by Mark Porto
At the hospital emergency room, Johnny rushes inside carrying Doreen yelling for help; two doctors came out taking her into the examination room. Johnny walks into another room to tell the admissions nurse about her medical history.
The doctors examine the lacerations and took photographs for evidence gathering, the nurses uses a swab to collect semen samples taken from her vagina. Her body is examined for blood, fingernails and other material that pertains to the attack. The contents are placed in a paper bag which was stored in a lab for analysis.
Johnny breaks down as he waits in another room, the tears rush down his eyes, while feeling an intense pain in his heart and stomach.
Upon gaining some composure, he notifies his and her families about what happened. Within the half hour, they arrive as Johnny tells them what happened.
Joyce Norman shouts while looking at Johnny, “If it hadn’t been for him, our daughter’s life wouldn’t be at stake.” She was crying how Doreen could die.
Johnny’s eyebrows descend and rise, but his parents’ motion to him not to say anything.
Jim Norman tells his wife to shut up and stop blaming Johnny; he knew Doreen was taking depositions against certain officials in this town for a lawsuit. “Joyce, when will you get your head out of the sand? I’m just glad Johnny was there, because she would still be out there and we wouldn’t have known what happened.”
Suddenly, the doctor came out with everyone congregating around him, he dons a surgical smock as his mask dangles from his neck. He wipes his forehead of sweat. “I’ve examined Doreen; it’ll be forty-eight hours before we know for sure if she’ll survive.”
Both families look at Doreen through a plate glass window at Intensive Care. Johnny looks forlorn, despite his parents’ best efforts. Johnny sees his fiancée with all the tubes and IV fluids attached to her; a myriad of thoughts cross his mind, leaving him a near uncontrollable urge to scream in anger.
During the course of the brief visit, Father Bryan came in and began praying at the glass window. Johnny recognizes him as he was giving her the last rites of the church. He has shivers, which stream from the top of his head to his heels and he shakes, and then he paces up and down the corridors.
When Father is finished, he talks to the Norman family in front of Johnny’s, “Do you forgive your daughter’s attackers?”
Johnny awakens from his mental confusion to step forward, “Excuse me, Father; I don’t believe this is an appropriate question. My fiancée is dying and you’re concerned about her attackers? Please, have some compassion for Doreen!”
Sal and Anita tell him not to talk to the priest in such a manner.
He looks to his father, “Father Bryan is another man like everybody else.”
Father Bryan walks over to him to say these things happen and we have to pray.
Johnny is explicit, “I’m going to pray for Doreen, I don’t have any intention of forgiving the maggots who did this to her. These people must be held accountable.”
Father nods saying they should be accountable, but must forgive one’s enemies.
“Father, in this type of situation, asking one to forgive one’s enemies is asking too much,” He explains what he has been through since the last time he saw him. “Now, you want me to say I don’t resent the people who are destroying my family. Father, I’m my fiancée and my child is dying. There’s a point where too much is too much. Also, I think you said that for another reason.”
Father says it’s the anger that’s talking; he thought he should take some time out. He walks out to the other hospital beds.
Anita has a shocked look on her face; she asks Johnny why he was chiding the priest. “What do you really expect him to say?”
Johnny says his obligation, at this point, is to provide comfort. “Right now, I’m going to the Chapel and then I could use a drink.”
Johnny has visited Doreen on a daily basis, but a few days later, he walks into the hospital with a bouquet of roses for her. As he walks by the intensive care unit, he notices Doreen wasn’t there. He searches for her and comes upon Jim Norman sitting in a waiting room across from the area with his head in his hands. The roses wilt with apprehension as he sat next to him.
Mr. Norman asks him to sit down when he sees him, “The doctor left just before you walked in and told me Doreen died a few minutes ago.”
For a long time, it did not sink in with his psyche; the roses fall forward as he cries, “I feel so guilty I put her in this situation, if it wasn’t for me, she’d still be alive!” Johnny throws down the roses blowing his nose with an old handkerchief, while gripping his hands in horror.
