From Hopeless To Hopeful

We Took and UBER this morning...We wanted to make sure we were at the train station on time...

 "We are here and with time to spare..." I said.

 "It was a good idea that we all slept in our own rooms last night, alone.."said Bee Bee..

We did, but not before we shared a longer than usual kiss

in her doorway...

 "Yeah..."laughed Sofia, conspiratorially...Unknown to either of us....She had snuck upstairs to Kahlil's room around three in the morning..

 "That's right.."laughed Kahlil sheepishly....

The two of them had had a quickie

and she had quietly returned to her room...

Regardless, they were ready on time as we had agreed..

Jade was with us too...

So we were pleasantly surprised to see Yvette, Gary and Josie already in the train station when we arrived..

 "Hey Guys...Looks like we are all on time.."laughed Ms. Yvette..

 "We took an Uber.." said Gary, who had spent the night with Yvette and had gone by Olivia and Beverly's place and picked Josie up..She had spent the night with them as she sometimes did..

"Hey Guys." said Josie..

We all got tumblers of coffee from the nearby Dunkin Donuts..

and waited for our Train to arrive..

It was an Acela...

"You do realize you guys are riding like this because you work for McCluskey, Cozen, Connor and Pratt and associates.".said Gary.

He knew like we all knew that the city wouldn't pay for these kind of accomodations...if it were he and Rockland going to the prison..

Josie, who had just been to

 the prison weeks before, She rode up with

Olivia, Beverly, Donnie Ray and Nelson in an SUV....

Yvette smiled..

"Heyyy Go Big or don't go at all.." she said.

 "I like that....I'm going to get that on a t-shirt.." said Bee Bee laughing..

"Yeah, me too!"laughed Kahlil...hugging Sofia,

who just giggled...

"Welp..Here comes our train.." I said..

as we got seated..

 I looked at Bee Bee, who was seated next to me..

''We might have been the only ones who didn't have sex last night.."I whispered..

We had both peeped the way Sofia and Kahlil had laughed and looked at each other  that they might have had a quickie in the middle of the night..

"I know right?  Don't worry...we'll make up for it tonight hot stuff, okay?" she said and smiled..

she leaned over and kissed me passionately as the train started and began to move...

Sofia and Kahlil were already kissing before we got started..

they were incredibly passionate...

Gary stared at Yvette...

He whispered in her ear...

"Your breasts are uh incredibly plump and that blouse just accentuates it.." he said..

"My good ness Gary, you have become such a horn dog...." she laughed and leaned over

and kissed him passionately...

Jade and Josie sat a few feet up from us...Having a spirited conversation about the case and the particulars...

II-

Stanga was a beautiful scenic little town....

Considering it was Northeastern ,Pennsylvania...I didn't see many African-Americans or Latinos..if any...I could imagine the stares we were going to get from these good people..

The train got us to Stanga in little under two hours....A car ride would have been grueling...At the train station, we rented two cars...

 I drove...

 Bee Bee sat up front with me..

 Kahlil sat in the back

with Sofia..

While Gary drove the second car

with Yvette up front..

 and Jade

and Josie in the back...

We drove to the same Air BNB that Olivia, Beverly, Donnie Ray, Nelson and Josie had stayed in a month or so before..

Josie knew the entire layout..

 and she showed us around as we picked our rooms

and unpacked our baggage which was not only clothes , but law books, case files and Laptops and Tablets...

We hadn't been in a good twenty minutes when the doorbell rang...

''Who could that be?" asked Yvette..

"Who knows we are here?" asked Jade..

"We'll never know if we don't answer the door.." said Gary...

A beautiful Latina girl was at the door...

"Hi....You must be Yvette Jones and crew..." she said..

"I'm flattered, but I'm not that pretty.." laughed Gary...

"Don't mind him...I'm Yvette Jones...I'm an Attorney from Philadelphia.." she explained.

"I know...I'm Jessica Sanchez...I'm also an Attorney and I'm also from Philadelphia...I'm with the Innocence Project....I just recently left the Public Defenders Office....I got saddled with Larry Ray Wiggins case.. I studied the case file and I saw that you did most of the heavy lifting... So I sent you those dockets...I knew you would come..I'm so glad...because I need your help...I've never tried to stop an execution before...I think we can help each other...." she said..

Yvette sighed..

"I'll need all the help I can get...These are my associates...

 Attorney Keith Jones" she said..

"Pleased to meet you.." I said..

 Attorney Beatrice Evans." she said.

"Hi.."said Bee Bee..

