Shell Shock

The next morning...I was out and about around the burned ruins of the rooming house...Call it a hunch...but something was bothering me..about the gun...

I had been rummaging around all morning... Olivia and Beverly were in court...

They were beginning their defense of Bobby Russin, The transient man I believed was falsely arrested and a patsy in the murder of this town's mayor...

Nelson was at the police station and Josie was back at the motel...

She was watching a live feed of the trial and sifting through evidence and court files..She had her phone near her and was prepared to call the girls if they needed anything.. She was prepared to scan it to their phone or tablet..

The girls had our SUV...They parked it three blocks away from the court as I instructed.. and I had rented a car to get around in...

The smell out here was getting to me and I was getting ready to give up, when I found what I was looking for...

Shell Casings...Spent .38 shell casings....Three to be exact....I snapped photos of where I found them..

I put them in a plastic bag and smiled..


Just then, Nelson East drove up...

''Hey Donnie Ray...I took a look at those ballistic reports and then I went by the coroner's office and got a copy of the autopsy..." said Nelson..

"Yeah? And....?" I asked.

"Our Boy was hit in the chest...AT POINT BLANK RANGE!" said Nelson...

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah...and remember we looked at the film footage last night?" said Nelson...

"Yeah..."I said.

"The guy you were chasing was at least 200 feet away after the shot went off..No way he could've hit his target at that range with a .38...At least not the .38 you found on him...The Mayor was shot by somebody close to him.." said Nelson...

"The police didn't find any spent shells on the street or at the murder site....Come on...You and I need to visit the Coroner's Office." I said as I got in the car with him...

At the coroner's office....I showed them the three spent shells I found and they tested them against the murder weapon...


It took an hour to get the results...but it came back positive..


"Yeah, these shells came from this gun...."said the Medical Examiner..

"Okay....How many shells were still in the gun when it was turned into you?" I asked.


"Three.." he said.

''So it would stand to reason...That if I found these shells somewhere else...That this gun is not the murder weapon..."I said.


To Nelson and I's surprise...The Medical Examiner said..


"Oh I know it's not...I told D.A. Jennings that the single shell ,I removed from the Mayor's body didn't come from this gun....It came from a .38, but not this gun..." he said.

"You mean he knew that going into this trial?" said Nelson...


"I told him...I told him at least two times.." said the M.E. "Oh and another thing...We didn't find any shell casing near the mayor..but we found uh burned leather....Lavender leather on the stage..." he said.

"You still have it?" I asked.


"Yeah..." he said..


"Nelson my boy...I think I know who the killer is."I said.

"We gotta tell the girls." He said.


II-

That afternoon...back at the motel...I had Olivia, Beverly and Josie's apt attention..

"Ouuu, I wish we had popcorn.." joked Olivia.

I wished we had a larger screen." said Beverly....

"I know right?"laughed Josie, hig fiving her..

I'm sorry girls, but look at the screen closely....This is mixed footage from the Street Cam and the Business Cam directly across from the pavilion.." I said.

Here is the festival....Look ,there is us...and Ms. Odessa...Now Look...There is a puff of smoke...The Mayor falls down......Now,look..200 feet away....Someone starts running....And there is our civic minded prostitute...."I said..As the woman tussles with the runner and rips his jacket...

Beverly cracked up...


"Civic Minded Prostitute...you crack me up Donnie Ray..." she said.

I continued..


There I am after the runner...who runs into the rooming house.....What We didn't see before was the runner , running out of the house...But because of this footage...We have it...Nobody looked for it...."

"Meanwhile, the real cops showed up and they have you and Bobby with a freshly fired .38 ,complete with his finger prints and a torn jacket..."said Olivia...

"Nobody thought to look for a closer shot or shell casings at the pavilion.." said Beverly....

"Yeah or this piece of burned leather...Which was the only thing found on the stage..."I said.


Beverly, Olivia and Josie looked at the piece of burned leather...

"This looks like the material that would be ...Well on a ladies purse..." said Beverly..

