Wrongly Accused

by Erin Wade

  ##

  Judge Cranfield wrinkled his brow as he listened to Libby and then watched the video. He turned to Raymond. “You say the ADA suppressed this evidence?”

  “Yes, sir,” Raymond said. “I was transferred out of town before the trial ended, but I left the ADA my phone numbers to reach me in case I needed to testify. He led me to believe that the charges would be dropped based on my evidence.”

  “They should have been dropped,” Judge Cranfield grumbled. “Our court system has failed Dr. Fairchild.” He signed the release forms and handed them to Libby.

  “Go get your client, Counselor,” the judge said with a smile. “My office will call ahead right now and make certain she is released to you.”

  “May I go too?” Raymond asked. “I want to see this.”

  Libby grinned. “That’ll max out our passenger space, but what the hell. You’re the one we owe for this. I’m sure Dawn will want to thank you.”

  Bobby Joe parked in front of the entrance to the prison hospital and turned to Libby. “Let’s do this.”

  ##

  The guard looked over the release papers signed by Judge Cranfield. “Let me get the warden.”

  The four waited as the guard spoke with someone in the warden’s office.

  “Warden Davis is in a meeting,” the guard advised them after hanging up the phone, “but Assistant Warden Ray McDonald is on his way to comply with the judge’s orders. In the meantime, I’ll call Dr. Fairchild down here.”

  ##

  Dawn wondered why the guard was calling her to the front desk. Patients were always brought to her. She stepped from the elevator and was engulfed in a party of hugs, slaps on the back, and mumbled explanations.

  Assistant Warden McDonald arrived, signed where required, and presented Dawn’s copies of the forms to her. “You’re a free woman, Dr. Fairchild. It has been a pleasure to have you in our hospital.”

  “What’s going on?” Dawn stumbled along as the group pushed her outside to the police car. Inside the prison she was afraid to touch Niki or grasp her hand.

  Once the car drove through the prison gates to the world outside, Niki brushed Dawn’s lips with a quick kiss. “You’re free, honey. Judge Cranfield signed your release.”

  “How? Why?” Dawn was afraid to let loose the yelp of happiness rising inside her. Afraid she was dreaming.

  “You explain, Libby,” Niki said, deferring to the attorney.

  “First, let me introduce you to Raymond Scott,” Libby said. “During your trial, Mr. Scott gave the ADA a video he made on his cell phone the night of the accident. It clearly showed Richard exiting the driver’s side and running down the alley.

  “The ADA suppressed the evidence that would have set you free. Judge Cranfield rectified it immediately, overturning your conviction and issuing a warrant for the arrest of the ADA.”

  Dawn was stunned. The only thing really registering with her was the soft fragrance of the woman sitting beside her, clutching her hand. She bowed her head and closed her eyes. “Niki,” she murmured.

  “I’m here, honey.” Niki squeezed her hand tighter.

  Chapter 43

  “We’ll talk tomorrow,” Libby said as they returned to the police station. “Oh, here’s your purse and other belongings. Call me. We have a hell of a lawsuit on our hands. The state owes you a fortune in lost wages, not to mention the false imprisonment by a warden who was the witness that put you in prison in the first place.”

  “Mr. Scott,” Dawn said, turning to Raymond, “I don’t know how to thank you. If you ever need a good surgeon, call me.”

  Scott laughed and hugged her. “I’m just happy to see justice done.”

  Niki rummaged in Dawn’s old purse and pulled out the key fob. “You wanna drive?”

  “No, I just want to stare at you.” Dawn laughed. “I just want to reach over and touch you and sit beside you. I want to make certain this isn’t a wonderful dream that will disappear when I awake.”

  “It’s real, honey.” Niki held her hand as they walked to their car.

  ##

  Bobby Joe’s cell phone started ringing before he reached his desk. “Detective Jones,” he said.

  “Bobby Joe, what the hell is going on?” Val yelled into the phone. “Where’s my prisoner?”