Jim puts his hand on his, “Son, it’s not your fault she’s dead.” He explains he knew about the depositions as well as why Mr. Menden’s law license was suspended. “Please don’t blame yourself, she was doing her job.”
“Do you know if the baby survived?” Jim tells him the baby died with her.
Johnny shakes hands with Jim telling him he loved Doreen very much and will remember her for the rest of the life. Jim tells him he would’ve proud to have him as part of the family, because he knew he cared for Doreen.
After he left the hospital, Johnny rushes to the car and cries on the steering wheel so hard and so long that his eye stung. He has to sit in the car until his eyes had clarity.
The wake is held in a funeral parlor from an old Victorian house, Johnny and his parents are well dressed, enter the foyer, walked down the corridor, where an attendant took their coats.
Upon entering an adjacent room, Johnny sees Doreen’s lifeless body lay out in a metal casket with white upholstering and a crucifix situated above the body, while flowers adorn the area near the coffin. The Bellows pray silently at the kneeling post.
The Normans and their relatives are dressed in black; her sisters were crying and wiping their eyes with tissues. They approach the Bellows, Mrs. Norman steps forward saying, “Before you say anything, please hear me out, Mr. Norman explained it to me, I don’t blame you for Doreen’s death. You’re right; I have had my head in the sand.”
Johnny expresses his sympathy, but his voice grew weaker, “You don’t know how much I loved her and how I was looking forward to spending the rest of my life with her.”
Mrs. Norman thanks him and his family for coming. She leaves having to tend to other mourners.
When Georgia Valentine walks in, she wipes tears from her eyes, expressing her condolences to the Norman family. “Your daughter was a valuable employee, everybody liked her and she’ll be missed.”
The family thanks her for coming.
Johnny has taken one last look at Doreen, says a silent prayer, while he maintains composure, a sharp, but coarse pain pierces his heart. Ms. Valentine walks to him, they embrace.
She tells him there were several people at the police station who were suspected in killing Doreen. “Do you want me to go down there?”
She sighs, “You’re the only one who saw what happened.”
Johnny takes her to an area where no one could hear them, telling her he killed two of the six men and wounded another. He was concerned that the police would arrest him and charge him in their deaths. “The one I killed at the bank was a bank robber who was their consultant.
Ms. Valentine looks at him, when were you going to tell me this? “Yes, I knew and understand why you didn’t talk with police. I managed to persuade them that it was definitely an act of self-defense. But, you either go down there or those men will get released.”
“I’ll do it, please stay with my family for a while.”
“Oh, Johnny, take your time, they took them in a couple of hours ago, and they can hold them for forty-eight hours.”
Afterward, Johnny drives to the police station, Sergeant Martinelli welcomes him and informed the officer; he was here for the lineup. An officer takes him to a room where the suspects could be seen through a one way plate glass. He was told to have a good look at them.
Johnny looked for about twenty
minutes, when suddenly he notices them, “Sergeant, it was suspects: 1, 2, 4 and 5.”
The sergeant asks, “Are you sure? It’s extremely important that you be sure.” He says taking some notes. Johnny says it with the utmost confidence. Martinelli orders the suspects to step back as he turns off the microphone. “The police department appreciates your cooperation.”
Johnny stoically walks out of the police station watching Martinelli writing some paperwork. His thoughts drive back to Doreen on that grisly day, he was apprehensive about the system and its ability to punish these men. He decided instead of going home to go to a park just outside the city to think until it closes.
Before entering the lineup, Troy Grayson never shed a tear for the woman he loved. He, Lucero, Richards, and “Wild Willy” were arrested inside a bar in downtown Black Meadows. They were taken to the police station to be booked on charges of first-degree kidnapping, first and second-degree conspiracy, first-degree rape, first-degree murder and first-degree reckless endangerment.
District Attorney Odell Muir, who was cleared by the appellate division of the state Supreme Court, a month earlier, says he would be holding a grand jury hearing.
