“It’s not a story. It’s the truth. When we had the body removed, as you ordered, it was opened, and nothing was in the casket. I believe that Ms. Brooks had it removed so that she could get a mistrial. Well, it won’t work. I know what sort of person she is.”
“Do you now? From the test that was done on the casket, as well as the one I just had performed, the casket was never used. Never a body put inside. Nothing to indicate that anyone ever even put their hands on the silk pillow. So if, as you claim, she stole the body, how the hell did she steal it? There was nothing there to steal.” Peterson said that wasn’t possible. “Are you calling me a liar? I just told you, there wasn’t a body inside it.”
“Then the wrong body was exhumed.”
Again, the officer came to the desk, and again he left for ten minutes. When he returned, he announced that thirty-four hundred and twelve was where the unknown was buried, and that was the body that had been exhumed.
“What is the name of this person that she killed? That would go a long way in helping your case too.” Peterson, obviously in over his head, shuffled around some paperwork, then handed the judge another sheet of paper. While Peterson made a show of looking for the name, the judge read over the sheet.
When he laid it down, the judge asked for the doctor of Parker Daniel Brooks to be brought in. Peterson claimed that he was dead. The younger man that walked in looked very alive to Tholan and the rest of the courtroom.
“Sit down and shut up. You have done enough in the last half hour to make me think this entire thing was a railroad. But I’ll go through the motions. I want to see how deeply you dig the hole that you’re in before you tell me this was just what I said it was, a fuck up from day one.” Doctor Cummings took the stand and stated that he was the partner of Doctor Cummings, his father, and physician to Mr. Brooks. “Tell me, young man. Is there any way that Mr. Brooks could have done this crime that he was accused of?”
“No, sir. He had been confined to a wheelchair since he’d been in an accident just before Parker was born. Her mother was killed, and the child taken from her at the hospital. Mr. Brooks survived, but with a severed spinal cord injury. I believe at the time of the supposed murder and robbery, he’d been in the chair for over twenty years.” Peterson popped up out of his chair and said that Parker had been tried for the murder. “I have some information on that as well, Your Honor. Parker Brooks Daniels couldn’t have committed the crime either. She was with me, on a date, when this accident was supposed to have occurred. I told the police that, several times, but they never brought me in as a witness. Neither did the attorney for Mrs. Daniels.”
“So, she had an alibi, he was confined to a wheelchair, yet both of them were accused of this murder of a body that no one can find, and no one knows his name. And from the information that I just received, the building that this happened in hasn’t been used for anything but a rat’s home for the past forty years. How the hell you made this stick before is what I’d like to know.”
“She confessed.” Judge Brown asked Parker to stand up. When she did, Peterson said that this wasn’t right, things were not being done correctly.
“If things had been done correctly the first time, I’m thinking, you’d have been fired by now, I’d be retired, and she’d be up here on this bench residing over stupid cases like this one. Of all the.... Did your momma drop you on your head when you were a baby? Or did you cheat at law school enough that you don’t have the first clue what is right or wrong?” Brown looked at Parker and smiled. “Now, honey, you tell me, in your own words, why it is that you confessed to this charade that was going on.”
“My da, as you heard, was confined to a wheelchair for most of his adult life. I knew, from being an attorney, that he’d never survive in prison. Not as an attorney, nor as a man that had been injured the way he was.” She looked down, then up when she had picked up the contract between her stepmother and a man by the name of George Wilson. “My stepmother had signed a prenuptial agreement when they married. Shortly before this happened, my da had cut her off on spending. He had also filed for divorce from her. She orchestrated this whole thing to get him in prison, where he would be killed. If he was found guilty of a crime such as murder, Angela could have petitioned for the will that was made by my da to be null and void. She would have gotten everything.”
He read over the paperwork that the bailiff brought to him. Judge Brown was shaking his head even before he finished. Looking at the other moron, what he’d been calling him since the second break, Judge Brown asked Peterson if he’d been a part of this.
“I was the one that found her guilty, yes. She got what she deserved.” He asked him what that was. “Prison. It’s no one’s fault but her own that she confessed. Mr. Brooks would have been just fine behind bars.”
This time when the judge asked for a recess, he left them all there. He said that it would be two hours, so they decided to get out and stretch their legs. When Parker came out, there were so many news crews there that they ended up inside the building again. She was pacing again when the bailiff came out to find them.
“Judge Brown, he’d like to talk to you both.”
They followed the younger man, and when he stopped before opening the door, he told Parker that he was very sorry for her loss. It took him several seconds to realize he was talking about her stepmother, and not her father.
They entered the room just as Judge Brown picked up the ringing phone. He waved them to the seats and they both sat. Whatever was going on, Brown didn’t seem all that happy about it. Tholan only hoped that the man would get what was coming to him; Peterson wasn’t a good attorney at all.
~*~
“All to order.”
Parker stood up with the rest of them. She still didn’t know what was going on. After giving them her cell number, her identification at the jail, and verifying a copy of the will, she was asked to come back in a little while for the trial. Taking Tholan’s hand into hers, she held it tightly while Judge Brown sat down.
