On a limb with Claudia

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CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

Friday morning — 5:25 A.M.

Dressed in her pajamas, Jill ran down the stairs from the loft. Her bare feet made a tight drumbeat as she pounded past the landing. Slipping around the corner, she almost ran over Honey. Honey had been wheeling at top speed toward the stairs. Jill caught Honey’s chair before they fell over.

“The jury returned!” the women said together.

“Ann just…” Jill started at the same time Honey said, “I got…”

They both gave a nervous laugh.

“You first,” Jill said.

“The jury insisted on staying all night.” Honey’s voice was fast and excited. “The victim’s advocate said they reviewed every bit of evidence, everything. She got the call this morning. The jury has reached a decision. That’s what she said. ‘The jury has reached a decision.’ What did Ann say?”

“Pretty much the same thing. Ann said she was sure they would stay the weekend. After all the befuddling counter testimony and everything else, she and the DA thought the jury was confused and would want the weekend. But…”

“The victim’s advocate said this was good news.”

“Ann said a quick verdict is usually a guilty verdict.”

The women beamed at each other.

“We made it!” Jill exclaimed.

[...]

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Recap of the Beginning and character summary

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

Thursday Night — 7:15 P.M
The Castle

“I made dinner.” Sandy rushed around their apartment. “Delphie will be here…”

Sandy ran to answer a knock at the door. Delphie came in and hugged Sandy. Seated at the dining room table, Noelle watched Sandy run through the apartment. Her mouth hung open and her eyes tracked Sandy from room to room.

“Come on Nash,” Sandy yelled down the hall. “You have to get up.”

“NO,” Nash yelled. “I told you before. I’m sleeping. I’m tired. I don’t know what your problem is but I worked and worked and worked and…”

“I’ll get him,” Delphie said.

Sandy nodded to Delphie.

“Sandy?” Noelle asked.

Sandy had run into the bedroom to change into something warmer.

“Sandy?”

Sandy didn’t respond.

“SANDY!”

Dressed in her underwear, Sandy poked her head out of her bedroom. Noelle blushed at Sandy’s puzzled eyes.

“What’s going on?” Sandy pulled a long sleeved T-shirt over her head.

“Where are you going? You haven’t said. You just got of the phone and started running around!” Noelle began to cry. “I don’t know what’s going on and…”

Dressed just in the T-shirt, Sandy pulled the little girl close to her. She held her arm out for Nash when he came into the room. He joined their hug.

“Your father and his friend, Mr. Pete, have been injured. They’ve been airlifted to a trauma hospital in Colorado Springs,” Sandy said.

[...]

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CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE

Two weeks later
Thursday — 3:25 P.M.

After getting a bite to eat, and checking that Katy and Noelle had snacks, Delphie sat down at a small table in her apartment. She usually took care of the kids after school, but Jill had taken the day off from lingering trial. Jill had offered to take care of the kids. Jill, Katy and Noelle were upstairs playing Barbies. Delphie looked up when she heard Katy’s high pitched squealing giggle. It was nice to have children around again.

She needed to work on her garden plan. Mike would be home this weekend. He and Jacob would make quick work of the early spring bed turn over. Reaching for her companion planting guide, her eyes fell on her Tarot deck. Maybe a few quick family readings would settle her mind.

She started with Jill. She focused her mind on Jill while she shuffled the cards. With her left hand, she split the deck into three piles then put them back together.

She turned over the top card – Lovers. Of course, Jill and Jacob. The figures on the card almost looked like them. Their union was blessed. No matter what happened they would work through it with love.

Turning over the next card, she saw the two of cups. Another card about love. Jill was really happy and in love. Delphie’s mind flashed to Jill and Jacob kissing in the kitchen. They had been cleaning up after dinner. Jacob was handing her dishes. A dish, a kiss. She smiled. They were really cute.

Without thinking, she turned over the next card – The Tower. Delphie gasped. The tower? How could that be true? The tower represented a sudden or catastrophic change. Jill will be blind-sided by a dramatic change.

[...]

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CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

Friday morning — 8:24 A.M.

