Vindication- Ties That Bind

by Patricia Kasdan

  “It is the courts understanding that the defendant was planning on entering a plea of not guilty, with the new charges in place, Mr. Levell, how do you plea to the charge of Murder in the first degree? Take a minute to confer with your attorney.”

  After a moment Evan raised his head, straighten his shoulders looked at the judge saying, “Not Guilty, your honor.”

  “This court finds that the plea was freely and voluntarily made, also finding that the defendant has an understanding of the nature of the charges pending, as well as the consequences of the plea. This court finds there is a factual basis for the plea. This court accepts the defendant’s plea of not guilty. A preliminary hearing must be and will within the next ten days.”

  “Your honor, I request bail be set, my client has no priors.”

  Philsin started to rant about evidence; the judge held up his hand to quiet him as he said, “There will be NO bail set, Mr. Levell is remanded. He will stay in custody. We will see you back in this court next Thursday the 16th, next case.”

  Doltz was pleased that he didn’t have to do anything but stand there. Jeff got what he wanted. Evan would stay in jail and Krista would be too busy trying to get him released, to be sticking her nose into anything else.

  Evan had the look of a five-year-old as they lead him out of the courtroom. Tom held on to Dana, looking at Krista. The entire proceeding took ten minutes and within that ten minutes, the gravity of the situation crashed down on them with the weight of a semi.

  “Now what? What can we do? Is there anything we can do?”

  “Tom, I need to keep digging, I have ten days before Evan has to be back here. Take Dana back home; I will be in touch as soon as a figure this out.”

  “Stay down here at the hotel; I’ll keep covering it. I’ll put a call though and extend your stay for two additional weeks. Whatever you need, you call me.”

  “Thank you, that will help a lot.”

  Krista wrapped her arms around Dana, “It's going to be okay, everything will be okay. Go home; there isn’t anything you can do here.”

  “Promise you’ll call.”

  “I will, I promise, now go.”

  Watching her exit the courtroom Krista was almost knocked over by a woman, as she pushed her way in front of her. When the woman turned, Krista couldn’t believe what she was seeing. It was the same woman she tried to talk to over in Camden. Before she could catch up to her, she was gone.

  20

  The Wrong Connection

  Travis ran up the stairs as Krista exited the courthouse. Looking into her eyes, he saw a mix of sadness, anger, and surprise. The anger seemed to be winning. “What happened, I tried to get here before the arraignment, but I got caught up.”

  “He’s remanded, they said they have enough evidence to charge him with murder in the first degree. It seems to be getting worse as we go.”

  “They need to have more than just an eyewitness to him entering the building, for first-degree murder charges.”

  “The prosecutor is Philsin. I heard he is running next term for District Attorney. He just wants to make the charges stick, the higher his conviction rate is, the stronger his chances are to win. If he thinks for a minute, he’s going to railroad Evan. He’s got another thing coming. That son-of-a-bitch better have both barrels loaded because I’m coming at him with an arsenal.”

  “Whoa, what’s up?”

  “He’s the one who supposedly found all the dirt on my father. I never could figure out why he was even looking into it. He was a prosecutor in Manhattan, and initially, my parent's case was a hit and run. None of the pieces fit, and now he’s involved with Evan.”

  Krista was vibrating at such a high rate, Travis could feel her energy as if he walked into the center of a tornado. “I haven’t had lunch, and you look like you need a break, come on, I’m buying. There’s a good Chinese take out around the corner. They have a couple of tables.”

  “I didn’t tell you. When Dana was leaving the courtroom, a woman I saw in Camden almost knocked her down. She was in such a hurry. I need to find out why she was here. I know I saw her in Camden.”

  “You need to eat, and besides, you don’t know where she went. What you do know is that she lives in Camden. You can find her there, but you have to give her time to get home.”

  “Fine, I’ve been operating on two cups of coffee all day.”

  Walking in, the smell of grease and herbs filled the small space. As they sat at the only table that wasn’t occupied, the cook yelled out, “No service, you come order, take there.”

  “I’ll hold the table. I just want some wonton soup. Maybe that will settle my stomach. It’s been doing flips since I saw Philsin.”

  “Okay, be right back.”

  Coming back to the table with plastic containers and chopsticks, Travis set it all down and laughed, “Soup with chopsticks, I gotta see this.”

  “Very funny, I’m sure they have spoons. I’m also sure you didn’t take the time to ask.”

  “Hey, don’t take your morning out on me, or you’re buying.”

  With a smile more like a smirk, she said, “Too late, you already paid.”

  Travis got up and came back to the table with a spoon. He set it down in front of Krista, saying as he bowed, “My lady.”

  “You are just full of funny today, aren’t you?”

  “Somebody’s got to be.”

  “There’s nothing funny about this.”

  “I know there’s not, sometimes we all need a little distance from the crazy to have it all make sense.”

  “Damn, speaking of not making sense. I need to find out why she was there.”

  “I know, you said that.”

  “It’s a long way from home, and she doesn’t seem to have the money to be wasting on a train.”

