One Must Wait

by Penny Mickelbury

  ONE MUST WAIT

  A CAROLE ANN GIBSON MYSTERY

  By

  Penny Mickelbury

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  One Must Wait (The Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries, #1)

  A NOTE TO READERS:

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

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  Also By Penny Mickelbury

  About the Author

  This is a work of fiction. All of the

  characters, organizations, locations and

  events portrayed in this novel are either products

  of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  A NOTE TO READERS:

  When this book was first published, Hurricane Katrina

  had not yet inflicted its horrible destruction upon the

  Gulf Coast. So, the New Orleans that you visit in

  this story is the pre-Katrina Crescent City.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Juror Number Seven wasn't buying it. The set of her head and shoulders and lips proclaimed loudly and clearly that Juror Number Seven flat out didn't want to hear how Tommy Griffin wasn't really a dirty cop but was, instead, a self-effacing young man of twenty-five who always followed orders, even if those orders were stupid and illegal, not to mention a flagrant violation of the public trust. Juror Number Seven looked at Tommy Griffin and her flashing-black eyes saw her hard-earned tax dollars follow her faith in government down the toilet and out into the Potomac to swim with the rest of the pollution.

  Carole Ann Gibson looked at Juror Number Seven, aka Hazel Copeland, and knew instinctively, without doubt or question, that she and her ego had made an enormous, inexcusable, and unforgivable error. Hazel Copeland should never have been seated on this jury; Carole Ann knew this now, but now was too late for consequential discoveries. Now, when all that remained for her to do in this trial was face Juror Number Seven and the eleven other inhabitants of the jury box with her closing statement. But at the time of jury selection little more than a month ago, Carole Ann had believed with unwavering certainty that she could persuade this woman—could persuade all eight women and four men—to see Tommy Griffin as she saw him: A shy, vulnerable, determined—and misplaced—product of the hard-luck streets and alleys of Southeast D.C. who became a cop to escape certain destiny rather than fulfill it. Not only grateful to be a cop, but heartily committed to the belief that he could help tame the forces of evil that ravaged his old neighborhood, Tommy easily became the dupe for his drug-dealing sergeant, became the bag man left holding the bag.

  Tommy Griffin had steadfastly and self-righteously refused to accept that anyone could believe him guilty of such a heinous crime until he saw the videotaped evidence of himself, dressed in the silly, baggy, butt-hugging britches and hooded sweatshirt of the contemporary gangster and climbing over a back-yard fence, exchanging drugs for money; until he saw the his sergeant's videotaped confession implicating him, Tommy, as an eager and willing participant whose intimate knowledge of the drug-infested community across the Anacostia River from Washington, D.C.'s power center was crucial to the illegal operation.

  Tommy Griffin was green. A rookie. Fish, they called him, then and now, in his old neighborhood—a guppy who'd swallow anything that swam his way. Gullible, perhaps; but Tommy was not stupid. His eyes and ears absorbed every detail of every word and action around him...of every nuance of every word and action around him. And when he'd dried his eyes and bandaged his wounded pride, he ratted on his sergeant to a degree that would have brought a smile to the tight lips of Eddie G.

  Tommy had been a D.C. cop exactly eighteen months when he was busted in the FBI-sponsored sting, not nearly enough time to be any more than the peg he actually was in the well-run and well-established drug-dealing business being operated by a coterie of vice cops gone bad. Carole Ann had proved that. It had taken the better part of two weeks and had forced testimony so grueling that she herself was weary when it was over. But when it was over, she'd broken the three cops—two sergeants and a detective—who were the masterminds of the scheme, demonstrating along the way that Tommy's sergeant had been dirty since his Army days twenty years earlier when, as a supply clerk, he'd stolen everything from eggs to nails for sale on the outside. But they weren't on trial, the dirty vice cops; Tommy Griffin was on trial, and making them look bad did not necessarily make Tommy look good. So, against all advice, solicited and otherwise, Carole Ann had put Tommy on the stand. And he'd been magnificent: Humble and direct and open and polite and mightily embarrassed that he'd been duped, and heartily sorry for it, even though it wasn't his fault. And that's when she'd won her jury. All except Juror Number Seven.

