Aftermath (41 page)

“I work very long hours.”

“Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week?”

“Objection,” the prosecution interrupted.

“Withdrawn,” Teresa countered. “How does your new girlfriend feel about children, Mr. Crowley?”

Louis frowned. “I'm not sure.”

“Does she have any?” Teresa asked.

“No.”

“Have you discussed having any?”

Louis shook his head. “No.”

“Isn't it true that you told your mother that your girlfriend doesn't like children?”

Louis remembered telling his mother that, but wondered how the hell Misa's attorney had gotten that information.

“I might have said that.”

“So you lied when you said that you weren't sure how she felt about children.”

“No … what I meant … I'm saying that she might not feel that way anymore.”

Teresa tilted her head to the side and looked at Louis like the liar that he was. “But she felt that way at some point, did she not?”

Louis sighed. “When we first got together she mentioned that she wasn't particularly fond of children.”

“What does your girlfriend do for a living, Mr. Crowley?”

“She's a dentist.”

“And when the two of you met, you were working two odd jobs in order to provide for your family, correct?”

“Yes.”

“When you left your wife and moved in with your girlfriend, did you continue to work?”

“No.”

“You quit your jobs?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How did you support yourself?”

He glanced at Nahla and then replied. “Nahla supported me while I went back to school and got my degree.”

Teresa looked at the women on the jury and was happy to see them looking at Louis with some contempt.

“Is it true that you went on vacation with your mistress to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and to Acapulco, Mexico, while Misa was left to try her best to provide for your son?”

“Yes,” he said. “But I didn't pay for those vacations, so it's not as if I was taking food out of my son's mouth.”

Teresa frowned. “While you were cavorting on exotic beaches, your wife was getting financial assistance from her sister and brother-in-law. They purchased a car for Misa so that she could transport your son to and from school. They helped her to pay her rent and to buy food and clothing for your child. And you were off enjoying a child-free environment with your mistress.”

He looked at Nahla and noticed she seemed just as embarrassed as he was. “I did feel bad about not seeing my son that often,” he said, his voice cracking a little as the guilt he'd suppressed for years spilled forth.

“Did you?” Teresa challenged him.

“Yes, I did. And that's why when Misa called me on Christmas Day and told me to come and get him, I didn't hesitate. I went and got my son.”

“You went and got him and brought him back to the home that you shared with your girlfriend who hates kids?”

“Objection, your honor!”

“Sustained.”

“Mr. Crowley, what happened when you brought Shane home with you on Christmas?” Teresa asked, standing in front of him with her arms folded across her chest, her Louboutins making her tower over the witness.

“Well, the first night, everything was good. He was happy to see me but he was being really clingy and I didn't know why.”

“Did you attribute that to the fact that he hadn't seen you in over a month?”

Louis knew that was a dig at him and he deserved it. “I just thought he was used to being babied or something. He slept in bed with me and Nahla that night, and in the morning he seemed fine.”

“When did you notice a change?”

“About two days later, he started saying curse words that I had never heard him say before.”

Teresa frowned. “What kinds of words?”

Louis thought back to that day and sighed. “Shit, fuck, bitch. Words like that.”

“Was he just saying those words or was he directing them at anyone in particular?”

“He was just saying them, sitting on the floor playing with his toys and saying them.”

“And how did you respond to that?”

Louis looked at Nahla again. The truth was she had insisted that he spank Shane for using such foul language. Louis had been hesitant to do so, since he rarely even saw his son. He hadn't wanted to spank him and make him upset. “At first, I warned him that if he kept saying those bad words that I was gonna spank him.”

“Did that work?”

He shook his head. “He kept doing it, almost as if he was challenging me. So I went over to where he was sitting on the floor and I pulled him to his feet and started to spank him on his butt.” Louis felt himself getting choked up at the memory of that horrible night. “But then he started to cry—hard! He was sobbing and he was screaming, begging me not to hurt him back there.”

Teresa allowed Louis a moment to compose himself as he dabbed at his eyes with a tissue. She knew it had to be difficult for him to remember that night.

“What was your reaction to that?”

Louis took a deep breath. “I tried to pick him up and get him to stop crying, but he just fell into a ball at my feet and kept crying, begging me not to hurt him. So I scooped him up off the floor and sat on the couch with him, rocking him. I asked him what was wrong, what he meant by ‘don't hurt me back there'… he told me that a bad man hurt him back there.”

Misa was crying now and Camille leaned forward and handed her sister a tissue. The judge glanced at her and asked if she needed to take a recess, but she shook her head. She wanted to get this part over with as quickly as possible. It was horrible hearing the details of what had been done to her son.

“Did you ask Shane who the bad man was?” Teresa asked.

Louis nodded. “I kept asking him that. But he wouldn't tell me. He said that the bad man would hurt him and hurt his mommy if he told anybody. I told him that I would never let anybody hurt him again, but he was petrified. He just kept promising that he was gonna be good, begging me not to send him back home, telling me that he didn't want to play those games anymore.”

“Games?” Teresa asked.

Louis shrugged. “I had no idea what he was talking about. So I calmed him down, got him dressed, and I took him to the doctor.”

Teresa looked at her notes and nodded. “What did the doctor tell you?”

“He confirmed that my son had been sodomized. He told me he was obligated to report it to the authorities. So we sat there in the doctor's office and called the police. We tried to call my ex-wife to find out what she knew, tried calling my sister-in-law and got no answer. So I filed the report and gave them my statement. I took my son home with me and kept trying to get in touch with his mother.”

“When were you able to contact her?”

