Explaining Entanglements

Attorney and Managing Partner Yvette Jones -Lockwood kissed her husband, Investigator for the D.A.'s office, Gary Lockwood in the middle of their living room for what seemed like an eternity..

"If we keep kissing like this ,I'm going to miss my train and we are going to wind up back in the bed." she whispered to Gary, while prying herself out of his embrace..

''Would that be so bad?" he whispered to her..

"For me, It would be..I'm meeting my new client today....Don't worry...I'll "take care" of you tonight...I promise." she said, smiling at her.....

 She took a napkin and she wiped her lipstick off his face and his lapel..

'See you tonight .....I love you." she said as she ran out of the house

and down the street and around the corner to the train station..

She hadn't missed it..It was just pulling in...

"Hey Ms. Yvette." said Paris, Josie's Husband..

"Good Morning Ms. Yvette." said Tony Billips, Bresha's husband..Both were newlyweds and both had their wives lipstick on their face and their lapels..

Ms. Yvette, being the mother figure she was, used a wet cloth to wipe the lipstick off of their faces and lapels, just as she had done her own husband , a few minutes ago.

The four of us were already seated and had a place reserved for her..

"Hi Ms. Yvette." I said smiling..

"Good Morning Ms. Yvette." said Bee Bee.

"Hola Ms. Yvette." said Sofia.

"Good Morning Ms. Yvette."said Kahlil.. I guess Ms. Jade is running late."said Kahlil.

"No. She's driving in this morning. She has some errands to run." said Ms. Yvette..

Our other neighbors joined us..

''Hola Ms. Yvette."said Jessica. "You will see our distinguished neighbors later on today.. Olivia and Beverly...They'll be down." she said.

"We are working on a Wrongful Conviction case with them." said her husband, Chip.

"Oh That'll be nice." said Ms. Yvette.

"Good Morning everybody.." said Jazzy.

"We almost missed the train." said an out of breath, Dabnis..

''Us too!" said Kayla, nearly out of breath..

"You gotta stop being so sexy in the morning..." said her husband Gary...

Both women were wiping the lipstick off of their husband's faces and lapel with wet cloths...

Ms. Yvette smiled.. She was happy to be married and to be surrounded by friends and colleagues who were also married and happy...She had missed this all those years she was alone in her downtown apartment.. No girlfriends to hang out with, No guys she could talk to that weren't tryng to get her in bed.

She was starting to get jaded about her profession too.. Meeting and working with these young and unjaded attorneys, mentoring some of them, just working with the others was a real shot in the arm for her..

Ms. Virginia got on at the next stop...she sat down next to Yvette..

"Girrl, I almost missed this train this morning.. Jetty is impossible...I tried to wake up and get dressed quietly and leave before he woke up...But he was up when I headed for the door and he "wanted some sugar.." almost made me miss this train...Vettie that man is insatiable.." she said.

''So He stays over?" asked Ms. Yvette.

Ms. Virginia was a little embarrassed, but she sighed. ''Yeah.We are semi shacking.. He's even got some of his suits and clothes in my closet...The only nights he doesn't stay over is the nights the Legal Ethics Board has a hearing.." she admitted.

"Gary had two closets worth of clothes over my house and I had clothes over his house...panties, bras, tampons, curling iron...the works in his drawer at his place when we were just dating..Jetty is marking his territory. I know you just got out...Are you sure you want it like that?" asked Ms. Yvette.

"Yeah, I want it like that... Jetty is sweet and kind and protective of me...and most of all safe... I went through a lot of guys when I was out...Total wastes of my time...Jetty ,so far is good.." said Virginia.

"He got a key?" asked Ms. Yvette.

"Yeah...he's had one for a couple of weeks." said Virginia.

"That's nice Virginia.. It's nice to have someone who is that crazy about you and who loves you like that..I'm happy for you girl." said Yvette, who smiled at Virginia..

Once at work..

We all had a nice hot breakfast...and retired to our floors and suites...

We sat in our conference room..We were supposed to be meeting our client today..

''We got a new case...I hear it isn't heavy...Not a murder case or anything like that."said Sofia.

"Yeah it's that case Mr. Pratt couldn't take at the last minute."said Bee Bee.

"Not if he wants to stay happily married.They had airline tickets and reservations for Cancun.." I said.

"He'd better take Mya to Cancun.. I heard him say he blew two previous vacation plans...I don't blame him for passing this case off....It's just a case.."said Bee Bee.

"But now to learn what this case is..."said Kahlil..

"And you will....Our client is coming in right now." said Yvette. "I'll let her explain this to you...It blew my mind yesterday when her and her husband explained it to me." said Ms. Yvette with a smile.

