by Bailey West
Ah, it’s not just shrimp.
I bit into my sandwich expecting the calamari to be rubbery since it has to be cooked a shorter amount of time than the other seafood. I was surprised at how delicate it was. It blended well with the other bites. I was impressed. I took back my thought about creativity. I looked over to see what Ms. Patterson thought about the dish. She was forcing the last of the fries into her mouth. I guess she liked it.
“Whew! That was delicious, right?” She leaned down to speak with her sisters.
All three women had cleared their small plates.
“It was amazing!” Kenzie replied.
“Did you enjoy the sandwich?”
“Is it gone?” Ms. Patterson laughed while taking a sip of her cognac. “Upon first inspection, it looked like a shrimp sandwich, but I am so pleased that it wasn’t.”
“I thought the same thing. He did a good job.”
“I think so, too.”
“Okay, everyone. Fill out your cards please,” Frannie instructed.
Hugo came into the room the same way and presented us with his version of seafood jambalaya and crawfish cornbread with jalapeno smoked corn butter.
His dish was a little more intricate than Miles’, but both were delicious.
“I would order a whole pan of this cornbread, for real. Who would have thought to put crawfish in cornbread? It’s genius,” Ms. Patterson commented.
She was on her second glass of cognac, and she seemed to be more relaxed.
Leann was last to present. She created peach cobbler cheesecake bites. She also gave two other versions, apple cobbler cheesecake and pecan pie cheesecake.
I was expecting for the bites to be too sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised by the balance of sugar used in the desserts. I think the cheesecakes were my favorites.
After we finished our desserts and filled out our cards, I sat back satisfied. The plates were small but filling.
“Which one was your favorite, Mr. Valentine?”
“You can call me Samuel if you would like.”
“What took you so long to give me the option of using your first name?”
She’d turned her whole body towards me. The squint to her eyes told me she was slightly tipsy. She was enchanting. It wasn’t something that she was trying to be. She just was with no effort at all.
“I thought you would just pick up on what everyone else called me, but you haven’t. Maybe, I was waiting for you to offer me the usage of your first name.”
“You have my full permission to call me by my first name. You hadn’t offered your first name, either.”
“Up until now, you hadn’t earned the privilege,” she smiled. “But, after coming through today with your family and giving my sisters and me the meal of our dreams, you’ve earned it. Please call me Averie, Samuel,” she smiled.
Averie
“Your Honor we were not informed of any discovery sent to us by the prosecution,” I informed the judge at our pre-trial hearing.
“We sent it this morning to Valentine Law Group, Your Honor. We have a delivery receipt right here signed by the receptionist,” Barry one of the lawyers from the DA’s office explained.
“Your honor! We were due in court by nine am. How on earth were we supposed to see boxes sent to the office when we were en route here? I feel like the prosecution is playing games and I for one, don’t think we should play games with two parent’s futures. They have small children to care for. We hold such high regard for the office of the DA and those employed there, this act of withholding discovery seems even more egregious, Your Honor.”
I was laying it on thick. We all knew the DA was known for playing games. They just didn’t realize I was on the other team now and knew a lot of their plays.
“I agree with the defense. I won’t tolerate games in my courtroom Mr. Leathen, so from this moment forward, anything you need to share with the defense will be done in a timely manner. Do you understand me?” Judge Williams said.
“Yes, Your Honor,” Barry responded.
“In light of this situation, I will give the defense forty-eight hours to review the information you sent to them. Court is adjourned for forty-eight hours.”
He hit his gavel. We all stood until he left the courtroom.
Barry walked over to my table.
“Good to see you, Averie.”
“Good to be seen, Barry. I see not much has changed,” I looked at him from his cheap loafers to his off the rack, black suit.
“This is what you’re doing now, working with crooks and criminals?” He whispered.
“I am working to stop you people from coming after two law-abiding parents,” I smiled.
“You are better than this, Vee.”
“I’m better than you, Barry. How is your wife?” I cocked my head to the side waiting for his answer.
His face turned red, and he moved in closer.
“Everything good over here, Ms. Patterson?”
I didn’t turn to look, but I knew it was Samuel.
“It’s great, Mr. Valentine. Barry and I were just chopping it up about the good old days.”
Barry stepped back.
When I worked for a private law firm, I was voluntold to work with the DA on a couple of cases because they were short staffed and reached out to the private sector for help. I didn’t mind because I’d never had a lot of exposure to criminal law at the time.
Barry was with the DA’s office and took an interest in me. I sat with him on a couple of his big cases. I thought his interest in me was business, but one late night of work, I realized he was looking for more from me. He thought I was the girl that would lay on her back to get ahead. I wasn’t, and I didn’t. He threatened to tell my firm I was not a good fit and I threatened to tell his wife about his sexual advances toward me. He didn’t realize I had the entire incident recorded because I recorded our brainstorming sessions to review them later. He decided to release me to go back to my firm, and I decided to keep the recording just in case.
