Mama's Boy (14 page)

31

D
oes someone want to tell me what's going on?”

Judge Raymond was pissed. Gloria didn't know much about the judge, but she could tell that this woman didn't play.

“Uh, Your Honor, I-I don't know.” Phillip said, obviously confused. “I went to check and I don't know if she's sick or what.”

“She is,” Gloria said, easing back into the chair. “I heard her in the bathroom stall throwing up. Maybe it's some type of virus. I told her I would tell you all that she left.”

“Oh, good Lord,” Judge Raymond said. “I hope she didn't come in here and infect us all with something.” The judge sighed, then looked at her notes. “So are you prepared to continue in her absence?” she asked Harold.

Harold blinked. “Ahhh . . . not really, Your Honor.”

“Well, you're going to have to get ready. We will at least hear the argument from the defense.” She set her pen down and leaned back, letting everyone know she was ready to begin.

“Your Honor, my client would like to have the case thrown out,” Phillip began.

“And I would like to retire on a beach in Tahiti right now,” she replied. “What do you have that's a little more realistic, Mr. Christiansen?”

Phillip pulled out some papers and slid them toward her. “My client, Jamal Jones, has never been in trouble before. This is an unfortunate incident that stemmed from a request to stop filming.” He handed the judge an iPad, where she could watch the video. “According to
Housh v. People,
an arrest that fails to allege a crime is within jurisdiction, and one who is being arrested may resist arrest and break away. lf the arresting officer is killed by one who is so resisting, the killing will be no more than an involuntary manslaughter.”

“Okay, so someone's been reading up on case law,” Judge Raymond quipped, as she pressed play. “So, why didn't he just stop filming?” she asked after watching a few minutes.

Elton turned and looked at Gloria. She answered, “Your Honor, because he believed he wasn't doing anything wrong and we taught our son to be strong in his beliefs and to be aware of his rights. He knew that as long as he wasn't in the way, he had a right to film.”

Phillip added, “She's right. U.S. citizens have the right to record.”

“Looks like he's being defiant here,” Judge Raymond said, her eyes glued to the iPad.

Elton, who still hadn't said a word, let out a small murmur. Gloria couldn't make out what he was saying, but she was so disgusted with him, it didn't even matter. Today was his first time meeting Phillip and to say Elton was acting like an ass would be an under
statement. He was standoffish and aloof, like he was irritated about even having to be here.

Gloria kept her attention on the judge. “The shooting was an accident,” she felt the need to add.

“Well, that will be up to the jury to decide,” the judge said.

“As you can see from the video,” Phillip continued, “Jamal is at a distance from the officer. The officer came over to him.”

“So, who's the one yelling ‘You gon' die today, cop?' ” she asked.

“It was one of the other boys. There were two boys with my client. They will be called as witnesses to support that my client felt attacked,” Phillip said.

“He didn't feel attacked, he was attacked,” Gloria countered.

“All right, settle down,” Judge Raymond admonished. “Again, that is something the jury will have to decide. The grand jury has determined that there is probable cause and enough for us to move forward with the trial, so I'm going to let the ruling stand. Motion to dismiss denied.”

Gloria's eyes watered up. She knew the chances of having this case thrown out were slim, but still, she'd held out hope.

“But Your Honor . . .” Phillip began.

“Don't worry, Mr. Christiansen,” she said, cutting him off. “You all will get your day in court.” She turned to Harold. “Do you have anything to add?”

“Ummm . . . no, Your Honor,” the young man said. “We again urge the defense to take our plea of Manslaughter One.”

“Not happening,” Phillip said.

“Then we'll see you in court,” Harold replied.

“Fine.” Judge Raymond turned back to Phillip. “Get back to my court clerk after four tomorrow. We will get this expedited and on
the books. Everyone from the mayor to the governor has contacted us about this case.” She turned back to Harold. “And I suggest you find out what is going on with Mrs. Christiansen and you all get it together. One of you will be prosecuting the case soon.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

The judge stood, signaling the conclusion of their meeting.

