Lookin' For Luv (52 page)

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Authors: Carl Weber

BOOK: Lookin' For Luv
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“Your honor, we’ve got a high school principal having sex with a sixteen-year-old. The evidence is pretty overwhelming. Not only does the defendant admit to having sex with the victim, he videotaped it.” The D.A. picked up the tape. “The people are asking for one million dollars bail.”
“Well, Mr. Thomas, do you have anything to say for your client?” The judge addressed Maurice’s lawyer.
“I’d like to enter a motion to dismiss, your honor.” He handed both the judge and the D.A. his motions.
“What’s this all about, Mr. Thomas?” the judge asked.
“Jurisdiction, your honor. The alleged crimes never took place in the state of New York. They all occurred in Vermont, where the age of consent is sixteen.”
“Is this true, Mr. Abraham?”
“One minute, please, your honor.” The D.A. turned and whispered to the arresting officers, who were standing behind him. When he turned back to the judge, he looked disgusted. “I’m afraid that is true, your honor.”
The judge looked down at the motion in front of him and frowned.
“You know, Mr. Johnson, men like you sicken me. We put you in charge of our children, and you take advantage of them.” The judge removed his glasses to rub his eyes.
Maurice nudged Greg Thomas. “She told me she was twenty-one,” he whispered. Greg raised his hand to silence Maurice so that the judge could continue.
“Mr. Johnson, I have a sixteen-year-old daughter, so you have no idea how much it pains me to do this. The motion to dismiss is granted, case dismissed. Mr. Thomas, I suggest you get your client some help.” The judge banged his gavel with finality.
Maurice was shocked. “Did he say case dismissed?”
“Yes, he did,” Greg answered, turning to the table behind them for his briefcase. The two men walked to the back of the courtroom and out the doors.
Outside the courtroom Maurice turned to Greg. “Thanks, Greg. This is another fine mess you’ve gotten me out of.”
“You heard the judge, Maurice. You need to get some help.” There was no warmth in Greg’s voice.
“Come on, Greg,” Maurice insisted arrogantly, “I told you the little whore said she was twenty-one. If you had seen her first, you woulda jumped on her too.”
“You just don’t get it, do you? I don’t care what she looked like, Maurice. The bottom line is that girl is only sixteen. Whether you’re free or not, can’t you see that’s wrong?”
“What am I supposed to do, ask everyone I screw for proper identification?”
“How about screwing people your own age? Maurice, you have a twenty-year-old daughter. What would you do if a forty-five-year-old man took advantage of her?” Maurice stood silently, staring at his friend and lawyer. “I thought that might get your attention.” Greg walked back in the courtroom, leaving Maurice to consider what he’d just said.
“You’re Maurice Johnson, aren’t you?” A very pretty brown-skinned woman approached him.
“Yeah, why?” Maurice was still thinking about Greg’s last comment and really didn’t appreciate the woman’s intrusion.
Smack! The woman slapped him hard enough for everyone in the courthouse lobby to hear. The blow had surprised him enough that he almost fell over.
“I’m Valerie Gordon’s mother, you son of a bitch! How dare you violate my daughter?” She tried to swing again, but a teenage girl held her back.
“Come on, Ma,” the girl pleaded.
A small crowd gather around and Maurice was still trying to steady himself from her blow.
“Let go of me, Valerie!” the girl’s mother commanded.
Maurice took a good look at the girl when he realized she was the one he had left in Vermont and spent three days in jail for. She didn’t look twenty-one now. She looked sixteen in her jeans and sweatshirt, but Maurice knew it was her, minus the sexy clothes and makeup. She’d worn a weave over the weekend, but now her hair was in cornrows, and she really did look like a child.
What the hell did I do?
he thought, for the first time feeling some true remorse.
“You think you gonna get away with rapin’ my baby and leavin’ her up in Vermont? Well, I’m here to tell you when my husband comes home on leave from the army next month, your ass belongs to us!” Maurice was about to offer a sincere apology, but she swung, landing another loud smack against his face. Two sheriff’s deputies stopped her before she could land another blow.
“Let her go, officers. It wasn’t her fault, it was mine,” Maurice said through clenched teeth.
“Okay. But you get out of here,” one officer told him. Maurice nodded and walked toward the courthouse exit. In all his escapades he had never thought enough about the women he mistreated to care that they were someone’s daughters, someone’s sisters. But Greg’s words reminded him that if the same situation were reversed and it was his Jasmine who was left in Vermont, his heart would be broken. Greg’s words weighed heavy on his conscience, and Valerie’s mother’s slap burned on his face.
 
