by H. H. Fowler
She went on, her voice mellowing to a velvety timbre. “Last night, after reading a particular passage in the bible, it suddenly came to me that all through my complaining and going on and on about how you hurt me and how you made me a laughingstock, I never paused one day to really think about what I’d done to hurt you and the effects my unfaithfulness had on our marriage. Levi and I shared a kiss, but I understand that even though it seemed like a small matter in my eyes, it was huge to you.
“I can see now that I too should accept part of the blame, because I was totally insensitive to your feelings. I didn’t take time out to understand your heart...” Sasha’s voice cracked and brought on a fresh start of tears. “I was too busy being concerned about my own feelings, and having a pity party, but God severely dealt with me last night. He made me see that I had not been fair to you. Both of us need to forgive each other because we stopped trusting each other, we stopped caring about what made us work.”
Sasha couldn’t go on. Her tears were just too much to contend with at that point. Drake, being near tears himself, gingerly took his wife’s hand and spoke like a man who’d had enough of feeling empty and incomplete. “I hear you, baby. But we only have twenty minutes and I don’t want to waste it all on talking about what happened in the past....we can’t change it. The future is before us and as uncertain as it may be, considering my present state, I can’t imagine living the rest of my life without you by my side.
“You questioned my commitment, whether I’m ready to reconcile and make this marriage work. I can assure you that as sure as the sky is blue, I am looking forward to it. After much prayer and deep reflection over my own mistakes, I can say that now without wavering, without fear, without question. I love you, more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life. So please, allow me to do this as I am being led...” Drake dropped to both knees, now taking both of Sasha’s hands into his.
“I, Drake Donovan Beckford, take you, Sasha McKay-Beckford, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you, to honor you and to respect you…in the presence of God.”
With his gaze fixed on Sasha’s teary eyes, he said with the utmost sincerity, “And this time, I mean every word of it. Can you ever find it in your heart to give me a second chance?”
The deep affection in Drake’s voice broke Sasha down to size and the only thing she could do was nod in the midst of her tears. Seeing that he had full clearance, Drake pushed up from his bended position and embraced his wife, gracing her with a fervent kiss. Not even Mitchell’s disruptive commands could spoil the moment.
“That’s enough, Beckford!” the officer bellowed. “Time to get back to your cell!”
With force, he pulled Drake away from Sasha and shoved him into the hall. His future may be unstable as water, but Drake was greatly comforted by the fact that he wouldn’t face his future alone. As Mitchell was securing Drake in his holding cell, a young female officer told him that a forensic examiner from the Devin’s Cay hospital was on the phone, urgently needing to speak with him. Mitchell grinned. This was the call he’d been waiting on – the confirmation that the strands of hair Mitchell had cunningly yanked out of Drake’s hair matched the evidence found on the victim’s body.
****
“Are you sitting down?” came the husky female voice over the phone.
“I don’t need to sit,” Mitchell said. “Give it to me straight. Was there a match?”
“Well…yes and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I had the DNA tests redone with the hair samples you sent me and I discovered the most unusual thing. During my initial test, I realized the skin cells that were found under the victim’s fingernails and the semen found in and around her private parts did not match. They are two completely different genetic codes, which means there could be more than one suspect…do you recall me mentioning this to you?”
Mitchell tapped his foot impatiently, not wanting to be reminded that his investigation hadn’t been as thorough as it should have been. Ms. Strummer reported that Drake Beckford raped her and he believed it. The evidence certainly didn’t lie. “Yes, I do remember,” he replied tersely. “But I simply want to know if Mr. Beckford’s hair samples were a match.”
“Well, they certainly matched with the skin cells extracted from the victim’s fingernails,” the forensic examiner said, “But there isn’t a match anywhere else. The semen sample belongs to someone else…”
“How could that be?” Mitchell countered. “Didn’t you say that there was evidence of recent penetration?”
“I did, but I’m also saying that the semen does not match Mr. Beckford’s DNA,” the forensic examiner repeated with a stronger conviction. “I should also tell you that the fingerprints that were lifted from the Rohypnol bottle also belong to someone else. There is a possibility of a fourth suspect or even a fifth, if we factor in the fingerprints that were lifted from the hotel room. Also” – the forensic examiner paused when she heard Mitchell’s deep sighs coming through the phone – “We took a blood pregnancy test of the victim and have just gotten back the results…the victim is assessed to be about eight weeks pregnant.”
Mitchell pulled out his swivel chair and took a seat on that one. Too much information was coming at him that he didn’t want to hear. Maybe he should have left well enough alone; then he wouldn’t be feeling so disheartened at the moment. “What are you saying to me? That it’s possible that Mr. Beckford could be telling the truth – that he didn’t rape that young woman?”
“Somebody did,” the forensic examiner said. “Or maybe whomever the man that semen belongs to, had consensual sex with the victim and for some reason, it appears as if it was a plan to ruin Mr. Beckford’s reputation. It is not that unusual for a woman to falsely accuse a man of rape. It happens. But I’ll give you a tip: Find the father of the victim’s child and it will probably lead you to the answers you seek. Of course, I’m not telling you how to run your investigation. I’m just giving you the facts and it’s up to you to make use of them however you wish.”