“It has come to my attention, as it should have ten years ago, that there has been a miscarriage of justice. Mrs. Daniels gave up ten years of her life, her young life, for her father. Mr. Brooks died without his daughter by his side. All things that if you asked me, should never have happened. But they did, and there is nothing we can do about that now, I’m sorry to say. But I can do something now.”
“Judge Brown, justice was served. She confessed to the crime and the state, as is its duty, prosecuted her to the fullest extent of the law.” Judge Brown asked where the body was; where the blood was; the gun. “I don’t know where they are. But that wasn’t my job at the time. Nor is it now. It was to do just what I did, put her in jail.”
“Yes, so you did. And you really sucked at it then and now.” Lifting up the paperwork that Judith had uncovered, Brown smiled at Peterson. “I have an amount in the form of a check from the bank account from one Joseph March, paid to the order of Levi Peterson of Maple Avenue for eighty-thousand dollars. In the note area, it even generously says ‘payoff for D. Brooks.’ How nice is that?” Levi sat down. Parker didn’t think that he was expecting that. “I also have a check made out to the local police station, four different men, in an amount of forty thousand dollars each. They are currently being arrested. There is also a check written out to my former colleague, Robert Dunn. He was paid a sum of one hundred thousand dollars. That’s going to put a crimp in his retirement, I’m thinking.”
As he named off several more names and the amounts they’d been paid, Parker squeezed Tholan’s hand. She was going to get justice, something that she’d been dreaming of for her da since she’d been arrested. When her name was said, Parker stood up, afraid that he’d found something more than they had.
“Mrs. Daniels, let me be the first to tell you how sorry I am that this happened to your family. I knew your father, and I always considered him a good friend and a better man. There was none like him, and I’m happy to have been a part of cleari
ng his name and that of his daughter.” Judge Brown stood up and moved toward her. “It is my greatest honor of all my life to give you this. You have been fully reinstated as an attorney. Your back pay is going to be given to you, as well as your record cleared of everything that you were stripped of. If I could bring back your father for you, I would do that as well. Congratulations.”
Peterson was dragged away, kicking and screaming that he was being treated unfairly. Parker could feel her belly rumbling again, and she sat down. Tears, tears of happiness, filled her eyes as she looked down at one of the hardest things she’d ever worked for. Her diploma. Da had been so proud of her when she’d gotten it.
“Parker, if you don’t have to run off right now, Hell and I have something for you too.” She looked around. The only two people in the room with her and Boss were Tholan and Hell. She had a moment to worry that she was going to lose it all when Boss hugged her. “Such a worry wart. Hell will give you his first. Well, he’s already given it to you, with my blessing, but I’ll let him tell you.”
“A woman such as yourself needs a child.” She told him that she had one. “You do, and she will grow up to be a fine person like her mother. But I have, with Boss’s permission, given you a child of your own. Not for what happened today, but for the fear of you that you have put into my demons. I don’t think I’ve ever had a harder working group since I opened for business. Your son, yours and Tholan’s, will be a good man, only surpassed by his father.”
“A son?” Putting her hand over her belly, she looked at Tholan before asking Hell again. “You’ve given us a son? I don’t understand.”
“I owe you something, as I said, for what you did for me the other day. No one will bother your family, any of them, for as long as you are alive. Being an immortal, such as you all are, will mean that any child that you have or bring into your heart, and protector, mystic, or mates of such people, will be protected as well. And I swear to you, if there is ever a mishap, they will be dealt with quickly and only once.”
Tholan hugged her when Hell left them. This would explain why she was so ill. A baby. They were going to have a baby. Heather would be thrilled to death about it too.
“Now my gift for you. When you decided to help my people, you did so with great risk to yourself. You did this with the full knowledge that you could be harmed. And in doing so, you have given me as much as you have the men and women who work for me.” She hugged Boss. “I’m not finished. What I have for you is only for an hour, I’m sorry to say. If I could make it longer, bring you this forever, I would. But too much time has passed. When you get home, your gift will be in the living room, and as soon as you see it, the countdown will begin. I don’t have to tell you to use your time wisely.”
Parker didn’t want to go home. Whatever was there, it couldn’t be as good as what she had right here. When Heather was picked up from school, she came with them to celebrate with a night out on the town to tell her about having a baby brother.
By midnight they were headed home. Having a lovely evening of dinner with friends and family, Parker was feeling much better. Even the sickness, now that she knew what was causing it, didn’t bother her very much. Heather was as happy as they were to know that she’d be a big sister soon.
Tholan was telling Heather a knock-knock joke as they entered the house. Of course, he messed it up, and had them all laughing when they were hanging up jackets. Heather wasn’t going to have class tomorrow, as it was a Saturday, and they were all going to sleep in.
Parker entered the living room to find someone there. She had started to yell for Maggie when he turned and looked at her.
“Da? Is that you?” He nodded and opened his arms. Running to him, she nearly bowled him over when she hugged him. He was here. Her da was here. “I don’t understand.”