After it was over, Gloria fought back tears as Phillip talked with them for a few moments.

“Okay, we're in for a rocky ride,” Phillip said.

“Can you handle this?” Elton asked. “Because the Black Justice Coalition—”

“Only wants to use our son,” Gloria interrupted. She wasn't about to go down that road with her husband again.

“Mr. Jones, I assure you, I'll fight to the bitter end for your son. But if you're not sure I'm the one you want representing your family, then I can only respect that.”

“Nonsense,” Gloria said. “We're sure.” At this point, she didn't care what her husband said. “Call us if you need anything else.” This time it was Gloria who took her spouse's arm and all but pushed him out the door.

“We blindsided Kayla and I think we're going to pay big time,” Elton said once they were back in the car and pulling onto the freeway. “And the look of horror on her face when she saw us. . . ” He shook his head. “This is going to end badly. Mark my words, this is going to end very badly.”

“Well, I'm going to think positively,” Gloria replied. “That's what our son needs right now.”

Elton pouted as he pulled onto Interstate 10, the freeway that would take them back to Jasper. “Dagnabit!” he said when he saw
the bumper-to-bumper traffic. “As if I have time to be traipsing up and down this road.”

Gloria was tired of him. So she said, “Well, when I come back, I'll just stay with Mama, so you don't have to be inconvenienced. You don't even have to come to the trial,” she said, swallowing hard to keep from crying. She knew her husband could be a jerk, but he was taking it to a whole other level.

“Of course I'm going to be at the trial,” he said. “Don't be ridiculous.”

“Well, you're acting like . . .”

“I'm acting like . . . this upsets me because it does,” he said. “This is a mess, a disaster. And yes, I'm furious with Jamal because if he had his butt at home like I wanted, none of this would have happened and that man would still be alive!” Elton seemed like he'd been waiting to get this all off his chest, because he kept going. “I have worked hard for this boy all my life. And for what? This? So you'll have to excuse me if I don't want to be embroiled in a highly publicized murder trial. People don't even want to come to church, because we got news crews camped out. People judging him and us, watching over our every move,” Elton said with disgust.

“They're not watching us anymore.”

“Well, they were and it wasn't a good look,” Elton grumbled. “And then we finally have some folks that really want to help and you're giving them a hard time.”

Gloria rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, your precious Black Justice Coalition. They don't care about us. They care about their cause!”

“I'm not going to debate this with you,” Elton said.

Gloria stared out the window. “Are you going to go see Jamal?” she asked. “That's all I want to know. You haven't seen him since
you had him arrested.” There was no winning that conversation so she needed to just change the subject. “You need to go see him.”

“I didn't have him arrested. He got himself arrested. I very well could've saved his life.”

“Whatever, Elton.”

A heavy silence filled the car before he said, “Jamal is still mad at me about the arrest anyway. He probably won't even come out to see me. And I guess you're still mad, too,” he said, studying her. “Your lips all poked out, your eyebrows are furrowed. You're still mad.”

When she didn't reply, he continued. “I am sorry that you don't understand that I will not support you and me being harassed, or our son being on the run for God knows how long. You saw the anger in those police officers' eyes. If they would have caught him, they would have killed him.”

Gloria leaned her head back against the headrest. Elton was right. Even though she didn't have it in her heart to turn her son in, it was for the best.

She reached across the armrest and took his free hand. She didn't know how to forgive him, but she needed to try. She was tired of fighting and her son needed both of his parents. If they had any hopes of making it through this, that was the only way.

32

K
ay took a deep breath as soon as she heard the door chime. She'd been ignoring Phillip's phone calls all day. She had sent him a text to let him know she was at home and resting. She'd been home, but she wasn't resting. Her mind had been in an absolute jumble for the past eight hours. Kay was grateful Phillip didn't come rushing home. He had allowed her time to pull herself together. And now it was time to give him some answers. The trouble was, she didn't know what those answers would be.

