"Yeah, we grew up on the block together...back in the day." said Nelson...
"I used to look out for him....I worked for his uh uncle.." said Lem...
"I know who his Uncle was....Fathead Newton...Auntay and I are from West Philly too...I just didn't know Nelson then...I met him when I started working at the Public Defenders office...Auntay introduced us..."said Beverly...
"And so you two are a couple...huh? Not Bad Nelson Not Bad ..and look at you...Dressed to the nines...I'm impressed.. You still with the uh Public Defenders office? He asked.
"No...I work for Robert Foxworth and Associates ...We have an office at Penns Landing ." he said..
Beverly smiled at Zoey...
"Drove him to work huh?" she laughed...
"I uh offered to give him a ride on his way to work...I have to uh pass his apartment complex on my way here.."said Zoey ,smiling sheepishly...
"Uhhhh huhhhhh.." laughed Beverly...."I aint mad at you girl..How much of a ride did you give him? He looks smittten..." said Beverly...
"He's sweet....Really he is..I stopped by his apartment last night for coffee...We had a nice conversation.." said Zoey...
''Coffee..Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu.."laughed Beverly.
Zoey laughed....
"We had coffee...and we talked...I didn't stay but about an hour....but Beverly girllll...He did kiss me at the door as I was leaving....Ouuuuuuuuuuuu girl...I came close to asking if I could spend the night...but I didn't....I went home...I was a good girl...At least last night I was." said Zoey...smiling dreamily!
"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu girl...look at you! Just blushing!!! I aint mad at you.....Come on let's go inside...Auntay and Donnie Ray are waiting." said Beverly...
"You uh want to get in one last kiss from your honey?" laughed Zoey...
"Stoppppppppppp! " she laughed.."He's off today....He'll be going with us....I'm glad we have two vehicles... When he's not working...He's all up under me." said Beverly, smiling and playfully swatting at Nelson.....
"Awwww, he adores you Beverly...You two are so cute..." said Zoey...
Inside ,Olivia and I were kissing in the conference room...
We stopped just as the others entered...
Olivia was wiping the lipstick off of my lapel....
Josie made sure we all had bottles of water and fresh fruit as well as warm Bagels and Cream Cheese and Tumblers of Coffee..
Liv and I,
Bev and Nelson sat together....
While Zoey sat, not surprisingly at the head of the table near Lem, giving him her rapt attention...
We all smiled and looked at each other..
Lem passed me what I had asked for...
"Donnie Ray, these are copies of police reports from the Case Detective, Crime Scene photos and the addresses of everyone involved that you asked me for." he said...
He was very thorough......
"Thanks man." I said..
"Liv, Bev...These are the transcripts from the original trial and the first appeal of the death sentence, which was handled by our clients original lawyer..a public defender...This is a photo of our client...Sarah Pinkston..
He showed us a photo of a young and attractive blonde White woman, taken about seven years before..
"Sarah Conley was like you girls, born and raised here in Philadelphia, graduated from Central High...BA from Temple...Administration of Justice...Got Married to Floyd Pinkston...An older by ten years guy who had a Hardware store...She entered Law School at Drexel...She was in her final year at Law School When She and Pinkston went through a seperation and a divorce...She was forced to drop out...She moved back in with her mother, who died while she was incarcerated....She took up with this guy...Jimmy Valentine..A never do well who had just gotten paroled..." he said.
"She was in law school, she was on her way up, why would she take up with a neighborhood hood?" asked Olivia..
"You know what they say Liv...Good Girls Like Bad Boys..." said Lem...
"I can attest to that." said Zoey...
Beverly and Josie smiled...
"So continue.." I said..
"Jimmy Valentine had two friends...these two guys...Edgar Singleton and Harry Pierson...both have sheets on them as long as they were tall...Career criminals..On the night on June 17th 2010, These two robbed and shot to death, Henry and Edna Cutter...Two elderly people who lived just two blocks from Where Sarah had been staying with her mother...They blew the safe and stole $250,000.00 dollars in the safe, the old couples life savings....They didn't trust banks.. Singelton and Pierson was captured within the month and charged with First degree murder.....Some of the money was recovered..The ADA was Ed Lawless.." said Lem...
"Ed Lawless...I know him....I went up against him in court once...He's still an ADA....He's been known to bend the truth when it suits him.."said Olivia..
"I've gone up against him before too...I hate him...He's sexist, condescending...and a horrible flirt..." said Beverly...
"He's more than that...He's a walking erection....He never met a woman , who he didn't feel he should liberate from her panties and bra.."said Lem...
"Oh My God...Sounds like somebody I used to know." said Zoey, who didn't realize she had just said that out loud..
"You talkin about my ex-husband Zo? You're right about that and I'm afraid he hasn't changed.. We saw him in Josies a few weeks ago, drunk as a skunk...Crying like a baby over some woman he said he had fallen in love with, some woman he said reminded him of me and how he had screwed it up...Called himself a stupid low down dirty dog and said he was so sorry for everything he put me through...I'd never seen him that down, that depressed." laughed Olivia..
