VENTURES: She Should Have Took the Money

YESTERDAY-

"I talked your offer over with my client and uh 40 million is just not enough....She has lowered her offer though." said Millicent.

"Oh?" said Olivia.

"Yes...She wants 65 million and the stock options....She'll let them have the company...." said Millicent.

"You can't be serious... 65 million is not on the table at all...We told you that!" said Beverly...

''And Mr. East and I met with Mr. Zelinsky yesterday...Stock Options aren't on the table either..His offer is 32.5 million and she goes away and that is it. We are sorry." said Josie.

Michelle Harris rose up out of the chamber...

She laughed loudly...

"Do any of you realize how much the Harris Group is worth? They have offices here in Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and Los Angelas.. Last I heard , they are worth at least 9 Billion.....BILLION!!!!!! My husband gave me a prenup that was worth 16 million, a drop in the bucket... and this man...this man who vowed in a church to love and honor me tried to kill me...That first stab wound just missed my heart by inches...I'm lucky to be alive...That second stab wound just missed my liver and the third one just missed my femur....He tried to kill me.. I was lucky enough to grab his gun off of his desk and kill him before he would have killed me...For my pain and suffering and for the pain of being married to that horny old goat, who demanded sex three and four times a day from me for four years...I deserve more... These negotiations are closed.. I want 65 million, clear and a controlling interest in the Harris Group... If you don't like it, TAKE ME TO COURT!!! I'LL ASK FOR EVEN MORE!" she said.

We called her bluff!

She's been arrested and charged with First Degree Murder. She Should have took the money!

TODAY-

At our office/duplex-

I was chairing a meeting of the newly minted Special Prosecutor, My wife, Olivia Bennett-Alexander and her staff.

"She's Lying! Michelle Harris is Lying about everything!" I said..

Olivia, Beverly, Nelson, Josie, Bresha and Jazzy listened to me intently...

"I've been a cop, A Homicide Detective for many years and I can pretty much tell when somebody is lying..I watched her...I've been watching Michelle Harris...Her body language...her tone of voice...everything this entire time..... First off, her injuries are not nearly as life threatening as she has tried to make out..

Bresha got me the medical reports.... Every knife thrust missed a vital organ...They're all clean..no jagged edges, the way you'd normally see in a knife fight...and the autopsy report... All of the shots are precise...two to the heart and one center mast to the chest....

Did you know she was in the Army at one time and was a marksman? She taught school...I know she was teaching Chemistry at the time she got married, but she taught Anatomy prior to that and was a Medic when she was in the Army....

Her delivery yesterday and everyday we've seen her was cold and calculated...like she scripted it..Like she'd been contemplating this for a long time....and when Lt. Tragg and I went to arrest her..She was not in that Hyperbolic chamber.. she and Millicent Caldwell were both sitting in chairs, drinking cokes and chatting.. Apparently she has recovered from her wounds....That little performance yesterday was just that, a performance..." I said.

"Ouuuuu Donnie Ray, if you can get me a little more evidence, I will take her apart like a surgeon.."said Jazmine Lee Coley....once an Assistant District Attorney. This was why Olivia hired her as a consultant.

"Jasmine Lee Jenkins-Coley, listen at you....That's the Jazzy we know and love isn't it Auntay?" laughed Beverly, who with her cousin Kayla

had known Jazzy all through High school, through College and Law School..She hugged her friend..

''She's a sweetie pie...That's my sweet Jazzy." said Olivia, hugging her. Olivia was her first boss...At The Public Defender's office...She understood her in a way that no one else ever did and she taught her and nurtured her and at the same time built her self confidence up...

Jazzy loved Olivia and thought of her as her Big Sister/Auntie...She was getting paid for her help, but she would have helped us for free...She loved living near Olivia, Beverly and Kayla and working with all of them.

Bresha idolized her and copied her style in court....

"Her Army Background, Her knowledge of Anatomy...These medical reports which show her wounds were far from life threatening is a good start..What else do we have?" asked Nelson..

"The Most important thing....The Knife..has her blood on it...but no fingerprints...His prints aren't on the knife... and the gun she shot him with in self defense that just happened to be laying on his desk...Doesn't have HER fingerprints on it...Don't you find that odd?" I asked.

"Sure Do!" said Josie...

"I'm going over that office again with a fine tooth comb... Shortcake.. I want you and Jazzy with me." I said.

''Ouuu this sounds like fun." said Beverly.

''I'm there." said Jazzy.

''My husband is in his element now." said Olivia.

"I'm glad he's on our side.."laughed Nelson.

"Me too!" laughed Josie..

"Ditto that!" laughed Bresha.