“Hey,” Phillip said, setting his briefcase down on the dresser. “You all right? I've been worried sick all day.”

“I told you, I'm all right,” Kay said. She was lying across the sofa, an afghan tossed across her legs.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” He sat down across from her. “One minute you were fine, the next you weren't.”

“It's like I texted you. I think I had a stomach virus or something.”

He narrowed his eyes and looked at her sideways. He knew
nothing short of the Ebola virus could keep her out of court. They'd had several arguments about it as she worked through the flu and even a case of the measles. She had even gone back to work two weeks after delivering Leslie. So the fact that some sudden illness had shut her down, she knew Phillip wasn't buying.

“So, did you know the Joneses?” he asked point-blank.

“What would make . . . why would you ask me that?” she stuttered.

“I don't know. You were fine until you saw them.”

“No, the stomach virus, it just hit me all of a sudden,” she lied.

He stared at her for a minute, making her feel like a witness under intense cross-examination. Finally, he said, “Okay, if you say so.”

“I'll be fine.”

“Well, did Harold call and tell you?”

She let out a heavy sigh. She'd gotten the memo. Harold had called her frantically at least twenty times before she finally answered. And he told her that the case was moving forward, with or without her.

Kay knew that he was nervous and afraid that he would have to prosecute the case, and they both knew he wasn't ready to do that. She had sent him a text and told him she was feeling better and would be in the office tomorrow. She definitely couldn't turn the case over to him, and Judge Raymond didn't seem like she was going to take any excuses.

But after what she had just discovered, there was no way she could move forward with prosecuting Jamal Jones. How in the world could she get out of it? How in the world
would
she get out of it? Her boss had already begun making a big deal. He had called
another press conference for the end of the week, and then resigning from the case would look especially bad on her in the race for mayor. CNN had called and was planning on doing a story, as well as
USA Today.
What was she supposed to do?

Phillip stood up and said, “I'm going to change.” He stared at her. “You do know that I'm not buying that you were sick?”

Kay forced a smile and shook away all thoughts of Judge Raymond and Harold.

“No, seriously, honey. It just came out of nowhere.”

“Are you sure it had nothing to do with the Joneses?”

She faked a laugh. “No, no, it had nothing to do with that,” she tried to reassure him. “I really did have this sickness just pop up suddenly.”

He leaned back against the door frame and studied her some more. “But you look fine now.”

“I'm feeling better. I actually went to the urgent care facility.”

“And what did they say?”

“It's a bad virus going around and the only thing they can think is something hit me. But I seriously am okay. They told me to just take it easy the rest of the day, which you can see I'm doing.”

He stared at her some more and then said, “Kay, you know I've been married to you for a long time, so I know when something's not right.”

“Phillip, please,” she began.

He held his hand up. “But if you say so, fine. I'll trust you.” He blew her a kiss and walked out of the room.

Trust. The words made her cringe. Once her husband found out the truth, would he ever really trust her again?

33

W
ith all the stares and mumbles she was getting, you would think the town of Jasper, Texas, had never seen a scandal. It was taking everything in Gloria's power to rise above the gossip and not respond to the sneers and snarky comments. There were a few people that were trying to be supportive and offered condolences for the whole situation. But there were some, like catty Helen Grainger, who needed to be put in their place.

Gloria had walked up on Helen cackling with some members right before service. She hadn't heard everything, but she'd heard enough.

“Helen, may I speak with you for a moment?” Gloria said. As if they wanted to see a show, a small crowd slowly gathered in the vestibule.

“For what?” Helen asked.

“Can we go in the pastor's study, please?” Gloria asked.

Helen folded her arms defiantly. “Really, First Lady? If there is anything you need to say to me, you can say it right here. Patsy is a
dear friend of mine,” she said, motioning to the lady standing next to her. “And so is Lizzie, Lois, and Ethel.” The group stood smirking at her. And to think, before all of this, Gloria had considered these women her friends.