The hearing is held on April 10, in the Tappan County Courthouse Grand Jury room. Johnny was the prosecution’s only witness. He testified as to what he saw and happened when Doreen was attacked. This testimony, coupled with evidence brought in by Johnny, compels the jurors to return an indictment on the suspects.
Troy Grayson and Carl Lucero were arraigned the next day, their lawyers; Richard Menchenson and James Gray were present. Mr. Menchenson argues since his client, Troy Grayson was coerced into a confession after being denied him access to a lawyer the charges should be dismissed.
Judge Ethan Courtney presided over the arraignments, “Mr. Menchenson, how does that explain your presence, if he is denied access to an attorney.”
The lawyer claims Grayson’s father notifies him after Troy was arrested at the bar.
The judge turns to Mr. Gray, “Why do you feel your client, Mr. Lucero’s case should be dismissed?”
Mr. Gray steps forward, “Your honor, my client has difficulty understanding English, when he was arrested, he claimed he didn’t understand his Miranda rights and during questions, he didn’t understand the charges.
The judge barks, “Mr. Gray, are you trying to claim your client is mentally incompetent?” Judge Courtney leans forward to hear the explanation.
Mr. Gray states what he meant by not understanding the charges was he didn’t know much about American jurisprudence regarding grand jury proceedings.
Assistant District Attorney Talbot remarks while standing next to the other attorneys, “Your honor, that’s not true, Mr. Lucero demanded an attorney the moment he was about to be questioned.”
The judge’s head was spinning, “Mr. Lucero didn’t understand English? From what I understand, he wasn’t allowed a phone call for a couple of hours, because the lines were down and when telephone resumed, he was allowed to call an attorney.”
Talbot it was true, he holds up a statement from the phone company.
Nevertheless, the judge told Lucero he was free to go; however with Mr. Grayson, since he admitted trying to harm himself, he was confined to a Mental Health Facility in Knickerbocker.
Johnny drives home slamming the door several times, before his father yells at him. He tells his father what happened in court. His father told him there wasn’t any justice in the world. Johnny tells him he doesn’t need platitudes, because it was stomach turning. “I think I’ll go for a walk.”
Later that day, Troy Grayson is sitting in a lounge adjacent to the front lobby of a red brick building, where the windows were surrounded by aluminum on the second floor of the Tappan County Mental Health Building is located in the open field. It was next to the town. On a bench, south of the parking lot, appears a figure completely dressed in black.
The figure stares at the lounge while drinking a nonalcoholic beverage, gets up and walks to the door that was a terracotta building, which was attached to the facility and enters.
In the boiler room, the effigy took out a duffle bag, which contains tools and cords remaining there for the better part of an hour.
While the figure in black was in the boiler room, nearby, Troy Grayson was dragging a mentally disturbed woman who was being hospitalized for burning herself in her apartment. Despite her screams demanding to be left alone, there wasn’t anyone in the staff who would come to help her, since her condition caused her to fabricate stories.
Grayson places her on the cement floor, cupped his hand around her jaw, warning her if she screamed one more time, she would be killed.
The woman wiggles as hard as she could, all of a sudden, Troy takes out a knife and points it to her throat. However, as he was circling it around her face; an arm wraps around his throat. The figure drags her from him and his neck is broken. A machete is used to sever Troy’s genitalia and it was disposed in a garbage pail. She continues to scream while the figure walks nonchalantly out the door.
The woman screams until a staffer member finds Troy’s body and calls the sheriff.
Forty-five minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy, who just came on duty, walks into the room. At first, he notices Troy Grayson’s corpse prompting him to summon more deputies to the scene.
When another deputy arrives, all the evidence was taken from the scene and put it in a paper bag. The other deputy comments, “How could anybody get into the building and kill him?” He talks to several potential witnesses who remembered seeing a figure, but thinks it was a figment of their imagination. “Do you remember when the body was found?”
