Any Girl In Love

 TWO DAYS LATER-

A Big stack of Pancakes sat in front of me...

My girlfriend, Attorney Bee Bee Evans looked at the stack...

"You gonna eat all of that?" she asked me..

"Do I love you?" I asked her..

Sofia laughed..

"Beatrice, answer my question...Do I love you?" I asked..

She giggled and blushed and said "Yes"

"Then you have your answer...I'm going to devour these pancakes.." I said..

Kahlil laughed...

Ms. Yvette, who we hadn't seen nor heard from in two days walked in...She had a glow about her that was different..

Ms. Jade walked in behind her...

"Guys....I'm sorry I haven't seen you in two days and I know we have a preliminary today...Ms. Jade has kept me abreast...I have some news...and I figure I might as well tell you guys...

"I'M ENGAGED!!! GARY ASKED ME TO MARRY HIM TWO DAYS AGO AND I SAID YES!" she said.

"OH MY GODDDD!!!! I'M SOOO HAPPY FOR YOU BOSS LADY!" said Sofia.

"OHHHHHH MY GOD!!!! YOU'RE ENGAGED!!!THIS IS SOOOO MAJOR!!!"said Bee Bee...

Sofia and Bee Bee screamed... Heads turned as they both hugged Ms. Yvette and spun her around..

"CONGRATULATIONS! " I said ,smiling..

"THANK YOU BUDDY!" said Ms. Yvette, who hugged me for a long time , crying ....and then hugged  Kahlil..

"CONGRATULATIONS MS. YVETTE!" said Kahlil...

Ms. Jade smiled and hugged Ms. Yvette...

Gary walked into the diner flanked by

Donnie Ray Alexander

and Olivia Bennett-Alexander..

Gary walked over to Yvette and opened a box..

He slipped the ring on Yvette's finger...

"This makes it official baby girl...Will you marry me?" he asked her for the second time.

"YES GARY....YES...I'LL MARRY YOU!" said Ms. Yvette..

"Ouuuuuu girl, I'm so happy for you." said Olivia, hugging her best friend...both women crying profusely...

Ms. Yvette was happy...And I was happy for her...She was getting married and the people closest to her were present to see her engagement!

II-

But there was still a Murder Trial to prepare for.. It was day one of the preliminary hearing...

Assistant District Attorney Cal McCaffery looked at the case file..Considering Lt. Tragg was the arresting officer, this was a pretty damn good investigative case...He was somewhat impressed.

He presented his case..that Assistant District Attorney , Brittany Hughes

distraught that her cousin had committed suicide after falling in love with and giving close to one million dollars to Con man and lothario Johnny "Country Boy" Casik decided to get revenge..She took a leave of absence from the D.A.'s office and moved out of her apartment that she was sharing with her boyfriend and created a fake identity...Millicent Hunter, a rich heiress...

He detailed how she took the social security number of a child who died in 1963 and created a phony bank account, rented a loft and leased a fancy car...All to make this guy and his accomplices think he was hooking another mark..

But, he said...Her revenge took another turn, a dark turn and it ended in murder...

He had given a very eloquent argument..

Yvette argued that while most of what the ADA said was true...our client never intended to murder John Casik...

If that was her intention, why did she record all of her interactions with him?  her plan was to turn all of her evidence over to the D.A.'s office so he could be prosecuted, she argued..

I showed the champaigne bottle...

I argued that everything came down to this bottle....Our client's fingerprints weren't on the bottle or either of the drink glasses and I argued that whoever spiked the champaigne meant to kill both John and my client.

ADA McCafferty argued that the fact that our client didn't touch the bottle or handle the bottle was proof that she knew the bottle contained cyanide.

Sofia called Brittany to the stand....She wanted her to tell her story...

In a murder case most attorneys don't call their client...but Brittany, An Attorney, a skilled prosecutor herself knew how to handle herself.

"A year ago my cousin...Ashley Goddard, A stock broker and a trader herself in stocks got very fortunate...She made a killing on a very lucrative investment...When I say killing....I mean that overnight, she was suddenly a millionaire...And she made a few other investments and increased her good fortune..