“She called to speak to Shane later that night. It was the first time she had called to check on him since I picked him up three days earlier.” Louis wanted the jury to know what a terrible mother Misa had been. “And I told her what happened to my son on her watch.”

Teresa looked at Louis like he had a lot of nerve. “On her watch, Mr. Crowley?”

He nodded. “Exactly!” Now he was angry. “On her watch,” he repeated.

“Is it true that my client asked to speak with Shane and you refused?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Did she sound upset?”

“She was crying, but I didn't give a damn. It was her fault.”

“You felt that your ex-wife had sodomized him?” Teresa asked for clarification.

“No,” he said. “But she was supposed to be taking care of him and she allowed it to happen.”

“How about you, Mr. Crowley?” Teresa asked. “Didn't you have a responsibility to Shane, as well?”

“Yeah, but I wasn't the one who was leaving him for days at a time with whoever would babysit him!”

“Did you ever think that if you had been there for your son more often that Misa may not have been forced to leave him in the custody of others?”

Louis fought back tears. He wasn't about to let this bitch turn the blame on him. “She wasn't forced! She could have stayed home and took care of Shane instead of running off—”

“The way you did?”

“OBJECTION!”

“Sustained.”

“Isn't it possible that Misa was out searching for happiness the way that you ran off in search of the same thing years ago? Is it possible that perhaps she was out looking for a way to complete the family structure that you tore apart when you upgraded to a new child-free life?”

Louis was tearing up now.

Teresa took the opportunity to go in for the kill. “Is it true that when you delivered the blow to my client that her son had been molested, that you further traumatized her by telling her that she and her family would never see your son again as long as you were alive?”

“I did say that,” he admitted.

“And did you threaten to kill my client?”

“I was upset.”

“Did you threaten to kill my client?”

“Yes,” Louis said reluctantly.

The courtroom hummed with chatter and Misa stared at Louis, watched him reliving the worst day of their lives.

“So after hearing about her son's molestation, being told that she would never see him again, and having her life threatened, how did my client respond?”

Louis shrugged. “I was mad so I hung up on her. She kept calling back so I turned the ringer off.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I had said everything I needed to say to her. I wanted her to get to the bottom of who tortured my son and then we could talk.”

“So what happened then?”

“Then she came over to my house demanding to see Shane.”

“And did you let her see her son?”

Louis stared at his hands. “No.”

Teresa stared down at Louis. “Didn't you curse at my client, calling her a slut, a whore, and a myriad of other names before spitting on her?”

“I didn't spit on her. I missed.”

Some people in the courtroom snickered then and Judge Felder ordered silence.

“And she left at that point?”

Louis nodded. “Yes.”

“When was the next time you heard from your ex-wife after that?”

He looked at Camille. “I got a phone call from my sister-in-law Camille. She told me that Misa had killed Steven, that she suspected he was the one who had hurt my son.”

“And what was your reaction?”

He shrugged. “It didn't change what happened to Shane,” he said. “The damage has been done.”

Teresa moved closer to Louis and spoke sympathetically to him. “How is Shane's mental state today?”

Louis sniffled a little, wiped his nose. “He has nightmares. He wakes up crying and it's hard to get him to go back to sleep sometimes.” He took a deep breath. “But he's coming along. My mother helps me take care of him. I hate being away from him.”

Teresa smiled encouragingly. “And he visits with his mother twice a week, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And how is his demeanor after those visits? Is he sad, withdrawn, angry?”

Louis hated to admit the fact that Shane never came home that way. “Actually, he usually comes back happier than he was before he left. I think he enjoys seeing his mother.”

Teresa was happy to hear him acknowledge that. So was Misa.

“Mr. Crowley, I commend you for stepping up to care for your son at a time like this. It can't be easy for you to help him recover from such a traumatic experience.”

Louis thanked her, told her that it was very difficult to know that his son had suffered. He dabbed at his eyes, clearly hurting for Shane.

“Do you feel guilty, Mr. Crowley?”

Louis looked at Teresa and frowned, prepared to deny it.

“Do you feel guilty, knowing that you had all but abandoned your son in the process of leaving your wife; knowing that you hadn't been there for him in the months and years prior to the abuse? Do you ever think about what you may have done to prevent this from happening to Shane?”

Louis nodded. “Yes.”

“Do you think your ex-wife was justified in killing Steven Bingham?”

“Objection!” The prosecutor was on his feet.

“Your honor, I'm seeking to establish that Mr. Crowley has had an epiphany today. That perhaps he no longer sees his ex-wife as solely responsible for what happened to their son.”

Judge Felder seemed to think about it for a moment. Then he grunted, “Overruled.”

Teresa was thrilled. “Mr. Crowley, do you think your ex-wife was justified in killing Steven Bingham?”

Louis pictured Shane's sweet, innocent face and thought of the terror he had suffered at some grown man's hands. He looked then at Misa and realized she had killed Steven in order to get some kind of justice for what had been done to Shane. And he had to admit that if he had been in her shoes—if he had had any idea who may have hurt his child—he would have done the same thing she had.

He choked back a sob and finally felt some of the anger he had toward Misa abate.

“I think she did the right thing,” he said honestly. “And if I had been in her shoes I would have done the same thing.”

The courtroom erupted in bedlam and Misa couldn't believe what she'd just heard. As Teresa stated that she had no more questions and returned to her seat, Misa locked eyes with Louis and knew that his mind had been changed. Finally, he felt her pain. She was grateful and squeezed Teresa's hand when she sat down beside her. For the first time since her trial began, Misa felt hopeful that she might walk away a free woman.

Order in the Court

Ms. Thomas raised her right hand and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. As Shane's social worker, she was here today to describe how he had been affected by the trauma he'd suffered.