Carmen felt the chill running though her when Marcus kissed her hand. “Thank you, Mr. Douglas; it's nice to meet you.” She looked Marcus in the eye. He hired a good looking brother to defend him. A good looking brother, with no ring on his finger, Carmen thought.
Marcus smiled as politely as he should, trying to contain his excitement. He extended his hand toward one of the chairs facing his desk. “Please Ms. Taylor, have a seat.”
“Thank you Mr. Douglas.”
“First let me apologize for not following up with you to let you know that your deposition was no longer necessary.”
“To be honest, it would have been nice if you had. I traveled a long way to get here to be told, not only that my deposition wasn't necessary, but that the trial is over.”
“Yes, well, Ms. Taylor the judge moved the trial date and things moved a lot faster than anyone could imagine with a case like this. But, once again, Ms. Taylor I am very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. Now that that's out of the way, tell me what I can do for you?”
“I'm not exactly sure what you can do for me, Mr. Douglas. But what I want is for somebody to account for my sister’s murder.”
“I'm sure that you know that Roland Ferguson was found not guilty of the charges.
“Found not guilty thanks to your brilliant defense, from what I'm told.”
“I just did my job, Ms. Taylor.”
“Yes, Mr. Douglas, I'm sure that you were. But that doesn't change what I want. Mr. Douglas I've been to see the assistant district attorney and the detective assigned to the case.”
“Ms. Izella Hawkins and Detective Paul Benjamin.”
“Right, and both of them assured me that the case isn't closed and they would do everything in their power to see to it that the guilty party is brought to justice.”
“That sound like Izella.”
“Exactly, she even turned it into a photo opportunity. She had cameramen and a film crew waiting outside the office for me when I came out. They got that her little 'we'll get him' speech on film.”
“That sound like Izella, too. She's planning a run for DA. It will probably on the news at six and eleven.”
“I'm sure.”
“What about Benjamin? What did he have to say for himself?”
“Not much. Pretty much the same thing, he said he had some leads he was gonna follow up on, but there wasn't too much they could do.”
“He's right. If they arrested somebody else now for the murder his lawyer would take the outcome of this trial and build his defense around it. Benjamin would have to take the stand and answer how the investigation led him to arrest and try Ferguson for a murder he was found not guilty of. Then how could that investigation lead him to another conclusion. It would damage his credibility as a witness and make the prosecution’s case that much harder to prove. It's possible that they might pursue that option, but it's not very likely.”
“My father said the same thing. Not in as much detail, but the same thing. I asked him how this could happen. He said they had the killer, but you let him walk.”
“I'm just a defense attorney, Ms. Taylor. It was a jury of his peers that found him not guilty.”
“I understand that Mr. Douglas. It doesn't change anything.”
“I don't understand what you want from me, Ms. Taylor.”
“A little bit of justice for my sister, Mr. Douglas. That's what I'm asking for. If Roland didn't kill her, fine. Somebody did! What bothers me is that nobody is interested in finding out who did.”
Marcus looked at Carmen; He could see the pain in her eyes. He wanted to do something to help her, but knowing that there wasn't. “There's nothing I can do for you, Ms. Taylor.”
Carmen looked angrily and then turned away from Marcus. “I understand Mr. Douglas. But I assure you that I'm gonna do whatever it takes to find out who killed her.”
“I understand.”
“Do you Mr. Douglas? Do you really? Have you ever lost somebody you loved and you just wanted to know what happened and why?”
Now why she wanna go and say that? Marcus thought.