Mitchell disconnected from the call with a bitter taste in his mouth. In light of the information he’d received, it appeared as if Mr. Beckford would be released from his holding cell quicker than he would have liked. But first, he needed to have a heart to heart talk with Yasmine Strummer.
Chapter Sixteen
Levi breathed a huge sigh of relief when his boss called and told him that he was off the graveyard shift and would resume his normal working hours of 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. as of this evening. No more coming home at 4 in the morning, trying to flush his mind from the influx of perversion that came into the club. If the Blue Marlin hadn’t been padding his lifestyle with a good salary and huge tips from its patrons, Levi would have left a long time ago and gone full time into being a Physical Ed instructor at Xavier High School. But that was a concern for another day. Right now, he was excited about his shift ending in less than two hours.
The only real drawback from working this shift was that there wasn’t much activity going on and the time seemed to crawl by a little slower. The wild parties started at the stroke of midnight and not a minute before. So the crowd was less dense and the atmosphere was more or less professional. With much time to kill, Levi turned his attention to the thirty-two-inch flat screen TV that was on the wall and decided to flip through the TV stations. He hadn’t gone far before the shocking headline struck him in the face, “Young Minister Accused of Raping a former Beauty Queen.” There was a photo of Drake directly above it. What in the devil…
However, it was all Levi got to see. He was shaken to his core when a young woman staggered through the doors of the club, screaming for someone to help her. Her face was beaten black and blue and blood seemed to cover the spaces between. Her screams pulled a stunned Levi from his station, just in time to c
atch her fall.
“Tell me what happen,” he demanded.
In between breaths, the woman gasped, “Two guys jumped out of a black car and started attacking me.”
“When? Where?”
“As I was coming into the club.”
Levi yelled for the bouncer on shift, instructing him to search the premises and the surrounding areas for a black car, even though Levi knew the car was probably long gone by now. Turning his attention back to the woman, he asked, “Do you have any idea who would want to do this to you?” When the woman didn’t answer right away, Levi became agitated. He couldn’t stand seeing a woman taken advantage of, especially by the brutal hands of physical assault. “If you want me to help you, you’ll have to tell me everything you know. And let’s start by telling me your name.”
Despite her pain and her quickly swelling face, the distressed woman managed to lock stares with her rescuer. “Yasmine Strummer…and I do have an idea who may have done this to me.”
Like a film being rolled back in time, Yasmine recalled her last conversation with Ronnie – her longtime lover of seventeen years:
She remembered the room felt as if it were spinning, as she lay silently in the dark with her eyes closed. Her unclad body was being caressed by Ronnie – a much older man who didn’t get that she was tired of just the sex. She wanted more than just to be looked at as a symbol of perversion or to be used like a low-priced whore. The only reason she’d stayed with the old geezer for so long was because he’d taken care of her pretty well, buying her anything she wanted, including the condo she owned in one of the top neighborhoods in Devin’s Cay. Well, that was one of the reasons. How could she forget that she was terribly afraid of him?
Soon, the caressing stopped and she assumed the old fool had finally fallen asleep. She was sick of Ronnie’s touch and she couldn’t wait to get from beneath it – to take a shower and wash her disgust away. Not wanting to wake him, she slipped out of the bed as quietly as she could, taking precautions not to let her skin brush against his. Ronnie was very easy to get aroused – no matter if he was asleep or not. However, her little plan didn’t work. Ronnie was too quick for her. He reached for her right in time and pulled her back onto the bed.
“Where are you sneaking off to?”
She yanked her hand away from him, trying to hide her mounting disgust. “I’ve told you I’ve had enough of this. I don’t want to have sex with you anymore…it’s deprecating and disgusting…”
Her tone didn’t faze Ronnie one bit. “You weren’t saying that before. What changed all of a sudden?”
“That’s exactly it…nothing’s changed since I was fourteen years old. You took my virginity and have controlled me ever since…but you know what… after tonight, I don’t care what you do to me. I am ready for a change.”
Ronnie sat up, visibly upset. “Come here and kiss me on my stomach…you know that settles you whenever you get like this.”
Yasmine ignored the command.
“Don’t make me beg, Yasmine, you know that I’m not good at it…”
“I’m going home,” she said, pushing quickly to her feet.
“This is your home,” Ronnie said.
“No! I need to get away from you and make some sense of what’s left of my life. And don’t look for me to come back here. I’ve had enough of your old, shriveled up skin to last me a lifetime! Goodbye, Ronnie…”
Yasmine was out of the shower and got dressed in under ten minutes. The whole time Ronnie said nothing, only allowing his intense stare to rove over Yasmine’s curvaceous body. But as she snatched her handbag up from the floor, he delivered a nail biting threat that sent chills down Yasmine’s spine. “I introduced you to the pleasures of sex, taught you how to enjoy it and I am not going to let you throw all of that away. Go for now, but know that wherever you go, I will find you. You must learn that there are consequences for being a disloyal whore.”
