said Beverly...

"No..Let them finish talking...We are all exhausted...None of us need to be driving tonight in all this rain...We are going to get some dinner....and go back to our hotel rooms...Get some sleep...We can leave in the morning." said Olivia..

"Good move counselor.."I said and sipped my coffee....

This whole thing was Kayla's fault...She had brought us into this case..

II-

THREE WEEKS BEFORE!

 Since we'd been to Washington D.C. The girls as I now called them had had and settled yet another class action suit...They were getting good at this ..They had handled yet another messy messy divorce...They had kept two other clients from divorcing in yet another case and gotten paid a hefty fee on both sides.. and had settled yet another major labor dispute...All routine stuff...All settled in Philadelphia, All settled out of court in a board room or conference room...no controversy...No drama...

Beverly had gotten two clients acquitted of murder in two seperate cases  and

Olivia had won a huge settlement for another client who's child had been murdered ,against the gun shop that had sold the guns illegally to someone who had then sold the gun to the actual killer..

It was a rare few days in which we had all actually had some rest and we were planning a nice vacation...after a slew of big cases.

"Can you believe that Nelson is out of town on a case?" said Beverly...

Her boyfriend, Attorney Nelson East, who was employed by Robert Foxworth and Associates was in Atlanta on a case with Attorney Chance Howard...He had been gone almost a week..He face timed Beverly every night...but we could tell she was missing him something terrible..

"I almost wish we had another case to work on...Something to take my mind off of it." she mused as we sat in the office...

"Girllll hush don't you put that in the Universe...Me and my hubby are planning to go to the shore at the end of the week..Why don't you call Nelson and take a flight down to Atlanta?" said Olivia..

"That sounds like a good idea Shortcake...We can handle up here..It's pretty quiet..."I said.

"I should call Kayla, ask her where the hot spots are..She lived in Atlanta."mused Beverly...

"No need to call her...You can ask her now..She's coming through the door with Josie.."said Olivia..

Our office manager, Josie Boyd was coming through the door with our lunch orders...

"Hey Guys..Look who I ran into when I was at Sam Mothers Diner....Kayla."said Josie who passed me my corn beef special and my chips, Olivia got a Reuben and chips and a cold water and Beverly got a Turkey and Swiss on Rye with Mayo Lettuce and Tomatoes, Chips and a Soda...

"Heyyy guys." said Kayla ,Olivia and Beverly's outer worldly beautiful cousin,also an attorney, who sat down with us...She was munching on a Cheeseburger and smiling uneasily....

As a former detective and student of the human condition...I knew when somebody needed something...I thought it might be money...In hindsight..I wished it had been...

"Hey baby...Long time no see....but we've been busy..."said Olivia ,who hugged her young cousin and kissed her..

Her cousin Kayla, a brilliant Attorney in her own right looked at Olivia and Beverly sheepishly...then said..

"Cousin Liv, Cousin Bev...Uncle Donnie Ray....I need your help....With a case....It's a little over my head..."said Kayla..

"Really Kayla? Really??You've been in Private Practice you're entire career...What is over your head?" laughed Beverly...

"Remember Billy Harris?" she said uneasily....

Beverly's eyes arched..

"Who doesn't?  " she said dryly...

"Okay..I don't know who you two are talking about?"said Olivia..

"Cousin Liv...You were about 25 and doing your thing...You were in and out of the house...You had just started being a lawyer..You weren't really concerned about the goings on of two 16 year old girls..Billy Harris was our world back then....You saw him a few times...Think back...He used to call you Sexy Auntie behind your back...and one time, you heard him!"said Kayla..

"Sexy Auntie....I vaugely remember somebody calling me that...That was him? I'm trying to picture him in my mind..."mused Olivia...

"Sexy Auntie eh?  Hmmm..I like that.."I said laughing and looking at Olivia salaciously...

"Don't get him started..."said Olivia,looking at me and laughing.

Beverly hugged her cousin and kissed her on the cheek..."That's the closest me and Kayla ever came to hating each other..Billy Harris was on the football team at Central High...Quarterback...He was all Public..and Central was playing for the City championship that year...We were a perfect 8-0 that year...He was so fine...Oh my god...Every girl dreamed of being with Billy Harris.."said Beverly dreamily...

"So let me guess...One of you two got him?" I said.