The office of private investigator , Bert Vandenburg-

FBI agents were confiscating files..

Boxes of files.

Several Laptops..

and several Telescopic lensed cameras...

Private Investigator, Bert Vandenburg, a former FBI agent himself was being handcuffed and read his rights...

"You know you can't do this? You know you're wrong! Wrong as two left shoes." he bellowed.

"Oh I can do anything I want... Your days of ruining people's lives are OVER!! OVER!" said an extremely angry Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Dellums.. "I'm pulling your license.. You're done pal..." he said.. He was so angry his hand was shaking.. He wanted to punch his lights out, but he held off.

He composed himself.

II-

Private Investigator, Bert Vandenberg sat in the federal interrogation room...

He was as calm as a cucumber...He put his feet on the table and rared back...

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Dellums walked in...He stared at him for five minutes..Then knocked his feet off the table..

"GET YOUR DAMN FEET OFF MY TABLE!" he snarled.

Bert Vandenberg was as cool as a cucumber...He didn't blink. He just stared at U.S. Attorney Todd Dellums.

Todd tossed two devices on the table.

A Micro Listening device and a Micro video camera..

"I found these in the bedroom of a certain attorney friend of mine from New York...These are government grade...These are yours!!" he snarled..

Bert looked at both of the devices... He laughed.

'' Really? Do you know how many Private Investigators use these? You can order these on line!" he laughed. He knew there were no serial numbers on them and just no way to trace them...He knew his fingerprints and DNA evidence was not on the devices at all..

"These are government grade....Used by Federal Agents... YOU USED TO BE FBI!" snarled a furious Todd Dellums.

"So did a lot of people...and you ought to know that this little shakedown aint gonna work with me...I did it myself to several suspects for years.. a lot better than you're doing!" said Bert.

''Who ya workin for? Lt. Tragg aren't you?"asked Todd.

Bert stared at him... He didn't have to tell him who his client was..and Todd didn't have a shred of proof that he had bugged the room.. Actually, he hadn't bugged the room personally, two of his operatives had and they wore latex gloves.. Todd Dellums had nothing. He wasn't on the hotel video or any street cam footage. He had NOTHING! He couldn't pull his license because he had nothing to charge him with,. And as of yet, He had not been charged with anything,.

He looked at his watch.... He had made his phone call to his attorneys an hour ago.. They should be here soon.

"Todd, you know you can't do this." said Attorney Beatrice Jones softly...who appeared in the doorway just then...

She had been his first love...She was the one who got away...Now she was married and a successful attorney in her own right. Damn that Bert Vandenberg, calling her!! He thought.

Sofia Garcia-Ahmed, her husband ,Kahlil Ahmed and Beatrice's husband, Keith Jones were in the doorway behind her..

He did not like seeing them... They had seen Natasha dump Ice cream and Hot chocolate on him, they had seen the video of his sexual tryst with Attorney Millicent Caldwell and they probably ascertained that he suspected Private Investigator Bert Vandenberg as the culprit responsible for the bugging.

Their boss , Yvette Jones -Lockwood appeared suddenly..

"What's he being charged with Todd?" she asked.

Todd was as red as a beat... He was livid.. He didn't have a charge....He said nothing..

"You've had him here for four hours...You have to charge him or let him go." said Bee Bee softly.

Todd angrilly opened the door motioning that he could go... He was livid!!!

"I want my things returned to my office." said Bert..

FBI Agents

returned boxes of his files , his laptops and his cameras... They didn't have time to look at any of it...They loaded his stuff up into a van...

Bert looked at Todd and smirked..but said nothing. His P.I. License was safe. This had been a great waste of his time.

Yvette, Kahlil, Sofia, Keith and Bee Bee left with him...

Jade was waiting outside in her SUV...

The six of them piled in and pulled off..

Todd threw a temper tantrum, He kicked the table over, he tossed chairs and he jumped up and down like a spoiled child, which he partly was... FBI agents shook their heads and just walked away, leaving him to his tantrum...They all thought of him as a spoiled brat with a Harvard Law degree anyway... Most of them hated him.

He was as unhinged as Lt. Tragg and right now ,even worse!!!

At our Office/Duplex..Olivia, Nelson and Jazzy were in the media room looking at the jury pool and deciding what kind of juror we wanted..

"We want smart jurors...Young, Urban, Social Media Savy jurors." said Olivia.

"People who understand money..Big money." said Nelson.

Jazzy was amazed by the whole set up and how they operated..

"This is amazing...Trial science.. I remember Nelson used to do these breakdowns for you, me and Bev at the Public Defenders office..but never like this, with this much detail.."said Jazzy..

