Remains Of The Day

PROLOUGE-

The Juniata Creek....It's located in the Juniata Park Section of Philadelphia.. Juniata Park is a working class, predominantly Hispanic and Caucasian neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, which is a section of the city of Philadelphia,

 Juniata is located south of the Juniata Golf Club in Tacony Creek Park.

It is bordered to the east by Frankford, to the west by Feltonville, and to the south by Harrowgate and Port Richmond.

The neighborhood is bordered by G Street to the west, Juniata Park to the north, Tacony Creek to the east, and by SEPTA rail tracks to the south. Juniata shares the ZIP code of 19124 with the nearby neighborhood of Frankford.

Two teenagers getting high have made a gruesome discovery....The skelatal remains of two people...a man and a woman...

The Police roped the area off... Crime scene investigators and Forensic lab people were studying the remains..

Dr. Hazel Baylor, Assistant Philadelphia County Coroner and Forensic Investigator was observing the bodies..

"The Larger one is definitely a male...and the smaller one is a female...hard to really tell...These bodies have been here awhile.."said Hazel..

"How long you think they've been here Doc?" asked an assistant..

"Judging form decomp and these maggots that are on them....Oh My God...I'd estimate about twenty years ,maybe a little under..."said Hazel...

"Look, there is a small hole at the base of the skull..of the big one and neck of uh the smaller one,the woman appears to be broken..."said another assistant..

''What do you make of this doc?" asked another assistant..

"I'd say this is a twenty year old double homicide.." said Hazel...


Two Police cars drove up...Four uniformed police men got out...and then she heard his voice..

"Back up guys...Back it up....What have we got here..?" came the voice of Lt. Arthur Tragg..

"Godddd why him?  I was hoping Carlotta, Rico, Jimmy, Hop, Sirena or even my husband ,Duke and Angie, Maybe Sgt Smith or Danny Ho...Anybody but him! Lt. Tragg!" she muttered to herself..

Lt. Tragg looked at the remains...

"Ummmph Man and woman....Hole at the base of the skull...I'd say that was a bullet hole..and the smaller one's neck is broken..These two were murdered..." he said.

Hazel sighed..One thing Lt. Tragg was good at, was stating the obvious.

"Yes they were...and they've been buried out here for at least twenty years...Maybe a little less."said Hazel...

"Hmmm how about say 17 or 18 years?" asked Lt. Tragg..

"Hmmm yeah that's an educated guess...though we can't tell at this point.."said Hazel..

"I know who this is...At least this woman?" said Lt. Tragg..

"You do? An Old case of yours?" asked Hazel..

"No, not mine...but someone I know...This woman has been missing for 17 years..She vanished without a trace...She was married to one of the richest men in this city...Millionaire Developer Richard Graves!! " he declared..

''We don't know that yet...I need DNA, which is going to be difficult to get and a dental sample and a lot of other things before I make a determination....and who is this guy?  These bodies could be ANYBODY! "said Hazel..

But Lt. Tragg was not listening...

"For 17 years , 17 years we've been trying to put a tag on that strutting peacock for his wife's murder, but we never had enough evidence...He moves out to California...His girlfriend dies....

Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West get him off...Your friends.  And over night two relatively unknown attorneys outside of Philadelphia  become nationally famous...Celebrities. and how does he repay them?  He jumps bail." scoffed Lt. Tragg..

"I think they proved that he was actually innocent...A serial killer killed Mr. Graves girlfriend and some other women." said Hazel..

Again Lt. Tragg wasn't listening...

"He resurfaces up in Maine and two people wind up beheaded...again..Auntie and Niecey get him off

and of course once again they become superstars...."said Lt. Tragg.  He said as if he was jealous of Olivia and Beverly's fame.

''Again he was actually innocent...Two locals confessed to that crime."said Hazel.

"And we  here in Philadelphia had to have egg on our faces...ADA Nina Rios dropped murder charges against him for insufficient evidence.." said Lt. Tragg..

"That of course never would have stopped you would it?" said Hazel sarcastically..

A couple of uniform policemen smiled..

"That's it...He aint gonna be laughing today...Boys.. Let's go get ourselves a killer." said Lt. Tragg..