"Well actually, We both did!  Bev had him first..."said Kayla..."He was coming around the house...calling her and taking her out after school everyday...He was walking her home from school too! She used to call me..all giddy about this guy she just met...She would never tell me his name..Only that he was a senior...We were in 10th grade then...She wanted no chance of any slip ups...Her Father would kill her if he knew she was sneaking around with an 18 year old boy and she was only 16. First time she ever kept a secret from me.."said Kayla..

"Jimmy was slipping around with your mother ,Alfreda...Beverly... when he was 16 and she was 19...He was one to talk..."laughed Olivia..

"I was four or five..I didn't know...I vaguely remember him taking me along with him a few times... For cover.I was a little girl and your mother's younger sister...Your Aunt Gloria would watch me..This went on for quite a few years...My mother would of killed him had she of known he had her baby girl mixed up in that deception.....I'm amazed I kept his secret for so long....He had other girlfriends too...but he was crazy about your mom, Alfreda...She must have been turning him out, because...he carried on with her from the time he was 16 ,until he was 21...which made her about 24 and uh is how you uh got here.."mused Olivia..

"Ahhhhhh Bennett Family secrets."I mused and laughed out loud..Beverly laughed too at this revelation..

"Wowwww! I always wished they could have stayed together..You know, gotten married..They tried, but it never worked out that way...Mommy was just too unstable...And Daddy wasn't making much money then and didn't have a place of his own, which is why Pop Pop and Gram wound up raising me with Auntay.." said Bev...

We were all quiet for a minute.....I kind of felt sorry for Shortcake...She was cheated of a normal life...Her mother was emotionally unstable and was in and out of  mental institutions during that time. I had met so many black children in simular situations...Fortunately Beverly was nurtured and loved and had risen above it all and was today a successful Attorney...She continued with her story about Billy Harris.

"For a minute ,I was the envy of every girl in Girls High...but I suspected that Billy Harris was after one thing and one thing only..The pan-taysssss ,but he was so fine and for a big time senior like him to be interested in a 10th grader like me...Well...that wasn't so much to ask!"said Beverly laughing...

"But you didn't give him any  did you?" asked Olivia...

Kayla laughed...

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Ohhhh Bev" said Olivia..

Beverly smiled...

''Well uh actually...I did..He was my first...and...it was quite nice....Ouuuuuuu, He was a smooth operator, He was slow, patient and said all of the right things ,made me feel like a woman....I  thought I was in love..I mean totally gone...and for awhile..I thought he was my boyfriend..We were doing it in the basement and at his house...in the backseat of his car and at his cousin's house...I did remember what you told me about condoms and birth control Auntay! I was very careful..."said Beverly...

Kayla continued...

"Beverly had told me about this guy and how nice he was and how she had gone all the way with him...But she never said a name...She swore me to secrecy...I had no idea it was Billy Harris ,the football player....See..I had met him too during that  same time and he was calling me and slipping into Mt. Airy to visit me on weekends and he, well he was buying me things....Taking me places...Told me he was in love with me..." said Kayla..

"But you held on to your virtue."I said...knowing how this story was going to go.....

Now it was Beverly's turn to laugh...

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she laughed.

"Kayla nooooo...You tooo? He got both of you??? I used to talk to you two girls...Did you not listen to anything I told you?" asked Olivia..

"We did  Cousin Liv...We both did up until Billy Harris...Unfortunately....He was my first too! I swear...I would have never given him the time of day or anything else if I had known about Cousin Bev and him..Like she said ..It was quite nice....He was a smooth operator, He was slow, patient and said all of the right things....Gave me my first orgasm!!.and before I knew it.."We were doing it in the basement and at his house...in the backseat of his car and at his cousin's house. and at Aunt Anita's house..said Kayla..

 "Aunt Anita?  Oh Kayla...She was Blind.....Oh My goodness.."said Olivia, smiling somewhat...

''She could hear very well though and she heard us and told us both to get out..I swore her to secrecy and she never said anything."laughed Kayla.

''Wow! I never thought of going to Aunt Anita's house."laughed Beverly...

"So how did you two find out about each other?" I asked...Enjoying these stories immensely and laughing my head off!