  “She’s innocent, Val,” Bobby explained. “I found the evidence to free her. The ADA had suppressed a pedestrian’s recording of the accident clearly showing Richard Wynn exiting the driver’s side of the vehicle and running down the alley.

  “It also showed Dr. Fairchild getting out of the passenger’s side and rushing to help you. You convicted the only person who came to your aid.”

  Val was silent.

  “Val, you still there?” Bobby Joe asked.

  “Yes, thanks, Bobby. I appreciate your help.”

  Val hung up the phone. She pictured herself working in some small town as the jail matron. Worse than that, Dawn was gone from her life.

  ##

  Dawn and Niki were giddy on the trip home. “I can’t stop holding my breath,” Dawn said. “I’m afraid I’ll exhale, and everything will go up in smoke.”

  “You and me together,” Niki said with a giggle as she pulled into the driveway. “I can’t believe you’re going home with me, to my bed.”

  They showered, made love, dried each other, snuggled beneath the comforter, and made love again.

  “I can’t believe I’ll wake in your arms every morning.” Niki kissed Dawn’s neck and shoulder. “You’re so beautiful . . . and you’re all mine.”

  “I know,” Dawn murmured, stroking Niki’s silky-smooth back. “For the rest of my life, your face will be the first thing I’ll see in the morning and the last thing I’ll see at night.”

  “I have a ten o’clock class in the morning and a one o’clock after that.” Niki ran her hand down Dawn’s flat stomach. “Do you want to drive me and meet with Libby while I’m in class?”

  “Yes. I’m not certain where to start picking up my life. I need to let my family know I’m out of prison and contact the hospital about getting my job back. Right now, all I want to do is hold you until we fall asleep.”

  ##

  “Um, I could wake up like this every morning,” Dawn whispered in Niki’s ear as the redhead wiggled her back harder against Dawn’s stomach.

  “Good, because that’s what I have planned for you.” Niki turned over to face her lover. “We have just enough time before we have to shower and face the day.”

  “Enough time for what?” Dawn teased.

  “If you don’t know, I’m not very good at—”

  Dawn pulled Niki beneath her. “You are just perfect at everything.”

  They made love, showered, dressed, and walked to the garage.

  “We need to think about getting you a car,” Dawn commented as she steered the Beemer from the garage.

  Niki pulled Dawn’s hand into her lap. “I rather like you driving me to school.”

  “I know, but once I go onto hospital rotation I may not be available. We’ll need two vehicles. Do you have a preference?”

  Niki wrinkled her brow in thought. “Let me check on the internet. I’ll narrow it down to two or three, and then we can drive them and select one.”

  Dawn pulled Niki’s hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. “Works for me, baby.”

  Dawn dropped Niki at college and headed to her parents’ home. Flint was having coffee in their mother’s kitchen when Dawn arrived.

  “Sis? Oh my gosh! Mom, come here quick!” Flint stopped short of jumping into the air. He hugged Dawn and then looked at her in disbelief. “How? Why? You’re out of prison!” he stammered.

  “Yes, I am.” Dawn couldn’t suppress the happiness that filled her heart. “I’m free, Flint. Exonerated.”

  “You’ve been cleared?” Tears ran down Ruth Fairchild’s face. “You’re out of prison for good?”

  “Yes, Mom. A Good Samaritan turned in a cell phone before the trial t
hat had a video of Richard exiting the driver’s side and slinking down an alley. The ADA prosecuting my case suppressed the evidence that would have cleared me.”

  “Oh honey, I’m so happy for you.” Ruth clutched her daughter to her and cried into Dawn’s shoulder. “I have been worried sick every minute you were in that place.”

  “I know, Mom. I know. Tell Dad I’ll return later after he gets off work. I want to hug him too.”

  “What are your plans?” Flint asked as he placed two coffee cups on the table and filled them.

  “I’m heading to Libby’s office when I leave here,” Dawn said, pausing to take a sip the coffee. “Mmm. This is so good.”

  “A lot better than prison coffee, I bet.” Ruth chuckled.

  “Much better, Mom.”

  “Looks like the state is going to owe you a bundle of money,” Flint said. “Lost wages, wrongful imprisonment, and I’m sure Libby has a long list of other things.”