  So dazzled was she by the brilliance of her own performance that she almost missed Juror Number Seven's message. She'd been watching the lead prosecution attorney struggle with and then abandon his fruitless cross-examination of Tommy, who had become so poised and confident that she'd need to remind him to be the inept innocent she'd said he was. Tommy was holding his own against the prosecutor, so Carole Ann was watching the jury. One by one she studied them: Their posture, their degree of alertness, their level of concentration. One by one until she reached Juror Number Seven, and Carole Ann was snatched to attention by the unfamiliar. She'd seen jurors cross-eyed with boredom, had seen jurors yawn and fall asleep and snore. Had seen anger and antipathy, disgust, dismay, and disbelief in jurors. But this was the first time she recalled seeing outright, undisguised hatred emanating from a juror and it alarmed her. Carole Ann closed her eyes and conjured up the profile of Juror Number Seven.

  Hazel Copeland was a forty-two year old Black woman born and bred in the public housing projects of Baltimore, the single mother of four children, whose entire working life had been spent cleaning up after other people. In defiance of every law of gravity, Hazel Copeland had worked her way up from maid to head of the housekeeping department of the swankiest hotel in Washington, D.C., and had never, as far as Carole Ann had been able to determine, pilfered so much as a pillow case or a wash cloth, a bottle of shampoo or a bar of soap; had never missed a day of work; had never been the subject of anything but the highest praise from her employer. Two of Hazel's four children were in college and the other two, both high school honor students, were on their way. And that's why Hazel Copeland, aka Juror Number Seven, didn't want to hear how the pitiful circumstances of Tommy Griffin's life led him to betray his oath to serve and protect, no matter how unwittingly.

  But that wasn't all of it. Carole Ann scrutinized the woman: She was handsome—tall, erect, dark chocolate brown, with a full head of jet-black hair just beginning to exhibit traces of silver at the temples, and Carole Ann knew that Hazel Copeland was not the kind of woman to seek refuge from maturity in a bottle of hair dye. She sat ram-rod straight in her chair and had not, in four-and-a-half weeks, displayed a hint of fatigue or boredom. Hazel Copeland was the perfect juror. Except that she hated Carole Ann's client, the first innocent client she'd had in at almost three years.

  Carole Ann felt that realization shock her almost as much as did the fact of Hazel Copeland's cold hatred of young Tommy Griffin; and then it frightened her. Frightened her to realize that for the first time in recent memory she held the fate of an innocent person within the limitations of her skill and ability; frightened her to realize that perhaps instead of hating him,
Hazel Copeland merely believed him guilty as charged and, as a result, hated what he was accused of doing.

  "We're fucked," Carole Ann wrote on the yellow legal pad on the table before her, the emerald ink she used contrasting boldly with the fine, pale green lines in the paper. The attorney seated next to her, her second-in-command, frowned at the pad, looked over at her with a quizzical expression, and stared again at the bold green markings on the yellow pad.

  "Look at #7," Carole Ann wrote, and watched him as he did. The crease in his brow deepened as he studied Juror Number Seven's determined impassivity, searching for but not finding whatever Carole Ann had seen. Then, in that moment, Juror Number Seven turned her gaze toward the defense table and Carole Ann physically flinched. It was not Tommy Griffin that Hazel Copeland hated, but she herself, and Carole Ann knew why. She looked into the woman's eyes and heard her soul speak: Traitor, Carole Ann heard Hazel's eyes say. How dare you look like, be like me, present my son—our son—as criminal, and ask me to trust you and forgive him.

  Carole Ann broke eye contact first. The few seconds had been excruciating. Besides, communication with a juror was an ethical and legal violation; and they definitely had communicated, the lead defense attorney and Juror Number Seven. And they had understood each other perfectly. Carole Ann was, in truth, a traitor, though she hadn't known it until Hazel told her. True, she was a traitor only in the place where all the Hazels of America lived; but that was a very large and well-populated place, and therefore a very important place, and Carole Ann experienced a moment of debilitating guilt until she understood that Hazel was correct in her assessment only if Tommy Griffin were guilty and she, Carole Ann, wanted to help him get away with it. But Tommy Griffin was innocent, and therefore she wasn't a traitor.