“I’ve come to see you, that’s all. I can’t stay, as you know.” She started sobbing when he did. “My goodness, little girl, you’ve grown into a beautiful woman. I wouldn’t have recognized you but for the freckles.”
They hugged several more times before she remembered Tholan and Heather. She introduced her da to them, and he made over them both. When Heather and Tholan left them to visit, she sat down on the floor while he sat in his favorite chair.
“You’re not in a wheelchair.” He told her that he loved walking and did so daily. “Oh Da, I’ve missed you so much. My heart just wasn’t into living anymore when I was told that you were gone. And now you’re here, and I just don’t know where to start in telling you things. Oh, I’m going to have a son. A baby, can you believe it?”
“I was told. Boss, a very nice man, he told me that I could be there when he was brought into the world. That for a few seconds before he takes his first breath, I can touch him.” Parker cried for all that he was going to miss, how much he had already. “Don’t cry, my darling. I’m happy and free of pain. And now that my little girl is going to be a momma of her own, and an attorney, you cannot believe how thrilled I am to be given this opportunity to just touch you again.”
They talked the entire hour. And when the bell on the front clock chimed twice, she knew that it was time for him to go. Holding his hand tighter, she told him over and over how much she loved him.
“I have something that I want to tell you before I leave you. Something that I should have said to you more often. I’m so very proud of you, PJ. I have been since you were laid in my arms in that hospital bed that dreary day. Every day you brought joy to my heart, love to my soul, and you made me think. Not just about the future, but the past as well.” Parker couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat. “I know that over the years I told you that we would work together on making ourselves comfortable, so that we’d never have to do without. But it was for you, PJ. Every decision that I made, every dollar that came in, it was all for you. I never wanted you to have to worry about anything at any time. And when you were taken from me, I made sure that you could and would come back to it. And that it would be safe for you.”
“I love you, Da. I wish we had more time.” He told her that they had forever, that he was with her all the time. “But I can’t see you. I want to look at you and tell you how things are going.”
“Oh honey, you will be able to. When that little man of yours comes into this world, it will be me that you’re looking upon. I will be there with him—I will be the one that whispers in his ears. Not his protector, but someone more important. I’m going to be his grandda. His one and only.”
Long after he left her, Parker sat on the living room floor. She could smell him still. His cologne was still lingering in the room. His voice echoed in her mind and heart. Parker promised herself that never would a day go by that she didn’t tell her children about the greatest grandda in the world. They’d know Parker Daniel Brooks as well as she did, because she was going to make sure of it.
When the chimes of the clock struck again, Parker made her way up to their bedroom. Tholan was on their bed, reading a book, and Heather was curled up beside him. It looked as if he had been reading to her about the Robinson family and their trials, and she’d fallen asleep, but Tholan kept reading. For all she knew, he might have known the author.
Crawling in to be with her little family, she held her daughter while Tholan read to her too. Before long, she was sound asleep. And there were no demons to bother her ever again.
Chapter 12
Fifteen years later, Christmas season
Tholan watched his love as she danced on the stage. He knew better than to try and keep up with her with his camera. She was beautifully fast, skimming over the stage. But she was stunning, and she knew the steps to the music like she did her own name. When the dance she was in came to an end, he knew that he’d have just enough time to go to the back room and hug her before the rest of the actors and dancers beat him to it. His daughter, Heather, had danced into the hearts of so many, but she only held his heart in her own. For now, anyway.
Hugging her tightly, Tholan told her, as
he did every time he came to see her perform, that she’d been the best on stage. And just like all the times before, she told him that he was silly. When her mom and the rest of her siblings joined them, Tholan stood back and allowed them time with the star of the show.
“I’m sort of sad that this is the last night of the show.” It was Christmas Eve, and the entire family had taken an entire floor of a hotel in New York to watch Heather’s last night on stage this year. “But the good news is, I’ve been asked to come back and try out next year.”
She’d be the star again, and Tholan wanted to tell her that, but to do so, he knew, would jinx it for her. He had no idea why she thought that, but he had learned to keep his opinions to himself when it came to her and dancing.
As they were leaving the theater, Brooks, her little brother, told her that he had gotten her some flowers. But like Tholan, he’d left them at the hotel. As they were trying to cross the street, the traffic heavy even for as late as it was, Tholan kept an eye on his family.
He had four daughters now and two boys, one of those his biological son. But they were all, as far as he and Parker were concerned, a biological part of them. Each of them had come to the two of them with some sort of issue, from being abused to just being abandoned. Brooks was the only infant that they’d ever had—again, so far.
Dinner was a late affair tonight. As they took their seats, he noticed that not only was Michael there, but also Boss. Hugging them all, Heather flew from one person to the next before Parker was able to get her to have a seat. After Boss left them, claiming that he had work to do, Michael sat for a time and told them how much he’d enjoyed the play. He’d never seen it before.
“I have decided that I shall try and get time to see more of such things. It’s calming, is it not, just to watch the story unfold? I have known the author of the play you were in, Heather, and I think that even he would have enjoyed the way that you and the troupe brought it to life.”
Tholan: Mystic Protectors: An Angelic Paranormal Erotica Page 15