 Attorney Sofia Garcia."said Yvette..

"Hola." said Sofia..

"Hola mami." said Jessica..

And Attorney Khalil Ahmed.." she said.

"How are you?" he said..

"This is our investigator, Jade Lee" said Yvette..

"Pleased to meet you"said Jade..

"And my boyfriend, who can't live a minute without me..Gary Lockwood, an investigator with the D.A.'s office in Philadelphia.." said Yvette..

"Charmed.." laughed Gary..

"I'm across the street....I've been here for a week...It is soo nice to see people from home..."said Jessica..

''And people of color too...right?" said Yvette ,high fiving her..

"Okayyy?"laughed Jessica...

"Ohhh excuse my manners...This is Josie , Josie Boyd...

She's a para-legal and currently in her second year at Penn Law...She'll be working with us..."said Josie..

"You are going to get a great education.."said Jessica..

"Oh she gets it..she works for my girlfriend's law firm

...been there since day one...I just borrowed her for this case...She tried a case, a mock trial a few weeks ago...Got a triple murder conviction overturned and got the guy acquitted in retrial...She's good...She's going to be fierce when she graduates and passes the bar."said Ms. Yvette.. who looked at us.

and these four here...I hand picked them after they graduated from Penn Law and passed the bar with the highest scores in their class...They have surpassed everything I was hoping for them so far...These are some sharp minds.." said Ms. Yvette, looking at us like a proud mother..

"Good , just the kind of brain trust we will need...  I'll let you get settled ,then we can head out to the prison to see Larry this afternoon.."said  Jessica..

III-

The Prison was actually on the outskirts of town...

This town ,like most prison towns was almost totally supported by the prison...A great deal of the local men and some women were correctional officers... Some teachers taught classes at the prison, some doctors and nurses and counselors worked at the prison... The prison had a softball team, a football team and a basketball team, oh and a swim team too.. A lot of the locals went to the prison to get their fix of local sports... The huge prison was the town's biggest employer, it's next biggest employer was Super-Walmart..where we were going to stop this afternoon.

We went up in three cars..

We waited for like an eternity , until they brought Larry Ray Wiggins..

A hulking white male out....He saw Yvette and he smiled from ear to ear...

"Oh My gawd….Ms. Jones!!!!... Ms. Yvette Jones!!!!!...It has been years..."he said.

"Hello Larry...I would ask you how you're doing, but that would uh be kind of obvious..huh?" said Yvette..

"I'm doing as good as I can for a guy who is set to die in a few days..." he said..

''We are going to stretch this out...Try to save you with science.."said Jessica.

''I've got a question for you....How did you know Mary Lou's panties were red?" I asked.. "In the phony letter you wrote , you did mention that and they were red...How did you know?" I asked..

Bee Bee, Sofia and even Josie's mouths dropped in sheer surprise..

"Ah saw them...We did have lunch on that last day she was alive....And we went to my RV...we kissed and made out a little and I unbuckled her jeans and slipped them down a bit...and she stopped me..she said she didn't want to go any further...so she pulled her jeans up...we kissed a little bit more..she said she had to go and then she left...that was it...That was the last time I saw her.." he said..

Yvette realized what I had just done...Given an explanation for why fibers from her clothing and maybe strands of her hair were found in his RV...She looked at me and smiled and nodded..

''Why didn't you explain that in the first trial?" asked Sofia.

''Yeah you said she'd never been with you."said Kahlil..

"I was under indictment for burglary already and then they was tryin to throw a murder rap on me...I was sayin anything I could to throw the charges off of me.."explained Larry..

''When you told your ex-girlfriend, Polly Mason that you might be in trouble the day after Mary Louise was last seen alive...You were talking about the Burglary charge and not any murder."said Bee Bee...

"That's right...I didn't even know she was dead until they arrested and charged me a month later.."said  Larry Ray.

He smiled and looked at Yvette...

"Who are these guys?  They're sharp? He said..

Yvette smiled..

"These are my associates...I supervise them at my law firm...They're here to help us.." she said..

 Attorney Keith Jones" she said..

"What's up man" I said..

 Attorney Beatrice Evans." she said.

"Hi.."said Bee Bee..

 Attorney Sofia Garcia."said Yvette..

"Hello" said Sofia..

and Attorney Khalil Ahmed.." she said..

"What's up man?" he said..

"This is Josie Boyd, a para-legal and law student who is researching the case for us

"Hello"she said.

and Jade Lee, our investigator...

"Hello." said Jade..

"This is Gary Lockwood, my boyfriend..an Investigator from the Philadelphia D.A.'s office.| " she said.