  These feelings and fears, revelations and recriminations Carole Ann had carried with her, within herself, for the last day and a half, becoming increasingly familiar with and even accepting of them, if no clearer about how to resolve them than she had been at the moment of their presentation. And now it was hang-tough time; do-or-die time; put-up-or-shut-up time; rock-and-roll time; shit-or-get-off-the-pot time; show-time-at-the-Apollo time. Whatever terminology a trial lawyer used to define or declare the moment when it was time to stand and face the jury on behalf of the client, it now was that time for Carole Ann.

  "Miss Gibson, we're ready when you are," the judge intoned dryly, and Carole Ann realized she'd lost contact with reality for a moment, realized that they all were waiting for her, that they had been waiting for...she didn't know how long. To the packed and expectant courtroom, the several moments of her mental lapse translated as a well-placed dramatic pause. She stood quickly, emptying her mind of her well-crafted and now totally useless closing argument, and crossed briskly to the jury box, where she immediately began her trade-mark pacing, effective and, she knew, impressive, because of her height—three inches shy of six feet—and her lean, sinewy elegance, clad today in verdant brushed silk with an almost-daring neckline.

  "Tommy Griffin is not guilty. He is not a drug dealer. He is not a dirty cop. But don't take my word for it. I know some of you don't think much of some of us lawyers, that you see us as the enemy. After all, we're the ones who, if we do our jobs properly, return the drug dealers and thieves and murderers and worse to your neighborhoods.” She ceased pacing and stood directly before Juror Number Seven and looked into her eyes. “So, while we may deserve your lack of respect and confidence, Tommy Griffin does not. Do not make him pay for our errors."

  She felt the stir in the courtroom, as if the hermetically sealed windows suddenly, miraculously, had opened, admitting the moist, warm late Spring air to rush in and swirl about. The judge stirred. The reporters in the press section stirred. The two groups of lawyers before the rail stirred, as did those behind it. The spectators stirred. Only the court reporter remained motionless, his hands poised above the scrunched-up keyboard waiting for words—her words—to record for posterity.

  "So," she said, cruising down to the end of the jury box nearest the judge and leaning on the banister, leaning in toward the three jurors whom she knew for certain to be in her corner, "ignore me and everything I've said these past five weeks. I mean that. Pay me no mind. Just remember what everyone else has said during this trial and decide for yourselves who's telling the truth and who's lying. You heard from the three former vice-squad officers who testified that Tommy Griffin was a willing participant in their drug dealing scam, and you heard from the two assistant chiefs of police who said those vice cops were three of the biggest liars this side of the Chesapeake Bay. Who's telling the truth: the three fired cops or the two assistant chiefs?"

  Carole Ann got the solicited reaction from the three jurors nearest her—two snorts and a chuckle—so she shifted position, sneaking a glance at the courtroom as she straightened. Every eye was on her and she liked it that way. She was in control of the courtroom, if not of her own thoughts and emotions. She strolled to the other end of the jury box and struck a similar pose, leaning on the banister and getting as close as allowed to the jury: Some judges denied any proximity, while others permitted a non-threatening, no-contact nearness.

  "Who else did you hear from? Remember Mr. Weatherspoon, the elementary school principal, and Mrs. Carpenter, the high school principal, and Rev. Ottwell and Captain Quarles and, of course, there were Rags, Moonshine, Heavy T and Doctor Death, the dudes from the 'hood. All of them people who have known Tommy Griffin all of his life. People who said Tommy Griffin not only didn't, but couldn't do a wrong thing. Now I know that under different circumstances you might not trust the veracity of Rags and Moonshine and Heavy T and the Doctor; after all, they admitted to a certain...ah...familiarity, shall we say, with the illegal drug dealing activities in certain sections of the Southeast part of town."

