Solomon's Porch (17 page)

“Mr. Carson, Mr. Peter Carson?” the Judge inquired.

“Yes, your Honor,” Peter answered.

“And who might you be, sir? I don’t believe you’ve practiced in my courtroom before today,” Harry asked, trying to size up the impeccably dressed, thirty something white attorney with light brown, curly hair.

“My name is Gabriel, your Honor. You are correct, sir, we have not met, but I have noticed your works from afar, Judge Grove.”

H.D. Grove immediately shifted from kick back to fully alert mode. Several internal alarm bells were ringing frantically, although he hadn’t a clue as to why. At nothing more than the sound of Gabriel’s voice, Harry began to sweat and squirm. His first inclination, a very strong one, was to call off the hearing, feigning illness if necessary. Judge Grove was about to do just that when he looked over at Walter who shot him a
who the hell knows but get on with it
look.

Harmon Grove was an arrogant man. While he hated being a judge, he took great pride in the fact that if he had to sit on this stupid bench, then he’d be damned if anyone would ever intimidate or otherwise get the best of him in his courtroom. Summoning what courage he had, he fought back his fears and pressed on; believing that he could handle anything this Gabriel fellow could throw at him.

This was the biggest mistake Harmon Duke Grove ever made, and in Harry’s case, that was really saying something.

From the moment he arrived, Peter’s eyes never left his son’s. Kevin looked at his father and smiled, in sharp contrast to the morose expression he wore walking into court with Julie and Walter. They had told Kevin that his father didn’t care about him anymore, and that’s why they were severing him from his life. Kevin Carson now knew that was a lie, and that his mother had deliberately deceived him.

Quickly gathering himself, Harry was not only brilliant but also very fast on his feet, the Judge gave two forceful raps with his gavel and opened the proceedings.

“Before we get started I have a question,” the Judge said. “It’s my understanding, Mr. Carson, that you are incarcerated at Parkersboro under federal authority. Is that true, sir, or has the court been misled?”

Peter looked away from Kevin for a moment and rose to his feet. “That’s true, sir. You are not misinformed.”

“Might I inquire then as to how it is you managed to appear today, Mr. Carson?”

“I’ll answer that.” Gail McCorkle stood directly behind Peter’s table. “I am the warden at Parkersboro, and I personally escorted Mr. Carson to this hearing. I have the requisite paperwork to prove that, if the court is interested.”

“It is, ma’am. Please bring your documentation to the bench.” Harry was using every spare second to try and get his head together.
Why am I so nervous?
he kept asking himself.

It only took a minute to see that Gail McCorkle was exactly who she said she was. Harry hadn’t really doubted that, but still, a prison warden drives an inmate hundreds of miles on her own time to attend a family law hearing? What gives?

Had Harmon Grove been blessed with Saul Cohen’s gift, he would have been able to see exactly what was going on. The most powerful of the many demons that tortured poor Harry was going berserk, trying to warn his faithful servant that the power of the Living God was about to be visited upon him. But Judge Grove had backed the wrong team for far too long, and now there was really nothing the servants of hell could do to help him.

“It appears all is in order, so let’s proceed. Mr. Kemp, it’s your motion I believe.”

For the next hour Julie’s co-counsel, Mr. Kemp and Mr. Palmer, laid out the case against Peter Carson. They did so with the help of a small time Atlanta private investigator, a no account lush named Oliver Conroy, who introduced all of the evidence against Peter under the guise of a “background investigation.” Dredging up Peter’s past was easy enough, and through Mr. Conroy they established that Peter Carson had indeed lied, cheated, and stolen from those closest to him, family and friends alike. Gabriel let all of this go, challenging none of the testimony, although he clearly could have kept a great deal of it out on nothing more than relevancy. But past criminal acts were not enough on their own to terminate Peter’s parental rights. They just set the stage for the main show.

When Mr. Palmer dismissed Conroy and called her to the stand, Julie Morgan squeezed her son’s shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She whispered to him, “It’ll be alright, honey,” just loud enough so everyone could hear. Kevin did not respond; his attention remained fully focused on his father, who mouthed “pray for her” as she approached the witness stand and sat down.