She partied hardy , bought herself a condo and a nice new car...Unfortunately...she caught the eye of a man then known as John Connally..

He was tall, Handsome..Had a sexy southern drawl and was flashing a lot of cash around...He didn't even remember that he had met me before..My cousin fell head over heels in love with this guy...but something about him was smooth, too smooth...

I had Gary Lockwood, Investigator for the D.A.'s Office check him out and apparently I was right...Everything about him was phony... The Investment firm he claimed to be the partner in never heard of him...The car he said was his was leased...The fancy loft he claimed was his was sublet to a guy named "Mickey Short" aka Mark Long, a known confidence man...

And There was no John Connally either...That was a phony name and the social security number he used was of a long deceased baby girl...Just like I was doing!

John Connally was Johnny "Country Boy" Casik, a known confidence man, who had fleeced several young and older women of a sizable amount of cash...A suspect in Wilmington, Deleware, Atlantic City and Philadelphia..

Before I could confront my cousin with what he had done...He had already asked her to marry him and had given her a phony story about him owing a dangerous gangster a lot of money for back gambling debts...Had shown her receipts from Gamblers anonymous, swearing he had stopped gambling and telling her his money was all tied up right now...

My cousin gave him a check for 500 large and then another check for 500 large to cover a business shortfall...One night after they had made love, When he was getting ready to go, another woman shows up screaming her head off about her being his "wife" and sobbing and crying...

My cousin beat a quick retreat out of the phony loft....

I told her what had happened and that she had been played...I apologized for getting the information back to her so late...

She had given him one million dollars...And when the police went to the loft..It was empty...Bleached down...Looked like no one had ever lived there...

The car had been returned...By a woman!!And There was no sign of John Connally RKA Johnny "Country Boy" Casik...

My cousin was so distraught... Beyond consoling...She took her life last summer..

She dove off the Ben Franklin Bridge to her death...." I was beyond hurt, beyond furious..I swore I'd get him and I saw my chance...

I spotted him in Stoley's a few times...He didn't remember me and I told him I was a wealthy trust fund baby named Millicent Hunter...I created a phony social security number..and a whole new identity...Just like he did.. I leased fancy cars...Used an old law school chum of mine to sublet a fancy loft and flashed a lot of cash...

One of my police buddies let me use drug money seized as evidence for my scam...I took a leave of absence from the D.A.'s office and have been deep undercover for months , gathering evidence on this creep...

I regretfully, even slept with him a few times..

I had to make it seem real..

I had to sell him...

I made it too real...Do you know this clown actually fell in love with me???.. He gave this engagement ring

the day before he died.." she said.

showing off her engagement ring..

"He thought he was going to marry me and be a kept man...He was going to retire from the con-,man business...but not of course before he ran that "I owe this gangster some money or he'll kill me routine.."on me..  I wrote him a check for 150 large... I guess he was going to pay his accomplices off one last time..but something went wrong... 

The girl, Rennie Horton , who I'd never met before  came in screaming that she was his fiance and all and she hit him in the head with her pocket book..He fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes...I thought it was all an act and I left...When I left, I assumed he was still alive..

Now I find out, he's dead and the cause of death was poisoning...I didn't have anything to do with that..I got the hell out of there.

As expected, ADA  McCafferty went at her hard on cross questioning why she didn't drink the champaigne when it was offered..

Brittany was cool under pressure..

"I don't drink behind anybody, not even my boyfriend, I told him to pour me a glass...He did and I was getting ready to drink it...I would have drank it and been just as dead if that girl hadn't come in screaming and crying...That's when I left..He had taken a swig from the bottle and drank a glass.but when she hit him with her pocketbook and he fell to the ground..I thought it was an act..I didn't know he was dead until the next morning when I heard it on the news.." said Brittany.

Try as he might...ADA McCaferty couldn't get her to budge...

III-

"Okay...This is the part where we roll the dice...I think we got this..Bee Bee, Kahlil are you ready?"asked Ms. Yvette.

