by Annie Jocoby
“I don’t think so. You’re covering for her.”
“I’m not covering for her,” I lied. “Leave her out of this.”
She swiveled in her chair nervously. “I don’t believe you.”
At that, I brought out the thick file that I brought along with me. It had printouts of her juvenile records that included records about the murder, along with psychiatric diagnoses that she received at that time. “Believe me, because this time I have proof. And don’t be stupid enough to think that if you destroy these records, I don’t have them on my hard drive and various flash drives. Not to mention the fact that I have physical copies which are stored in various safety deposit boxes.”
She took the file, and, with shaking hands, read what was on there. As she read, she shook her head. “I haven’t even seen these records,” she said, her face turning various shades of purple. “I haven’t even seen them. How dare this mother-fucking doctor say these things about me? I don’t have empathy or impulse control, and I have violent tendencies.” She kept reading. “I have no concern for others, psychotic tendencies, and I can’t regulate emotions or thoughts. I have a distorted sense of self, changeable moods, paranoia and am prone to lose touch with reality.” She shook her head rapidly.
“Yes. It also says that you tend to idealize people. I guess that’s where I come in.”
She swallowed hard. “I can’t believe this. This can’t get out. This is personal information. Nobody will touch it.”
I leaned forward in my chair. “Charlotte, you’re the ‘It’ girl right now. There’s buzz about you in this new film. Oscar buzz, from what I’ve been hearing from those in the know. I have no doubt that you’re great in this movie. But, believe me, tabloids love to bring people down when they’re on the way up. If you don’t think that this murder and these diagnoses will be the talk of the town…” I shook my head. “I can’t believe that you would be that naïve.”
She rapidly shook her head. “You can have one. Take your pick, your girlfriend or your mother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I still want my pound of flesh. You might have this to hold over my head, but this is the only thing that you have right now. Malcolm will be taken care of. I don’t want him to roll on me. That goes without saying. I can never, and I mean ever, be tied to Jordan’s murder. And, if something happens, and I am implicated in his murder, then your girlfriend is dead and your mother is in prison. I’m sure that, considering that will be the consequences, you’re going to be on board with my taking care of Malcolm. So, you only have this over me,” she said, pointing to the papers in front of her. “I won’t give you both.”
I stood up. “You will give me both, or this report becomes public today. I already have a woman who has some fantastic media contacts, all of whom will be salivating to make all of this public.”
She sat there, just looking at me. “Nope,” she said. “You know what will happen if you do that. Again, if you go public with this, I'll have nothing to lose, and both your mother and your girlfriend will be in jeopardy. Now, I will ask you again. I will agree to either not have your girlfriend killed or not turn your mother in for the murder of Hugh all those years ago. That’s what’s on the table. You can’t have both. You pick one, or you get neither.”
Oh, she was good. Very good. And I had no doubt that, if I made good on my threat to go to the media with this report, she would do exactly as she said. She would put a hit on Serena and would turn my mother in for Hugh’s homicide. I shook my head. Playing with her was complicated.
“Are you going to blink?” she asked me. “If this report becomes public, I have nothing to lose. Remember that.”
I hung my head. She had me. I took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. I could give her one thing to placate her, and that would mean that I would either have to sacrifice my mother or Serena. That would be her “pound of flesh,” and that would put our Mexican standoff back into place. It was smart on her part – if she wouldn’t deal at all, I would be the one with nothing to lose by putting this report out into the world. I wasn’t going down for Jordan’s murder – Serena made sure of that. So, this report was all the ammunition I had.
If she wouldn’t deal at all, I would have no choice. That report would be public, and my mother and Serena would be in jeopardy. But she was giving me something, and I had to choose. “My mother,” I said quietly. I shook my head. This was an impossible choice, yet it was almost easy. There was no way that I would put Serena’s life in jeopardy. I had the money for the best lawyer for my mother…yet she was sick. Who knew if she would get proper treatment in jail? Yet…I would get her out on bail immediately, and I would hire the best attorney money could buy to defend her. She would have a chance. Serena wouldn’t. If I offered up Serena, she would be dead before the week would be out. I could try to protect her, but one man can’t go up against an entire mafia syndicate.
She crossed her arms. “Really? You would throw your mother under the bus to protect your girlfriend?”
“You give me no choice,” I said, feeling my heart break when I said that. After all she went through to protect me, and after the life she has had in general – I was going to make things worse for her. Yet, I had to do it. It was her or Serena. It was an impossible “Sophie’s Choice,” which was a story about a woman in Nazi Germany who had to choose which twin would be killed and which would be allowed to live. I felt almost as torn. I loved both women, but I couldn’t bear to see Serena in jeopardy.
You’ll help your mother beat this. The evidence against her will be extremely negligible. I drew my breath though, as I realized that I would be held to account for my role, too. Worse than that, I was going to have to testify against my mother, if it ever came to trial. I was going to have to lie, of course. I was the only witness, besides Charlotte. Charlotte’s records might have to be a part of the trial, in order to impeach her, if mom’s attorney could get his hands on the official records. That would be difficult to do – to get those records authenticated, so they could be used in court.