"Or a pocketbook..."said Olivia..

"Look on the screen at all of the people on the stage with the mayor..."said Josie..

"Yeah" said Nelson...

"Any doubt in anybody's mind...who the killer is now?" I asked...


III-

It was a warm night.....Unseasonably warm for January, even though we were near the Mason-Dixon line...


I was quite pleased with myself...I had blown this case wide open...We were all excited about court tomorrow...

Beverly and Nelson were in their room in the shower...Lathering each other down with soap, kissing passionately...like two teenagers...

While a room away...I was eyeing Olivia as she undressed....

"Don't stare so hard Donnie Ray....Your eyes might fall out." she joked...

I smiled salaciously.....

Olivia and I were standing in the middle of the floor, nude and kissing passionately also..

I lifted her up and entered her slowly gently, standing up..I found I liked long stroking her like this..She liked it too..

 An hour and a half went by...more kissing, more sweet lovemaking..Olivia began to shake and gyrate and  more tears began to stream down her face....

Soon we were in bed ,making sweet love..

Moving in and out slowly....Olivia moved up and down slowly....We both wanted to cry out..but we couldn't... The bed squeaked a little bit , we smiled..but resisted the urge to cry out....She began licking my neck and sucking on it,which made me begin moving deeper and deeper into her warm and wet lusciousness.......


"Ummmm..I love you Mr. Alexander..I looooove my guyyyy" she said quietly..."Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh."she moaned.

"I love you too baby...ohhhhhhhh.." I moaned...


"Woooooooooooooooooooooooo....oh my goodness...."she moaned...

 "This is driving me crazy...." I moaned silently...

''Me too..ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.." she moaned...


"Lawdddddddddddddddd girl...ummmmph..." was all I could say, It felt so good..

 ''Mama likes driving her guy crazy.." she said.

She kept moving up and down and then from side to side...The bed was rocking and slamming against the wall...We slowed down a bit...She looked like she was climaxing...I slowed down immensely and moved in a little harder.....She let out a soft  whisper...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

''Yes...yessssssssssssssss...ouuu, ." I moaned..

The bed squeaked a little bit ,but nowhere near like our bed at home...

 We kept on at it for another five or six hours...surprised at how quiet we were...We managed to climax together...holding each other tightly..and breathing heavy...Kissing each other as if it were going out of style.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Mr. Alexander...ouuuuuuuu that was soooo nice." said Olivia in between wet sloppy kisses...

I lie in between her shapely legs and she played in my nappy hair...


"We need to sleep baby.We have a big day in court tomorrow." said Olivia.


"I sure hope this isn't a premature celebration." I said.
Olivia smiled and fondled me a little bit....as she stared into my eyes.....


"I've never felt more surer about an outcome of a trial in my life...Donnie Ray." she said and kissed me softly as we both drifted off to sleep.

IV-

The Next Day in Court...

....Olivia called the Medical Examiner to the stand

and produced the shells and enlarged photos of the shells I found at the burned out rooming house..

The jury gasped.......Then came the show stopper....The Medical Examiner testified that the so called murder weapon...The smoking .38 found in the bedroom of Bobby Russin WAS NOT THE MURDER WEAPON and the spent shells found at the sight of the rooming house proved that...

D.A. Eval Jennings was furious...On cross he attempted to rattle the Medical Examiner, but he stuck to his story and even said that he had told him this weeks before the trial, which made the jury begin to grumble and gasp....

Beverly called up three police ballistic experts who said that the mayor was shot at CLOSE RANGE....By someone on stage with him!..She showed the jury a wide screen video of the street and the actual murder  that we saw yesterday, a runner ,who seemed to take off on cue and lead Donnie Ray into the rooming house and a shot of the runner, running out the back side of the building..


"He was a distraction....A distraction from the real killer." she said.

The D.A. ripped into them on cross..but found he couldn't bully or intimidate everybody in the town...The experts stuck to their story...

Olivia argued passionately that this poor man, Bobby Russin was no more than a patsy and that a conspiracy in fact did exist...

