The Mystery of Sylena

MONDAY MORNING- The Bridge Building..

The Cafeteria-

A steaming hot plate of cheese grits with shrimp sat in front of Judge Charlotte Peterson-

"UMMMMMMMMMMM...UMMMMPH! I can't believe a ritsy titsy building like this has such good food in the morning...." she said....

''We were just as surprised as you when we came here to work.."said Natalie. 

"I know I was..."I said.

"We love it....This place is like a five star restaurant..." said Brooke.

"It certainly is better than the Federal Courthouse's Cafeteria, where I work down the street." said Sean.

"When you start working here it always comes as a surprise...What I like is that I get three square meals every day, except on a day when I might have to go to court..." said Jazzy.
 

"I never got three hot meals a day until I started working here....I used to bring my lunch and if I got the time...I'd run into Sam Mother's Diner...but that was it."said Dabnis.

"Same Here....Olivia used to pack me a lunch....and like Dabnis, if I got lucky, I grabbed a meal from Sam Mother's Diner." said Kayla.

"Yeah, Same here." said her husband, Ray.

"We are very fortunate to work in this building...with it's great cafeteria..." said Jessica.

"There is a Gym and a Spa upstairs." said her husband, Chip...

''And an upstairs area where we can eat outside this time of year if we like..." said Karen...

"We have a train station that we catch right outside that takes us all home at night and that brings us here." explained Natalie.

"And uh we only drive if we have to go to court or to the city jail." I said.

"And we car share in that case." said Brooke.

"It's great." said Sean.

"My Husband and I just started working here, we love it." said Zoey....

"Yes.....Riding to and from work on the train, three square meals a day....You can't beat this." said Lem.

"My husband and I just started working here and we feel the same way..."said Renee.

"This is better than anything I could have ever hoped for." said her husband, Tyrell.

"I feel the same way...."said Paris...

 "Even in Cherry Hill where I was surrounded by great eateries...it wasn't like this."said Tony.

"Most of you guys are newlyweds and you get to work in the same building as your spouses and in some cases the same offices...You're all friends and neighbors who hang out anyway....This is great...It's like heaven for you guys..."said Charlotte Peterson. 

 ''When I made partner...I knew I'd be leaving the main building, but I didn't know where...When I heard they bought space in this building, I jumped for joy..I had been here before many times...Had had lunch with Karen...I was overjoyed....Jessica and Chip moved in a few days before we did..."said Yvette.

''This is our safe place, away from Center City.."said Keith Jones.

"Our nice comfortable workspace out of the way..."said Bee Bee.

''We occassionally go in town to shop at lunch....but it's nice to come back here." said Sofia.

"Yeah, real nice." said Kahlil.

"Anywhere these guys are, is home to me." said Jade.

"Same here...when I got hired, mostly everybody you see was already here."said Virginia.

"I was the first one here....I was here a little while before Karen got here...We've watched everybody come in and get situated.."said Jetty.

"I love it...I love it.." laughed Judge Charlotte Peterson...  "Well anytime I want to see you guys...I know where to come." she laughed.

"Well when we finish our meals we can all go to our conference room in our suite and talk."said Karen.

"Yes, thank you for giving me an audience." said Charlotte.

II-

Charlotte loved our suite....

"OH MYYYYYYY!" she said..

And our individual offices as well...

"This is sooo nice..." she said.

"I can't believe the city sprang for this." she laughed..

"They didn't want to.... I won 300 cases by myself ....I would call in outside help,like Yvette and her team, Olivia and her team and the Innocence Project to help me...but I had been begging for staff of my own for years...Finally they sent me staff, Brookie, Natalie and David and got them offices of their own in this suite.."explained Karen...

"Our conference room is this way." I said.

"This is adorable." said Charlotte.

"We like it." said Brooke.

She placed a pitcher of Sweet Ice Tea on the table and glasses for all of us...

''Well We are here...The floor is yours..." said Natalie.

Charlotte got down to cases

She pulled out her case files and she began to weave the story of just what happened to her father on that fateful night three years ago.

Chinatown-THREE YEARS AGO!

"That's it Zito, you're out!"

"Awww Damn man, hit me for 10K....I'm good for it...Come on man, courtesy of the house."said Zito Peterson.

"You owe me thirty large pops.....and I want it now...." said Charlie Graham..

"AWWWW CHARLIE I'm good for it...I'm on a streak...I'm about to turn it around...I need another chip from the house baby." said Zito Peterson...

"You got nothin else Zito...You lost your bar, The management let you continue to work there out of pity so you could pay your debts off... and you're in the hole for 30 large with me..now I want my money and I want it now!." barked Charlie Gallagher.

"NOT IN HERE!! NOT TONIGHT!!" said Eddie Lee, who ran the Casino in the upstairs of his popular restaurant...

"Eddie....baby, you can't duke me any cash up front? I'm on a roll baby...." said Zito Peterson..

''Sorry Zito....You've reached your limit...Go home..."said Eddie Lee. "and YOU!!! Charlie...stay here until he's safely out of sight." he barked.

"You given me orders Eddie?" snarled Charlie.

"Let's Say I AM STRONGLY SUGGESTING IT!" said Eddie Lee..

