And The Law Won

Hours later, Olivia,Beverly,Sersi and I stood at Philadelphia International Airport eagerly awaiting a flight from Damascus...

"Oh, Ms. Olivia, Ms. Beverly, Mr. Donnie Ray...I am so excited..." he said.

"I'm excited for you Sersi... " said Olivia..

"I can only imagine how you feel." said Beverly....

Sersi looked at me and whispered...


"Thank you for getting my wife and me reservations at that Hotel....We'll be coming back after we get everybody settled.." he said..

"No problem man....It's been six months...I can't imagine being separated from my wife for six months.." I said.

Beverly overheard the last part of our conversation...


"You can't be away from Auntay for six minutes.." she said and hugged me...

"Sersi...There they are!!" said Olivia...

His wife, son, daughter, mother and father and a few others waved at him and ran to him...

Olivia and Beverly rushed towards the Custom people with their paperwork and Visas...


In all the confusion...It took awhile, but they got checked through and released...

Sersi hugged the three of us and told us...


"When you come to my coffee shop, your money is no good...You eat and drink for free..." he said...

We watched them all laughing ,hugging and kissing and walking away.....

Olivia sighed and smiled..


"And that's why I got into this law thing...To speak for people like him, who can't speak for themselves..."she said..

"Same reason I became a Homicide Detective...To speak for those who really can't speak for themselves.." I said..

Beverly and Olivia looked at me, then busted out laughing....

I laughed myself, put my arms around both of my girls and walked out of the airport with them...


Another happy customer!

II-

We were at the office for about an hour...Olivia was sitting on my lap and sifting through mail....

"You know I pay all of my bills on line....I stream almost all of the magazines I read and I get my news off the internet...Why do we still get so much junk mail?" she asked..

"Not to mention, you have your groceries delivered ,because you order them on line...Got to have something to annoy you...Modern girl!" I laughed..and hugged her..

Beverly just laughed as she sat across from us...

The door bell rang...

Within a few minutes...Josie brought a tall, thin, well dressed man, brown skinned and about my age into the conference room...

He looked at Josie...Then looked at Olivia and Beverly, who smiled upon seeing him...

"ENNIS!!!" they both said in unison...

"My lawd....Livy, you look great and Beverly....you just blossumed....I know you're drivin the boys crazy..."he said.

"Welll, just one guy..." she said.

"Who? Nelson East?? He was always sweet on you!" laughed Ennis...

"It is him, we've been together now almost three years..." said Beverly...

"I was kidding...For real? You and Nelson...??" he asked.

"She practically lives over there, when she's not staying here." said Olivia..

"Oh wow...Nelson has his own spot now and I heard he's workin for Robert Foxworth and Associates...Nice...He moved up and got his Beverly...wow!! And you Livy...You and Bev got your own law firm....Niceee..I tried to get my nephew to go into practice with me...but he didn't want to...He works in D,C. at some law firm....and my last partner just quit....Got herself a cushy job....and my Office manager is one of my mom's friends from the church...Not that pretty little thing you got workin here...He said winking at Josie..

He smiled and looked at me...

"And you must be Donnie Ray Alexander...The lucky guy who got Livy and was smart enough to keep her happy." he laughed, shaking my hand...

"Pleased to meet you." I said.

"So...Like I said...They found Ginger's body yesterday in a Barrel, floating in the river...She'd been strangled."he said.

"I imagine after ten years and underwater there is little forensic evidence..." said Olivia..

"You're probably right...but they dragged me down town three times as you know..They dug up my basement....they luminoled my entire house and they used those cadaver dugs...never found nothin..." he said..

"You took a polygraph against my wishes..." said Olivia..

"Yeah, but I passed it...That ought to count for something.." he said.

"Duly noted..but even I know that that can't be used in court..and any skilled practictioner can beat a polygraph...It's not an exact science..."I said.

He smiled..

"Oh he's good..sounds just like a cop." said Ennis Deadwyler..

