1987
Tommy sat in the back of the courtroom and watched the proceedings. Grizz had given him one job. He was adamant about it. Tommy had agreed, and so there was never a problem. It was absolutely imperative that Ginny be kept away from the courtroom. He didn’t want her there for any reason.
He and Grizz had been discussing it earlier while on a break. They were alone in one of the conference rooms. It had no windows and no doors. A police officer was stationed right outside as they talked.
“She asks me about the trial every day, Grizz,” he told him. “I have to tell her some things.”
“That’s fine. Tell her some things. But I don’t need to tell you what things I don’t want her to know about.”
“Of course I know that. And I’m doing my best. It’s not easy, though. She’s tried more than once to find someone to take care of Mimi so she can be here. I’ve pleaded with every friend we have to not make themselves available to babysit. I’ve told them it’s for Ginny’s own good that she isn’t here. They’ve all agreed, and she won’t leave Mimi with a stranger, so it hasn’t been a problem. But she does grill me when I get home.”
He sighed. Truth be told, Ginny seeing the parade of crimes that Grizz was being accused of would’ve only helped Tommy. But he’d given up that course of action years ago.
They hadn’t been intimate, but she was lying next to him every night. At least that was progress. He’d started out sleeping in their guest room. He’d been awakened one night by her screams. She had been having a nightmare, and he went to her and held her all night, promising he would be there to hold and protect her while she slept. That was how he’d started sleeping next to her. He never once made an advance or touched her inappropriately. He would wait. Technically he was sleeping with her. But that was all he was doing.
“So how is it going with her?” Grizz asked finally. “Are you sleeping with her?”
Tommy sat upright at the question. This wasn’t an easy subject for Grizz. Tommy could see the vein pulsing in his forehead.
“You know I’m not sleeping with her and you know why.” Grizz didn’t say anything, and Tommy continued, “She’s in love with you. She thinks you’re going to get life and maybe get out on a technicality. She’s waiting for you. She’ll never move on unless you tell her to.”
“I told her to fucking marry someone else,” Grizz growled.
“Yes, you convinced her to marry me so she wouldn’t be alone. So that Mimi would have a father. You convinced her that I love her. That’s good, because I do. But she doesn’t love me.”
“I just want her taken care of until I get this figured out.”
This got Tommy’s attention. He sat up straighter in his chair. “Figure what out? Are you going to beat this rap?”
“No. I don’t think I can beat it, but I can still come up with something.”
“So will you change your plea? Are you thinking of pleading guilty for life with no parole?” Tommy was getting confused and wasn’t sure if he understood Grizz’s motives.
“Doesn’t matter what I’m doing. You don’t need to know. You need to do what you told me you would do when I first got arrested. You need to take care of her. I’ll figure out the rest.”
Tommy couldn’t fathom what there was to figure out. Grizz had been negotiating with the prosecution for two years. Some people, himself included, were left alone. Others, like Blue and Monster, went to trial.
“Your lead attorney, Cary, told her you’d plead guilty if they would give you the death penalty. Why would he tell her that?” Tommy asked.
“Cary can be a fucking idiot sometimes.”
Tommy didn’t believe that Grizz thought that for a second. He was hiding something. Then it dawned on him. Pride. It was pride. There was no way Grizz would rot in a prison cell for the rest of his life. And escape would be impossible. Grizz was too noticeable. He’d never blend in. And what would he do, take Ginny and the baby on the lam with him?
Maybe Grizz really was doing all this out of love. He saw there was no way out and he wanted her to have a life. Maybe that was the reason behind his insistence that Mimi never know he was her biological father. But still, what was there to figure out? Was he going to pull a rabbit out of a hat at the eleventh hour and get off? Tommy wouldn’t be surprised.
Cary peeked in. “Court’s going back in session.”
Twenty minutes later, they were watching as a witness was being interrogated. He was a relatively new gang member, so low on the totem pole Tommy didn’t even recognize him. William Jackson.