II-

Our client Karrie Pantel walked into our conference room...She was an attractive blonde...everything about her said Money...From her jewelry to her clothes..Everything designer and every item equal to one of our paychecks..

But when she talked...She was pure Philly homegirl... She had not been born wealthy...She had not come from wealth. Her Father drove a school bus and her mother taught in the Philadelphia school system.

''So nice to meet the rest of you...You, You're Keith Jones and this is your lovely wife, Beatrice Evans Jones or "Bee Bee." Can I call you "Bee Bee?" she said and you are Little Mamasita, Sofia Garcia-Ahmed..and this is your handsome husband, Kahlil Ahmed correct?" she said.

"Yes that's right..I am he." I said.

"Yes, you can call me Bee Bee.  Only my parents call me Beatrice."said Bee Bee.

"Hola mami." said Sofia.

"Hello." said Kahlil.

Jade ,who was not in the office had done a breakdown on her, which we had all read..

Karrie Woods-Patel

Born and raised in Philadelphia. PA,

Raised in Kensington ,Fishtown and Port Richmond..

Graduated from Thomas Edison High School

Associates Degree- Business Administration from Philadelphia Community College.

Entered Univeristy of Pennsylvania, College of General Studies, Graduated with a B.A. in

Economics.

MBA-Wharton School of Business. University of Pennsylvania

Assistant Manager- Rite Aid

Manager -CVS

Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Married Derek Patel, Attorney and Co-chief counsel ,Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

Founded the Patel Group,  A Software company ,now worth millions, that recently went public.

Has two offices One in Philadelphia and one in Bayside.

''We thought it would be a good idea if you told us your story Karrie." said Ms. Yvette.

"Here is the long and short of it.. I'm a Philly girl....I grew up in Kensington, Fishtown ,what they call Northern Liberties.. I'm from some of the same neighborhoods you grew up in Bee Bee, Sofia and Kahlil...

"I'm probably not as smart as you...You guys went to Girls High and Central...meaning you had good grades..I didn't start applying myself until after High School.. which I just barely graduated..I went to Community College for two years and made good grades, pulled my cum up and was allowed to go to PENN at night...I graduated from the night school with honors and got into Wharton where I finished up.. I was so broke and in debt, Those pesky student loans you know. I was so broke that I was living in my car for awhile. I had to go back home and live with my folks..

I managed a Rite Aid and later a CVS and I happened to run into one of my professors...A Lawyer who worked at the Stock Exchange... Derek Patel. 

 He got me a good job at the Stock Exchange and there I learned about investing and saving my money...and I invested well. Small at first and then larger and larger. I parlayed the lessons I learned into well over a million dollars in a couple of years....Oh yeah and I got married.. I married my former professor..Derek Pantel.

I saw a lucrative business that was on the market and I bought it..A Software company... I read and studied everything I knew about Software..Just enough to know what I was talking about. I then took over this Software company. .I made it profitable...and now it just recently went Public..

I went from being a poor little white girl from Kensington to the Boss lady that you see today...but I regress...

"This man, Jerry Adair ,who is accusing me of sexually assaulting and harrassing him is a liar...a stone cold liar.

We did have sex, a lot of sex...

At his apartment

In Hotels and Motels around the city......

Once in my home, Derek was out of town on business..

and once in Atlantic City one weekend...

I didn't know he was my employee at the time we were sleeping together. We have 3000 employees,

2500 of them are contract employees. They work on six or nine month contracts and then we decide on whether or not to renew their contract when it's done.. A lot of these kinds of companies do that." she said.

"That's how you save on Health Care expense and Benefits." said Kahlil.

''Exactly." said Karrie Pantel.

''So you met this guy...You had no idea he was one of your employees and there is a possibility that he didn't know you were his boss at the time you guys were sleeping together." I said.

"That's right...It's not like we met on the job...We met in a laundromat of all places.. He made a smart rather leering remark about some panties I was washing..

He noticed a book I was reading...It was by my favorite poet...He quoted her and he too had a couple of books by her..

We started talking.. We met, had some wine at a local wine bar..

Met a few more times and one thing led to another..

and we began our sexual entanglement in his apartment, in hotels and whatnot like I told you." she said.

"You...You're married though right?"asked Bee Bee.

Yvette smiled.. Here was the jackpot question she was waiting for someone to ask.

"Uh Yeah....Happily married for 15 years... Derek and I have an understanding..We have an open marriage...It has been open for five years... Five years ago, Derek had an affair.. It nearly broke us up..We went to Therapy...A Great Guy..Dr. Samuels...He suggested we have an open marriage..Each of us could see different people as long as the other knew about it... It would just be about sex...When feelings got involved we cut it off... Frankly, I think this has made our marriage stronger.. We are still together, Derek is now the Vice President of my company. We couldn't be Happier.  I even slept with Dr. Samuels....Derek was over the moon...So no...Me sleeping with Jerry Adair was no thing." said Karrie.

