Chapter 22
Hazel
Crap! The exhaustionfrom working crazy hours has set in, and it's six o'clock. I slept right past my alarm and need to arrive at the office early. We are coming up on the wire of being able to obtain all the documentation for the hearing in front of the judge to have the case overturned, so the team is working nonstop. I pray we can get this finished before I have to leave to go to Jake's game tonight.
I hit the ground running, throwing on a black pencil skirt, white blouse, and black pumps before throwing my hair in an up-do bun since I don't have time to do anything with it. It's an early day to get a head start on finishing all the documentation for the high profile case. It's going to require my teams undivided attention today since he goes in front of a judge in two days. All of the evidence and documentation needs to be fool proof to give him the best chance at getting out.
After putting on the finishing touches, my feet scuffle down the staircase, and then into the kitchen to brew some coffee to take with me. While waiting on that, I go into the living room to put everything back into my brief case, before the coffeemaker beeps. I pour it into my to-go mug and make a beeline for the front door. I'm lucky because it's only six-thirty, so I will be able to miss all of the school morning rush traffic. The roads are empty and I make it to the office in less than five minutes.
Stepping out of my car, I see Jayden heading for the front door, and walk fast to catch up to him.
"Hey, you think we can get this all done today?" I ask.
"I'll update you hourly on the team's progress. This might keep some butts into gear to work faster. The partners are breathing down our necks to dig up anything we can to use in this hearing. I can't be the only one that feels like it's up to me to get this guy out after looking at his past cases."
Jayden and I have been working for the firm for almost the same amount of time, and this could be drudging up things from his personal life. His grandfather was prosecuted for a murder, and was sentenced to life without parole. At the time of his sentencing, he was already in his sixties, and instead of spending his final years with his family, he died in prison. A couple years after his death, evidence came forward that proved he did not commit the crime, and someone else ended up being put on trial and convicted. So, this case might hit close to home.
"Listen, if you need to step back from this. Everyone will understand," I say, as we step into the elevator.
"Hell no. If anything it makes me work harder to prove he's innocent. My pops wouldn't want me to sit by while another man rots in prison for a crime he didn't commit."
As the elevator door opens to our floor, we smile, and part our separate ways. The team working on this case with me is dedicated and most are trying to prove their worth to the partners, so none of them want to fuck up, especially on this case. The whole world is watching, and waiting to see if the firm is able to overturn the conviction, and I can't wait to see their faces when we do. The people who testified against him, spilling bullshit testimony to have their sentences lessened, or the racist hypocrites who didn't actually see him anywhere near the store, but assumed he did it. They are all going to see that justice will be served for our client.
Jayden keeps his promise and every hour, he comes into my office and gives me an update on the progress of the team with a folder of the things they completed documentation on. It makes things flow smoothly, and that gives me something to turn into the partners to keep them updated on our progress as well. Josh, Adam, and Linda have been working all day on the most effective strategy, since they have such a short amount of time to plead their case. When I turn in a folder, they choose two things that are the best to use. At the end of the day, they will go through the ones picked, and then weed it down to the top six.
Linda has been emailing me throughout the day asking me my opinions on some of the stances they could take, and which ones I would choose to use if I was the one in the court room fighting for his freedom. Honestly, the fact that he has been accused of jury tampering, purposefully striking black jurors without proper excuse, and the fact that in the prosecutor's notes, it shows the police questioned several people before our client, and a fingerprint from the scene matched one, but still let them go and arrested our client. This is enough for reasonable doubt, and using all of these things together should be able to open the judge’s eyes to see that the prosecutor isn't doing what's right by the law, but using his power as a prosecutor to fulfill his personal agendas. Although this proved to be a problem back in the eighties and many cases have been overturned because of racial bias. The thing that hurts my heart the most is many of those that could have gotten out died in prison before times changed. If only I was practicing law in the eighties, then maybe I could've made a bigger difference.
It's almost five and I'll have to leave soon, and Jayden has informed me that the team is almost done going through all of the documents and he should be able to turn in the last section before I leave. Linda has been staying on top of it all day, and I can't leave until turning the final file is in to the partners. I go ahead and change into jeans, a t-shirt and some converses and wait for Jayden to turn it in. I've caught up on all my emails and low and behold five minutes before I need to leave, he walks in and hands me the final folder.
"We did it. Go hand it in and enjoy the game. The rest of us are going out for drinks."
I run upstairs, hand it to Linda, and then rush to the ground floor to pick up Aiden. Halting in the driveway, Aiden runs outside and jumps in, not skipping a beat, because we don't want to be late. They have been nice enough to invite us to this and don't want them to think we don't care. I go the back way to miss all the traffic and make it with five-minutes to spare. When we arrive inside the gym, we find the Kaser's and take a seat.
"He's number eleven," Veronica says, pointing him out to us.
The game starts and at first, we don't do anything but watch, but by the last quarter, Aiden is standing up cheering him on. They are tied, and there's only fifteen seconds left and our son has the ball. He looks over at Aiden, smiles, and shoots the ball without even looking, and score! The team goes wild, and the parents rush onto the court to congratulate their kids. These are the things we would never want to miss; sharing in his victories, and helping him in his defeats.
Aiden picks up him and swings him around. "You did it, son!"
The Kaser's seems a little shocked by him calling Jake son, but what do you expect? That's our son, too. Jake didn't seem bothered by it and when his feet hit the ground, he enveloped Aiden into a hug. "Thanks for coming. You must be my good luck charm."
Veronica and her husband embrace him, and congratulate him. "Looks like celebrating is in order. Where do you wanna go, sweetie?"
"Pizza!"
Aiden and I step back and thank them for allowing us to come watch, but then Veronica asks us to join them. We didn't want to impose, but not going to turn down the option to spend more time with him. So, we tag along and meet them at the local pizza place. It's a buffet style, and Jake loads his plate up with six different kinds of pizza. I laugh because that was me at his age too.
The evening goes great, finding out more about Jake. He asks many questions about us; like what we do, and if we would like to continue coming to his games. "We wouldn't miss it."
This is the beginning of a great relationship between the three of us and it means so much for him to ask us to continue coming. The Kaser's might not trust us fully yet, but hopefully that will change over the next couple of years. All we want is to be part of his life, so he knows we didn't just abandon him.
On the ride home, Aiden wouldn't stop talking about Jake, and how he is so much like him. He would have made a great father, and it hurts to know I will never be able to give him another kid of his own. Yet, he knows this, and continues to be with me, and loves me unconditionally.
Sometimes love can conquer all.