Strong Suspicions

PRELIMINARY HEARING FOR RICHARD GRAVES , CHARGED WITH FIRST DEGREE MURDER, TWO COUNTS!

Richard Graves eyes perked up when he saw us headed toward him in court...

"Liv, Beverly...Thank God you're here.." he said.

 "We got here as soon as we could Richie." said Olivia.

 "Oh and Thanks for the shoes....and your place in San Diego was the bommmmmb!"said Beverly...

 "Yeah it was...best Air BNB I've ever been in."laughed Nelson..

 "Hey Man...Have they set bail yet?" I asked..

Josie smiled and waved...

"No not yet....They are talking about holding me without bail because they say I am a flight risk."said  Richard Graves.

"You did jump bail once." I reminded him.

Richard frowned...

"Yeah, that wasn't too smart of me...I never thought I'd be in trouble again or that it would bite me in the butt."said Richard..

"Yeah and it sure has now." said Beverly...

"This is crazy.. They don't know who those two skelatons are...There is no proof any crime has been committed...I'm going to argue to get this whole thing tossed out." said Olivia who was purely angry....

I had benefited from her anger over what she perceived as a gross injustice...
Yesterday, I had some of the best sex of my married life, but then I always say that....

Olivia was moaning and cooing and riding me like a surfer rides a wave...

Kissing me softly and slowly...…

and begging me not to stop.....EIGHT TO NINE HOURS of non stop sex had practically drained me, but she wouldn't stop...

The kisses continued and at least FOUR TO FIVE more hours of sweet lovemaking..

left me practically wrecked....It's a wonder I'm in court today......

This morning, she was all business...Was up, showered and dressed before I awoke....Reading briefs and going over motions with Beverly, who was also up and dressed. She passed Beverly some case files and a preliminary autopsy report..

 'This Autopsy report is just basic , nothing conclusive and no identification." said Beverly to her aunt ,who nodded and leafed through some more papers..


From the pleased as punch look on Nelson's face when he finally did come up to the apartment..

 I could tell he had had a great night something like mine too..

He was remembering how they got started...in the bathroom...kissing ,him running his hands down into her panties,lifting her top off..

the build up...Standing in the middle of the bedroom floor ,kissing each other passionately

and the escalation of the pleasure....Him lifting Beverly's petite little body and entering her with gusto, amid her screams of pleasure..

and hours of hot lovemaking...….

Yes, he and Beverly had a memorable night too...

You'd never know it... Both women, Niece and Aunt had briefs spread out on the kitchen table and were busy going over them before we headed out to court as if nothing had happened....

Nine years apart in age and yet so much alike it wasn't funny...

II-

The Press, not just Local, but National and International Press was out in force ...

Lt. Tragg was in his glory, preening and promenading in front of the cameras, retelling the story about how  he had "stared down the cold and emotionless eyes of the killer."

The Press loved it...For now anyway!

"He's so full of shit....I didn't stare at him...Two of the uniforms actually grabbed me and handcuffed me and read me my rights...He was standing on the porch when they brought me out, taunting me, saying that Justice had finally come...Playing to the press like the jack ass he is.." snarled Richard Graves..

 ''Don't worry...I'll take care of this and him!"said a visibly angry Olivia.

"He is something else...Look at him, just ruining Nina's case." said Beverly...

"Oh wow...He is our greatest asset, You observing this Josie?" asked Nelson.

"He's denying our client the presumption of innocence by making premature statements to the press." said Josie..

"That's my girl." said Olivia, hugging Josie and kissing her on the cheek.

"Come on, let's go in.. The Hearing is starting.

The courtroom was packed...Judge Keith Morrison was presiding...He looked at Olivia, Beverly and Josie and shook his head..

"Lawd, the woman is sexy as hell, her niece is sexy as hell and their para legal is equally sexy....between them and my son's crew oh my goodness." he mused..

 ADA  Nina Rios walked in with Lt. Tragg…

"Nina Rios is saying a taste, I wonder if she's seeing somebody?" mused Judge Morrison. He stared at Lt. Tragg, who was also entering the courtroom.

"I see he finally got himself away from the press." mused the Judge...

Olivia spoke first, she asked for the charges to be dropped completely....She said they were baseless, there had not been an identification of the skeletal remains of either person...There was absolutely zero evidence of her client committing any crime whatsoever and this was a major rush to judgement.

Beverly argued that their client was denied due process because the Arresting Officer, who she did not name, but everybody knew was Lt. Tragg was on the television constantly talking about the case and assuming guilt when there wasn't any proof that a crime had even been committed. He was denying their client the presumption of innocence.

Nelson argued that it was unfair to drop a second charge of murder on the client...He was only wanted for one and was never a suspect in the presumed disapearence of the other person, Mike Fugate.  (Mike Fugate vanished six months after Richard Graves wife, Elaine Graves.)