The room was quiet...

"So your husband knew about this...You and Mr. Adair and he was totally on board?  He didn't know he was an employee either?" asked Sofia.

Ms. Yvette smiled, Oh how she loved us...There was a question she meant to ask yesterday but did not!

"Yes he knew about our entanglement.. Neither one of us knew Mr. Adair was our employee...We have 3000 employees, 2500 are like Mr. Adair, contract employees...he didn't even work at the main office in Philly, he worked at our satellite office in Bayside.. That's how I found out he was an employee, when I went to that office and saw him there.   Once I found that out...I broke off our entanglement immediately... He was on the 7th month of his contract....He called me two times wanting to have one more roll in the hay, but I refused.. I didn't threaten him with his job...His contract ran out and management over at the satellite office didn't renew his contract.. I had nothing to do with that and I certainly didn't have to harrass him for sex with me..He wanted it constantly, couldn't keep his hands off me.. One time, we did it three times in one day In the morning at his apartment, once at the office in the breakroom and again that night at his apartment....I told him that that definitely could not happen again..My husband doesn't even know about that." she said. " In fact, that was the last time Jerry and I had sex. I broke it off after that day..and he still worked for us for another three months." she said.

''We are going to need your phone so that we can verify your calls and hook ups and the name of the hotels you guys uh hooked up in and his address." I said.

"You have anybody who can verify any parts of your story?" asked Bee Bee.

"Not too many...We weren't public about what we were doing...We were very discreet! He did know I was married, in an open marriage."said Karrie.

"I gotta be honest...This doesn't look that good..Juries don't understand Open Marriages...Most of them are married themselves and or want to be married one day...That right there is going to be a stumbling block.. "said Kahlil.

"But you say you never threatened his job and never fired him.....That will be the crux of our defense,"said Sofia.

"I never threatened his job... I never harrassed him...If anything, he was harrassing me, Constantly calling , sending me texts....I didn't find out he was my employee until he was in the sixth month of his contract and he still worked another three months for us before his contract ended. Thank you...Thank you guys for hearing me out.." said Karrie.

"We'll be in touch Karrie." said Ms. Yvette.

"I couldn't help but hear some of that....Lawd that girl is in some deep trouble..."laughed Ms. Virginia, our office manager and once an attorney herself.

III-

Jade was back in or old building...

It felt funny being back here....she was so used to our new building, a lifetime away...

She was in Mike Pratts office,....

"Mike said to give these files to you...and he said to tell Ms. Yvette thank you so much." said the young Para-legal now working for him..

"You graduate from law school in a couple of weeks don't you?" asked Jade, who remembered her from when we were all working in this building..

''I sure do...I can't wait...Then I take the bar in a month....Ouuuuuu weee...I'll be an Attorney then... I put in a resume for here..and a few other places...Maybe I'll get lucky like Bee and Sofia and Keith and Kahlil...Tell em Sersi said hi." she said.

She passed Jade the file.

"I will .Thanks Sersi and good luck." said Jade, who was heading for the elevator.

Just then she heard a familliar voice,.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"

It was Lt. Tragg...

"I KNEW I'D CATCH YOU IN HERE EVENTUALLY...WHERE IS YVETTE AND THE REST OF THE CREW?" he asked.

''What do you want with them?" asked Jade.

"I want to discuss the Varela Case...I need to know how you got those photos of our eyewitness in her panties that she sent to Alejandro and what policemen gave you unauthorized information.." he bellowed.

"You really are pathetic... You must not have any work to do today...The case is over...The woman has been acquitted...Nothing we tell you would make a difference anyway..." said Jade.

"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION.....NOW WHERE ARE THE REST OF YOUR CREW???" snarled Lt. Tragg angrilly.

"They are wherever they are!" laughed Jade.

The door opened and Ms. Jade hurriedly got on the elevator and left him standing there.. She got off and went into the parking garage and got into her vehicle.

She got in her Nissan Pathfinder and pulled off..

By the time he got to the street ,she was long gone.. but he smiled.. He had put a tracking device on her vehicle.He'd follow her this time..or so he thought...

Back at our building..

in the safety of our cafeteria...We all shared a huge laugh..

"Oh My God...Jade you're a mess... That clown came to my old building once..Back when he and I were goin through it.. I wonder if he knows I've moved here?" asked Dabnis.

