VENTURES: Hours Of Desperation

30th Street Station- PHILADELPHIA, 4:45 AM

Gary and Ms. Yvette were standing by the Magazine shop kissing passionately....

"You know I love you baby, don't you?" he whispered in Yvette's ears in between passionate kisses..

"Yes I do...If we keep kissing like this Husband...I'm going to have my clothes off and we are going to make a spectacle of ourselves, the likes neither of our careers will be able to withstand.."Yvette joked.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmm. Indeed!" said Gary, still kissing Yvette...

"Oh My Godddd Gary, ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu" said Yvette, still devouring his lips... He knew how to kiss a woman... He had her beyond aroused at this point...

As they continued to kiss...

Some distance away....

My wife, Bee Bee was sitting on my lap with her head lying on my shoulders...

Giving me a kiss every other minute...

"Last night was amazing Hot Stuff, I didn't think you were ever going to stop..." she said and smiled.

I didn't think I was either....

"Okay, break it up lovebirds...Our train will be boarding in ten minutes." said Sofia, smiling...

"We brought some coffee, where is Ms. Yvette?" asked Kahlil..

"Here she comes now." said Jade...

Ms. Yvette was walking over toward us...

She was applying lipstick and had successfully wiped her lipstick off of Gary's face .

We passed her a coffee...

"You guys behave yourselves." said Gary, smiling..

We finished our coffees and began boarding our train..

''You know us Gary...We always misbehave."I joked.

"I'll keep this one in line...Bye Gary." said Bee Bee.

"Byeeee Gary." said Sofia.

''See ya man and thanks for the ride." said Kahlil.. Gary had driven all of us to the train station.

"Byeee Baby!" said Ms. Yvette.

"Byyye Gary." said Ms. Jade..

We boarded the train that was going to take us to the Greene Correctional Facility, Where Pennsylvania's Death Row is housed.

Ms. Virginia had booked us with round trip tickets and had gotten us great seats.. We were all

sitting together...

Ms. Jade and Ms. Yvette in the front seat...

Me and Bee Bee in the seat behind them...

and Sofia and Kahlil in the seat behind us..

We were on our way.......

Philadelphia PA- OUR OLD OFFICE-

7:30 AM..

A Livid Lt. Tragg stood out of our long abandoned old office....It was going on two years since we had departed this office for our new building...He was standing outside our old suite.. The door was locked and the lights were off..

"I'm going to stand right here until they show up....." he snarled angrilly...He was furious Ms. Yvette had filed a motion to stay Rahim Muhammad's execution.

9:45 AM-

"I don't believe this.....None of them are at work...NOT EVEN VIRGINIA SHAW????? INCREDIBLE!!!" he bellowed.

We were out of town and Virginia was miles away in our new office in the Bridge Building..

Her husband, Judge Jetty Dukes was kissing her passionately, His favorite pastime..

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm all of your colleagues are gone for the day, so Big Daddy came up here to keep you company baby...UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" he moaned.

''Big Daddy came up here because he's horny....Not out of concern for me being lonely...."said Virginia , continuing to kiss Jetty.. Jetty had been determined to get her in bed, going back years before... He was enthralled by her when she had tried a case in his court and made no secret of the fact that he was attracted to her...She never in a million years thought that she'd be married to him, but she was...did Wonders ever cease...

It was quiet today....They had been kissing for quite awhile now... The phones weren't ringing and no one was around...but she knew she couldn't keep kissing him... She eased out of his embrace..

"Okay....ouuuuuuuuuuuuu you gotta go now...Doesn't Karen have some work for you to do?" asked Virginia smiling...

"Not today...I just want to work on your caseload... LAWDDDDDD!" he said.

Virginia laughed... "I think you've worked on my uh "caseload" enough..." she said...easing out of his embrace..

SAM MOTHERS DINER- 10:00 AM

Lt. Tragg sat in Sam Mother's Diner...

He looked around ...No sign of Yvette and her snot nosed kids, Olivia, Beverly and that bunch or any of the attorneys he regularly bullied...They'd had their season in here and had obviously found elsewhere to go.

II-

We got off the train and rented a car and drove straight to the Prison.... Our ID and paperwork was in order and they let us in..

"It's Quiet....Deathly quiet...." said Yvette as we walked the row... All of the prisoners were condemned to die...It was nothing to be merry or loud about...Much of them were quiet , in deep thought...about their lives and their impending death.

"I remember this place..." I said solemnly...A Man had lost his life, a man that was no angel, who had taken a life, but not the life he was convicted of and put to death for...I thought I could have done more, I thought I might have missed something.