“Have a good day, Averie.”
“Choke on a dick, Barry,” I smiled and turned my attention to Samuel.
He watched Barry and his team leave the courtroom before he looked at me with concern etched on his face.
“It’s fine,” I smiled to show I wasn’t bothered.
“Is this something we need to discuss?”
“No,” I nodded my head. It didn’t present any type of conflict of interest. The case wouldn’t be affected, so we didn’t need to discuss it.
He nodded and motioned for me to join the group’s discussion behind us.
“What does this break mean?” Deyshonda asked as soon as we joined the conversation.
She had taken my direction and toned down her dress. Instead of head to toe Chanel and Fendi she’d found a cute skirt suit from Calvin Klein, and some Nine West pumps to match.
“It means we have a couple days to go through all the information the Prosecutor has on this case,” Xavier explained. “You both can go home. We will call you if we have questions.”
“You look nice,” I said to Deyshonda as she started in the direction of the door.
“Thank you. It’s not so bad,” she replied as she put the strap of her Coach handbag in the bend of her arm.
“I just called the office. Gretchen said there were at least twenty boxes delivered today,” Morris confirmed.
“How many for this case?” Samuel asked.
“Twenty,” Morris responded. “I know I need to help but you know I have that thing today I can’t miss.”
“Of course,” Xavier replied. “Go and take care of your family. Work isn’t going anywhere.”
Morris paused for a minute.
“Go!” Samuel said. “We’ve got this.”
Morris grabbed his briefcase and hurried out of the courtroom. No one gave a reason for his departure other than family business. I can respect that.
“I assume it will be the three of us going through these boxes
tonight,” Samuel said.
“No, as fun as that sounds, First chair, and Second chair, I have an important matter I have to tend to. I’m sure there will be plenty left for me in the morning,” Xavier said as he gathered his briefcase and started for the door. “Ms. Patterson, El,” he tipped his head and left.
Please bring me a change of clothes. Something comfy and comfy shoes. To Valentine offices. On my way there from the courthouse. Gonna be a long nite.
I sent Liddy a text message. I gathered my things from the table.
It will be waiting for you. – Liddy
I looked up from my phone to see Samuel looking at me.
“Yes?” I asked as I shoved the last of my paperwork into my tote.
“We are going to the same place, so I figured we would ride together,” he responded.
I looked around to make sure I had everything. I grabbed my phone then walked out of the courtroom.
We arrived back to Valentine Law, and just as Morris had said, twenty full sized boxes were waiting for us when we arrived.
“Mr. Valentine, I had them set the boxes up in the spare office. Food is scheduled to be delivered in an hour. Ms. Patterson, Liddy left this bag for you and said to call her if you needed her to return,” Gretchen said.
“Thank you, Gretchen.”
“No problem. Mr. Valentine has a full restroom in his office where you can comfortably change,” she added.
I looked at Samuel for confirmation that it was okay to use his bathroom.
“By all means,” Samuel said while stepping back allowing me space to pass. “I will meet you in the other office when you are ready.”
I followed Gretchen to Samuel’s office. I’d never been to his office. I’d seen a little of it in passing, but I’d never gone in.
His office was stately with a massive mahogany wood desk, with ornate carvings across the front. His desk sat in front of a wall of floor to ceiling windows which gave a spectacular view of downtown Saint Louis and the Gateway Arch. We were up high enough that I could see across the Mississippi River to Illinois. There was a wall full of shelves. Some of the shelves contained books while others contained various sized hourglasses.
I took a step closer to examine the collection of hourglasses.
“Mr. Valentine has been collecting hour glasses since he was released from prison,” Gretchen explained.
“Really?”
“Yes, Mr. Flowers gave him the first one at his welcome home party. He would have to tell you the speech Louis gave him, but it was something about time being precious and whatnot. Anyway, he’s collected them ever since.”
Some of the hourglasses were big, and some were small. Some had colored sand in them while others had the traditional white sand. Some were automated where they turned on their own while others need to be manually rotated.
“Does he turn these every day?”
“No, he doesn’t know this, but I know when something is bothering him because he will come over here and start rearranging these until he finds a resolution to his problem. Here is the restroom,” she pushed a door open I hadn’t noticed when I walked in.
“Thanks again, Gretchen.”
“Not a problem.”
The bathroom was decorated in dark woods to match his office. There was a double vanity, a full shower, and a completely stocked toiletry cabinet.
Yes, I looked.
I changed out of my skirt suit and changed into the black slacks and black button-down shirt Liddy sent over. She sent my black flats too.
I love her.
Now I would be able to do exactly what I needed to do and be comfortable doing it. I stepped out of Samuel’s office and was directed to the spare office by Gretchen. I found Samuel standing over the boxes. He’d taken off his suit jacket, tie and had rolled his sleeves up above his elbow.
He looked up from the boxes.
“You ready to get to work?”