  “Are you sure? There are a lot of people in and out of that courthouse -”

  “She was IN the courtroom. I know it was her, she was wearing the same worn green coat that she had on when I bumped into her when I was going around the corner in Camden. It was definitely her.”

  “Maybe your brother knew her. Why else would she be in his courtroom?”

  “I don’t know, but I intend to find out. I need to talk to Evan and see if he has any answers. As soon as they get him back, I’m heading over.”

  “You find out anything else, did you come up with anything that could help Evan?”

  “No, just the trace I found in the building, not much more.” Sparks flew from Krista’s eyes as she said, “I have to keep digging, with Philsin on the case, he’ll go for the jugular.”

  The right corner of Travis’s eye crinkled slightly as the corner of his mouth lifted.

  “What is so damn funny?”

  “Do you know that when you get angry, your eyes turn the blue of fire?”

  Krista stopped eating, her spoon hanging in midair and stared at him.

  “What? What did I say now?”

  “No, nothing, I just haven’t heard that in a long while. My father use to tell me that. He called me his little fire blue, that burns hotter than the sun.”

  “Seriously, if I was my aunt, I might say that your father must be here with you today, you know if I was - you know - my aunt. That is what she believed. Between Philsin showing up, together with my comment, anyway.”

  Travis could see Krista’s cheeks rise as she shook her head from side to side. Looking up, her smile faded as she said, “If he were, he’d know how to help Evan. I sure haven’t been having any luck.”

  “Putting aside what I heard and what you have told me, I don’t know what to think about your father, other than he had a very determined daughter.”

  “As I said before, he was a good man. He always made time for us. Both he and my mother, since her parents wanted nothing to do with them or us.”

  “Why?”

  “They didn’t want them to marry, when they did, they disowned her.”

  Krista phone was ringing. She knew the ringtone. It was
Director Kane’s line. Picking up the phone she said “Levell.”

  21

  Long Island 1979

  Isabella and Anton went everywhere together. He had told her about his family and where they lived. Talked about his dreams of a better life and how he realized he had to work hard and pull good grades with hopes of a scholarship to a top notch University. He told her how he and Jeff had met and how they became such good friends. How Jeff’s parents thought he was a positive influence for Jeff, so they didn’t have a problem with where he came from. How he thought they felt sorry for him, but when they asked him to join them in the Hamptons for the summer he realized he was wrong. Jeff could not believe that Isabella and Anton lasted through the summer and either could Anton. It wasn’t until a week before Summer’s end that Anton had a rude awakening.

  The ocean’s waves rolled onto the beach, barely kissing their toes as they walked along the water’s edge.

  “I want you to meet my parents. They have been asking me about you and why you haven’t come by yet. I can’t hold them off any longer. Please come for dinner on Friday Anton,” Isabella pleaded.

  Anton dreaded meeting Isabella’s family, she was an only child and treated like an expensive crystal heirloom. Looking into her magical eyes all his fears fell away. He squared his shoulders and straightened his spine as he inhaled sharply. “Okay, let's do this, how bad can it be?”

  Isabella turned and reached up as she stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. A massive wave curled towards the shoreline, breaking a foot from where they stood. Anton lifted her and spun her around as the surge, washed up and rushed down back into the ocean.

  Her laugh hit his heart and traveled into his soul. Yes, I’ll do this for her. How bad can it really be?

  How bad? He thought as he stepped out onto Isabella’s massive front porch. The earthquake they are predicting for California wouldn’t be as bad as what just happened. His hands were shaking, and his palms were damp. The throbbing in his temples increased as he made his way down, to what seemed to be a never-ending cobblestone path to his car. A car he had saved for, for over a year, only to try and hide it behind the massive Japanese maple at the end of the driveway. He should have driven past the house and headed back home. The minute he drove down the winding tree-lined street that Isabella lived on, he should have known.

  The houses, they were called estates as he learned later, were massive. Surrounded by wrought iron fences with ornate gates, set back so far from the road you could barely see the tops of them through the trees. Yes, he should have turned around at that moment.

  As he walked up to the door, his heart was jumping rope in his chest. You can do this he thought as he reached for the doorbell.

  The woman who answered the door wore a simple gray dress, matching her hair, with a white ruffled apron wrapped around the front of it. Her hair sat on the top of her head in a tight knot. The knot seemed to be as tight as the look on her face.

  “Master Levell, I assume.”

  “Um, Ah, Yes.”

  “Mister and Misses Welsea are expecting you. Please come in.”

  Just as he thought he should turn and run, Isabella came bouncing down the staircase. She looked like the sun. She wore a bright yellow dress that floated around her toned thighs. Her jet black hair cascaded over her bare sun-kissed shoulders and wore a smile that could brighten the darkest day. She took his breath away.

  “You made it. I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

  Awkward didn’t even cover how Anton felt. He stepped into the house on legs that felt like warm rubber.