"We didn't have Donnie Ray or this kind of equipment.." said Nelson...

"Liv, next time I have a big case, you've got to let me come over here and use this..I'll pay you."said Jazzy.

"Girl if you don't stop ,I'm going to hurt you....You know that all of this is free of charge, You ,Kayla, Jessie,Chip, Ray, Dabnis...Anytime you need any assistance like this.. My door is open, free of charge."said Olivia.

Jazzy showed rare emotion...She began to tear up..

"I love you Liv, I know you're Beverly's aunt and Kayla's cousin...but I've always felt like you were my auntie/Big sister too!" she said.

"Awwww, you'll always be my sweet Jazzy." said Olivia, hugging her..

Nelson was amazed... This was not the Jazmine Lee Jenkins he knew back then...Super confident, almost to the point of arrogance..Unemotional, aloof... He was seeing a softer, gentler side of Jazzy..

Beverly had always told him and Olivia that it was all an act, the aloofness, the unemotional attachment, the super confidence.. She and Kayla

had known Jazzy since the 10th grade...They knew all about her...How her older brother was murdered , how she was ashamed of growing up in the projects and wanted to better herself...They had seen her sensitive,emotional side.. They knew her.

Like I said, Olivia, Jazzy and Nelson were busy in the media room looking at profiles for potential jurors.

I had thoroughly checked out and done breakdowns on each member of the jury pool ahead of time.

In the law library, Beverly, Josie and Bresha were busy doing research, Predicates, Cases and laws pretaining to this case,,

"This is the boring ,unseen but necessary work a lawyer has to do to be prepared for a case." Beverly said, sounding like her aunt...and remembering doing this research with her aunt and Nelson and Jazzy as a Public Defender..

"Liv said you can never be too prepared... Preparation is what wins cases, not a lawyers reputation or age or how many cases she or he has won prior to a case.." said Josie, also echoing one of Olivia's lessons.

''The only case that matters is the one you are trying right now...Not the ones the other lawyer has tried in the past." said Bresha, also echoing another Olivia lesson.. She had trained them all well.

In the afternoon, Olivia , Beverly, Nelson, Josie ,Bresha and Jazzy sat down and discussed the narrative

they planned to use during the trial.

Jazzy helped us defense attorneys attack the trial from a prosecutors perspective...Something new to the five of us.

III-

Against their better judgement they decided to go to Curley's for drinks... We found a big table that seated the ten of us.....

"Ready for trial guys?" asked Olivia.

''Sure am...Beverly, I knew how busy you and Jazzy were so I went to that office myself.. Found something very interesting there...Let's just say, I'm glad we aren't the defense in this case." I said.

"Yeah this does feel weird...being a Special Prosecutor...Actually trying to put somebody in jail.."said Beverly.

''She should have taken the money." said Nelson.

''I know..The District Attorney didn't want to touch it.. and The Harris Group didn't want to push because they didn't want the bad publicity." said Josie..

''Well they touched it now and by using you guys to prosecute this...The stench is off of them...If you lose..They say the company wanted this and brought you guys in themselves as special prosecutors..None of Garcetti's ADA's get stained."said Paris,.

''Yeah and if we win...He and his office get credit for "Getting to the truth." snarled Bresha ,who was appalled by the hypocrisy of it all.

"That's how the game is played babygirl."said her husband, Tony..

"Paris and Tony are both right..."said Jazzy.

"Well, good luck to you guys....I know you're going to win...I said from the beginning, before you guys were even involved that something about Michelle Harris's story was snarky.. and when she started asking for all that money, Well I knew.."said Dabnis.

As our drinks arrived...

Lt. Tragg arrived also... He looked like he was in a good mood.. Naturally, he stopped by our table..

"Wellllll ,evening everyone...How's the investigation coming Donnie Ray, ready to go to trial?" he asked.

''Pretty Much..It's in two days." I said.

"You felt like you were on the job again, didn't you? Liv this will be a change for you huh? Actually trying to put somebody in jail and not keep them from going huh?" laughed Lt. Tragg.

''You know I was just saying that this morning."laughed Olivia.

This was the most cordial exchange between us and him ever..

Brenda Jordan walked in just then...she also stopped by our table..

"Hello Guys...Good Luck in court Friday..." she said and headed to the bar...

"Well enjoy your afternoon guys and gals...Don't stay out too late" he said with a laugh and left us...

''There he goes." said Josie.

"This ought to be good for a laugh."said Beverly..

"Smack! OOOOOUFFF!" said Bresha,

Nelson, Paris, Tony,Jazzy, Dabnis, Josie and Beverly howled with laughter!

''You guys are sooo wrong!" laughed Olivia.

At the bar.