''Well...They say women are gossipers and haters...but you guys can do us one better sometimes..There was a guy on the football team named Russell...Russell Cummings ,who had liked me since 9th grade and I believe he just wanted to get in my panties too...but I wouldn't give him the time of day...and one day after school ,he kept begging me and I kept saying no...And finally I told him that I was Billy's girlfriend. ,Russell told me..

"You all strung out over Billy Harris..And he's banging your cousin too!!!...Probably tellin her the same stuff he tells you..And you won't let me nowhere near that good stuff...And you two dummies aint the only girls he's bangin...There are others." he said.

"I said "Shut your lying mouth Russell Cummings....My cousin tells me everything...I'd know if she was seeing Billy or anybody..She's dating a boy from West Philly"I said.

"Oh Yeah? Take a ride with me..And if I'm right, you gone give me some of that tonight.I aint jivin...you got me as hot as a firecracker in a gas station..." he said.

"I'm not promising you nothin Russell...but you're going to be wrong anyway." I said.

"It was the first time I'd ever rode in his car... He drove me into West Philly and I saw the two of them together, Kissing..... I confronted them both....He looked like a deer caught in between the cross hairs...He had the nerve to get mad at me for spying on him and he and Russell got into a fight...He called his team-mate a snitch. Kayla swore up and down that she had no idea...She really didn't because I had been very,very vague about who I was seeing and even though she asked..I never did tell her, but I was still hurt  that she was seeing the same guy I was seeing." said Beverly.

"That love triangle cost us the City Championship...We lost to Overbrook....and it was their Senior year....Bev and me were just in 10th grade....We didn't speak to each other for like a month....That hurt because Bev was more than just my cousin...She was my best friend...And to make it worse...I was still letting Billy Harris come back and hit it every now and then throughout 11th grade and my senior year..Regardless of who I was dating...I just had a thing for that man.... Bev and I got over our little brouhaha...eventually!

Cousin Jimmy noticed that we weren't hanging out or calling each other and he brought Bev over my house and demanded to know what we were beefing about...

"I know this aint about a boy...WHO IS HE?" he bellowed...

"Bev was scared and started crying...I hated seeing her like that..." said Kayla..

"Cousin Liv, you know how your older brother can get....We were both too frightened to tell him we were no longer virgins and had slept with the same boy...So we both lied and said we weren't beefing...and we hugged it out and made up....I didn't want her getting in trouble and she didn't want me getting in trouble..because he would've told my father and he would've told your mother and father and it wouldn't have been pretty!"said Kayla ,who hugged Beverly and kissed her cheek...

"I couldn't stay mad at Kayla...Next to you Auntay, she knows all of my secrets..."laughed Beverly.

"And that's one she knew that I didn't know." laughed Olivia......

"So Shortcake...Did you and Russell Cummings get together after that?" I asked.

"We did!!  Only once and that was it......but I did start seeing a boy seriously that lived two doors from him..." she laughed..."He was so pissed...he didn't have any dirt on that guy."Laughed Beverly...

"I started seeing other guys too..but like I said, for awhile...Billy Harris was still coming around , getting some when he got the notion.."laughed Kayla.

''Which brings us back to the reason you're here...What kind of trouble has this Billy Harris gotten himself into?" asked Olivia..

"Big Trouble...He's on Death Row...he's scheduled to be executed in two weeks...For murdering his wife." she said smiling sheepishly...

"WHAT? and he's just now calling you? My, he sure waited til the last minute?" I said.

"He didn't call me....I didn't know what had become of him...I hadn't seen him since I graduated from High School...The Innocence Project calls our office from time to time with cases and his case came across my desk...I looked into it...I didn't think there was too much I could do, due to the lateness of the hour and then I realized WHO it was and I was like "Oh My God..." And then I thought about you guys...You guys have saved at least three guys from execution and you've gotten Richard Graves off of two murder raps...I figured if anybody can save this guy...You guys could.My office gave me a lightweight budget to start off with, but that's it....They didn't give me enough for an investigator ,for travel hardly! "said Kayla.

"Kayla girl...It's none of my business..but why do you even care? This guy lied to you...Used you and your cousin sexually and caused a big rift between you guys..."said Josie.

"Josie makes a good point Kayla...An excellent point!!!"asked Olivia..

"I know..I guess I still ,I still have some latent feelings for him....and plus...he didn't do this...He's a lot of things, but killer isn't one of them...Just look over his case Cousin Liv, Cousin Bev, Uncle Donnie Ray...Look over his case...If you look over his case and you don't see any merit..I'll let it go...but I don't think he did this.." she said.