"Now Hold on!!!...We don't even know who these two are...There's a man here too." said Hazel.

''Whoever he is, he was steppin out with Grave's wife and Graves shot him and snapped his wife's neck.."said Lt. Tragg..

''We don't know that...We don't know anything yet...We won't have a clue  who these people are until I get these bodies IDed, if that is even possible.. These two corpses could be anybody!!!"said Hazel..

''Doc...you work you side of the street and I'll work mine...Come on boys...I'm calling for a  warrant for the arrest of Richard Graves."said Lt. Tragg as he and a squad

of policemen took off..

Hazel shook her head and sighed..

''Why Him?  All of the great detectives on the force and he has to be the one on the scene...god!" she sighed.




II-

Today was a very slow day... The girls had no cases..

Olivia and her niece,

Beverly were looking at photos of Olivia in various dresses and outfits on our 50 inch monitor...

.''Ouuuu  Auntay… I like this dress...Number three." said Beverly.

"Yes Liv, I like that dress too..It's pretty.." said Josie our para-legal..

"Yeah, I like it too...What do you think Alfreda?" asked Olivia..

"I love it...Liv you just have that look...If you hadn't chose to be a lawyer...You could have been a model.."said Alfreda...our office manager..

"I did model for awhile in college...Law School....I used to take the train to New York City some weekends and do photo shoots...They used to laugh when I told them I was in law school.." said Olivia.

I was just coming in...I put my arms around Olivia's waist and kissed her on the cheek..

"Well, they're not laughing now...You're a very successful lawyer.."I said..

"Hope you don't mind Pizza Donnie Ray...Nelson went out for it...I told him he could have just called.."said Beverly..

"I suspect he just wanted to test drive his new car.."I said..

"I know...He's like a child with a new toy.."laughed Beverly...

Nelson walked in with two large Pizzas just then...

"Ummm let's feast.." he said.

''Where's the soda boo?" asked Beverly..

"Darn...In the trunk...Let me uh use my remote control to pop the trunk..."he said..

"Goofball!" laughed Beverly, "But you're my little goofball and your wifey loves you." said Beverly, hugging Nelson...

Alfreda and Josie cracked up laughing...

Olivia smiled...

A familiar face walked into our conference room..

"Hey Guys...I uh would have knocked or rang the bell, but the door was open." said  Seth
Fairchild, Attorney at Law.

He was Richard Graves's personal attorney.

"I gotta remember to lock that door....You got any shoes for me?" joked Alfreda...

"Next time I come I'm going to have shoes for you Pretty Alfreda and you too Josie.." he said..

''So uh what brings you here Mr. Fairchild?" I asked.

"Mr. Graves is in trouble, the kind I can't help him in...I'm not a criminal defense attorney..."said Seth..

''What's he done now?" asked Beverly..

"He's been arrested and charged with the murder of his wife." said Seth..

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh are they serious?  This comes up ever so often...They don't have any evidence...We don't know if she even is dead or not...Why don't they stop?" sighed Olivia..

'They found two bodies in Juniata Park this morning...a man and a woman...the bodies look like they've been out there for 17 or 18 years."said Seth Fairchild.

"They must be skeletal." I said.

Trying to imagine what they found..

"They were...It's a man with what looked like a gunshot to the head and a woman with a fractured neck.." said Seth..

"I'm no doctor or coroner, but I know they haven't made a positive identification yet...They couldn't have...How do they even know that that is Richard's wife?" asked Olivia..

''They haven't, but Lt. Tragg is certain that that is who it is..

He and a tactical squad raided the home of a friend of Mr. Graves..

where he was visiting...

and brought Mr. Graves out in handcuffs.... The Press was there...It was very embarrassing." said Seth.

''Where is Rich? In Jail?" asked Beverly.

"Yes...With 3 million dollar bail set...I'm making arrangements with the bank now...but he specifically asked me to contact "His girls" said Seth.

"They're not his girls...They're my girls."I joked...

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" said Olivia and Beverly in unison...

"Liv ,I want in on this...I need to be with you guys on this case.."said Nelson, who was chowing down on his Pizza..