"Her money is no good in here Curley...I'm buying for her tonight." said Lt. Tragg

''Thank you, but you don't have to do that.." said Brenda.. She expected a hand up her skirt any minute..Only he didn't..

Their drinks arrived..

Lt. Tragg talked about the new car he was buying most of the night.. His hands were to themselves...He didn't rub her legs or run his hand up her skirt once..

"I've noticed you've...You've actually been nice tonight...You haven't been handsy...I can't believe it."she said.

''Oh No...That big ape you call a boyfriend was threatening to put me through the glass window...I've had my share of fights..No thanks." he laughed slyly..

"I'm not with him anymore... He's a lousy cheating dog!! I gave him his walking papers days ago."said Brenda..

as two more drinks arrived....

"Could I have a Margarita?" she asked..

"Sure! Anything you want!" he said.

And another drink came up...

They talked for the next TWO HOURS!

They didn't notice us leaving at midnight.

"This was a nice night tonight wasn't it/" said Olivia.

''Yes it was, one of the nicest nights in here." I said.

"I was surprised.." said Beverly.

''The night's not over yet...we just are leaving early."said Nelson,laughing.

"I'm sleepy, too sleepy to worry about it." said Josie.

''Yeah I am too!"said Paris.

Bresha just leaned her head into her husband's chest...

Tony kissed her forehead..

Jazzy leaned into Dabnis..

Dabnis squeezed her tight.

The Mini Bus that brought us was in front of Curley's on time and we all got on the bus and headed home.

Lt. Tragg finally slipped his hand up Brenda's skirt...slowly and rubbed her behind..

To his surprise, she didn't stop him...She let him continue...She smiled..

She leaned over and kissed him passionately in the lips..

"Pay the tab and let's get out of here ." she whispered..

Curley smiled.

"Way to go Artie...No drama..." he said.

Lt. Tragg paid the tab...

He and Brenda left, holding hands...

They wound up in Brenda's condo...

There was a lot of kissing....

and as usual...Lt. Tragg was his handsy self...with his hands deep inside her panties..

gently slipping them down...

"GEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!! VA VA VA VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" he moaned..

Brenda giggled...

He was funny...

They made love on her warm floors...

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...OUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned.. She had to admit, she felt good. She needed a release...

and with her bent over the sink...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU YOU ARE A BEAST!!!

OHHHHH MY GODDDDD!" she screamed..

She moved up and down on him on the side of her bed...

and rode him cowgirl style on top of the bed...

"VA VA VA VOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" he moaned...

They kissed passionately......

and then began to make love in her soft foam bed...for the NEXT EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHH...OHHHHHHHHHHHH GEEEEEEEEEEEZ!" he moaned.

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...OH MYYYY GOODNESSSS...OUUUUU!" she screamed.

He came harder than he could remember cumming and she had a very intense orgasm that left her in tears...

She fell asleep in his arms..

IV-

The Next day was the arraignment.. This was cutting it close with the trial just a day away..

Michelle Harris was there with her Attorney, Millicent Caldwell....

Olivia sat at the Prosecution table with Beverly, Jazzy, Nelson, Josie and Bresha.

I found myself sitting in the gallery with Lt. Tragg, who really didn't have to be here...He had absolutely nothing to do with the investigation

He was in a very good mood this morning... Surprising, for him...He stared at Millicent, the attorney for the defense.

"Va Va Va Voooooooooooooooooooom! She is a hot little number...No wonder she had Dellums and Lloyd so enthralled ......wowwww..Lucky devils.." he mused to himself..

She saw another attorney with Olivia's team....She was introduced as Jasmine Lee Coley...

She knew nothing about her..She had only a day to find out...

Millicent gave her argument that her client had no criminal record and had taught school prior to being married to Mr. Harris , she had served her country in the United States Army prior to that and was not a flight risk... She was recovering from serious wounds and was in no way a flight risk...

"My client eagerly wants to go to court to fight these outrageous charges and then resume trying to be treated financially fairly." she said.

To her surprise and amazement...We did not fight or oppose Michelle Harris having bail....

Judge Elise Cummings was surprised...but she relented..

"I will release Mrs. Harris, but she must wear an ankle monitoring device until the time of trial.."she said.

''I don't want to wear one of those things..." protested Michelle Harris.

''Don't be a fool.. It's better than being locked up.. I expected to have to battle them over bail...We caught a break today... Now put that ankle bracelet on and let's get out of here.." said Millicent as we all poured out of court..

Olivia didn't want to waste time blocking her bail..We would have enough getting a conviction on the Murder charges... If we got a conviction on murder charges...The Harris Group wouldn't have to pay her a thing..