Then again, once my mother became a suspect, it would be fairly easy to tie her to Hugh. People saw them out that night – bartenders, waitresses, other patrons. If they have a good memory for people, they would be able to identify my mother as the person who was out with him. And, even though we cleaned up her old apartment, where Hugh was killed, it’s difficult to truly clean up blood. The police would be able to use infrared to see that there was blood on the floor of her old place. It might be that my mother will have to resort to a self-defense claim if she ever hoped to beat this murder, and that would be difficult to prove. I had to admit to myself that there was a possibility that, since I was “giving” Charlotte my mother, there was a chance that my mother would spend the rest of her life in prison.
Charlotte swiveled in her chair. “Okay. Well then, you better warn your mother that she will be arrested for Hugh’s murder. She’ll probably be arrested today. Serena will be safe. There’s that for consolation. And Slade, I want a stipulation on our agreement. I want Serena’s firm to represent your mother.” She narrowed her eyes. “That’s an important piece of this puzzle. I can’t tell you why, but that’s what I want.”
I was mystified as to why she would be so adamant about that, but I didn’t feel in a position to bargain with her. Serena was safe, and besides, I really wanted her to work on my mother’s case anyhow. I felt that she would go above and beyond the call of duty to make sure my mother had the best chance of beating a murder conviction. “Okay.”
“Serena’s firm, not just Serena. As in, the firm that will no longer be headed by Malcolm. The firm that is known as Brown, Walker and Groom.” Those were the three names of the majority partners, including that of Malcolm, whose last name was “Groom.”
It was my turn to narrow my eyes. She was up to something, that much was clear. Whatever it was, I was going to have to face it with Serena. Or help Serena face whatever it w
as that this goddamned spider had up her sleeve. “And if I refuse?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “The deal is off. Yes, the entire world will think that I’m a psychopath. But at least your stupid whore will be wiped off the face of this planet. Don’t push me, Slade. Now, do we have a deal, or don’t we?”
“Yes. We have a deal. I’ll make sure that my mom is represented by Brown, Walker and Groom. Okay?”
She nodded her head and smiled. “Okay.”
All at once, I was angry with Serena. I told her not to meddle in this. I told her, and she didn’t listen. Now my mother was in jeopardy. I never wanted for that to happen – I always wanted it to be me who would be in jeopardy, not either one of them. My mother might be in prison for the rest of her life, all because of Serena.
I shook my head. No. It’s not because of Serena. It was because of this psychotic bitch, Charlotte. Charlotte, and Charlotte alone, was the reason why all of this was happening. Well, Charlotte’s psychotic machinations, combined with my stupidity in having Charlotte come with me to see my mother all those years ago. That simple act was the one that haunted me, and had haunted me, all these years.
She raised a single eyebrow. “I’m not entirely finished. There’s going to be a big surprise awaiting your girlfriend. One that she will find pretty unpleasant, to say the least. If I can’t kill her, or have her killed, then I at least need to torment her just a little.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I wasn’t liking the sound of this. Not in the slightest.
“You’ll see. Or, rather, she’ll soon see.” She swiveled in her chair. “I wonder how much she likes living in that cute little house by the beach. I guess we’ll soon be finding out, won’t we? And I wonder how much she enjoys working where she’s working. I would imagine that her law firm will soon have a new, very important, client – one Margot Facinelli. Serena’s going to want to work on that case, I would imagine. But maybe she won’t. Maybe, when she sees who the new associate at her firm is, she’ll want out of that firm.”
“You’re not making a lick of sense,” I said to her.
“I’m not now, but I will be soon. At any rate, you have to leave. I have a very important phone call to make.”
My heart started to pound. I was going to have to warn my mother about what was about to happen. I also had to wonder what it was Charlotte had up her sleeve for Serena. She was so cryptic – all that talk about how much Serena enjoyed her new home, and whether or not she liked working for her firm. What was that all about? I was going to find out soon, and I didn’t know, at all, if I was going to like what I learned.
I called Serena from the car. “Hey,” I said to her when she picked up. “I think everything’s in the clear. You’re in the clear, at least. And so am I. My mother will be arrested for Hugh’s murder, though.”
“What? Oh my god, no! No! Slade, I’m so sorry…”
“It’s fine. It’s what has to happen. It was either her life or yours.” I shook my head. I was trying to sound non-chalant about it, for Serena’s sake, because I didn’t want Serena to feel too guilty about it. But the reality was much, much different. It was tearing me up inside. Charlotte gave me no choice, of course, but that didn’t make things any easier. Would my mother survive? Did she have a way out of the murder charge? I had no idea. None. Zero. I wish that I did, but I knew that I didn’t. Charlotte was diabolical, much more diabolical than I had given her credit for. She knew just where the tender parts were and just how to twist the knife into them. I had to give her credit where credit was due.
“Slade, you can’t be that laid-back about this. Tell me what you’re really feeling.”
“I feel like crap, obviously. I need to talk to my mom about this, though. And Malcolm…well he’s about to have a tragic accident. I need to leave it at that. Look for that to happen within the next day or so. Charlotte will get to Malcolm before the prosecutor will.”