"That's because he is...or he used to be...a Homicide detective..."said Beverly...

"Oh Ex-cops make the best investigators..when I hire an investigator...I make sure he was on the job as they say.." he laughed...

"They will just say that you didn't murder your wife at home....When was the last time you saw her?" I asked.

"The morning she vanished...We had had an awful row the night before and she wasn't speaking..I said goodbye to her and she didn't even acknowledge me...she got in her car and drove off...That was 7:30 am in the morning and I never saw her again..." he said.

"You had her insured for up to 300K" said Olivia..

"I did and she had me insured for 300K also...To this day...I have never tried to collect on that insurance..because I wasn't sure if she was still alive or not...That ought to count for something.." he said.

''Where'd you go that day?"asked Beverly...

"I had breakfast at Sam Mother's joint with my partner, Jack Stratton...We had a case...He was my second on a case..Joey McCullough....A Heist man...We were in court from 9:00 am to three am...The Judge was old Joseph Crawford...Your friend,Olivia.." he said.

"Oh lord!" said Olivia..

Beverly and I smiled..

He continued.. "3:00 am, Jack and I had drinks at Minks....We were there until ,oh..six or seven o'clock..." he said.

"That's a pretty classy joint..." laughed Beverly..

"You been there little lady?" he asked, smiling..

"Yeah..Larry North took me there..." laughed Beverly...

"How is Larry?" asked Ennis..

"He lives in San-Francisco...He works for the Innocence Project out there...He and a young attorney we worked with just had a baby a few months ago..." said Olivia..

''Wowwww..I gotta step my game up and make some real money at this law thing, like you guys and every damn body else we used to work with." he said.

"We see your commercials on television all the time."said Beverly...

"Yeah...I do alright sometimes...Then I have dry spells.." he said.

"Bev and I both built up a network of clients and they kept us on retainer...That's what initially kept us afloat..Then we started taking on bigger cases..." said Olivia..

"Yeah,I've seen you two on the news often..." he said..

I saw the familiar red and blue flashing lights and heard a loud knock on the door...

Josie opened the door and we heard a very familiar voice..

"Excuse me missy...I have a warrant..." came the voice of Lt. Tragg...Philadelphia Police..

"Hello again Olivia...Deadwyler..We figured you'd be here.." he said..He had three uniformed police officers with him...

"Lieutenant Tragg, I got it on good word that you were down in Records....What are you doing here?" I asked..

"This was my case....When they found the body yesterday after all this time...I was temporarily assigned to it."said Lt. Tragg...

"Lt. Tragg...Ten years ago, you dragged my client down to police headquarters three times...You questioned him for over 48 hours on one occassion, you had him take a polygraph, which he passed...You dug his basement up, you luminoled his house and you used cadaver dogs...Don't you think it's time to look at other suspects?" asked Olivia..

"Olivia..Olivia...Olivia..Try your case in the courts....Right now...my job is to bring this guy in..." said Lt. Tragg..

"You're going to arrest him? You have little to no evidence!!!" said Beverly...

"As I told your aunt...Try your case in court....He had her insured up to 300K...Try that on for size?

"Man, she had me insured too...Same amount...I never cashed it...Ten years..I never cashed it because I thought she might still be alive!!" said Ennis..

"Tell it to the Judge...Ennis Deadwyler...you're under arrest for first degree murder...read him his rights officer." said Lt. Tragg...

Olivia whispered to Ennis..

"Ennis...if they offer you a cigarette, don't take it...They offer you bottled water or a soda, ditto, refuse..You hear me? You're an attorney, say nothing else..exercise your right to remain silent...Bev and I will arrange for bail and be down tomorrow.." said Olivia..

"Eventually we are going to need his DNA Olivia...See it looks like loverboy here was gonna be a poppa...There was a three month old fetus in the corpse....That's two charges of first degree murder.."said Lt. Tragg..

"He'll give his DNA ,when I'm present to see it done..." said Olivia..