Sandy stood inside the doorway to admiring her salon. One wall was painted a burnt orange color similar to a Colorado sunrises. There were four stations set up along the exposed brick side of the studio. A changing room and a bathroom created the barrier between the open space and three sinks in the back. Under the counter in the back, Jacob had set up a front loading washer and dryer. There were even two small offices upstairs and a basement room that ran the length of the small storefront. The space was well laid out, clean and beautiful.

Of course.

Jill had used money from a foundation Celia set up. The foundation’s mission is to help women get started in business. Jill took the reins around the first of the year and Sandy was their first recipient. The foundation also loaned her money at a low interest rate. With the loan, she received a bevy of financial advisors, mostly Lipson Construction employees. Tres Sierra was going to help her set up her finances on QuickBooks. Sam gave her a template for her business plan and would review it when she was ready.

Jacob offered to sell her the storefront but, in her first decision as a business owner, she said she’d rather rent. For now. When the business was successful, she would look at buying the space.  Plus it looked like the Feds were going to hang onto the money from her father’s house. She didn’t want more debt than absolutely had to have. Jacob set up a reasonable rent which she could easily afford.

[...]

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“Love and happiness remind me of sticky peanut butter.
When you spread them around,
you can’t help but end up getting some on yourself!”
— Marcia Jordan

Happy Sunday!

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CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

Thursday — 1:05 P.M.
Denver County Court Building

Jill moved across the court room to retake her seat in the witness box. She had been on the stand since they showed the horrible videos of Honey’s attack. Jacob and her mom, Anjelika, had been with her all day. She smiled at them after she sat down.

This morning, the Assistant District Attorney had led her through her testimony. Yes, she found the apartment ransacked. Yes, she threw away the dead cat. Yes, that was her police report. Yes, she had a restraining order against Trevor. They had showed the video of Trevor hitting her just before Honey was attacked. She explained that she was coached to behave as if she wanted him. She believed her little act may have saved her life. Without ever mentioning MJ or his team, Jill talked about Trevor and his wife, the defendant, trying to take Katy and Paddie on that horrible night.

She and Jacob had practiced her testimony for days. She’d hoped to be helpful and unemotional. But when she saw the video of Trevor hitting her then taking her Katy, she broke down. The Judge had to ask for a recess so she could get control of her emotions. It had been such a terrible night. To have to relive it here, in a courtroom, for that woman, was torture. She stumbled through the rest of her testimony until the court finally went into lunch recess.

[...]

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Recap of the Beginning and character summary

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
Wednesday evening

Aden spent most of the day waiting.  After the hearing, he had waited in a holding cell at the courthouse. It wasn’t awful. It wasn’t even all unexpected. He’d simply forgotten what it was like. He’d started the day as a President of a large construction company. Everything he said or did was important.

Now, his time no longer mattered. What he thought no longer mattered. What he said or did no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was his compliance and the passage of time. Some hours later, he was taken to the main Denver Police station.

The policemen who processed him couldn’t have been more polite. Oddly, Aden was a bit of a celebrity. Everyone knew he was the guy who beat up the pedophile and embarrassed the DA. They didn’t make him change or do anything humiliating. Instead, they put him in another large holding cell. A tall Hispanic policeman told him that the DA wanted him moved to DRDC, the diagnostic center, right away. People can wait months to get into DRDC, but Aden would go today.

“Out of sight, out of the voter’s mind,” the police officer had laughed.

The other prisoners gave him wide berth. For the first time in a more than a decade, his senses were inundated with the scent of unwashed human bodies, alcohol detoxing through pores, industrial cleaners, filth, and despair.

How had he ever been used to this life?

Why had this been so normal for him?

[...]

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Have you read Christmas Eve, Denver Cereal’s Special Holiday Edition? Only available until 1/1/10

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CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

Wednesday morning – 10:15 A.M.

Entering the courtroom, Aden looked around to see who was there. Judge Alberts had closed the courtroom to the press. The only people allowed in the courtroom were family members and people associated with the case. Aden expected to see Sandy and the kids, maybe Sam and Jacob, but the sitting area was filled with men and women wearing various uniforms and suits.