“I am,” I replied while taking the lid off the box closest to me.
We both started going through all the paperwork in the boxes piece by piece, taking notes and building ‘important’ and ‘unimportant’ piles. When we weren’t sure, we would ask the other person’s opinion.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems as if these detectives dedicated their lives to putting Princeton behind bars.”
“I would agree with your assessment. A lot of this surveillance is overkill for a drug dealer. Princeton couldn’t have known they were on top of him this much. They even have pictures of him attending church.”
“I know like he was swapping drugs during the sermon. I’m going, to be honest. When Princeton said the cops planted something in his house, I didn’t believe him. Now, after seeing just a third of the evidence, I’m starting to believe him. We have to show how much these detectives watched him. Knowing his schedule would afford them the opportunity to get into his house to plant the drugs.”
“I agree.”
“Also, Deyshonda isn’t in any of these photos except the ones taken at their house. So why did they feel the need to charge her too?”
Gretchen knocked on the open door as she entered with a box of food.
“The food is here. I ordered Chinese. Ms. Patterson, I ordered you the special fried rice with egg foo young gravy, extra egg and bean sprouts. Mr. Valentine, you have the chicken fried rice, beef St. Paul and an order of crab rangoon. There are cold water bottles here in this fridge,” she pointed to the small refrigerator in the corner of the office. Also, in this cabinet are room temperature bottles of water.” She pointed to the cabinet next to the refrigerator.
“Thank you, Gretchen.”
“No problem. I called Liddy for your order. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
“This is perfect. One thing, though, is there a possibility for me to get some real eating utensils. I have a thing about eating with plastic.”
“Oh, that’s right. Liddy mentioned that. I will get you some silverware from the kitchen.”
She rushed out the door.
“Too good to eat with plastic?”
“No, I’m not too good to eat off plastic. I just hate these little forks they give you. I can’t get enough food on it. It takes too long to eat with them.”
He laughed.
Gretchen gave me a fork then left and closed the door behind her.
I sat down on the couch Indian style and opened my box of rice. Samuel sat on the opposite end.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Samuel called out.
Gretchen walked back in with a large cereal bowl.
“Here you go. I had to find one,” she said as she handed me the bowl. I accepted it while looking at Samuel in my peripheral. I wasn’t going to ask for the bowl after asking for the fork because I didn’t want to be teased.
“Thank you again.”
She left out closing the door behind her.
I looked over because I felt Samuel still looking at me. He tilted his head examining me.
“What? I like to pour the rice out of the box into the bowl so I can mix it all together.”
“I didn’t say anything!” he chuckled.
“Naw, you were over there being all judgy on the inside. I felt it.”
He chuckled, and we began enjoying our food quietly.
“I’m going to have my private investigator stop by, so we can discuss some of the things he’s going to need to look into for us,” Samuel said.
“Who do you use?”
“Chambers Security Services, they do extensive work.”
Samuel
“Come in,” I called out.
Ms. Patterson and I had finished our meals and returned to examining the boxes.
The door pushed open, and Countee walked in.
“Count,” I said as we gave each other dap.
“El, what’s up?”
“You got it, man.”
I turned to Averie.
“Ms. Patterson, this is Countee
Chambers of Chambers Security Services. Count, this is Ms. Patterson. She is working on Princeton’s case with us.”
She extended her hand and smiled a genuine smile.
Her smile is gorgeous.
“Mr. Chambers, nice to meet you.”
“It’s Countee…”
“Like the poet?”
“Exactly like the poet. I am named after him.”
“Now that is cool.”
She smiled again, but brighter. I was irritated a little but couldn’t pinpoint where or why the irritation started.
“Most people have no idea about Countee Cullen.”
“I studied the Harlem Renaissance movement in undergrad, so I am familiar with some of his work,” she explained.
“Have a seat Count,” I said while trying to mask my sudden onset of irritation.
For the next hour, Averie and I explained the suspicions we had about the police being involved in a set up against Princeton.
“I will put a couple of my guys on this immediately. I’m sure we will find something,” Countee said.
“Were you a police officer before you became a private Investigator?” Averie asked.
“No, I’ve never been in law enforcement, but I was in the military for some years before moving back to Saint Louis and starting my business.”
“You do more than private investigations?”
Why is she asking so many questions?
“Yes, we offer the entire gamut of security services.”
“Alright, Count. We are due back in court the day after tomorrow. It would be great if we had something that proves some of this crap should be inadmissible.”
“We will work on it.”
He stood.
“Ms. Patterson, nice to meet you.”
“Likewise, Countee, and please call me Averie,” she smiled.
“Averie,” he tipped his head.
I’ve never seen him tip his head like that.
We dapped each other, and he smirked. I squinted my eyes trying to figure out his angle. I will ask him about it later.
I looked down at my watch and noticed it was past midnight. We’d accomplished a lot, but we still had multiple boxes still left unexplored.
“Averie. It’s after midnight.”