Nina Rios realized that Olivia, Beverly and Nelson all had strong arguments, but this was the first time they had close to a body...and she argued that there were strong suspicions that these bodies were indeed Mike Fugate and Elaine Huggins.. That being so..He should be duly arraigned and held over for trial.

Olivia, Beverly and Nelson argued that we shouldn't be limiting a man's freedom and good name based on "Strong Suspicions."

Judge Keith Morrison agreed whole heartedly with Olivia, Beverly and Nelson...Lt. Tragg had jumped to a conclusion and made an arrest way too soon in this case...and being on HARD BOTTOM and  giving endless interviews on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX truly did deny the client presumption of innocence and a fair trial....Still he agreed that there was STRONG SUSPICIONS that the remains found in the park could be the long missing, Elaine Huggins Graves and Michael Fugate, So for that reason he was not throwing the charges out...

"Thank you your honor....I am asking that you hold the suspect in jail because as he has proven before, he is a flight risk.." said Nina...

 "I give you my word our client will not jump bail this time your honor."said Olivia.

"Our client wants to prove his innocence.."said Beverly..

They were such a team...Never getting in each others way and working with such a rhythm.. It was amazing to watch...

Nelson had worked with them so long that even he fit in perfectly... He suggested an electronic ankle bracelet be placed on the ankle of Richard Graves...It might be the only way the Judge would agree to let Richard Graves go.

Judge Morrison thought ,then he placed a bail of 3.5 million on Richard Graves... You only had to make a third of the payment...

Josie called Richard's personal Attorney, Seth Fairchild with the amount...

He immediately wired a third of the money to the courthouse...

Richard Graves was free to go...

"Thank You Guys.." he said, just happy to be out of jail..

An electronic ankle bracelet was placed on him...

"I just want to take a hot shower and get some breakfast....Liv, you've done it again."said a smiling Richard Graves..

"I haven't done anything yet...I can't believe they plan to go through with this."said Olivia..

I was surprised myself...They were taking a gamble.. If those bodies were someone else...The embarrassment to the District Attorney's office and the Philadelphia Police Department would be monumental.. We would have never of done this in New Orleans...No ADA I knew would have pushed a weak case like this..We knew Nina Rios...She was a smart , Why was she doing this?

"Hello Dear Friend....I dreaded this day...But it's come." said Nina..

"Nina, what are you doing? You know and I know that this right now is so weak it's not funny...You've got nothing." said Olivia.

"Why didn't you at least wait until the bodies were identified first before filing charges?" asked Beverly..

"It's not me, it's my boss, The D.A. John  Garcetti.."

" It's an election year...He wants a conviction in a major case...But he personally doesn't want to go anywhere near this...Neither did Keith Wallace, Rockland Cambridge,Ron Harper or Miles Ellis...

Karen Page

had just lost a case involving Lt. Tragg, she outright refused...

I was up..I just won my last 15 cases, so he kind of ordered me to take it...I didn't want it either..but here I am...This case has garnered National Attention.. He needs this.." said Nina.

"Nina, you know I love you....but if you proceed with this case.. I'm going to kill you in court." said Olivia.

"You do what you have to do...I may kill you...I don't relish it. Excuse me.." she said.

Lt. Tragg was speaking to the press..

"He has three very good attorneys...He's lucky...He should be locked up , but what are you gonna do?  It's the system...My men are going to be on him like a cheap suit..He won't jump bail on us.."said Lt. Tragg.

As the press ate it up..

Nina whispered in his ear..

"MUZZLE IT!  NO MORE PRESS JUNKETS....I'M SERIOUS!  SHUT IT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" she said to Lt. Tragg angrily.

Lt. Tragg got two phone calls, One from the District Attorney ,John Garcetti

 and another from the Deputy of Operations essentially telling him the same thing...No More Press Conferences until after the case was over.
III-

At our Duplex/Office, ADA Rockland Cambridge was watching the proceedings on Television..

"Wowww, this is a career making case...Normally I would love to be in the thick of this, but with that jackass Lt. Tragg involved and the weakness and guessing game involved, I just couldn't take the embarrassment of this case falling apart..I don't envy Nina Rios at all.."said Rockland.

"This is the longest you have ever been around me alone and not been pawing all over me...I'm not mad..I must say it is refreshing and mmmph.."said Alfreda as Rockland pulled her to him and kissed her passionately..

"Spoke too soon.."she laughed...

"Ouuuuuu Rockland, control yourself...Liv and them will be back here soon...Ouuuuuu Rockland, please...control yourself.." she giggled...in between soft, slow, wet kisses

She laughed as he continued kissing her passionately...Soon she was returning his passion...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu lawyer man, you are getting me hot." she moaned...