"That Honest." laughed Beverly....
"Oh...I wasn't talking about him....but I uh know what you mean." said Zoey.....
"Lawless was sleeping with Singelton's wife....She offered herself to him in payment for a lighter sentence for her husband...
She and her husband offered up Jimmy Valentine and his girlfriend, Sarah Pinkston... Both denied being the mastermind behind it...But Sarah often bought groceries for the elderly couple and had been in the house often...She knew about the safe...and had told the couple they should put that money in the bank...Both she and the now deceased Jimmy Valentine swore that they had nothing to do with the robbery or the murders...They said they were at her mother's house ,making love in the basement all night...But the mother wasn't home ,so she can't corroborate the story...She is unfortunately deceased now too." said Lem..
''We'd better hurry up before everybody involved with this case dies." said Zoey..
The room erupted in laughter....
Lem smiled and looked at Zoey with such love and affection....and then continued..
"Despite the fact that there was little to no forensic evidence that Jimmy Valentine or Sarah Pinkston had anything to do with the crime...The four of them were bound for trial...Pierson and Singleton were convicted and sentenced to Life , no Parole....Jimmy Valentine was given 25 years...and Sarah Pinkston got the Death Penalty......" he said.
"THAT'S SO UNFAIR! She got the harshest sentence and probably had the least involvement." said Zoey....
"Oh My God! I don't think she was involved at all...Neither her nor her boyfriend...Their only crime was knowing those other two." said Olivia...
"And associating with them...They drank together at the same bar....They were seen together a lot in the days leading up to the double murder. That's crazy..." said Beverly...
"Her death sentence was appealed by another Public defender...a better one than the original trial attorney...but it was denied...but I found this in the huge box of evidence...This Letter written by Ed Singelton just four days before he died from Pancreatic Cancer in prison...He said that Ed Lawless knowingly used testimony he knew to be false...That Ed Lawless was sleeping with his wife,Polly and that they made up the whole story with the promise of him and Harry Pierson either being released or getting a lighter sentence..When his wife refused to sleep with Lawless anymore.. after seeing how the trial was going.He renigged and the four of them all wound up in prison...He said that Sarah Pinkston had nothing to do with it and neither did Jimmy Valentine..." said Lem. "This letter, a death bed confession was here to for unknown or unfound...When I found it...Or rather the intern who was clerking for me found it...I knew I had ammo to successfully appeal her death sentence..." he said.
"Does she have a date for execution set yet?" asked Olivia..
"No...No new one...but that is subject to change.." said Lem...
"Good ,then we have room to work..." said Beverly...
"Ed Singelton is dead right? Cancer...What happened to the other players?" I asked.
"Harry Pierson was stabbed to death in a prison fight in 2013....Ed Singelton died of cancer in 2014.... Jimmy Valentine was paroled...in 2014 and dead himself in early 2015...Heart Attack...But Ed Singelton's wife or widow, Polly Singelton is still alive and lives right here in Philadelphia.." he said...
"My work is cut out for me.."I said.
"Donnie Ray will set his investigation up exactly as he would have when he was a Homicide Detective...I usually go with him, when I'm not helping Auntay in the law library." said Beverly to Zoey...
"Today after we visit Sarah Pinkston in prison....You,Bev and I will look over the exact law and statutes involving the case...We can do that here Zo....I was wondering...Could you pack a bag and be willing to stay here with Bev and me, to be closer to the case? You don't have to.....but we both have an extra bedroom...You can stay with me and Donnie Ray or with Bev..." said Olivia..
"I love you Livy and Bev...You both are soo good, but you don't have to do that....I don't want to impose on you and Donnie Ray or Beverly and Nelson.."said Zoey...
"I uh have an extra room at my uh loft...Ms. Easter can uh stay with me...Strictly professional..No uh monkey business...That is uh, if she wants to..." said Lem..
Nelson smiled snidely...
Olivia smiled..
"Oh My..Well..Well alright...Whatever uh makes you comfortable..."said Olivia.
"Uh yeah...It's okay with us..." I said.
Beverly said nothing, she just smiled and hung her head down...but it was Zoey who broke the silence..
"That's very sweet of you Lem, but I think I can manage...I'll be fine...." she said and smiled..
Nelson whispered to me...
"Lem is gonna get in them panties...Trust me...." said Nelson...
"He's smooth huh?"I asked.
"Yeah and he likes her...I can tell...He can't take his eyes off of her when he's not talkin...I was the same way about Bev.." said Nelson...
"You still are the same way about Shortcake...He's a good dude right? He's no Elwood Barnes is he?" I asked.
"Nah, he's as straight as they come...One woman man, but when he sees someone he likes...It's lights out..." said Nelson...
III-
We headed to Valhalla...The Women's prison...
