Bad To Worse

Another day in court...My wife ,Olivia Bennett-Alexander and her niece, Attorney Beverly West were in the thick of another contentious trial...They were defending a woman named Nicole Beverly

 who claimed she was fired from her company for resisting the sexual advances of her boss...

Noel Cantana , A young ,handsome  and arrogant  Multi-Millionaire who owned a fortune 500 company that he inherited from his step-father and was one of the city's movers and shakers... He was married to a super-model...His third marriage and was rumored to like to "play"

Olivia had been arguing tenaciously for the past few days......and her niece, Beverly had been like her tag team partner...

Backing her up and giving her a break......

Together the two of them appeared to making headway.......Though the jury of six were five men and one woman, they seemed open minded and they seemed receptive...

I'm Olivia's husband...Donnie Ray Alexander, Their in house investigator....I had found three other women, two no longer working at the corporation and one still working there who all claimed that they two had been a victim of their boss, Noel Cantana's sexual advances....

The women said it started with a litany of compliments on their figures, their dressses...to questions about their bra size , where they bought their underwear and lingerie from and eventually requests to date them.....There was groping and inappropriate calls to their phones late at night...He sat in the courtroom and snickered at each charge and at times drifted off to sleep...

Noel Cantana's attorneys were ironically enough...Two Females who were every bit as good as Olivia and Beverly...

Attorney Michelle Foster, a Columbia Law school graduate ,called from New York to lead Cantana's defense and Attorney Ann Collins...A Philadelphia Native and former law school colleague of Beverly's. now working at a prestigious law firm....who was also called in to represent Cantana....

At times the entire proceeding was like a cat fight....

Foster attacked all three women's credibility on cross..... even slyly suggesting that I may have offered them something to testify...

Olivia vigourously denied this...

While Collins presented other women who described Noel Cantana as being a very generous man who often gave bonuses for good work...and had never made a sexual advance towards them...

Beverly questioned the women and slyly asked them if they'd ever gone for a drink with him or out to lunch...

She got two of them to admit that they did......she slyly left that hanging  with the jury.....

The Judge, Milton Millens...was an old grouchy man who didn't seem to have a taste for the entire thing..His whole demeanor betrayed his impartiality...He thought the entire trial was a farce...

He happened to be observing Beverly's cleavage and he noticed a button she was wearing..

He stopped the proceedings...

"Attorney West...What is that button you're wearing?" asked the Judge...

"Excuse me your honor?" asked Beverly

"That button over near your left breast....Does that say "Black Lives Matter?" he asked..

The button was the size of  a case quarter...He had to be looking pretty hard to even notice it...

"Y-Yes...Yes it does!" said Beverly..

'Take it off..."he said.

"Excuse me?" said Beverly...

"Take it off...You can't wear that in my courtroom.." he said.

"Why not?" asked Beverly...

"I don't want religious or political statements worn by anyone in my courtroom, Now Take it off." said the Judge..

"Your honor, I see someone with a Star of David pendant on, A Cross and an  American Flag, What is the problem with her little button, you can barely see it." said Olivia..

The Judge ignored Olivia...

"Ms. West are you going to take that button off or NOT?" he bellowed...

''No,I'm not...This has nothing to do with the case we are trying here...Our client is white..."said Beverly...

"Bailifs..Remove her...LOCK HER UP...Contempt of court!" He said...

"What?" exclaimed Beverly....

Two Bailifs grabbed her and escorted her out...They didn't allow her to get her briefcase or papers...

"Your Honor this is highly irregular and ridiculous...You're disrupting this trial right when we are at a crucial point over a button? A button you wouldn't have even noticed if you weren't checking out her cleavage! "said Olivia..

"One more word out of you and you will be joining your niece...Do I make myself clear?" said The Judge..

"DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" he bellowed..

Olivia said nothing, but she glared at the judge angrily..

I walked over to Olivia and whispered in her ear...

"Relax...pass me the corporate card....I'll handle it."I said.

 Michelle Foster looked at Olivia and appeared sympathetic.....She couldn't believe what she had just seen..

Attorney Ann Collins was beyond shocked.....

The Judge then gruffly said...

''Continue on with the proceedings!"

Cantana merely raised his eyebrow, folded his arms and appeared to drift back to sleep... How unconcerned he appeared to be..
II-

 It took me no time to drive over to the city courthouse building.. Beverly was being held on the sixth floor...This was where the female prisoners awaiting trial were being held...How humiliating...An Attorney locked up with women from both the State Prison and The County Jail...

Beverly had been there for an hour when I arrived... She was playing cards with one of the female inmates when I arrived..

 I paid Beverly's Bail and got her released immediately.....She was furious...but glad to see me...She hugged me tightly...

"I can't believe this....Now I won't be able to help Auntay.." she said.

 ''What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's not going to let me back in his courtroom as long as I'm under indictment for contempt of court..."said Beverly.

''Just take the button off Shortcake and come on back in.." I said.   "The greater good..."I said and smiled.

"Ohhhh okay...but I hate to knuckle down to racist jerks like him..."said Beverly....

We arrived at the courtroom near the end of the days proceedings....