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…good to know" he moaned..

"I swear, you are the horniest man alive!" laughed Alfreda.

Olivia, Josie and Nelson returned after dropping Richard Graves off at his home..

 "This should be an easy defense...but it won't be."sighed Olivia.

 ''Everybody has heard about it. Everybody mostly thinks he's guilty...If it goes to a jury, Public Opinion is not on our side."said Josie..

"Josie is right, We've got to hammer home that this was a rush to judgement, even if the bodies turn out to be Fugate and Mrs. Graves..There is no eyewitness, no proof."said Nelson..

"Easier said than done." said Olivia..

"I don't envy Nina Rios or you guys..."said Rockland.. Alfreda was sitting on his lap, practically swooning..

"I'm just glad he doesn't have to be pitted against my two daughters.." said Alfreda , who considered Olivia as much of a daughter as she did her own daughter, Beverly.

"I should say my three daughters....Josie, you're part of the family too." laughed Alfreda.

Josie smiled..

"And my son from another mother, Nelson..."she added.

Nelson smiled and got himself a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

IV-

Beverly and I were at The Medical Examiner's office..

We wanted a first hand look  at the remains that were found....

 "So that's them huh?" said Beverly...

"Yeah..."I said.

"Gunshot wound to the larger body...The male..The left temple...and from the size of the hole..I'd say a .38 smokeless..  The neck on the smaller woman was broken..So I'm figuring, she was killed second..Somewhere else and then buried near the creek.." I observed..

"That was at least 17 years ago...No Street Cams and still no cams near that creek....A lot of drug activity and prostitution has gone on there...at all hours...I'm wondering how someone could have dug a hole and buried these two there and not been seen?" asked Hazel..

"I remember the history of this case..." I said..

"Several years ago...The story goes that a younger Richard Graves was collecting rent from a tenant in one of his father's apartment buildings when he met the woman who he said would become his soul mate.

The tenant and soon live-in girlfriend was shapely and attractive,Elaine Huggins a 28-year-old dental hygienist, youngest of five from a middle-class Irish Catholic family in Wynnewood.

Elaine's brother told me...

"Their early days were truly I think, you know, Prince Charming and Cinderella with the means to enjoy a modest but comfortable happy lifestyle...

He was the son of the wealthy real estate mogul and she was doing pretty good with her practice." he said. "They got married . Richard Graves was 40...Elaine or Laney as we called her was 29.

Rich was shy, a little aloof, some people thought. 11 years older.My baby sister was lively, attractive, the one to gather friends for dinners and parties."he continued..

They lived in a Tony Condo in downtown Philadelphia and had a nice home out on the Mainline....They partied with Philadelphia and New York City's Hoi paloi...They went to some of the most elite and trendy clubs and enjoyed the good liquor and recreational drugs..." said a friend of the family who Olivia and I also interviewed..

Beverly weighed in..."I remember talking to Elaine's sister, Megan who said-

It looked as though Laney from Wynnewood had hooked herself a prize. Richie Graves was Elaine Huggins passport to an outside world to which she had not hitherto been privy but very much wanted to be part of. And for a series of years that arrangement worked very nicely and they were very much in love. 

But my sister wasn't going to settle for being arm furniture for her rich young husband. She got her nursing degree then enrolled in med school." " She was just brilliant. She was beautiful. She was bright, happy and she had everything going for her. Elaine told me that she wanted to have children and Richie did not want to have children. So she decided to have a career.

That's when everything went wrong...Richie told her in so many words to go out and get a job and not rely on his family's wealth. And that is when things went bad....Elaine threw herself into studies for medical school. She was focused with goals in her life. While Richie, by several accounts, was smoking a lot of marijuana, spinning his wheels in a corporate world he really loathed, and seeing other women on the side. Elaine's friends said the nearly 10-year-old marriage was suffering, turning violent. She went to Jack, his younger brother for comfort at first and comfort turned into a romp or a couple of romps in the bed.

"The turning point in the marriage was the frequency of phone calls that I received from Elaine. They got more desperate. She sounded more panicked, more fearful. "Richie was hitting me." These are her words now. "Richie is hitting me. He wakes me up in the middle of the night and he starts a fight. I just kept telling her, "Leave him. Leave him. Get the divorce eventually but leave him.Leave him now" said Megan...

"Her sister told us that she didn't think Richard Graves was capable of murder." I said.  She said.

"Honestly...No..I mean..you've seen him..He's odd yes...eccentric yes...a cheap skin flint maybe...but he's no killer....I never thought so...He's so high most of the time he can't even order take out,let alone kill someone...My brother and my late father seem to think he is capable of murder...."she said.

We talked to Megan's husband who had this to say about his brother in law..