  “The last time I saw Libby she was sharpening her pencil,” Dawn said. “I’ll probably have to rein her in. All I want is a front-page apology, so people will know I was wrongly accused.”

  “I’m betting the warden loses her job over this,” Flint added. “She knew she was lying.”

  “It was pouring down rain,” Dawn said. “Her sister was lying in a pool of blood, and she was hysterical. Who knows what she thought she saw?”

  Flint scowled. “Don’t defend her. She stole two years of your life.”

  “She’s a good warden. She is making a difference in that snake pit. She’s dealt with most of the rattlesnakes that were there when I arrived. It would be a shame to lose someone like her—someone who really cares. God knows I wouldn’t want to run a women’s prison.”

  “Dawn, you don’t have to answer this question,” Flint said, “but I’d like to know what prison was like.”

  Dawn bowed her head and closed her eyes as she searched for words to describe it. “It wasn’t so bad for me. I was housed in the hospital, so I wasn’t in the general population. But I treated women who suffered every indignity imaginable.

  “It’s like hell. There are no levels of good, bad, or awful to fit the crime. Whether an inmate was in prison for drunk driving or for brutal murder, they were all thrown into the same cesspool.

  “Think of the worst scenario imaginable and multiply it by twenty. That’s what prison is like for most inmates.”

  Dawn finished her coffee and hugged her brother and mother goodbye. Libby was the next name on her list.

  ##

  “I may be able to purchase my dream home after this settlement,” Libby said as she walked around her desk to greet Dawn.

  Dawn laughed. “I doubt that. All I want is my lost wages and a lot of advertising on TV and talk shows acknowledging my innocence.”

  “But we can get lost wages, wrongful imprisonment, mental cruelty.” Libby paced the floor. “Were you raped by any chance?”

  “No! By the grace of God, Niki saved me from that.”

  “Oh.” Libby was crestfallen. “That would have been good for a few million more. Gorgeous, All-American beauty like you tossed into a viper’s nest.”

  “It wasn’t like that for me,” Dawn declared. “The warden moved me into the hospital facilities the third day I was there.”

  “What about your friend?” Libby said. “Uh . . . Nancy?”

  “Niki.”

  “Niki, yeah. Did she do well in prison?”

  Dawn was reluctant to discuss Niki’s treatment in prison. She’d rather put the bad karma behind them. “Look, Libby, all I want is a very public exoneration. Niki and I just want to get on with our life together.”

  “Together?” Libby said, nearly choking on the word. “You mean . . . as in together, together? Uh, lesbians?”

  Dawn frowned. “You can put whatever label you want on our relationship. We love each other and plan to spend our lives together.”

  “Oh, that’s even better,” Libby crowed. “I’ll charge that the prison system turned you into a lesbian. After all, you were engaged to Richard for two years prior to your incarceration, so you obviously preferred men at the time you were imprisoned.”

  “Ha!” Dawn snorted. “If anything would turn a straight woman into a lesbian it’d be spending two years with Richard.”

  Libby laughed. “Yeah, what kind of asshole slinks away from an accident he caused and lets his fiancée of two years take a murder rap?

  “I’ll set up a meeting with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice attorneys and—”

  “Let’s start with a discussion with the warden and go from there,” Dawn said.

  “Okay, but I see my mansion dwindling to a log cabin.”

  Dawn smiled at her friend’s antics. “Right now, I need a copy of the judge’s order absolving me of all wrongdoing.”

  “I have copies for you right here.” Libby pulled a file folder from her desk drawer. “You’ll find everything you need in here.”

  As Dawn walked to her car, a text dinged into her phone. “We’re doing a lab today. I’ll be here til 4. Love u.”

  I should have time to talk with the hospital personnel office, Dawn thought as she headed her car toward downtown.

  ##

  Dawn read a magazine as she waited for the personnel director to see her.

  A few minutes later, Zeb Lewis stood in the doorway of the waiting room. “Come in, come in. You look great, Dawn.” He did an appreciative survey of her.