Julie was fighting off a large dose of anger and indignation. This was not supposed to happen.
Who was this Gail McCorkle bitch, anyway?
she wondered. Was Peter doing her, is that why she was helping him? Quickly she forced all these thoughts to the back of her mind. Like Harry Grove, Julie Morgan was both intelligent and agile, and they had prepared for this contingency. Business must be attended to; she would figure out who was responsible for this fiasco and punish them later.

With the appropriate amount of dramatic pauses, tears, and contrived humility, Mrs. Walter Morgan methodically went through her testimony. Peter had always been a distant father, she said. She wasn’t at all sure if he even loved Kevin. Her ex-husband had “thrown away his family for the sake of greed” and inflicted wounds upon “Little Kev” that might never heal. There was enough truth in what Julie was saying that anyone neutral sitting in judgment would have taken her seriously. Add to this Julie’s beauty and charm and she seemed to all the world to be a woman victimized by an evil ex-husband who wanted nothing more now than for her son to be free of him once and for all.

The final scene of Mrs. Morgan’s well rehearsed play was to be the clincher. She explained how Peter claimed to have “found Jesus Christ” in prison, and that this religious conversion had renewed his desire to be a good parent. After a few months of more frequent contact between father and son, Julie said, she was “overjoyed” at the prospect of having Peter back in Kevin’s life as his father, despite all the past problems. For effect she added, “I thought God was answering my prayers.”

Carefully and slowly Julie then described for the court how she decided to go and visit Peter at Parkersboro on Christmas Eve last, to see for herself this “new man” and welcome him “back into the family.” But rather than finding a father anxious to be a part of his son’s life, what she found was the “same old jerk who had hurt us so much before.”

Julie’s story was that Peter demanded one million dollars in cash from her, or else he would “continue to harass me and play with Kevin’s emotions until Kingdom come.” A rather elaborate blackmail accusation then unfolded, with Peter threatening to embarrass Julie with claims of “drug use and sex parties.” Peter vowed to “ruin my relationship with my husband by any means possible,” Julie claimed, pretending to fight back the tears. She let her hands shake ever so slightly to demonstrate her frailty and anxiety.

After she returned from seeing Peter, Julie went on, she “broke down in front of Walter” and told him everything. They decided right then and there that “enough was enough” and swore to do whatever was necessary to remove the “cancer” of Peter Carson from their lives.

“Very impressive,” Judge Grove whispered softly to himself. It was tough to get anything by Harry. He sized up the situation in short order and came to the rapid conclusion that not only was this woman lying through her teeth, but also that whatever crimes Peter Carson committed could probably also, one way or another, be laid at her door. Poor schmuck, he thought, but of course it didn’t matter. He was here to earn his three hundred Gs, and right or wrong had nothing to do with it.

Mr. A.A. Gabriel said nothing during the entire plaintiff’s presentation, made not one objection, asked no questions. He seemed to not even be paying attention. When Julie’s direct examination concluded, everyone assumed Mr. Gabriel was going to continue to be a passive observer.

Just as Harry was about to dismiss the witness, Gabriel stood and said, “I have a few questions for Mrs. Morgan, your Honor.” The knot in Harmon Grove’s gut instantly tightened.

As Gabriel spoke, a bailiff opened the courtroom doors and wheeled in a large video monitor.

“Hold up there, Mr. Bell,” Harry barked from the bench. “I didn’t order you to bring that machine into my courtroom.”

“Sir?” the puzzled bailiff responded.

“I said, what’s that television set doing in my courtroom, Mr. Bell? I didn’t ask you to bring it in.”

The young bailiff was obviously confused. He unfolded a piece of paper as he approached the bench.

“Judge Grove, sir, yesterday you gave me this. Don’t you remember? You told me to bring this TV in at two p.m. sharp. Look, you even signed the note yourself. You were very insistent, your Honor.”