"He ,Richie could show rage--verbal rage. And, ultimately, I think he was very capable of physical confrontation. Physical rage. He wanted to control Laney because probably he couldn't even control himself and Elaine was the only thing or person he ever controlled in his life.

And he was losing control of that. His Old man removed him from the leadership of the corporation because it was losing money steadily under his leadership or lack of it..

That's why Jack got the nod..And it just didn't cut with Richie Graves...."he said. "Court records show that Richie had another lawyer ,before he met my wife...A Franklin Sullivan (now deceased)who filed an affidavit  denying he ever abused Elaine and his lawyers say they know of no abuse."I said.

"Olivia has her work cut out for her and she shouldn't have....This should have never come to court.. Not this early...I begged that jackass Lt. Tragg to allow me to identify the bodies at least, but he wouldn't listen.. He ran wild with it. I was praying another detective, any detective other than him caught this case." said Hazel..

''Where are you on this Hazel?" I asked.

"I've asked for Mike Fugate's dental and medical records...I'm waiting for them to arrive...I've also asked for Elaine Graves....But I have to tell you and this is off the record....The second body, the female looks a lot smaller than Elaine would have been...She was a round and curvaceous woman and was a little taller than the second body...but I need DNA and dental records...Her sister Megan is in Europe..She's on her way to Philadelphia and I'm trying to find her doctor."said Hazel.

And at our Duplex/Office...

"Just out of curiosity what exactly happened with Richard Grave's wife?" asked Alfreda.

"Well, I can tell you what his sister and brother in law told us a few years ago." said Olivia.

"January 9, 2002...I'll never forget that night....I got a call from Elaine...She was distraught..She said she just needed to get away from Richie...So I told her to come over for dinner and drinks..and to pack an overnight bag..As soon as she arrived, though, the trouble started.

Richie called...He was high as a kite...He was pleading with her to come back home ,saying if she came home everything would be alright..

At 7:15 that night, Laney gave up on her evening away from Richie. She was going back to their condo, 45 minutes away in the city. We agreed to meet for dinner in the city the next night...but there was something odd about the way she looked when she left us.." said Megan..

She stood on my front porch and she said, "Megs, if something happens to me tonight, promise that you'll check it out. I'm afraid of Richie." And I let her go. I hugged her and I let her go home and I have not seen her since. Neither has anyone else." she said.

''Sounds suspect to me...What did your client have to say about this? I mean if you are at liberty to say.."asked Rockland.

''Well, We did ask him...Beverly, Donnie Ray and I

went to the county jail where he was being held at the time to talk to him..To our surprise...He told the exact same story that Megan and her husband told...He verified everything they had told us, up to a point....As Richie would tell us...Elaine arrived home and they polished off a bottle of wine and smoked some good weed and then

 "I relieved her of her panties and bra and we made love well into the early morning hours...Ironically, it was some of the best sex she and I had had in our married life...." he would say...

Doesn't sound like a man who would murder his wife to me."said Olivia.

"Donnie Ray found the cab driver ,who drove her from their condo to the train station...He said she rode alone...I found film footage of her walking in the train station....but nobody has a record of her buying a ticket or getting on any of the trains that was running around 4:30-5:00 in the morning or getting off of any train..and Donnie Ray checked every station going in every direction.....This was her last known sighting.... Surprisingly enough there is film footage of Richard leaving his condo at 3:35 am and returning at 6:00 am...He says he was so high he doesn't remember where he went or what he did...Nobody else does either...There is no film footage of him at all in that time period... and that is all we know."

said Olivia, shaking her head..

"Creepy, this whole thing is Creepy" said Alfreda.." I don't think I want to be alone tonight...

"No problem at all baby."said Rockland, smiling sheepishly....

"I didn't think it would be.." said Alfreda...who was sitting on his lap...

"He had another lawyer....before you guys got involved with him, A Franklin Sullivan...an older guy, but a damn good attorney...You planning on calling him in to testify? And I remember her lawyer too, Shane Rosen...We were in law school together.. Wonder what she has to say about this? "asked Rockland.

"We'll never know about either unless Judge Morrison allows us to have a Séance in the courtroom."said Nelson..

"They are both long dead..Sullivan was killed in an automobile accident in 2004 and Rosen died of lung cancer in 2008." he said..

Josie chuckled..

"Oh My....That might work in your favor." said Rockland..

Beverly and I returned just then...

"Hey Everybody... We are back...Hazel still hasn't identified either one yet...She's asked for Mike Fugate's dental and medical records as well as Elaine Grave's records...Her Doctor hasn't responded. Her sister is in Europe and on her way back to supply DNA evidence.."said Beverly..

"Maybe in a few days we'll know who these two people are." I said.

"Yes and we'll have more than strong suspicions." said Olivia.


(TO BE CONTINUED)