Bee Bee held my hand and rubbed it softly...

"That was different...This is different...It's not on you." she whispered to me softly...

Kahlil and Sofia said nothing...They walked closely behind us...Holding Hands..

''Ms. Yvette, you ever try a death penalty case before?" asked Jade.

"Yes, three... I won two and lost one....The one you lose never feels quite right... every now and then I think about that one I lost...but not to the extent that it keeps me up at night... We are going to try, we are going to try like hell, Not to lose this one." said Ms. Yvette.

They took us to the visiting room , They brought Rahim Muhammad in...He was a hulking man of six foot , four, His hair was cornrolled and he had a neatly cut beard... He wore the white jumpsuit that condemned prisoners always wore.. He was locked up for 22 hours a day, and allowed out to shower and exercise for two hours...I didn't know how he could stand it myself..

He looked at us... He didn't know us from Adam...He had only heard that some new Lawyers from Philly had stayed his execution...

''Who are you?" he asked.

''We are Attorneys from Philadelphia. We have taken over your case and we will be representing you now.. Your former Attorney, Mr. Stewart James got us to take over the case...We think we have a shot at not only getting your conviction tossed out, but of getting you out of here and getting you money for your troubles.. I'm Mrs. Yvette Jones-Lockwood, the Lead Attorney on the case and these are the attorneys who will be assisting me..

Attorney Keith Jones...

"Pleased to meet you." I said.

His wife, Attorney Beatrice Evans-Jones

''Hello Rahim." she said.

Attorney Sofia Garcia-Ahmed...

"Hola Rahim." she said..

Her Husband, Attorney Kahlil Ahmed..

"What's Up Man?" he said..

And Our Investigator...Jade Lee Ho... " said Ms. Yvette.

"Hello Rahim." she said.

"No disrespect...but I've been in Hell for 12 years...Mr. James tried as hard as he could...He won me a second trial and he still lost...He appealed this thing in State Appellate courts 4 times and they wouldn't even listen to him..finally after he went to the State Supreme Court and lost....I just told him thank you and to let it go...I've pretty much accepted my fate...I'm ready to go...Anything is better than living like this, caged like an animal, little to no human contact...My children write me from time to time, The woman I was going to marry, got married to someone else..She wrote to me for awhile, then she just stopped.. I don't have much to hope for...Don't get my hopes up again...Leave this alone..." he said.

''Wait, we have what lawyers call exculpatory evidence, new evidence that might help you...For one thing, One of the Homicide Detectives who arrested you and charged you...Dominick Evans is himself serving a life sentence for murdering the very Assistant District Attorney who tried and convicted you both times...I believe he is in Stanga State Prison in protective custody... Since he's been incarcerated..16 men, who he arrested and got sent up have had their convictions overturned and tossed out and been released because of mistakes he made, witness intimidation, with holding evidence and a whole slew of other things.." said Ms. Yvette.

"The Murder weapon, The Huge Blade found in the woman's chest, only had your partial fingerprint on it..It was from your catering business...but there was another set of prints on it that were never identified and that knowledge was kept from the jury in both trials..."I said.

"The panties and bra found in your house were either brand new or they were washed... There was no semen, no sweat, no nothing in them....If she had spent the night with you as was stated...There would be DNA from sweat, semen, saliva or something..There was nothing, as though they were planted...and the fingerprints , the same unidentified prints that were found on the murder weapon were found in your apartment...and it appears the print belongs to a man who had lost two fingers..on his left hand, a pinky and a ring finger..."said Jade.

Former Detective Sgt. Domenick Evans was notorious for hiding evidence from his cases... He has several write ups for doing the same thing in other cases...

And Then Sgt. Tragg...Now a Lieutenant in Homicide was a bully, still is a bully who was written up twice for witness intimidation..." said Sofia.

"They wanted to make a case and they went to any length to make this case.. It was a fellow cop's wife..

A wife who had taken out restraining orders and C& D orders on her husband several times..."said Kahlil.

Rahim breathed in and Breathed out.....

"You got a cigarette?" he asked.

None of us had ever smoked... Ms. Yvette hadn't either...but she taught us to always carry a pack for clients, when visiting them in jails or prison...

"I have KOOLs." she said and passed him a cigarette.

"Hope you don't mind....it's a bad habit...I intend to kick it...hahahahah, yeah, like when right?" he laughed at the irony of his own joke.