"Whatever Liv...Whatever!"he said.."Let's go boys.." he said.

"Naturally as they went out...The Press just happened to be there snapping photos of Tragg hauling Ennis Deadwyler out and Olivia, Beverly, Josie and Me ...

Watching the whole charade!!!!

 Nelson walked up just then...

''Wow! What's going on?" he asked.

"Welcome to Lt. Tragg's sideshow.." said Beverly...

"The Press just happened to be here, at my front door...He called them..I know he did." said Olivia, angrilly.."How can Ennis get a fair trial with all this coverage?" she said.

''You said other suspects..She was pregnant we now know right?" I asked.

''Yes she was..."said Olivia..

"He's not sure if he's the father or not...So Let's have him take that DNA test so we can at least rule him out as the father...If he's not the father, that means there is another guy involved...Maybe she told this guy she was pregnant, maybe this guy is married also and couldn't have this come out...There is your other suspect.."I said.

"Which makes sense Donnie Ray, but first of all, Ennis never knew who the other man was...Just that there was another man..." said Olivia..

''Who was he close to?"I asked.

''He had a partner back then...A Jack...Jack Strasson, another attorney, real nervous type , he wouldn't talk to me the three times I repped Ennis..." said Olivia..

"That's who he said was drinking with him the entire  time ,during our time table...So it couldn't have been him, but he needs to be interviewed...He'll talk to me.. He'll talk to me tomorrow."I said.

"It couldn't be him either....If he was with Ennis...There has to be a third man..." said Beverly...

"Come to think of it.. There was...A.J. Miller...He was tight with Jack..." said Olivia..

"That name ,A.J. Miller keeps coming up a lot...Isn't that the sleazy attorney, Kevin Morris was by here asking about?" I asked.

"Sure was...That guy is so crooked...When they bury him, they're going to have to slide his coffin in the ground sideways.." said Beverly...

Olivia and I and Nelson and Josie cracked up laughing.....

III-

And some miles away in a neighborhood bar..Attorney A.J. Miller sat drinking alone when Attorney Jack Strassen  walked in...

''A.J., A.J.  Did you hear? The cops arrested Ennis Deadwyler in his lawyer's office.." he said.

"Good.." said A.J.

"Not Good...He might tell em about us.." said Jack Strassen...

"He might tell em about you...He never actually met me..." said A.J.

"What about Joey Mccullough? We defended him...He masterminded the robbery, remember of the Medical Examiner's Office..."said Jack Strassen...

"Joey's good....He walked on that ,remember?" said A.J.

"We hung the jury twice and the D.A. dismissed the charges.." said Jack..

"It's been 10 years...statute of limitations...Joey is free and clear even if they did get the notion..He's good..I'm good..We all made good money off of that deal...If you hadn't of been pillow talkin to that broad...she'd still be alive..." said A.J.

''A.J. why did you kill her?" asked Jack...

"We could have killed you for runnin your mouth, but we didn't...." said A.J.

"You gonna uh take care of Ennis?" he asked.

"What do you think I am..a Mobster?? I'm an Attorney just like you....Ennis doesn't know anything..Nothing that can hurt me.." said A.J.

"What about me?" asked Jack..."I didn't sign on for murder...I got you the blueprint to the medical examiner's office...Your guy Joey stole all of them body bags...we sold them to interested clients and that was that...No harm, no foul..but when that girl died..." said Jack..

"Listen...you took your cut of that money didn't you? Just like we all did...Now you don't know who killed that girl..You wasn't there...So leave it at that and keep your trap shut...dig it..?? My name shouldn't ever come out of your mouth again ,understand...??"

"Alright...but...but I just don't want Ennis ,blabbin about me.." said Jack..

"You know you really shouldn't have been screwin your partner's wife...That was low.."laughed A.J.

Jack Strassen stomped his foot and charged out of the bar...

A.J. laughed .....

"Poor Jack...He worries too much....He talks too much too." he mused..

(TO BE CONTINUED)