Harry examined the note. It was his handwriting, no doubt about it. He knew that Greg Bell, the pissant little nerd who was his deputy bailiff, would never have the guts to lie to him about anything.

Think, Harry, think, he urged himself. He felt out-of-control, which made him both jumpy and angry.

Rather than look like an idiot, Harry nodded as if he’d just remembered something and instructed Mr. Bell to wheel the video unit in and set it up in front of the currently unused jury box. He did so without further explanation, and with no knowledge as to who would be using the display or what would be shown.

“Thank you, your Honor,” Gabriel said, as he stood and approached the witness chair. “My client and I appreciate your granting our request to use this picture transmission device.”

“Picture transmission device?” Harry muttered under his breath.
Who talks like that? Where’s this guy from anyway, Mars?
The Honorable Judge Grove was desperately trying to get a handle on an increasingly unpredictable situation.

“Mr. Gabriel, remind me again why we need this video unit in here today? I’m still not totally clear on its purpose.” Despite being so keyed up he wanted to leap out from behind his bench and choke this impudent new lawyer and his loser client, Harry dialed it down and kept his cool.

“Certainly, your Honor. If you recall, I phoned Mr. Bell and inquired of him about the rules concerning video playbacks. He told me there was no rule per se, they were permitted, but of course any evidence introduced was admitted at the court’s discretion. I suppose it was sometime after that Mr. Bell informed you of our desire to introduce such evidence, with your permission, of course, your Honor.”

Greg Bell looked over at Harry and rapidly moved his head up and down in agreement.

“Well, sir, then I have a question.”

“Yes, your Honor.”

“How do you intend to play your tapes or disks? I see only a television set over there, Mr. Gabriel. Where’s the VCR or DVD player?”

The skittish Mr. Bell was noticeably anxious to answer this question too, but Gabriel quickly responded before that was necessary.

“As I told Mr. Bell, we have some new technology we’ll be using today, your Honor. We can show our pictures without using one of your playback devices.”

This comment drew a few chuckles from Mr. Kemp and Mr. Palmer, who thus far had let the video discussion go by unchallenged.

“Your Honor, if you please,” Mr. Palmer said as he stood, adjusting his vest and tie. “This is a family law hearing. Videos, new technology, we have been told nothing of this. We obj … ”

The moment the smug Mr. Palmer began his argument Gabriel closed his eyes, whispered something in Aramaic and passed his hand over his body from left to right. The move was so quick and subtle no one in the courtroom caught it. No one except Harry, that is. Everything Gabriel did was now the sole focus of his attention.

For some reason Mr. Palmer did not finish his statement to the court.

“Yes, Mr. Palmer, you object. What is it you object to, sir?” Harry desperately wanted Julie’s lawyer to give him an out, to provide him with any reasonable excuse to put an end to the hearing or at least get rid of the video equipment.

“Nothing, your Honor, I have no objection. Plaintiff does not object to the introduction of accurate video evidence at this proceeding.” Mr. Palmer had no idea why he was saying this, but he sure felt better once he said it and sat down.

Judge Grove glared over at the Plaintiff’s table. What the hell was going on? Walter was clearly bored with all the courtroom chatter, the dimwitted sot. He kept checking his watch and fidgeting, obviously annoyed that the hearing was now well into its third hour. As for the crack legal team of Palmer and Kemp, they were sitting expressionless, as if someone had injected each of them with a heavy dose of Thorazine.

Harry recognized the box he was being forced into. The Morgan’s lawyers had no objection to any “accurate” video evidence, and by some magic he had authorized its introduction into the hearing.

“Alright, Mr. Gabriel. It’s your witness, but I warn you, sir. Keep this brief and relevant. This is a court, not a circus. I am a judge, not a ringmaster.”

“Yes, your Honor, of course. I can assure you that everything done here today will be proper.”

Julie patiently endured these exchanges from her vantage point in the witness chair, doing her best to seem detached and to remain confident. But like Harry, she knew that none of this was any good and never should have happened. She made a mental note to have Walter fire the two incompetents she had for attorneys.