"Ready as ever Ms. Yvette." said Kahlil..

"I'm ready." said Bee Bee.

We wanted to wrap this up as quickly as possible..

Jade had done an incredible investigative job...

Sofia and her sat at the defense table going over notes..

"We call Rennie Horton to the stand."said Bee Bee.

Rennie looked a little nervous...

Kahlil walked over to Bee Bee and passed her several Hyperdermic Needles.

Bee Bee turned to the judge.

"If the court please...I'd like to submit these as Defense Exhibit A." she said.

"Ms. Horton, we got a warrant and the police entered your apartment and found these Hyperdermic needles.."said Bee Bee..

I walked up...I brought her the Champaigne Bottle..

The same bottle that was filled with Cyanide laced Champaigne..

I whispered in Bee Bee's ear...

"I Love you...I really do."

She giggled and whispered to me..

"I love you too!"

"If the court please...Defense Exhibit B...This is the champaigne bottle that was laced with Cyanide that John Casik drank from....Ms Horton....right here is a hole the size of a pin tip...and your hyperdermic needle fits right in this hole...See? That's how the Cyanide got in the bottle..."said Bee Bee..

"You're crazy......I'm diabetic....That's why I have those needles..."said Rennie.

''We know you are...Which is why we had every needle tested ,INCLUDING THE ONE YOU TOSSED IN THE TRASH CAN...It had traces of cyanide in it....Not Insulin..."said Sofia...

"You bought two tickets with your credit card...Two tickets to Hawaii, for you and him....It must have hurt you to the core when you discovered that Johnny had bought two tickets to Cancun....One for him and one Ms. Hughes, masquerading as Millicent Hunter. And even worse when Mark Long, who is prepared to testify that you went into a rage , when he told you that Johnny was breaking up the band ..Going solo, getting married to the rich mark....I knew it was you.....I knew as soon as I heard about the two different sets of tickets and the engagement ring...I knew it was you. Any girl in love would know."said Ms. Yvette.

"YESSSSSSSSs....YESSSSSSSSSSSs... I DID IT!!  I KILLED HIM!.....I WANTED TO KILL THEM BOTH!!!!!.....I WAS SO ANGRY...WE HAD BEEN TOGETHER SIX YEARS.....SIX YEARS!!!  IF I COULDN'T HAVE JOHNNY...I DIDN'T WANT HER TO HAVE HIM!"screamed Rennie, crying profusely....

"No further questions ....Don't say anything else Rennie, Get you a lawyer."said Yvette softly...

"Uh Your Honor....If it please the court, I see no need for this to go to trial...The People move to drop all charges against Brittany Hughes."said ADA  Cal McCafferty sighing and glaring at Lt. Tragg balefully..

Once again, another fouled up investigation and arrest...

"So Moved and Duly Noted... Bailiffs, take Ms. Horton into custody.... Ms. Hughes, you are free to go and I hope to see you practicing in my court real soon."said Judge Reynolds.

"I'll be back as soon as Monday Your Honor..... Beatrice, Keith, Kahlil, Sofia, Ms. Yvette, Jade...Thank you all so much...I am in your debt."said Brittany, hugging the four of us..

"Don't mention it Britt...Us Penn Law students have to stick together.."said Bee Bee..

I put my arms around Bee Bee and hugged her gently....

"We were only too glad to help you  Britt.." I said and hugged Bee Bee even tighter..

"Like Bee said, Us Penn Law students have to stick together.."said Kahlil..

"We couldn't have done it without you Jade.."said Sofia.

"This was like a routine homicide...Not too hard to figure out..Once I knew all of the players."said Jade.

"That's a relief...Now let's get out of here.Get something to Eat."said Yvette.

"The Five of us are taking you to lunch Ms. Yvette, Keith, Bee Bee, Kahlil ,Jade and myself...our treat."said Sofia.

"AWWWWW...I love you guys." said Ms. Yvette.