"You want in, you're in...I'll call Robert.." said Olivia..

"When is his formal arraignment?" asked Beverly..

"Tomorrow Morning." said Seth...

"We'll be there."said Olivia..

"I don't have class tomorrow, this is going to be exciting." said Josie., who was not with us in San Diego the first time we defended him or in Maine, the second time we defended him..Neither of those cases involved his wife, who vanished without a trace 17 years ago and was declared legally dead 10 years ago..

III-

Richard Graves was a bit of an odd sock...

I remember Beverly explaining their connection to him years ago "D.R. the man is loaded...Everybody in Philly knows him and his family....They own everything but the traffic lights in Downtown Philly.His father and younger brother own one of every two skyscrapers in downtown Philly and if they don't own it...They did and they sold it....Their middle name is money...When Auntay was a Public Defender...Richie....That's what they call him got busted for a gun charge..

He was caught in front of his brother's condo with a loaded and unregistered semi -automatic pistol.....He hired Auntay to get him off and guess what? She did!!! Got all charges dropped...He never forgot her...He got caught with some marijuana that he claimed was planted in his hotel room...Auntay got him off once again...

And then finally ,he was accused of making terroristic threats against his brother...Jack Jr...Auntay repped him again and got the charges dropped in an out of court settlement... Then He sued his family....Charged them with cutting him out of the family business...By this time...Auntay was working in Private Practice...She repped him again and won a huge settlement for him and profit sharing...He loves Auntay. 

He's the oldest son and after he graduated from Law school....He got an MBA...And he ran his father's business for a number of years....

He got married to Elaine Huggins..Everything was good for awhile...Then there was a major shake up...I don't know what exactly happened...but there was talk about his younger brother having an affair with his wife...A public feud erupted and Old Man Graves replaced Richard with Jack Junior...Cut Richard off...Things went downhill for him after that...

That's how his path and Auntay's crossed...The loaded weapon outside the brother's house, the marijuana charge, the terroristic threats...They were all aimed at the younger brother." 

Then His wife vanished....It's been 17 years now...She vanished and hasn't been seen or heard from since...The police questioned Richard Graves extensively...but they never had enough to charge him with anything..No body, no blood, no proof of any foul play...The woman just dropped off the face of the earth..." said Beverly.

"He told me that he and his wife were having problems and that in addition to his brother, his wife was seeing another man..A  Michael Fugate.  He swore to me that he didn't harm a hair on his wife's head, that she just up and left him... Her psychologist ,before he died signed a deposition saying she was Bi-polar and had crazy mood swings." said Olivia.

''So you think she just up and left, just vanished without a trace and that that man, didn't have anything to do with it?" asked Alfreda...She like everyone else in Philly believed that Richard Graves had murdered his wife..

"I believe it until I know better.."said Olivia.

"What about her alleged lover, Fugate?" I asked.."Where is he?"

''He's gone missing too..Hasn't been seen or heard from in 17 years...He went missing a few months after Richard's wife vanished..Damndest thing." said Beverly.

"And you don't find anything weird about that?" I asked.

"Of course I do...but I have no proof that he's dead or that Richie had anything to do with it." said Beverly.

''But everybody you ask...My ex-husband, Elwood,my best friend, Yvette...everybody just KNOWS he's guilty..Even though there isn't a scrap of proof!"said Olivia.

 "I must admit...I've always thought he was guilty of at least one of them being dead."said Nelson..

"I have too.."said Josie...

"But.....I'm team Olivia & Beverly ,so I'm going to go with presumption of innocence.."said Nelson.

''Me too!" said Josie.

"Well I guess I do as well...We need a report from Hazel on those bodies.."I said.

''After we get him released on bail tomorrow...You and my niece should go over to the morgue and talk to Hazel.."said Olivia.

"You think it's a chance that that's Michael Fugate and Elaine Huggins-Graves Auntay?" asked Beverly...

thinking about the skeletal remains....

"I don't know who it is...It could just as easily be two other long missing people."said Olivia.

"I wonder who is going to prosecute this case?" I asked..