“You said your name is Yasmine?” Levi’s eyes widened at the name. This was the same woman he’d seen with that older guy a couple of nights ago. Snippets of that night began to come together in Levi’s mind. He remembered the guy being standoffish without any kind of gentleman-type manner. He seemed like the insecure type who would strike a woman in a heartbeat if she stepped out of line. That was probably why Yasmine appeared to be so uncomfortable with him, even though she was sporting a huge smile. She was afraid of him. Levi suddenly wondered if this scene was the result of a domestic dispute.
“I should get you to a hospital,” he finally said.
“No…take me to the police.”
“You can go right after…you might have a concussion.”
“Take me to the police,” Yasmine insisted. “I have a confession to make.”
****
When Mitchell was alerted that Yasmine Strummer was out front, asking to see him, he instructed her to be sent to his office right away. He had been trying to reach her for the last hour to explain the inconsistencies that were surfacing between her statement and the evidence collected. Mitchell did not like what he was feeling, which was similar to that of a calm, right before the wrath of a storm. He chided himself for allowing Yasmine’s beauty to influence his professional approach to this case. He believed her without question and even now as he paced back and forth in his office, he still wanted to give Yasmine the benefit of the doubt.
His daughter’s rapist almost got away because he couldn’t believe that a well-respected man like her music teacher had it in him to hurt his daughter that way. His daughter wasn’t as obedient as she should have been. She cut school and indulged in little white lies every now and then. So when the report came that his daughter’s music teacher had raped her, Mitchell simply didn’t believe it. He thought his daughter was acting out to get his attention. That was until Mitchell found out that the same music teacher, who everyone loved and respected had sexually abused four other girls at his home, after he’d raped his daughter.
Mitchell didn’t want to make the same mistake with Yasmine’s abuser, by failing to look beyond Drake’s innocuous appearance. However, Mitchell couldn’t help but feel that this investigation had suddenly taken a shift in a different direction. When the knock came on his office door, he paused in his tracks and yelled for the person to enter. In walked a young, dark-complexioned man, leading a woman who looked as if her face had been run over by a train. Black and blue abrasions spoilt her perfect cheekbones. One of her eyes was swollen half-closed and her curly black tresses were in complete ruin.
Mitchell stepped back, visibly stunned, also confused. “Ms. Strummer? What on earth happened to you?”
“She was attacked outside my place of employment,” the young man answered.
“And who are you?”
“Levi Johnson. I would have taken her to the hospital, but she insisted on coming here.”
Mitchell recovered enough to pull out a chair for Yasmine to sit. “Maybe you should have taken her to the hospital,” he said to Levi. “She looks seriously hurt.”
“I am not going anywhere,” Yasmine cut in. “Not until I speak to you, Officer Mitchell. I know exactly who did this to me and if I don’t say something now, I fear he may send those guys back to finish me off.”
Mitchell looked at Levi and said, “Would you please excuse us?”
“No,” Yasmine said. “Let him stay. He’s the only person who has ever shown me any real concern.”
“Are you sure?” Mitchell prodded.
“Of course I’m sure. I will probably be a dead woman by tomorrow anyway.”
Mitchell sighed at Yasmine’s dismal forecast as he pulled out a chair for Levi and one for himself. “Okay…do you want to start by telling me the name of your attacker?”
Yasmine turned her head slightly away from Mitchell’s gaze. “No, I want to start by retracting my statement.”
Mitchell released a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding. “What do you mean?”
“Drake Beckford did
not rape me,” Yasmine deadpanned. “I made it all up…planted the evidence so that I could use it against him.”
Shock pulled Levi’s lips apart and the only thing he could do right then was stare at Yasmine as if she’d up and walked out of a mental institution. He could not believe the woman he’d rescued was the same woman who’d accused his best friend of rape. So it was true what he’d seen on the news about Drake. Levi almost got up and walked out of the office. Mitchell, on the other hand, half-expected to have driven some sort of a confession out of Yasmine. However, he hadn’t thought she would have made his job so easy.
“I was beginning to have my doubts,” Mitchell said. “There are several inconsistencies between what you told me and what the evidence shows. Now my question to you is this: Why on earth would you falsely accuse an innocent man of rape? Do you realize that Mr. Beckford could have spent a very long time behind bars for something he didn’t do?”
“That had been our intention,” Yasmine said.
Mitchell was confused. “Our? So there is more than one of you involved in this lie?”
“I just wanted to please him,” Yasmine spat without preamble. “But that bastard ruined my life. He ruined me! Now he wants to kill me because I want better for my life…” she turned her incoherent gaze on Mitchell and began to beg. “Please, help me get rid of Ronnie…I will never be free as long as Ronnie is in my life. He imprisons me against my will. I was just fourteen when my mother died and soon Ronnie was consoling me, giving me light massages and speaking words I needed to hear. I always wondered why my mother introduced me to that man. He is nothing but a devil in disguise.
“Before I knew it, Ronnie had brutally ravaged my innocence. Ever since then he’s used fear to make me submit to his insatiable sexual appetite. It’s like he is two different people, transforming from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, right before my eyes. One minute he’s this supportive, loving man who I can get to do anything, but let me do something to make him upset, and he turns into this abusive monster and then starts to attack me.”