“Then what did you witness the defendant doing?” the prosecuting attorney asked him.
“He was walking her to her car and they were talking.”
“Could you hear what they were saying?”
“Just parts. She was saying something about ‘giving him a message,’ and he was telling her to shut up and not to come back to the motel.”
“Did you know who the ‘him’ was that the woman referred to?”
“No, didn’t hear a name. They said some other stuff, but I couldn’t hear it all.”
“Please, continue, Mr. Jackson.”
“It happened so quick I’m not sure if anyone could’ve stopped it.”
“You’re not on trial, Mr. Jackson. You’re just a witness. What happened?”
“He broke her neck.” The man’s voice was low, but there was no mistaking what he’d said. “Real quick like. And then he picked her up and flung her over his shoulder. Signaled for me and a couple of the other guys to get rid of the car. I saw him throw her in the swamp.”
“So, this woman, who nobody can identify, was murdered in cold blood by the defendant and disposed of in the swamp?”
“Yeah, that’s what happened. He broke her neck and dumped her back behind the motel. And we knew who she was. One of the other guys recognized her.”
This caught the prosecutor off-guard. The other two witnesses had long been deceased. They were old members of the gang; one had died of an overdose and the other in a knife fight. The prosecutor didn’t remember his witness identifying this woman in the pretrial interview, but he could’ve been wrong.
“And who was this woman, Mr. Jackson?”
“Don’t know her real name, but Chops said her name was Candy.”
There was a small cry from the back of the courtroom. Everyone turned around. Tommy almost gasped when his eyes met Ginny’s. He looked quickly over at Grizz, who gave him a look that said, “What the fuck is she doing here and you better get her out of here this instant.”
Tommy jumped up and quickly walked toward Ginny. He took her by the arm and gently guided her out of the back of the courtroom. When they were in the hallway, he asked, “Ginny, what are you doing here? Where’s the baby? Who has Mimi?”
She didn’t answer him right away. She was shaking. He led her to a bench in a small alcove, almost hidden from the main hallway. He gave her a minute to compose herself.
“Mrs. Winkle is back from her cruise early. She has Mimi.”
Mrs. Winkle was an elderly neighbor who loved to watch Mimi—and who was supposed to be on a three-month cruise to the Mediterranean. A cruise Tommy had anonymously arranged for her. For some reason, she was back early. It didn’t matter why. The damage was done.
“How long were you there?” He gripped her hands. “How much did you hear?”
“I just walked in and sat down. I heard that attorney say something about a woman that couldn’t be identified was murdered and thrown into the swamp.”
Tommy started to say something when Ginny interrupted him.
“Then I heard the guy say it was Candy. Blue’s old girlfriend.”
This caught Tommy by surprise. “Candy? Did you know Candy?”
“No,” Ginny replied, looking at her lap. “But I heard her one night. I was in the bedroom. Grizz didn’t know I was there. I had Jo drive me home from the beach. I had a bad headache and was trying to sleep it off. Anyway, Jo drove my car home. Grizz wouldn’t have known that I was there. I woke up to them arguing. I guess she wanted to see Blue to apologize for all the bad stuff that had happened. She didn’t say what it was, just that she was sorry. Grizz didn’t want her to see him. Said that just because she’d cleaned up her act didn’t give her the right to insinuate herself back in his life.”
Tommy frowned. “Grizz said she was Blue’s ex-girlfriend?”
“Not exactly. I assumed it because he’d told me once about her, but didn’t tell me her name. I can’t believe he killed her. Would he really kill her just to keep her from seeing Blue? Oh, Tommy, this is a nightmare. This is just so awful.”
**********
Just then, one of Carter’s horses whinnied and interrupted the story Tommy had been telling Ginny. It was almost time to start round two of the care that all of Carter’s animals required.
“I remember that day, Tommy. It was the first and last time I was in the courtroom. But I don’t see what it has to do with Grizz being your father.”
Tommy sighed and, without looking at her, said softly, “Candy was my mother.”