Olivia and I sat up front...I drove..
Beverly and Nelson sat in the back...
And....Zoey drove her car with Lem Anderson riding with her..
She looked at him and smiled as she drove..
"That Kiss last night has made you lose your mind..." she said and giggled..
"That was forward of me....I'm sorry..." he said.
"I thought it was kind of sweet...Is the offer still open?" she asked..
"Huh? I thought..." he said...
"I know what you thought...I just didn't want everybody to know, not just yet!....After we're done...We'll stop by my place and I'll get a change of clothes and an overnight bag.."she said..
He smiled broadly....She thought he was so cute..
She sure hoped he was the one and not another dead end like Elwood..
Elwood, She hadn't thought about him since he'd come to her Loft unannounced a few weeks before..Liv, Donnie Ray and Bev must have seen him that night after he left her place...drunk...and sobbing over her...She didn't doubt that he had feelings for her...It's just that he had "feelings" for every woman that passed him by....He was a walking erection...She was ashamed that she had been weak and had slept with Elwood...She hoped that Olivia never had to find out...and she certainly knew she'd never sleep with him again..
IV-
At Valhalla We waited in the visiting room for Sarah Pinkston to arrive...
It was nicer than most prison visiting rooms I'd been in...
Sarah came out..She was wearing White Prison issue...Seven years on death row had taken a little away from her looks..She barely looked like the photo we had seen...She seemed to know Lem.but naturally she was surprised to see the rest of us...
"Sarah....This is Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West....They will be assisting me with the case....This is Ms. Zoey Easter, she is also an Attorney, She will be observing and consulting during the appeal and Mr. Nelson East, who will also be consulting during the case...and this is Mr. Donnie Ray Alexander..Investigator...Former Homicide Detective." he said.
Sarah looked at all of us...
"Wow...I got the freakin dream team huh?" she said.
"For you, yeah? Olivia and Beverly have experience overturning death row cases...Which is why I called them...
and my man Nelson is a whiz at juror selection..." he said.
Nelson smiled..
"And you just like Missy over there right?" she said and laughed..
"Excuse me? No...Uh she is an Observer/Consultant..." said Lem...
"I was just basing this off of how you keep staring at her and smiling...In here you learn to observe people a lot." she said..
We all smiled..
"We are going to get you ready for that appeal...We are going to bring you an outfit and fix your hair and apply some make up..."he said, quickly changing the subject...I could see his embarrassment and uneasiness...But she was right...He stared at Zoey quite often and smiled .......He probably wasn't aware of how obvious he was...He sat near her in the office at the conference room table, at the prison cafeteria...And he catered to her every whim...Olivia, Beverly, Nelson and I noticed it.
"That letter that Ed Singleton wrote is not enough...He was a known liar...You need his wife. .Polly.. She's still alive...She lives in Philly somewhere...Guess that's his job to find her.." she said ,looking at me..
"It is...and I will." I said.
"We are going to get you out of here..I swear..." I said.
"All I have is hope...I got nothin to lose " she said. "Nice meeting yall..You got a cigarette?" she asked..
"Bev ,Zoey and I will be back here tomorrow...We are going to do everything we can to get you out of here...You've already been here longer than you should have..."said Olivia ,who smiled brightly at her.. She went in her purse and passed her a cigarette and lit it for her.. She had never smoked...But she carried cigarettes and gum...She had been doing that since her days as a Public Defender...It always loosened things up when she interviewed incarcerated people...
"You had one more year of law school left I heard." said Beverly...
"Yeah...I'd of been just like you...Carrying a briefcase and interviewing some inmate...Instead.. I'm the inmate...Aint that a bitch?" she laughed..as she lit the cigarette and sat back...
"You're going to be a lawyer yet.. I have faith in my friends.." said Zoey...smiling brightly at her.
V-
On the drive home, Zoey looked over at Lem...
"It's okay if you like me.......I like you."said Zoey..
"You do?" asked Lem...
"YES!! I Wouldn't be spending the night with a man if I didn't." she said...
"Well, I do like you....A LOT!!!" said Lem....
"WOW!" laughed Zoey....."Okayyyyyyyyyyyy...you meant that didn't you?" she said laughing....
They were at a traffic stop...Zoey leaned over and gave Lem a very soft and sensual kiss......
"I like you too Lem.....This is all happening so fast it's making my head spin a bit..." she said..
"Then we can go as slow as you feel you need to go Zo....Just ..let's keep going....I -I don't want to stop...I--I really like you and have been enjoying you being around the past few days..." said Lem...
''Awwwwwwwwwwwwww, I've been feeling the same way...I'm going to drop you off and I'm going to my place and pack a bag...I'll be back in a little while or two." she said..
Lem felt so good right now, he almost felt dizzy.....He felt like he could float to the top of the stratosphere at the moment....
Zoey leaned over and kissed him softly.....as they stopped in front of his condo....