Bobby Smiled..


"Damn Bev.. You and your Aunt are good...You two could convince me that anybody was innocent." he said, smiling..

Beverly laughed...and rubbed his hands...


"We are gonna get you off.." she assured him...

Eval Jennings gave his final arguments...He asked the jury to disregard Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West's crazy conspiracy theories...He said they were big city attorneys trying to make fun of our small town and small town values...Trying to make a mockery of justice..He said Bobby Russin was a never do well who was "guilty as sin..." I had to hand it to him, he was very eloquent...

The Jury didn't see it that way....They deliberated for a half an hour....And came back with a NOT GUILTY VERDICT!

"We Did It AUNTAY!" said Beverly exuberantly as she and Olivia high fived.

"OH MY GOD...YOU GUYS DID IT!!! YOU GOT ME OFF!  THANK YOU..THANK YOU...THANK YOU SO MUCH!" yelled Bobby as he hugged Olivia and Beverly and shook my hand and Nelson's and hugged Josie..

As the jurors filed out...The Judge was sitting on his bench laughing hysterically...He had enjoyed the entire trial...He especially enjoyed seeing District Attorney Eval Jennings lose a case..

The District Attorney slumped down in his chair and held his head in his hands...

Helen Dubois looked at him like he was dirt ,shook her head and was prepared to walk out the door..When she found herself blocked by two Maryland State Policemen

"Ms. Dubois....You're under arrest...Murder in the first degree..." the Black trooper said.,

"What? This is a joke right?" she said.

"No Joke mam...You have the right to remain silent...Anything you say can and will be used against-" said one officer..

"You clowns do know I'm a lawyer right? I know my friggin rights" she said as they finished reading her her rights and marched her out of the courtroom...


"I don't believe this...I'm being arrested? Do you know who my father is...??? Ohhhh he'll have your badge...You Dudley do right coppers,.." she yelled as she was marched out of the courtroom...

The State police then walked over to Eval Jennnings..


"Mr.Jennings...You're under arrest too..Conspiracy....She could have never of done this without your help..."said one..

"Oh you're crazy....What are you saying?" he replied.

"With the help of the FBI, we picked up all 7 of your co-conspirators...They were more than happy to give you up...We didn't have to offer em nothing either..They say you threatened to violate them, send them back to jail if they didn't help you."

''And you believe em? Ex-cons??" asked Eval Jennings.

"As a matter of fact..we do...Hook him up Peterson." said one of the State Troopers and they walked him out in handcuffs....

As he walked out he stared at Olivia ,Beverly and Me..

He looked like he wanted to kill us...

''Why did you come to Chestnut? Why couldn't you just go back to Philly? Why couldn't you leave this alone? WHY?  WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?  WHY GOTDAMNIT!  WHYYYYYYY?" he screamed and stomped his foot as he was drug out in handcuffs, crying and screaming as photographers snapped photos of him...

"He had wanted to be famous, to be bigger than this small town...And now he was...but probably not the way he wanted."I said.

"Creep.....Ms. Olivia, Ms. Bev,Mr. Donnie Ray...I can't thank you enough.. You guys like crabs? asked Bobby...

"SURE!" said Beverly, Nelson and Josie...

"YEAH!" said Olivia..

"Then come celebrate with me tonight...I know a roadhouse not far from here...Best crabs in the area...You'll love it...Good Crabs too! Plenty of Beer." said Bobby...

"Works for me." I said.

"Then it's settled...I gotta go get cleaned up...I'll see you all there." said Bobby.

I looked off to a distance...The Judge was still laughing hysterically and banging his hands on the table....He apparently got a kick out of the entire trial...I uh was glad we entertained him so.

Odessa Robinson showed up one last time...


"Good Job...Good Job...I'm sure going to miss you guys...I have so enjoyed you so..."she said and hugged and kissed all five of us...


"Take Care of yourselves" she said and walked off into the crowd...I'd certainly like to see her again.