"You guys are incredible....Knocked it out of the box the first day of the preliminary hearings...I was prepared for a trial...OUTSTANDING!!! Olivia and Beverly were right about you guys...Tell Mr McCluskey, I will be sending some business his way."said a jubilant James Hughes..

"He'll like that." said Ms. Yvette...

Lonzo and Brittany stood in a corner..

kissing passionately....

While Lt. Tragg stood by scowling.....Furious.....He just couldn't believe Brittany Hughes was with him, Lonzo Williams...He ached watching the two of them kiss...He turned and stormed out of the courthouse.

IV-

We all went back to that restaurant where Brittany's father had taken us a week ago...

To Ms. Yvette's surprise...All of our friends were there...Olivia, Beverly, Donnie Ray , Nelson and Josie.

"SURPRISE VETTIE!" said Olivia, hugging her and kissing her...

"CONGRATULATIONS MS. YVETTE!" said Beverly , who viewed Ms. Yvette as a second auntie..and hugged her...

"I'm so happy for you and Gary." she said.

"Congratulations Future Mrs. Lockwood!" said Donnie Ray.

"Congratulations Ms. Yvette."said Nelson..

"Congratulations Ms. Yvette."said Josie

"Congratulations Ms. Yvette." said Josie's boyfriend, Paris.

"Come here honey, give me a hug..."said Alfreda, Olivia and Beverly's office manager..

"Congratulations Ms. Yvette!" said Kayla

"CONGRATS To YA!"said her husband, Ray..

"Congratulations Ms. Yvette" said Dabnis...

Jazzy grabbed her and hugged her..

"Soooo happpy for you girllll!" she said..

"Congratulations Mami." said Jessica.

"Congratulations." said her husband Chip...

Yvette's face was streaming tears....As she sat down....

Gary sat next to her and put his arms around her...

Everybody cheered....

"We rented this place out yesterday.." I said.

"We invited everybody...."said Bee Bee

"We knew you'd be surprised.." said Sofia..

"Yeahhh,Congratulations Both of youse.."said Kahlil.

"We love you Ms. Yvette...If not for you....None of us would have a job and I wouldn't have citizenship"laughed Ms. Jade..

The room exploded with laughter....

"Thank you...Every last one of you for being in my life, for enriching it...I love you all!" said Yvette...

"Heyyyy girlie....You didn't think I would miss this did you?" said ADA Karen Page, hugging and kissing Yvette..

"I'm so happy for you.." she said.

"I should have brought a camera crew.." laughed B.L. Benz, her boyfriend....

A Beautiful end to a great day for all of us.

EPILOUGE-

Tender was the night...

Bee Bee was in my apartment..

"What a nice day...I am soo happy for Ms. Yvette..." she laughed..

I leaned her up against the wall and kissed her passionately..

"I' happy I'm finally alone with you" I said in between kisses...

"Ummmmmmmmmmmm, I'm happy too...." she said..

I slipped her panties down and off and lifted her up and entered her slowly and softly...

"OUUUUUUUUUUU, HOOOO HOOOO HOOOO HOOOOO...OHHHHHH MY GODDdD ...OHHHHHHHHHHHH...OUUUUUU!" she squealed..

"OUUUUU BEATRICE!!" I moaned..

"I DON'T EVEN LIKE MY NAME...EXCEPT WHEN YOU SAY IT!" she said..

"DO YOU LOVE ME? LIKE I LOVE YOU?" I asked her...

"YESSSSSSSSSS...YESSSSS I DOOOOOO..OUUUUUUUUUU!  UMMMMMMM! YOU KNOW I DOO!" she squealed..

Her shapely legs shaking..Her body trembling...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she cooed softly..

I placed her on my couch..

We began to make sweet love...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOUUU?" she cooed...and laughed

Across the hall from us..

 Sofia and Kahlil were way ahead of us..

"UMMMMMMMMMM PAPI!!" she moaned..

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH SOFIAAAAAAAAAAA"

They had been making sweet love since they'd gotten back..

We were going to be the next ones to get married , that was for sure.....That had been a constant since we'd all met!