''She was a nice lady, a lonely lady...I catered several events for her...She kept herself busy doing Church socials and whatnot...We talked a lot..We were friends...Never lovers...Never that...That woman had never been to my house..I don't think she knew where I lived...but her husband, when he was around didn't like our so called "Cozy relationship." He made a big deal out of the fact that she always used me when she needed catering..She wanted out of that relationship...She had about two or three restraining orders and Cease and Desist orders out on him... He was arrested himself several times for violating the orders...The ADA kept all of that out of the trial and away from the jury..." said Rahim..

"I knew him personally...Nice Guy! I tried a couple of cases against him...He was known to cut a few corners when it suited him...He liked to win.." said Yvette.

Rahim looked at Me, Bee Bee, Sofia and Kahlil....He smiled and shook his head.

"You guys are young...You weren't even out of high school when I went to jail...That's how long I've been up , you done went to high school, college, law school and done got married , while I been up here..WOWWWW! Time has flown... My own sons and my daughter have kids I've never seen in person." he mused.

"You're going to meet them and soon... You're going to be transferred off Death row in a few days to a facility in Philadelphia, to await the results of our hearing.." said Jade..

''Anything would be an improvement over this." said Rahim.

"Oh No Doubt." said Kahlil.

III-

We had rode the train all morning...and then been to the prison...We were famished..We found a diner in town...

We all ordered breakfast...Pancakes, Hash browns, Sausages, Omelettes ,Orange Juice and Coffee..

"He looked hopeful didn't he?" asked Ms. Yvette. She seemed to be needing confirmation...

I smiled at her. "He did." I said..

"Getting transferred to a Holding Facility in Philadelphia will be better for him...His Children can visit him.." said Bee Bee.

"Yeah that will be nice..."said Sofia..

"We've got to locate this Three Fingered man...he could be the key to this whole thing...His prints and DNA was on the murder weapon...The knife.." said Kahlil..

"His prints turn up on that knife and in Rahim's apartment... And a fresh pair of panties and a bra belonging to the dead woman in this man's drawer seems like a plant...

"The panties and the bra have nobody's DNA in them, no semen, no sweat, no nothing....They appear to be clean, like they were randomly taken from a drawer." said Bee Bee.

"Who would have access to her underwear like that? " asked Sofia.

''A Husband would! What do we know about her husband?" asked Yvette.

"He was a Detective....A Detective in Robbery -Homicide...He married money....His wife had a successful business and after she died..He inherited a fat bank roll and promptly retired and moved out on the main line...where he squandered a great deal of the money between high living and bad investments...He lives off of a policeman's pension and what's left of the money...He didn't testify in either trial." said Jade.

''Well we need to talk to him...and sooner rather than later.." I said.

"Yeah...I want to know why he didn't testify and did he know his cop buddies played fast and loose with evidence they knew was damning.." said Kahlil..

"One thing for sure ,neither Domenick Evans or Arthur Tragg is going to help us with that!"said Yvette.

''Speaking of Tragg...I bet he's going nuts right now, trying to find us..."laughed Kahlil...

"Bad enough he doesn't know where we work.. But he won't find us in court, won't see us anywhere near Sam Mothers or Curleys....He's going to be going nuts..." laughed Sofia.

"He's already nuts."laughed Jade.

"It's 2:30...There is a train that leaves for Philly at 3:05....Wanna catch it or wait for the 5:00 PM?" asked Yvette.

"We've got nothing else to do here..Let's catch it." I said.

"Yeah let's catch it!" said Bee Bee.

At 3;09 pm...We were all on a train, headed back to Philadelphia...Our work here done...

IV-

Middleton Law School- Bayside, PA.

Stewart James had just finished one of his lectures and was leaving for the day, when he ran into a familliar face in the parking lot... Lt. Arthur Tragg...

''Well look who it is..Lieutenant Arthur Tragg, Philadelphia Police Department...Proof that Nepotism trumps competance.." said Stewart , laughing ,knowing Lt. Tragg didn't have the educational capacity to understand what he had just said.

"Save the phony compliments bub! Let's talk about a 12 year old closed murder case...A case a jury of 12 decided two times....In 2010 and again in 2012....So you figure the third time is the charm eh? You go and get a young Attorney to handle your wax for you....Hoping she can do what your incompetant ass couldn't do." snarled Lt. Tragg.

"Wow! I might have worded differently, but you're right, for once." snickered Stewart James...

"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy youuuuuuu...Where is Yvette? Neither she nor her snot nosed youngins were in their office..." he snarled.