"New People bought your building...They don't know you...I doubt it." said Kayla.

''And your firm was in Cherry Hill."said Kayla to her husband Ray.

"That clown wouldn't be looking for me anyway."said Ray..

Tony wasn't paying attention to the conversation. His pretty wife Bresha was working in the building today and would be the rest of the week on a wrongly convicted case was sitting on his lap spoon feeding him..He was in heaven..

Her associates.. Olivia Bennett-Alexander, her husband, Donnie Ray , her niece, Beverly West-East and her husband, Nelson and Josie Boyd were all here today.. along with Josie's husband, Paris, who met her here today...

They were all laughing at Jade's story of how she suspected that Lt. Tragg might have put a tracking device on her vehicle.  She removed it and placed it on somebody else's vehicle..A Nissan Pathfinder the same make and model that just happened to be a few cars down in the parking lot. She didn't know who the SUV belonged to, but she was certain he wouldn't wind up where he thought he would.

''That Man really needs therapy." said Olivia, laughing so hard tears were coming out of her eyes.

"He needs a hobby."said Donnie Ray.

"You mean other than ripping women's panties off?" asked Beverly...

The entire lunchroom ,or at least the area we were in erupted in laughter.

"Stopppppppppppp."laughed her husband Nelson..

"Beverly is terrible." said Josie,laughing..

"But she aint lying.. He does need a new hobby."said her husband, Paris.

.

"I can't believe he still hangs around the old building, hoping to see you guys."said Virginia.

"Just before we moved here..he started dropping by our suite a lot, whining and bugging the hell out of us.. I am so glad to be here, so far away from him...No one there will tell him where we now work..if he ever figures out that we don't work there anymore." said Yvette.

"I'm glad we all moved here.. I didn't want him to even start that with us."said Jessica.

"I know right? New people moved into our space also." said Chip.

"He knows I work in this building, but to his credit, he has never come down here bugging me.. He knows Kayla and Jazzy work in this building too..but he has never bothered them either.

''We are too far from the center city area he usually works out of.." I said.

"And let's keep it that way.."laughed Bee Bee.

"Yesssssssss."said Sofia.

"Where do you think he'll wind up Jade?" asked Kahlil.

''Who cares? It won't be here."laughed Jade.

Some time later in a nearly empty parking lot..

A 2021 Nissan Pathfinder, exactly the same year and model and color  as Jade's vehicle sits alone..

The car is moving up and down and the windows are steamed up...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GEEEEEEEEEEEZ!" moaned a man..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"  moaned a woman..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, I'm as horny as a cat your honor...MEOWWWWWWW!"she cooed..

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SO AM I..." he moaned...as the SUV really began to move back and forward, up and down..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"  moaned the judge...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the woman cried out.. 

"That's not Danny...I just saw him an hour ago back at the precinct...I'll be damned..Jade is stepping out on him... I'll finally get something on that smart aleck!" said Lt. Tragg who snatched the door open only to get the shock of his life..

"ALL RIGHT BREAK IT UP!" he yelled...

"OHHHHHHHHH MY GOD!!! CLOSE THE DOOR!  I'M NOT DRESSED...YOU IDIOT!!!!!! " screamed a very embarrassed  Assistant District Attorney Nicole Edwards.....

"OH MY LORD!" he screamed ........totally surprised.

"ARTIE! CLOSE THE DOOR GOTDAMNIT!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MURDERS TO SOLVE? OR COUCHES TO BREAK DOWN IN THE JUDGES CHAMBERS?" screamed a livid Judge Newton Cowley.....who was semi nude and completely submerged inside of  ADA Nicole Edwards...

"I think I'm going to be sick." thought Lt. Tragg. He remembered when Nicole Edwards was a Homicide Detective... She was a babe..Huge breasts, great shape... She put herself through law school at night and left the police department once she graduated and  passed the bar.. Now she was an Assistant District Attorney.. She had really packed on the pounds over the years... seeing her legs up in the air and old fat ass Judge Newton Cowley inside of her was the stuff nightmares was made of...

''Sorry, there was uh a mistake..I was looking for someone else...I uh got the cars mixed. up." he said, his face as red as a beet.

"That figures." said ADA Nicole Edwards..."NOW WOULD YOU CLOSE THE DOOR...IT'S BREEZY OUT THERE?" she asked him angrilly!..

He slammed the door...

"You could screw up a wet dream Artie now get the hell out of here." screamed Judge Newton Cowley...

Lt. Tragg slowly walked away and got back in his car..

"Now where were we baby?" he asked as he again began to hump ADA Nicole Edwards again...