EPILOUGE-

Helen Dubois was disbarred and convicted of second degree murder in the death of her fiancé..The Mayor of Chestnut...She was sentenced to 10-15 years..That conviction and that sentence was a lot less than she deserved...but she had a decent attorney...

Eval Jennings was also disbarred and sentenced to 10-15 years for conspiracy to commit murder and obstruction of justice...


With any luck they'll probably both be coming home around the same time...Perhaps they'll have a beer.

That night we met Bobby at a Seafood raw bar....and enjoyed Oysters, Clams and Crabs that the area was famous for....and good cold beer.

Bobby Russin gulped down his beer and quaffed as many oysters as he could..

"It sure feels good to drink a nice cold brew, eat Oysters and Crabs and not be in that nasty dirty cell anymore ." he said.

"I had a nice long shower today, by myself and a shave....Man freedom feels good." he said.

"I hear that." laughed Nelson....

"We are so happy for you Bobby." said Josie.

"I told you we'd get you off...Didn't I?" said Beverly...

"This was the easiest case I've tried in a long time, All the pieces were right there..These guys were pretty sloppy, but they didn't expect anybody to look any deeper than they were told." said Olivia.

 ''We knew that Jennings was involved somehow in the set up, but we kept thinking that Jennings was the string puller, when really it was Helen Dubois." I said.

"Helen Dubois? But Why? What did she have against me? I don't even know her." said Bobby.

"It wasn't about you Bobby, you were just collateral damage....Helen had designs on bigger and better things...She hated it here...She and the Mayor had arranged to marry and when his term was up next year move to Washington D.C. or New York....She wanted to be a Lobbyist or Litigator for some politician or major corporate concern." said Olivia..

"Only the Mayor changed his mind...Decided he wanted to settle down here anand open a small law firm for her .....She hated it here...That wasn't her design..." said Beverly....

"To keep her in line...He had evidence of some kickbacks she had accepted years ago....Public knowledge of that would've meant she'd be disbarred and possibly jailed.."said Olivia.

"Okay,so he was blackmailing her to keep her here with him...I still don't understand...Where did I come in?" asked Bobby...

"Simple...She ran into Eval Jennings in the bar one night....They knew each other from Georgetown, they got to talking....He complained about how he hated it here..How he was in a rut..And she complaining about how she hated it here too...They wound up in bed literally and figuretively and they cooked up this perfect plan for her to commit a murder...They needed a fall guy...So they looked into all of the Mayor's old cases ,when he was a Judge and they found you....And you were perfect, A loner that nobody would care about too much and everybody would believe held a grudge and killed the mayor..It was a perfect plot and it would have worked..."I said...

"If you three guardian angels hadn't of crossed my path....Hell, I'd be on the bus now to the "Cut" (Nickname for the Maryland State Correctional Facility.)" he said.

"What are you gonna do with yourself now Bobby?" asked Olivia.

"I got Family in South Carolina...A mother,father, two sisters and a younger brother....I reckon I'm going to head south...Far far from here...Where the beer runs cold and I don't know the names of the players and they don't know me." said Bobby...

"Good Luck to you Bobby." I said. Then I looked at my girls... "Are we all packed?" I asked.

"Yeah...All of our luggage is in the car...Computers, Laptops and books too!" said Josie...

"I rented a car...Me Bev and Josie will ride back in the rental."said Nelson....

Olivia gave the waiter our corporate card and paid the bill for all of us.....

"Thank You guys...For everything...I'm packed up too....I'm pullin out in the mornin..." said Bobby, who hugged Olivia, Beverly and Josie...

He shook Nelson's hand...

"Good Luck to you man..." said Nelson...

He saved the last handshake for me...

"You aint bad for an ex-cop." he said and smiled..

"I'll take that as a compliment...Good Bye Bobby and good luck." I said.

And so...Olivia and I in our SUV and Nelson, Beverly and Josie in the rental car, pulled off in one direction and Bobby pulled off in the opposite....

Somehow I knew we'd never forget our time in Chestnut!