"You think I have them holed up out here in Bayside?? No chance of that....She is working hard on this case...She filed a motion for a stay of execution that was brilliant.. She had found exculpatory evidence that might get his conviction tossed out...The same evidence I found 12 years ago that I couldn't get a judge to listen to...The same evidence that you and your partner hid and with help from the ADA , who wanted to wrap the case up and be done with it, kept a jury from ever hearing...Yvette and her brilliant young attorneys aren't going to let that happen..That's why I went to her...my former student..I know she'll succeed where I failed.." said Stewart James..

"You old rummy ,look at you, a bitter old washed up mouthpiece....Teaching ,because you can't practice anymore...Hiding behind one of your former students." snarled Lt. Tragg.

"What do you want Arthur? You come out here insulting me and whining and complaining...What did you hope to accomplish?" asked Stewart James..

"I WANT THIS THING SHUT DOWN!DON'T STAY HIS EXECUTION....THIS IS OVER....I'M SURE HE'S READY TO DIE ANYWAY AFTER SPENDING 12 years locked up day in ,day out for 22 hours, 2 hours to shower and exercise on a lonely yard...DON'T TORTURE THIS MAN ANY MORE." said Lt. Tragg.

"Arthur, you don't give a damn about that man...All you care about is one of your old cases being tossed out and the stink it'll throw on your shoes.. You know I knew your father, I knew him quite well and I knew your Uncle Jack.....I thought you might be better than they were...They were the worst two police officers, hell, human beings I ever met...and I see that apple doesn't fall that far from the tree...You aren't much better than they were....but they didn't whine and complain like you do...They were better than you in that respect... This is not going to be shut down , not until we bring that man home to his family. You wasted your time coming out here...Just like you're wasting your time running around Philadelphia looking for Yvette.....When she needs to be seen...She will be..Good Night Arthur and don't come out here again...."said Stewart James...

who got in his car and pulled off..

Leaving Lt. Tragg standing in the parking lot, steaming!

Nightfall...It had been quite a day...

We were all at home...

Bee Bee was wearing a sheer see through Baby doll.....She had just taken a hot shower and walked into our bedroom..

My eyes popped out of my head..

She giggled..

"Oh my goddd..look at you...Are you going to act like this all the time?..WOW!!! That boner is massive." she said and put her hands over her mouth..

"You act like this is the first time you've seen me like this." she said.

"It certainly isn't the first time I've had a boner because of you." I remarked , smiling at her.

"Oh I know..THAT goes back to the first day we met." she said.

It was true.

I pulled her towards me..."Is this something you bought at Bridget's store the other day?" I asked.

"The Panties are...I had this baby doll.. You've seen this before.." she giggled..

I undressed and slipped her panties down and off and took her into my arms and kissed her softly....

"Ohhhhh my godddd, Bee Bee..."I moaned...

"Ummmmmm, ouuuuuuuuuuuu you are so hard....Ouuuuuu, look at youuuu! And so damn BIG! OUUUUUUU!" she exclaimed as she stroked me lightly...

"You like that honey?" she asked softly..

"YESSSSSSSS!" I moaned.

We lie across the bed, kissing and practically slobbering over each other....

Soon we were making love passionately on top of the bed..Not thinking about the days events..

The next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS, all we were thinking about was each other..

The same was next door at Kahlil and Sofia's house..

Sofia and Kahlil were lying across the bed..

Kissing ,fondling and laughing..

He slipped her panties down and off...

"OHHHHHHHH MAMASITA!!!" he moaned...

"OUUUUUUUUUUU PAPI...AYE MIOS DIOS! You are sooo damn hard! OUUUUU!" Sofia moaned as she rode him on the side of the bed until neither one of them could take anymore...

"You've always gotten me hard mamasita." said Kahlil.

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! I KNOWWWWWWWWW!" she cooed.

It was not long

before they too were making sweet love for the next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!

Moaning and cooing..

Gary and Ms. Yvette were way ahead of us..

"Ouu Husband, slide em down....I'm ready!" she cooed.

"OHHHHHHH VETTIE, SO AM I!" Gary moaned, as he slid her panties down..

They had been making sweet love since Ms. Yvette got home for the day...

They had skipped dinner and gone straight to the bedroom..

They had made love early into the morning hours....

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWW YOU ARE MY SWEET GIRRRRRRL" Gary moaned..

Ms. Yvette liked when he called her that...

Enjoying their massive smart bed..

Yvette smiled.The bed was sturdy and very very comfortable...It moved with their every move and was very comfortable and warm..It actually enhanced their lovemaking..