Maurice made sure he was the last one in, to give himself time to try to calm his nerves. As he entered the room and glanced around at the people waiting behind the Plexiglas partitions, he spotted the woman he had been so eager to see. He walked slowly to the partition and sat in front of her.
Three weeks before, Maurice had been arrested for statutory rape and endangering the welfare of a minor. Now, although he was a free man, things could not be worse for him. His wife left him for a school security guard and cleaned out his bank accounts. He lost his job even though he won the case against him. The New York City Board of Education did not care whether Maurice was in New York or Vermont. The fact that he had sex with a minor, especially one who was enrolled in their school system, was more than enough grounds for his dismissal.
Now, at the suggestion of his psychiatrist, he was sitting in front of the one person he believed could answer some questions and help him make some changes in his life. He picked up the phone nervously.
“Hi, Diane.” He smiled. He had not seen the woman since junior high school, and she was more beautiful than ever.
Diane was fifty-eight years old with a dark complexion that was smooth as silk. Her long black hair was streaked with gray and put up in a bun, and her dress was a prison-issue orange that brought out the red tints in her skin. She was a stunning woman, and the years had been very kind.
“Do I know you?” she asked in a seductive Haitian accent.
“Come on, Diane, it’s me, Maurice.” He stared at her in amazement. Almost thirty years had gone by, and she still had the same affect on him.
“Maurice? Maurice who?”
“Maurice Johnson, from Bobby Kennedy Junior High School? You took me to Chicago and Indiana, remember?” He could see by her expression that she still had no idea who he was. “Reese. You use to call me Reese.”
She looked at him strangely, then her eyes opened wide.
“Oh, my cute little Reese with the red suspenders.”
“Yes, that’s me.” He sighed, happy that she finally recognized him.
“You’re Reese Johnson?” She took a long, hard look at him.
“Yes, Diane. I’m Reese Johnson. Everyone calls me Maurice now.” He smiled at her, turning his head to the right so that she could see his best side.
“Damn, you got old!” She frowned.
The insult was like a slap in the face, but Maurice tried to keep his emotions under control.
“Yes, Diane, I’ve gotten a little older. I guess we all have.”
“So how’d you find me anyway?” she asked, taking a long drag on her cigarette.
“They’ve got something on the Internet called findanyone. com. It cost five hundred bucks, but it was worth it.”
“So, I guess you think you’re pretty smart, huh, finding me in jail and all.” She never gave him a chance to answer. “So, Mr. Smarty Pants, what brings you all the way up here to see me? Looking to testify against me for what I did to you in the past?”
“No, Diane, I would never testify against you. Besides, the statute of limitations passed a long time ago.”
“So, what do you want, then?”
“Some answers. There hasn’t been a day gone by that I haven’t thought about you and what you might be doing.”
“I thought about you too, Reese. You were different from the others.” She took another drag on her cigarette as she pictured him in his youth. “It was more than sex for you, wasn’t it?”
“Much more, Diane.” He swallowed hard, trying to continue without shedding a tear. “I was in love with you. I would have done anything for you. I just never understood why you left me in that motel room”
He couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Diane looked at him with pity as she touched the glass. Her explanation was absurd, but in her warped mind she found it reasonable.
“It was your beard, Reese. One day I woke up and noticed you were getting facial hair. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. I honestly became repulsed by the fact that you were getting older.” She looked at him and cringed. Any hint of sympathy had completely vanished. “And you’re even more repulsive now that you’re older. It’s making me sick just thinking that I used to sleep with your old ass.” She spit on the ground in disgust.
Maurice sat in stunned silence for a long time. Diane smoked her cigarette, seemingly unconcerned. Maurice couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She had been the love of his life. He would have gone through hell and high water for the woman, and now he was learning she had dumped him because he had hit puberty. It was more than he could fathom. As he struggled to regain his composure, he couldn’t help but think his entire life had been a lie.
So much of who he had become was based on how Diane had treated him. He really believed that she was in love with him when he was a young, impressionable student. Her sudden, cruel rejection at that campsite had shaped his character from that day forth. His terrible relationship with his parents, his failed marriage, his abuse of so many young women, could all somehow be traced back to that event. And now it was finally dawning on him that Diane was just a very sick woman. And if that were true, then he was beginning to realize his own life had been somewhat insane.
“Did you ever think what you did to me might ruin my life?”
“Do I look like I give a shit?” She let out some more smoke.
Finally he knew there was nothing more he could say to this woman. He stood up without another word and turned to walk away. Diane was incensed that he would leave so abruptly.
“Where the fuck are you going?” she shouted through the glass. “You didn’t even leave me any cigarette money.” She stood up and knocked on the glass to get his attention, determined to have the last word.
Maurice spun around to face her. He wanted to ignore her, but some sick fascination made him curious to know what else she had to say. He sat back down and picked up the phone.
“What?” he asked flatly.
“I just wanted to know, before you leave. Do you have any sons?” She began to laugh maniacally.
“You are one sick bitch. I can’t believe I ever cared about you,” he shouted as he slammed down the phone. Getting up from his chair, he took one last glance at her before the guards buzzed him out of the visiting room.
41
 
KEVIN
 
Kevin kissed Alicia tenderly as they stood at the door to her apartment. He didn’t want to leave her but knew he had to get home and ready for work. Plus Alicia had made a steadfast rule that Kevin had to be out of the house before Michael woke up. She loved Kevin and one day hoped to marry him, but until that day she was going to do her best to set an example for Michael.
“Did I tell you I love you today?” Kevin kissed her.
“The way you made love to me last night told me everything I needed to know. But, yes, you did tell me you loved me.” She smiled. So did he.
“I’ll see you after work,” he said tenderly.
“Okay.” She kissed him again. “Kevin?”
“Yeah, babe?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
They said good-bye once more, then Alicia closed her door. He heard the dead bolt lock into place. Kevin walked down the hallway and was horrified by what he saw when he opened the front door. His Honda was still parked by the curb, but long, jagged scratches stretched from the front to the back. The words
I’m an asshole
were etched into the car in at least twenty different locations. Kevin’s eyes went wide with rage as he ran to the car to inspect the damage, his fists clenched angrily.
I’m gonna kill that son of bitch
,
Trevor,
he thought. Trevor was the only one he could think of who would do this.
When he reached the car though, he found a newspaper clipping that identified the true identity of the vandal. The headline on the clipping read MAN ACCUSED OF RAPE SWEARS IT WAS A SETUP. Kevin’s mind immediately registered alarm when he realized it was Denise who had done this to his car. He slumped against the hood, real fear overtaking him. The amount of damage she had done must have taken her half the night to accomplish. And in such a busy neighborhood, she must have gone to great lengths to finish it without being noticed. If she was capable of this, she was capable of making false accusations, he was sure of that.

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