  “Thank you, Zeb. It’s good to be back among the living.”

  “I can’t believe how great you look,” he said again as he gestured for her to sit down.

  “Please don’t tell me prison agreed with me.”

  “Well, something did.” Zeb chuckled. “What can I do for you?”

  Dawn placed her file on Zeb’s desk. “I’d like my old job back.”

  Zeb tried to hide his shock. “Dawn, I’m not sure . . . I don’t know if . . . . Do you still have your license to practice?”

  “Yes. I never lost my medical license. In fact, I’ve been the hospital doctor at the Carswell Women’s Prison for the past eighteen months.”

  “But you’re a convicted felon.”

  “No, I’ve been exonerated.” Dawn flipped open her file. “Here’s Judge Cranfield’s letter.”

  Zeb took a minute to read through the paperwork. “This is wonderful.” He scowled as he read Libby’s letter requesting that the judge overturn the verdict and find Dawn innocent. “Richard? Richard was driving the car?”

  “Yes.”

  “Of course you can have your job back,” Zeb said. “But I need your help with something.”

  “I’ll do anything I can to help you,” Dawn said. “What is it?”

  “After you left we put Richard on the chief of staff track. He’s not half the surgeon you are, but he’s pretty good with paperwork. The problem is . . . we think he’s stealing pharmaceuticals from our drug room.

  “When you were with Richard, did he have a drug problem?”

  “No. Richard would never take drugs,” Dawn said. “But I did catch him taking hard drugs from the drug closet on his floor.”

  “What did he do with them?” Zeb asked.

  “I think he sold them. You should get Detective Bobby Joe Jones involved with this case,” Dawn recommended.

  “Isn’t he the one who arrested you?”

  “Yes, but he’s also the one who found the evidence to free me.” Dawn opened her purse. “I have his card.”

  “I’ll call him,” Zeb said, glancing at the business card she handed him. “Maybe you and I can meet with him tomorrow. In the meantime, just know you have your job back, and we’ll sort things out with Richard.”

  Dawn left Zeb’s office in a cheerful mood and rode the elevator down to the garage level. The farther she got from the prison, the happier she was. It was as if her mind had opened and let in all the light in the universe.

  Now to pick up the woman who lights up my
world, Dawn thought as she buckled her seatbelt.

  Chapter 44

  Val clenched her fists as she waited for Dawn and her attorney to enter the room. William Frick, the attorney from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, continued to squirm in his chair.

  “This could be very bad,” Frick informed her. “Very bad for the prison system and very bad for your career.”

  “Just hear them out and keep your mouth shut,” Val snapped. “Let me do the talking. You just make certain I don’t commit to something we can’t do.”

  “You’re not going to cave to their demands?” Frick whined.

  “Probably,” Val muttered. I must find a way to save my career.

  ##

  “Let me do the talking,” Libby instructed before entering Val’s office. She led Dawn into the room, introduced herself to William Frick, and acknowledged Val.

  “Dawn, I want to say how sorry I am about the ordeal you’ve gone through the past eighteen months. I did everything I could to protect you,” Val said as they all took a seat.

  Thoughts keep slamming into Val’s mind. She has a video of you forcing a kiss on her. You knew you were lying at her trial. It just seemed like the truth at the time.

  “Val, I—”

  “Dawn, please let me do the talking,” Libby cautioned. “Warden Davis has her own attorney here.”

  Val turned her attention to Libby. “Miss Howe, why don’t you tell us what you want as compensation for Dr. Fairchild.”

  “Dawn told me you were very direct,” Libby said, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, here’s the last paycheck Dr. Fairchild received before she was wrongly imprisoned. She’d like this for each month she was incarcerated.”

  “This is for $26,892,” Val read out loud. “This must be for a quarter?”

  “A month.” Libby smiled like a Cheshire cat.

  Val ran a hand through her hair. “A month? That’s over a quarter-million a year.”

  “We are also filing for two million for wrongful imprisonment and three million for defamation of character.”

  “I will need to discuss this with my client,” Frick asserted. “We will consider your—”