Aden flushed. In a breath, he took in the terror on his children’s faces and the blank look in Sandy’s eyes. His impulsive act had placed fear in their hearts and minds. His embarrassment turning to guilt, he smiled to reassure them as he walked by. Noelle waved, Nash nodded and Sandy winked. But nothing changed. His children were terrified and the love of his life had shut down.

He followed Samantha Hargreaves to the defense table. He had just sat down when the bailiff called for everyone to rise. They stood and waited while the judge got situated. Sitting down again, Aden felt the heat of judge’s eyes on him. He felt as if the elderly man eyes bored right into his soul. Aden couldn’t bear to meet his gaze.

“I called this emergency hearing. So if you were wondering who called it, I did,” Judge Alberts said. “I wanted to get all the players together and see what we can work out. Mr. Norsen?”

“Yes, your honor.” Aden jumped to his feet.

[...]

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Recap of  the Beginning and character summary

CHAPTER EIGHTY

Tuesday evening – 7:15 P.M.

Sighing, Honey looked out the window of the SUV.

“Tired?” MJ asked.

He slowed to turn onto Seventeenth Avenue from Race Street. They were making their way to St. Joseph’s Hospital to visit Heather and her new baby.

“Tired? Yeah, I’m tired,” Honey said. “I was just thinking about what the DA said.”

“You’ve said that a couple times, but haven’t told me what he said.”

“I don’t want you to get mad,” Honey said. “Especially since we got invited to see the new baby. That’s a really big deal.”

“To be invited?” MJ asked.

“To be a part of the family,” she said. “Jill said Heather asked for me and wanted the baby to meet Auntie Honey and Uncle MJ.”

MJ placed his large hand over her hand. They smiled at each other.

“I never expected all of this,” Honey said.

“I never expected they would name the baby Mack,” MJ laughed.

“Samuel Mack Lipson,” Honey said. “They wanted to name him after Dad, since he and Celia saved Blane. The Mack was pretty obvious since he was born at the store. Six pounds, ten ounces. Jill said they are over the moon with Mack.  Blane hasn’t wanted to even set him down.”

MJ pulled into the parking structure. Lost in their own thoughts, they were silent until MJ found a parking spot. After putting the SUV in park and shutting off the car, he turned to her.

“I’d like to know what the DA said.”

“Ann… You remember who that is?”

“The Assistant DA who is prosecuting the case,” MJ said.

“Right. She said they went back to the judge’s chambers and the judge was mad. She thinks my sister’s lawyer, Mr. Blanchard, is trying for a mistrial.”

“Why?”

“Because she said I was ‘cute as a button’ and ‘adorable.’ The judge wanted to know what the defense had planned since I ‘blew his abuse defense out of the water.’”

“What did he say?”

[...]

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CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

Tuesday early morning — 4:20 A.M.

“Slow down. Slow down,” Sandy whispered into the telephone.  “I don’t understand what you’re saying. What happened?”

“It’s your father, Sandy,” Seth yelled over the siren of his squad car. She could hear the engine of his car rev as he drove.

“What is it?” Next to her, Aden sat up in bed. “What happened?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry,” Sandy said. “You have a half hour. Go back to sleep.”

Carrying her cell phone, she got out of bed and went out to the living room of the apartment they were staying in.

“What is going on?” she asked Seth again.

“Your father was transferred to county last night. No one’s sure if he killed himself or if someone did it for him,” Seth said. “The Feds are freaked out. Everything’s up in the air. Someone should be there to get you.”

There was a tap on the apartment front door. Sandy went to answer the door. MJ stood outside. She held the door for him to enter.

“MJ’s here,” Sandy said.

“Is that O’Malley?” MJ asked.

Sandy nodded.

“Great. I’ll call you from the jail,” Seth said. “Do not go anywhere without someone you know.”

“Someone I know?” Sandy asked.

“The Feds put out the word that this a contract hit out of China. Sandy, if it’s true, you’ll be the next target.”

Sandy dropped to the couch.

“I’ll be in touch,” Seth hung up the phone.

“What do you know?” Sandy asked MJ.

[...]

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