The other deputy says he believes it was likely around two o’clock in the morning, “Give or take a few minutes.” He comments furthers upon touching the skin that Grayson’s body hasn’t turned cold. It was agreed that the Medical Examiner had to be summoned.
In the meanwhile, Bart Grayson is sitting on a barstool in a dive located in a rundown section of Black Meadows. He is joined by Tommy Richards, who sits down beside him while taking out a cigarette.
Amid the sounds of glasses clanging, music and chatter, Richards holds a beer in his hand laughing about Doreen Norman. He said if he could’ve had another six minutes with her, he could’ve had her “at both ends”; he persists in graphic profanity in describing her anatomy. He continues to mock the way she yelled and screamed. Bart feigns a laugh chomping on a cigarette, but at the same time, starts squirming in his seat. It was then; a provocatively dressed woman comes up to him, complimenting him on his way with words. He grins saying he would meet her later.
Richards tells him the police found the body of his cousin, Troy. He murmurs a sexually provocative word saying he thought Johnny Bellow killed Troy, “I know he killed Bill, because I saw him.” He smashes his hand on the table.
Bart looks around reminding him to lower his voice to a whisper, “Look, we don’t know who killed Troy and before you take any action, remember, you’re out on bail pending a hearing, you can’t afford to be causing trouble.”
Richards grits his teeth grabbing Bart’s shirt, “How could he have been killed? There must be people watching them during the night.” Bart puts down his drink to remove his hands from his shirt. Richards says, “I’m going to get back at him when I get the chance.”
Bart leans over him telling him he would be taking his life in his hands if he attempts anything against Bellow. “This man has killed people, gone after powerful ones, now after losing his fiancée and child, he doesn’t think has anything to lose, so I would leave well enough alone.” He pays his tab, before leaving the establishment while Richards sits there stunned.
Bart takes out another cigarette and smokes it walking down the south side of Spencer Street when he is accosted in a back alley by Clem Linton. His eyes bulge as shivers run down his spine asking him what he wanted.
Linton stands there with bandages across his middle and arms folded, his beety
eyes glitter from the light of the street lamp. “You listen to me, you sniveling bureaucrat, you hired me to impersonate a police officer, and I didn’t expect to get shot.”
“Look, how did I know Bellow was armed to the teeth? Look, I don’t know who killed my cousin, Troy.”
Linton is stunned to hear about Grayson, he says he wasn’t here for that. “I know Capt. Lester has a message for you, he wants you to leave town for a few days!”
Bart’s eyes roll around his oscillating head, whispering he didn’t understand why he was being asked to leave town. Linton didn’t know, but says it was his job to enforce it. “What happens if I refuse to leave?”
Linton gives him a quirky smile warns him not heeding his advice could be dangerous to him, not just politically, “If I were you, I wouldn’t be asking any more questions.” Bart leaves.
When the Undersheriff arrives at the Mental Health facility, he pulls out a notepad and writes down what he observes, while the other officers cordon off the area. They question the night nurse who said the only thing she remembers was a man dressed in black with a hat, in silhouette walking around at the time of the slaying. She was looking out the window; saw the figure in the outside light.
After the Medical Examiner arrives, he makes his determination after he and the sheriff notice blood splattered all over the floor. One deputy also sees a particular object on the floor: an audiocassette. He looks to his superior wondering what could be on the tape.
The Undersheriff looks at it ordering the body into a bag for the coroner. They take the cassette to the Sheriff’s department to play it. All it has are sounds of church bells ringing and a baby crying for its mother. When they shut the recorder off, Undersheriff Daly rubs his chin, and then wonders why they didn’t find the weapon at the scene.
The next morning’s headlines read: ONE SUSPECT IN WOMAN’S SLAYING FOUND DEAD. A byline read: Deputies don’t have any suspects.
The article went on to discuss the case against Troy Grayson, who recently plead not guilty by reason of insanity, and it told of an audiocassette that was found at the scene.