"OUUUUUUUUUUU PUT IT ON ME BIG DADDY! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned as he once again began humping her in the back seat....The Pathfinder began moving up and down...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU SWEEET BABY!" he moaned....

The Car was really moving up and down now....

"Oh I'm going to be sick" thought Lt. Tragg, who was shaken up by what he had witnessed....He pullled off and tried not to look in his rear view mirror at the Pathfinder moving up and down...

"That's got to be murder on the suspension." he mused.

IV-

THURSDAY MORNING-

"Okay...what do we have to work with?" said Yvette as she convened the meeting.

"That file you had me pick up from Mr. Pratt's office.. It's a list of emails and texts sent between Mr. Adair and Mrs. Pantel throughout their relationship. They are pretty explicit and racy."said Ms. Jade.

"This proves they had a consensual relationship, emotional and sexual." said Sofia.

"And she was telling us the truth..He was not terminated...His contract ran out ,just like the other contract employees and the company has the right to resign to a new deal or not...This is understood by all contracted employees when they start work there....So My question is , what is his motive for wanting to sue her for this?" I asked.

Bee Bee put some records on the table.

"I know.. He is going through a brutal divorce...Alimony payments, Child support..He's got two kids..A Boy and a girl and he just finished paying off a hefty bankruptcy judgement..The guy needs the money."said Bee Bee.

"We can fight this...but a lot of embarrassing things are going to be made public... Juries aren't going to like the open marriage thing.. We are going to need more."said Kahlil.

"Jade...check out the Laundromat where they met and the bar they hung out in...See if anybody can say that they saw the two of them together, the dynamic between you and what have you... O'm going to need her to come back here and talk to us some more.. I don't like or want any surprises in this thing.."said Yvette.

"I'm on it." said Jade.

And in a lawyers office across town..

Joan Wong, the young niece of our good friend Julie Wong is preparing a defense for her client, 

Jerry Adair.

She was looking at dossiers on us..

>

 

KEITH JONES-

Born in Philadelphia PA. 

Mother, Nancy Jones, Court Stenographer

Father, Judge Keith Morrison

Graduated from West Catholic High School

B.A. Administration of Justice, Trial Advocacy, Pre Law- Howard University

J.D.- University of Pennsylvania Law School

Fluent in Spanish, French, German

Passed Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Deleware ,New York, Texas, California

Associate Attorney- McCluskey/Cozen/Connor/Pratt

Married to Beatrice Evans

BEATRICE LYNN EVANS -JONES

Born in Philadelphia PA.

Graduated from Philadelphia High School For Girls

B.A. -Administration of Justice, Trial Advocacy ,Pre Law- Temple University

J.D.-University of Pennsylvania Law School

Fluent in Spanish and French

Passed Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Deleware, Texas, California

Associate Attorney- McCluskey /Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Married to Keith Jones

SOFIA CARMELITA GARCIA-AHMED

Born in Philadelphia PA.

Graduated from Philadelphia High School For Girls

B.A. -Administration Of Justice, Trial Advocacy, Pre Law-Temple University

J.D.-University of Pennsylvania Law School

Fluent in Spanish and French

Passed Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Deleware and New York, Texas, California

Associate Attorney -McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Married to Kahlil Ahmed...

KAHLIL ABDUL AHMED

Born in Philadelphia PA.

Graduated from Central High School

BA.- Administration of Justice, Trial Advocacy, Pre Law- Temple University

JD- University of Pennsylvania Law School

Speaks Arabic languages fluently, fluent in German and Russian.

Passed Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Deleware and New York, Texas, California

Associate Attorney-McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Married to Sofia Garcia

YVETTE DENISE JONES-LOCKWOOD

Born in Philadelphia PA.

Graduated from North Catholic High School

BA-Trial Advocacy, Pre Law, Administration of Justice -Lasalle University

JD -University of Pennsylvania Law School

Fluent in Spanish, French and Russian

Passed Bar in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Deleware , New York, Texas, California.

Associate Attorney-McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Senior Associate Attorney-McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Managing Partner- McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt

Married to District Attorney Investigator-Gary Lockwood.

"I know the attorneys on opposing counsel..We worked a case together once.. We brought charges against a bad judge before the legal ethics board." said Joan Wong.

Jerry Adair looked at the dossiers..

"Hmmm all IVY Leaugers...They look young.. like you.  Is this going to be a problem?" he asked.

"No...I have to do my job just like they have to do theirs.. Most Attorneys don't take these cases personally..We win ,We Lose, We Appeal, we keep it moving..I just need to know that you aren't keeping anything from me...You've told me everything." said Joan Wong.

"I've told you everything..." said Jerry Adair,laughing.

(TO BE CONTINUED)