  Isabella laced her arm through Anton’s and walked him into the sitting area. The room was almost as large as his entire house. The far wall was a huge arched window. Through the glass was separated with a crisscross of black metal strips, he could see the part of the back of the property. It seemed to go on forever. The curtains, the color of oatmeal, hung on either side, starting at the twenty-foot ceiling and flowing to the floor. He was afraid to breathe the wrong way; everything was beige. Alabaster white covered the entire room, which included the expansive fireplace that ran from ceiling to floor and across the length of the wall. There were two sofas, the same oatmeal color of the drapes, with two alabaster white large throw pillows on either end and one smaller pillow that sat in the middle of each sofa. He wished he had worn his light blue polo instead of the red, yellow and white striped one. Across from one of the sofas sat two winged back chairs, the same as the walls. They form a conversation area around the fireplace. More like an inquisition area. A large teak table occupied the center of the grouping. He was surprised to see magazines thrown haphazardly across it.

  Isabella noticed the look of astonishment on his face and laugh. She leaned close to his ear and whispered, "That's my mess."

  In the corner of the room closest to the window was the largest indoor palm trees he had ever seen. He wanted to hide behind them.

  “Mom, Dad, this is Anton Levell. Anton this is my Mother and Father"-

  “Mr. Welsea and this is my wife, Mrs. Welsea.”

  “Sir, Ma’am, nice to meet you.”

  “Dinner will be served shortly. We can sit here and talk until then.”

  Anton sat at the edge of that chair that Isabella’s father gestured towards. He would rather be pacing the floor or better yet, heading for the door in a sprint.

  “I wanted to thank you for inviting me for dinner. Isabella has told me a lot about you both.”

  “Is that so, she hasn’t said very much at all about you. Tell me, Anthony -“

  “It’s Anton, sir.”

  “Waving his hand in the air as if trying to shoo away a mosquito, he said, “Right, Antonio.”

  Isabella turned to her father with a look of belief, “Daddy, it’s Anton.”

  “Yes, of course, Anton, what university are you planning on attending next August?”

  “Stoney Brook University, sir.”

  Her mother’s breath rushed in and out thru her nose, as if she took one more breath, she would hyperventilate.

  “Oh, so you are planning to go to Stony Brook?” It wasn’t what she said; it was the way she said it, that set the hairs on Anton's neck to stand straight up.

  “Yes, that is where I am planning to attend.”

  “I understand that you are working at the Trolley Barn. That restaurant out in Quogue.”

  “Yes ma’am, I’m a dishwasher.”

  With a roll of her eyes she said, “Oh, I see.”

  What the hell could she know, he thought. How could she see anything, the way she was looking straight down her nose? Her father wasn’t much better. “Is that your Chevy I saw pulling up?” Anton could hear the disdain in his voice. He knew damn well it was my car, he’s the one that answered the intercom when I buzzed at the gate.”

  “Yes, sir, she’s mine.”

  “So you are going to Stoney Brook. What do you want to major in?”

  “Business,” Anton replied.

  “Hum, business, do you honestly think that is such a good fit? I would think auto mechanics or a civil servant job would suit you better.”

  Standing up as if a spring had launched her from her chair, Isabella’s eyes cut through her father, “Daddy, really?” Taking Anton’s hand, they flew out of the room and out of the house.

  22

  Let it Go

  Disconnecting the call, Krista frowned at her phone. Shaking her head, she looked up. “Travis, I need to head back to Manhattan, Kane wants me to report. I definitely don’t need this right now. I was going to go back down to Camden tonight and see what lines I could pull. Somethings got to unravel.”

  “Why does he want you back, I thought you were on LOA?”

  “I don’t know. He just said to get my ass back ASAP. You know as well as I do, when the director calls, you answer. I’m going to have to push off seeing Evan until tomorrow. I’ll let you know when I’m back down here, hopefully by tonight, but I’m not sure with thi
s damn weather.”

  “If anything pops, I’ll give you a call.”

  “Thanks, Travis.”

  Blasting her heater, she flew through the streets like a bullet, barely stopping at intersections. With the snow starting to fall again, the roads would be like sheets of ice after the rain from earlier this morning. She knew she couldn’t take her time if she were going to make it back to Camden by tonight.

  What could be so crucial that Kane had to see me today? He could have talked to me on the phone. This can’t be good.

  After nearly a two-hour drive, as she was pulling up to the Federal Building, she caught sight of her stylist and friend, Derrick, he was standing at the window of the salon as she passed. His burnt orange sleeves popping out of the black smock he had to wear, was a dead giveaway. He’s probably watching the snow fall, she thought.

  Pulling into her space, she parked and jumped out of the car. Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she made a run for the door.

  As she entered the building, the guard yelled, “Hey Krista, thought you were out on leave.”

  “Me too, Joe, me too.”

  “It’s the work we do. You never know what to expect.”

  “You got that right, have a good one Joe.”

  As she stepped off the elevator, a heaviness settled over her. Walking to Kane’s office felt like it took forever. Approaching his door, she could see him through the glass wall panel, he was on the phone, his face was twisted, and his forehead was furrowed. “Not good, not good at all.”

  When he noticed her, he motioned her in and held up his index finger. She could feel her heartbeat quicken. He did not look happy. He slammed down the phone and bellowed, “What the fuck did I tell you?”

  Breathing in sharply and exhaling slowly, she merely said, “Sir?”