Serena was quiet. “We didn’t really win, did we? An innocent life is still in the balance. And Malcolm…he wasn’t innocent, not by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s still a human being. He has children, for Christ sakes. A wife. His parents are still alive, and he has brothers and sisters. What he did was wrong, but I have definite mixed emotions about his impending murder.”
“There’s nothing that can be done about that. As I told you earlier, the worst-case scenario for you and my mother is that Charlotte gets caught up in her own web. If Malcolm rolls on her, and she’s arrested, then all bets will be off. She’ll have the hit put on you within the week, and my mother will be going down for Hugh’s death. It’s best that the suspicion isn’t on her, because I can at least save you. She knows that if she touches a hair on your head, that report about her craziness and her past homicide will find its way to the media and she’ll be finished. I have her, but only halfway.”
“Well, can you please come over. I need to see you.”
“I can’t. Not right now, at least. I need to go and see my mother and explain everything to her.” I felt my insides start to crush while I thought about that. I had spent all these years making sure that my mother was protected. And now, well…there wasn’t a thing that I could do. I could only hope that perhaps, just perhaps, the jury would see her as merely defending herself in her own home. But it did look bad that the body was disposed of. That was my idea, of course. Maybe the jury would understand that move as well, though. My mother was scared, and she had just gotten out of prison for another murder.
“Come over as soon as you can,” she said. “I’m feeling out of sorts. I hate all of this.”
“I will.”
We got off the phone, and I turned on the radio. I wanted to try to forget, just for a second, what was about to happen. I hoped that my mother could beat this charge, and I hoped that she would one day forgive me. I had screwed everything up when I made the hasty decision to dump Hugh’s body, instead of going to the authorities and letting the chips fall where they may.
Was that a fateful decision? I was soon going to find out.
I hoped that I didn’t find out the hard way.
Chapter 32
Serena
I had just gotten off the phone with Slade, and I wanted him, I desperately wanted him, to come over. I had just gotten a peek of my new next-door-neighbor, and for a second, just a split second, I thought that I had seen a particularly gruesome ghost. A ghost that I had hoped never to see again in my life.
I had shaken my head, though, and figured that I was seeing things. Still, I wanted to go over there and see for myself. But I didn’t want to do it alone. I couldn’t go over there alone.
Slade wasn’t going to be able to come over right away, though. He had to speak with his mother. Of course he did. That was most important. His poor mother was soon going to be arrested for the murder of Hugh all those years ago. Who knew what would happen after that? She had a good defense, if the jury believed her. Then again, maybe she didn’t. The test for a self-defense case was whether a reasonable person in Margot’s shoes would have felt like her life was threatened. Was it reasonable for Margot to believe that? Hugh apparently came into her apartment while she was in the other room. She had been raped in prison by another guard. She naturally didn’t feel safe. Granted, she shot first and asked questions later, but could she really be blamed?
Slade was going to be angry, though. I meddled in his affairs. He warned me not to. And now his mother was going to pay the price. While I loved him for not offering me up to the crazy bitch, I felt badly that his mother was going to take the fall for Charlotte’s lunacy. I wondered if Slade was going to be the same. Would he feel the same way about me, or would he blame me for his mother being in jeopardy? If the shoe was on the other foot, would I be angry with him? I probably would be. I was just like Slade in some ways – I would always try to sacrifice myself to save anyone else. Especially if it was for someone I loved.
Like my mother. She threw herself in front of that gunman to save
Christopher. She could have gotten away – the crazy gunman had run out of ammunition after he shot her. That would have meant that, if he would have shot Christopher and not her, she would have been safe and Chris would be dead. She was dead and Chris was alive, and that was probably exactly the way that she would have wanted it. She had the maternal instinct to protect her children, and that fierce instinct showed itself on that day.
Would I have done the same for one of my children? I didn’t have children, but if I did, I knew that I would have done the same. I would have taken a bullet for the person I loved. Slade was just doing the same thing as my mother – taking the bullet for his mother and me. I took that option away from him, and now his mother was going to pay. Would he hate me for that?
I hoped that he wouldn’t. I prayed that he wouldn’t. Not just because I was madly in love with him, and felt more connected to him than I had ever felt to anyone else in my life, but also because I needed him in my life. I never thought that I needed anyone, yet I felt that he had become a necessity for me. I needed to breathe, I needed to eat, I needed to drink, and I needed Slade.
I peeked out the window, and got another look at the person who was moving in next door. I didn’t see the gruesome ghost, but, rather, a petite blonde woman with a cute and modern bob. She was about 5’4”, with firm legs, broad shoulders and rounded breasts. She was the kind of girl that I wanted to be in high school and college – she looked popular and pert. Like she was a former cheerleader. She was carrying a heavy box into the house, and she was followed by four burly moving men who were carrying the heavier items. “Put all these down right there in the living room,” she sang out to the men. “You’re going to thank me when you see that we don’t have three floors. I can never understand how moving men manage homes that are multiple floors.”