“Okay, if that's how you want to play it,” Gloria said. She'd been on edge all week. She'd even started calling Kayla's office because she thought they needed to talk. Of course, Kayla wouldn't take her calls. “It's my understanding you're the main source behind the gossip spreading around the church that Jamal is going to, as you told Deacon Cole, rot in prison. I would appreciate it if you didn't try to convict my son before he's had his day in court.”

“Well, I saw the video,” she said.

“We all did,” Patsy chimed in.

“Well, if you did, you would have seen your grandson on there starting the whole thing,” Gloria countered. As far as Helen was concerned, her grandson could do no wrong.

“Dix didn't shoot nobody,” Helen said.

“Since you saw the video, you saw he was the one that caused things to escalate in the first place by getting smart with the police officer,” Gloria said.

“I beg your pardon,” Helen snapped.

“I didn't stutter,” Gloria snapped right back. Then she caught herself, deciding that the last thing she needed was church drama, so she took a different approach. “Look, none of us knows exactly what happened. How about we just wait before we pass judgment?”

“Ladies, my wife is right.” Gloria hadn't even seen her husband enter the vestibule. “Not to mention, this is not the time or the place to have this discussion,” Elton said.

Helen crossed her arms, then uncrossed them again. “It seems to
me like you need to be worried about getting your house in order,” she said. “No disrespect, Pastor, but some of the church elders were talking and we believe that the church anniversary program should not move forward until all of this is resolved.”

Elton looked at her, dumbfounded. It shouldn't have surprised Gloria. Helen would seize any opportunity to make their family look bad. They had a beef that went back for years.

“Helen,” Elton slowly began, “we've been having the church anniversary every year for the last ninety-six years. We're not about to change that.”

“Well, seems like to me and several others that we don't need any more attention brought to our church. Your family is doing a pretty good job of shining a bright enough light.”

“You know what I would think?” Elton continued. “I would think that in our time of need our church would be there for us.” Several of the members looked down in shame. “Just like I was there for you when your son, Billy, was accused of raping that—”

Helen grabbed her chest. “How dare you.”

“I'm just telling you the truth. When he was accused of raping that young girl over in Port Neches.” He turned to Patsy. “Just like I was there when your son took your life savings and exchanged it for a twenty-dollar bag of crack. So, don't go there with me and mine's.”

The defiant look was actually wiped off Helen's face. In fact, all of the women looked appalled.

“Now, if my son shot Officer Wilkins, and that remains a big if, it was a tragic accident, nothing more.” He looked around at everybody standing around the vestibule. “Each and every one of you has known Jamal since he was a little boy. You know as well as
I do what type of kid he is, and yet you're buying into the hype that he's a thug.”

Lois, another longtime member, stepped up. “Well, Pastor, someone showed me a website that had a picture from Jamal's ­Instagram where he was shooting the middle finger.”

Gloria had seen that picture and was devastated. It was the one picture that Fox News chose to run over and over.

“And so?” Elton responded. “You know I don't condone that. But Jamal was doing stupid teenage things. He never had any idea that it would come back to haunt him. Now I know some of y'all got some perfect children around here,” he said. That caused a few chuckles. “But the bottom line remains, we have no control over the things that our kids do and you know they don't listen to us, and these dang social media sites and that Internet got them acting plumb fools. But you all know Jamal. You know he ain't a plumb fool and you know he ain't a killer.”

Helen actually seemed to be shrinking in size. “Sorry, Pastor,” she mumbled.

“Now, I understand this is tense for all of us,” he continued, “and I don't like bringing this kind of attention to Mount Sinai any more than any of you do. In fact, I probably despise it more. But it is what it is and the good Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle. So what I need each and every one of you to do is just pray for us. Don't gossip, don't talk to the media about us. Just pray. Can you do that?”

“Yes, Pastor,” many of them mumbled.

For the first time since this whole ordeal began, Gloria felt something other than contempt for her husband. Maybe they could recover from all of this, she thought.

She'd just have to do like Elton said and pray.