Olivia hugged her niece and asked...

"Where is your button?"

"I took it off so we could finish the trial..."said Beverly....

"Put it back on!!!..He has no right to do this....Put it back on..."said Olivia..

"But Auntay....." said Beverly...

"Besides.....precedings are  almost over for the day...."said Olivia who walked over to the Judge...

"What you did to my niece is wrong and unacceptable...I plan to appeal your ruling...I think because of your obvious bias..you should recuse yourself from this case...You obviously have a problem with both African-Americans and Women in general."she said.

The Judge smiled...

"I think you'd better get out of here young lady..."he said.

"I'll see you in court Judge..I intend to defend my niece against contempt of court charges..."said Olivia..

"You can do whatever you want Mrs. Bennett-Alexander...but I warn you...You'll lose and she'll spend five long days in jail...and I'll make sure she does every day of the five...No early release..Do you want that?" he snarled..

 "You're a bully....You don't scare me.." said Olivia..

"Mister Alexander....I suggest you control your wife.. It would be a shame for you to miss dinner ,because she's locked up for a week.." he said..

I glared at him angrilly....I wanted to punch his face in...It was all I could do to control my anger...

"Liv...he's wrong as two left shoes...but we don't want our Shortcake's freedom in jeapordy..."I said.

"She can wear whatever she likes....I'm not going to kowtow to that pompous asshole."said Olivia.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that and cut you a break since it's the end of the day...I'll see you in court tomorrow." said Judge Milton Millens...

Beverly hugged her aunt and the three of us left.....

Judge Milton Millens smiled snarkily as we left....

III-

 Once we got home , I thought that our problems for the day were done...They were not...

Olivia sat in my lap and kissed me....She kissed me several times...

"My Honey Bunny was cooler than me today..."she said and gave me another warm and wet kiss...

"Bev turn my computer on...I want to look up some information I compiled about Noel Cantina's company." I said..

 "Sure you can get up right now?" she asked slyly and laughed...  She was right...I was quite aroused..

But when she did...She got a strange look on her face...

"Uh Ohhh.."said Beverly...

Josie Boyd, our Office manager came running into the room..

"Liv ,Bev...I think we got a problem..." said Josie..

"What are you girls talking about?" asked Olivia..

''Auntay, Donnie Ray Look!" said Beverly...

Every Screen on every computer had this ominous message..

"YOUR FILES HAVE BEEN ENCRYPTED....YOU HAVE 48 HOURS TO PAY ME 500 THOUSAND DOLLARS OR YOUR CLIENT FILES AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION WILL BE LEAKED TO THE PUBLIC!"

It was on every computer terminal, every laptop , every tablet that we have...

I tried but I couldn't over-ride the encryption the normal way....

''Ladies...We have what is known as a ransom malware...It's giving us 48 hours to pay and it's counting down fast...and I can't over-ride the system." I said.

"Oh God  this is horrible and right in the middle of this trial..."said Olivia.

"I would almost swear that this was orchestrated..."I said.

"It does seem rather convenient...Just like me being sent to jail for contempt!" said Beverly....

"What? You were in jail Bev?" asked Josie...

''For an hour...because I wouldn't take off my "Black Lives Matter" pin..."said Beverly...

"Tomorrow I'm wearing a "Black Lives Matter" Pin and so are you....And Michelle Foster and Ann Collins said they are wearing them too!

''Olivia...This trial aside...What that Judge did was just wrong....Tomorrow I'm wearing a "Black Lives Matter "Pin.

"So am I....Beverly and I were in Penn Law together...I hadn't seen her in years until I saw you two on television...I feel just awful that she was locked up."said Anna Collins.

They had had a talk with Olivia during a recess...

"That's wonderful ladies ,but we've got a real problem right here..right now...We can either pay this guy off or we can trace him and neutralize whoever this is..."I said.

"If we pay whoever,what's to stop them from doing this again? Until our coffers are bone dry and we have to close up shop?  NO..No. No.. I'm not knuckling into to anybody...Not that Judge and not this Cyber Creep." said Olivia...

Just then Nelson walked in..He wasn't alone...

"Hey guys..I would have knocked, but the door was opened....Look who I ran into when I was at Chinese Bobs??Hope you guys didn't eat Yet?" laughed Nelson...

It was our good friend...Bonnie Shay...An Attorney and Private Investigator who worked for Cyclops Insurance..

"Hey Donnie Ray, Ladies..." she said.

 "Hey Bonnie Girl..Are we glad to see you." said Beverly...

"Well,if you aren't a sight for sore eyes." laughed Olivia...

"Just what the Doctor ordered." I laughed..

Bonnie Looked at Nelson...

"I have a feeling I'm needed here.."she said...

Nelson laughed...

"Yeah..I get that feeling too." he said.

Nelson and Bonnie spread enough Chines takeout on the conference room table for all of us...Olivia,Beverly ,Josie and I dug in....and put together our strategy on how we were going to win this case...Checkpoint this judge...and over-ride this Cyber Blackmailer...

Things had gone from Bad to worse...But when you are surrounded by friends and people you love...you can move mountains!

(TO BE CONTINUED)