''What do you think Bev?" asked Olivia.

"Kayla...if it wasn't you asking..I'd say let him take a needle...but it is you and this is obviously important to you...So...I'm in." she said and hugged her cousin...

"Thank you Beverly girl.."she said..

"Well, I don't go against family, especially not my two favorite people in the family next to my husband of course.....I'm in." said Olivia...

"Let me look over the case file..." I said.

III-

I joined Olivia, Beverly and Kayla at the Oyster Bar a little later.....

''Well what do you think?" I asked.

"There certainly was a lot of potential witnesses that were never called and some who were called who never testified...and the police stated that his fingerprints were all over the crime scene...Yet not on the murder weapon and not on any of the doorknobs..That looks pretty suspect.Well they would have been...He lived there...While they have motive and opportunity...This might not be the slam dunk they are saying it was..At least two people's testimony looks kind of shaky.." said Olivia..

"The autopsy report says his wife died of blunt force trauma...They identified the murder weapon as a paper weight, but the paper weight has no blood, fingerprints or DNA on it and there is evidence of bleaching.He swears that they didn't own a bottle of Bleach...And if his fingerprints are everywhere else...Why aren't they on any of the door knobs?"said Beverly...

"Meaning he tried to cover it up...Or whoever killed her came back there and cleaned their prints up!"I said.

"I have crime scene photos here...The place was ransacked ...It looked like a robbery gone wrong, except a lot of valuable jewelry was left behind in haste...I -I don't know Kayla..Everything I've found just makes him look guilty.."said Beverly...

"He didn't do this...Everything in me says this wasn't him..." she insisted..

"Is that what you know as a lawyer Kayla or is this something else?  By the way..Where is Ryan?" I asked.

Kayla's boyfriend...Attorney Ryan St. James worked for a big firm in Center City...He was out of town a lot..But like Nelson...He face timed her a lot...No way he was taking her for granted...I didn't blame him.

"He's in your home town of New Orleans on a case." said Kayla..

''Well the first thing we have to do is file an appeal ...I don't have to tell you that we are going to be met with resistance because...this case was settled..He was convicted  and sentenced...District Attorneys hate to reopen cases like this."said Olivia..

"Don't worry..We will file the appeal..I wish my baby was here..He helped us a lot with this when we were in San-Francisco..."said Beverly...

"Thanks guys...If this wasn't such a desperate matter...I would say how cool it is for the three of us to be working this case together."laughed Kayla...

''Well since you're his attorney of note...I think we should go visit him...Where is he?" asked Olivia..

"Up near Angel City...but before you get to Stanga State Prison...He's at Green Hill State Prison where the Death Chamber is..."said Kayla.

"Have you talked to him?" asked Olivia...

"Yes....On the phone..Cousin Liv...He was like a little boy..He's so scared...So scared of what is about to happen..He insists he didn't do this.."said Kayla.

"Well you at least seem to think so.."said Olivia smiling..

IV-

Beverly and Kayla wandered over to the bar to grab some more beers...While they were there...Olivia leaned over and kissed me passionately...

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm..I just felt like doing that." she said..

"And I'm uh...I'm uh...glad you did.."I said...."Why don't we uh take a bathroom break." I said and smiled at her salaciously...

"Not in here...Too many people..Somebody would definitely walk in on us...."said Olivia.

I looked around....She was right...

The girls walked back to the table..

"It's too crowded in here...Let's go to Josies.." said Beverly....

"You guys go on...I'm going home....I'll see you in the morning."said Kayla..

As she walked out...Beverly mused.

"I hate seeing Kayla like that...She cared more about Billy Harris than I did...After he cheated on me with her..Whatever I felt for him went away,He stopped by the house for me one of those times he came home from college...I had company and told him to keep it moving.. but she had a thing for him even after they broke up...I don't think she ever got  completely over him....She couldn't let him go....I can't blame her completely..He was fine and a smooth talker..He would have made a great attorney...He could convince a jury of females anything."she said.

"Well at least you two females anyway...I want to see his face when he realizes that both of you are going to try and save his life.."said Olivia..

"I don't know if this is Karma or Irony." I remarked..

Olivia smiled...

"I think it's a little of both." she said.

(TO BE CONTINUED)