  She paused to allow the humor to waft and dissipate the built up tension. There was a rustling of papers and a shifting of bodies and a clearing of throats that rode the wave of gentle laughter until it beached itself. Carole Ann used the moment to see where she was going with this instantly devised summation, and to resolve to get there soon, before exhausting its limited effectiveness.

  "Just remember that it was Doctor Death who claimed the distinction of, and I quote, 'whipping Tommy's skinny ass every day,' because he wouldn't play hooky with the other boys.” She held up the transcript from which she quoted. 'And why,' I asked Doctor Death, 'did you want Tommy to cut school and hang out with you?' And do you remember what he said?” She made a production of turning the transcript pages, of putting on her reading glasses, of positioning them on her nose so she could peer at the jury over the rims while still being able to read. "'Because we liked him,' said Doctor Death. ‘Tommy's a righteous dude. Always was. Still is.' What does that mean, 'righteous dude,' I asked. 'It means he's good. It means he wouldn't let something like a ass kicking get in the way of friendship.'"

  Carole Ann allowed herself to share the jury's amusement, to share its amazement, at the code of the street; to share its relief at having a different code. She stepped away from the jury box and returned the transcript to one of her attorney-assistants at the defense table without meeting the eyes she knew were filled with doubt or panic or questions or some other thing she didn't want to see or think about or deal with. They didn't matter anyway, not at this juncture. Only the jury mattered. Only Juror Number Seven.

  "I ask you to remember that Heavy T told you that not only did Tommy Griffin never skip school, but he refused to steal candy from the corner store; he positively would not drink a beer or smoke a cigarette, to say nothing of a joint; he refused to use neighborhood girls for easy sex. He was just one of those good kids. You know the kind I'm talking about. That's what Heavy T said about Tommy Griffin, whom he's known since the two of them were three years old."

  Carole Ann stopped her pacing in the middle of the jury box and locked eyes with Hazel. "There's always one good kid in the neighborhood. In some neighborhoods, there will
be more than one; there will be an entire family of them: Kids who would never do wrong, and everybody for blocks around knows it." Hazel blinked and Carole Ann, like a hawk with babies to feed, swooped in for the kill. "Tommy Griffin is that kind of kid. Everybody in the neighborhood said so. Tommy Griffin is a good boy. Tommy Griffin always has been a good boy. Never, from first grade through senior high school, missed a day of school or a Sunday at church. Never. Not once. Did four years in the Army and received every good conduct medal Uncle Sam had to give."

  Each of the four male jurors, middle-aged veterans, nodded, a succinct, uniform motion, and Carole Ann knew she could wrap it up. "You've heard it over and over, from school teachers and ministers, from police chiefs, and from Army captains, colonels and a general, for crying out loud, who wanted to keep Tommy in the Army. Tommy wanted to go home and be a cop and help clean up his old neighborhood. They all said the same thing: Tommy Griffin is good. Is the general lying? Is the school principal lying? Is the minister lying? Are Doctor Death and Heavy T and the other boys from the 'hood lying? And if you think they could be, the boys from the 'hood, ask yourselves why would they? Why would self-described drug dealing murderers come into this courtroom and risk incriminating themselves to lie about Tommy Griffin's character? What kind of sense does that make?"

  Carole Ann whipped around and crossed rapidly to the defense table, beginning the transformation for which she'd become known in courthouses in three circuits. As if she were the design of some cartoon animator, the gentle rationality and casual lounging on the jury box railing and steady pacing that had characterized her summation until this moment evaporated, to be replaced by molded, sculpted angles of brittle determination. She became a stranger. She'd long ago understood that juries wanted to be treated like an equal foot of the justice tripod: The prosecution, the defense, and the verdict, much like the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Sure, juries wanted lawyers to cozy up to them during the trial, to fight to let them see and hear things one side or the other might wish to keep hidden; to share complicated forensic and pathological and psychological information; to reveal the buried secrets of persons and institutions and governments. Juries wanted all this during a trial—and then they wanted the lawyers and the judges to get out of the way and let them feel their power.