"It's a career  making case...I'll bet the ADA's are jumping at it." said  Seth Fairchild.

Nothing was farther from the truth...

"I have to recuse myself for personal reasons...I'm in a romantic relationship with his co-lead attorney's mother...I'm just too close to it."said  ADA Rockland Cambridge to his boss, D.A. Garcetti

"Well that is a good reason." said The DA.

"Definitely Not...Lt. Tragg was the arresting officer...You don't even know for sure who those bodies are..They might be anybody...Uh Uh..No way am I attaching myself to that train wreck.."said ADA Miles Ellis..

"Well if you feel that strongly, okay!"said D.A. Garcetti.

"Helllllllll to the No No No...I mean, I'd love to be in court with the lovely Olivia Bennett- Alexander, but not this case....Lt. Tragg was the arresting officer...You don't even know for sure who those bodies are..They might be anybody...Uh Uh..No way am I attaching myself to that train wreck.. I guarantee you it aint gonna turn out like everybody thinks it will." said ADA Ron Harper..

"Really Ron, this is right up your alley."said D.A. Garcetti

"I just finished trying a  case with that knucklehead Tragg, he had his damn hands up my skirt the entire time...He was more interested in getting in my panties than finding new evidence and producing credible witnesses...No wayyyyy." said ADA Karen Page.

"Yes, I remember you complaining about him." said Garcetti

And so the task of prosecuting the case came to ADA Nina Rios...

"I've dreaded this day....Olivia is my dear friend...but I may have to go up against her and her little niece..."said Nina..

''I won't forget this Nina and I'll compensate you handsomely....I promise." said the D.A.




IV-

ADA Rockland Cambridge walked into our office...He had come to pick up Beverly's mother..

He saw Seth Fairchild...He knew that he was Richard Graves's personal attorney..

''Hello Seth." he said.

''Hello ADA Cambridge.." said Seth..

"Are you prosecuting this case Rockland?" asked Olivia, hoping he wasn't..She thought of Rockland as family now..She didn't want to face him in court...get him upset..

"No I am Not...Nina Rios is prosecuting...She has my sympathy....That jackass Tragg went off half cocked and arrested Richard Graves with little to no proof...The bodies haven't even been identified yet...I mean they could be any two missing people....I'll bet this earns him a guess slot on Hard Bottom tonight.."said Rockland, hugging Alfreda..

"It should be on right now...Let's see." said Alfreda..

The image of Olivia in her new dress was still on the screen..

''I'd rather look at that"I said.

"I just know you would "laughed Beverly...

Olivia blushed..

"Nelson, turn to Hard Bottom." she said.

"Got'cha Liv.."said Nelson...

"Look at that...It's the lead story." said Josie..

"Today, a 17 year mystery may have finally been solved...  You are looking at what could be the remains of Elaine Huggins Graves, the long missing wife of Millionaire Bad Boy, Richard Graves and her alleged lover, Mike Fugate...both went missing 17 years ago and were discovered this morning...buried near Juniata Creek..

"This is B.L.. Benz and this is HARD BOTTOM, The hard boiled crime investigation show."

"I'm Here with Homicide Lieutenant Art Tragg who may have broken the case wide open.." said A.J.

Lt. Tragg, every hair in place, impeccably dressed as usual and with loads of make up appeared on the show..

"B.L..  the minute I saw the remains..I knew who it was....and I knew who the culprit was...Graves was shocked when the long arm of the law finally caught up with him today...His cold emotionless eyes stared me down....But I've stared down many a killer...I wasn't afraid."he said..

"Enough...Cut this off...I think I'm going to be sick.Did you hear that crap?"said Olivia.

''I heard it...You would have thought he captured Charles Manson. Auntay...Let's take him down a peg..He deserves it "said Beverly...

"I'm in...He went about this all wrong....He's got nothing." I said.

"This shouldn't make it past the preliminary."said Nelson...

"You may be surprised hearing this from me...but I agree with all of you...Even though I personally think your client is guilty as hell...I don't agree with how Tragg has handled this.."said Rockland..

Alfreda and Josie remained silent..

I thought about those bones..

Who were they?


(TO BE CONTINUED)