''What's up man?" he said.

''Wow, I got a  dream team here huh?"asked Larry..

"We've got better resources than we had last time....Let's hope we can save your life.."said Yvette..

"So sit tight, don't do anything crazy and we'll see you in a few days for your hearing."said Jessica.

"For the first time in a few years ,I feel hopeful." said Larry.

 A little bit of hope was better than none at all..

IV-

We went to the local Walmart Superstore and bought groceries...

The townsfolk looked at us strangely, African-Americans, Latinas, an Asian and an Arab, all well dressed and with money to spend... A few asked us who we were...We explained that we were attorneys from Philadelphia , here to help an inmate with his appeal..

I was glad we were in an Air BNB and not a hotel.. And I was glad we were ,Where we were...We had a bit of privacy...

We invited Jessica to have dinner with us and since we had a spare room, We asked her to cancel her contract and move in with us...

Yvette, Bee Bee and Sofia grilled some New York Strip Steaks,

They smelled and looked delicious..

Me ,Kahlil and Gary put on some Baked Potatoes...

We had sour cream and butter and steak sauce...

Josie and Jade fixed us a nice Garden Salad to go with it..

and our new guest, Jessica,

bought us wine, a very good port..

to go with our meal...

It had been a long day and we chowed down without discussing the case....

Afterwords we retreated to the large living room...

''So Jessica...Tell us about yourself.."said Yvette...'We are all from Philly except for Jade..

She is a former Homicide Detective from the Tokyo Police department who recently got her U.S. Citizenship..."said Yvette...

and  Keith, Bee Bee, Sofia and Kahlil

are all Philly Natives, all graduates of Temple University....Keith went to Howard University and all graduated from Penn Law school,passed the bar in Pennsylvania..." said Yvette..

"I was a Detective, then a Lieutenant ,Philadelphia Police department before becoming an Investigator for the D.A.'s office.."said Gary..

"I was born in Philadelphia, Raised in New York City ,Came back to Philly where I also attended PENN, got a degree in Architecture...before deciding I wanted a career in law..I work for

Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West and I attend Drexel Law School." said Josie..

"I grew up in Fishtown and Port Richmond..."said Jessica Sanchez...

 ''Wow, so did we?" said Bee Bee.

"Oh my god! Home girl!" said Sofia...

"I graduated from North Catholic High, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, got married....My marriage didn't work out...Got divorced and after 8 years, got out of the Air Force...went to Community College, got an Associates Degree..Then went to Lasalle, where I used those credits and studied Trial Advocacy,Pre Law  and Administration of Justice...Studied Law at Temple Law School, graduated and passed the Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York  and Deleware… Went to work as a Public Defender for six years and then Joined the Philadelphia Innocence Project...The Rest is as they say, History.."said Jessica.

"I  graduated from North Catholic High also,,,And I did my undergrad at Lasalle too, before going to Penn Law. Small world!!!"said Yvette..

"Josie,I heard you say you work for Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West

 Josie...They're my heroes..I've long admired them both...They were like legends at the Public defenders office..Shame I never got to meet them. They had moved on to greener pasteurs by the time I got there." said Jessica.

"I've worked with them since the day they opened up their law firm...First as an office manager / administrative assistant and then as a Para-Legal...Now I'm actually in law school.."said Josie proudly...

"Olivia was my room-mate in law school

, my AKA sorority sister and is my very best friend in the whole wide world...I live a few blocks from her and Bev...I'll introduce you to them when we get back..."said Yvette..

"My girls Bee Bee and Sofia idolize them...They've even worked a few cases with them...Which is why Livy loaned us Josie."laughed Yvette..

"Oh for real? Wowwwwww!...I did meet ,I believe it was Beverly's husband..Nelson East.." said Jessica...

''He gave a lecture at my school once.." she said..

 "Nelson is good people."I said.

"He is..We've worked a few cases with him also."said Kahlil.

"I'm in good company then..." said Jessica Sanchez, smiling...She considered us top notch attorneys who not only could help her, but teach her something too...and the fact that we knew and had worked with Olivia and Beverly made us aces in her book..

She had felt she had a hopeless case when this landed in her lap...now she had some hope..

We were full and cozy...We weren't going to talk about this case tonight...I knew it, but I didn't care...I just enjoyed socializing with good company...

My thoughts went to Larry Ray Wiggins....

on death row in Stanga State Prison...He wasn't socializing with anyone...He was contemplating his life and his possible soon to be death...….

TO BE CONTINUED...