He knew that Eddie Lee controlled the area with an Iron Hand..He ran a very successful restaurant that was talked about in cooking circles as serving the best Asian Fusion cuisine in the area.   He also controlled all of the gambling in the area and kept drugs and drug dealers out. The police turned their heads to his gambling operation because he kept the neighborhood quiet and safe...but Charlie knew that if angered...Eddie Lee could make him vanish ,never to be seen or heard from again....So he didn't push him..He sat quietly...

2 DAYS LATER-

"African-American man.....70 years old, death by two gunshot wounds...One to the chest and one to the abdomen...." said a CSI man....as another snapped photos of the crime scene...

"From Body Temperature....I'd say he's been dead about six hours....He died anywhere from three to four in the morning." said Dr. Hazel Baylor, Coroner and Forensic Investigator..

"His name is Fred Peterson.....I know this guy...They call him "Zito" He used to own the Atlantic Bar...He's a degenerate gambler...Put his daughter through college and law school and then lost the bar ,gambling....The new management allows him to work there, just so he can pay off his remaining debts...Damn shame, at his age...He should be retired...." said Lt. Tragg....

"Look at this...He has a lipstick kiss on his forehead...

and there is a pair of panties over here on the floor.....Perhaps he had a female guest early this morning...a hooker or a neighborhood girl and he got rolled." said Lt. Tragg.

"Why don't you let us do our autopsy first and then you determine what happened? Everything you're saying is just speculation right now....We are gathering fingerprints and DNA.." said Hazel.

"AND WHY DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT I AM THE HOMICIDE DETECTIVE HERE?...I MAKE THE DAMN CALLS DOCTOR!"said Lt. Tragg.

"If you guys have collected everything...wrap him up and let's get him out of here." said Dr. Hazel Baylor.. She despised Lt. Tragg and hated working cases with him.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO GIVE THE ORDER TO RELEASE THE BODY!" Lt. Tragg snarled.

"Release the body guys and have that autopsy report on my desk, ASAP!" he said.

The body was released.....wrapped in a white body bag and strapped to a gurney and wheeled out, on it way to the morgue.,

"Lt. Tragg was the investigating detective? That explains a lot." said Brooke.

"Yeah, that explains why the wrong person may be sitting in jail." I said.

"Like my bestie said....This explains so much..."said Natalie.

"In all fairness ,Lt. Tragg did do a thorough investigation....He traced my father's movements that night to Chinatown..

and he hauled Eddie Lee down to central booking..

Eddie Lee explained that my dad was losing every hand and that they kept duking him cash until they stopped....He had just paid off his last debt and they didn't want him in any deeper....

He told them he tried to protect him that night from a Gambler/Loan Shark named "Good Time" Eddie

Graham..

He held him back and gave my dad enough time to get out of Chinatown and back to his apartment...

Dad lost our house gambling too...It was his addiction and downfall...

Lt. Tragg had him down to Central Booking too..

Of course Eddie said that after my dad left Eddie Lee's joint he didn't see him again....There was no eyewitnesses to say otherwise and no physical evidence.....He had to let him go......" said Charlotte.

"He was arrested  shortly afterwords for a non-related crime...Nat and I prosecuted him.." said Brooke.

"We sent him up for two years...but now he's out...He's such a scumbag..." said Natalie.

"My dad had a lipstick kiss on his forehead and there was a pair of black lace panties on the floor by the bed.... Lt. Tragg was convinced that a woman named Sylena  Kyle was responsible..His wallet was empty...He assumed she robbed him, but when arrested ,she had less than $150.00 on her. She said that that was her money.

She was my dad's off and on girlfriend....but she swore she hadn't seen him in days....she definitely hadn't kissed him and those panties weren't hers...but no one believed her and she was convicted of second degree murder and robbery.. and is serving 10 years to life.

I don't think she did this...I really don't and the more I looked at the case...The more I was convinced they had the wrong person." said Charlotte.

"I concur...Oh excuse me....I uh thought I could add something to the Sylena Kyle story." said Ms. Virginia from upstairs, who had wandered into our conference room.

"Oh by all means come in." I said.

"You're always welcome here Virginia." said Karen...

"Yes..Sit down, have some Ice Tea." said Natalie.

Brooke pulled up a seat for her and poured her a glass of Ice Tea.

"Thank You! As you know, I was incarcerated for 7 years....and while I was incarcerated, because of my former profession as an Attorney, I acted as somewhat of a jailhouse lawyer....I helped 58 young ladies win their freedom by helping them draft briefs and writs on their behalf and steering them to the right judges and their attorneys to the right appellate courts...I knew Sylena Kyle...She was a lifer like me...Serving the exact same sentence, 10 years to life...I of course had been in 6 years when she came to prison...We talked about her case and I went over aspects of it with her...I believed she was innocent...Here's why...

On the night your father was murdered...Sylena, who had broken up with him a month before was miles away at another bar, Ciros....with another man, Lucas Jackson....He would have testified to that except , he unfortunately died during her trial....Natural causes... Ciros didn't have cameras, the way bars do today and it closed down, again ,during her trial...but the bartender and some of the barmaids are still alive and can testify to seeing her in the bar all night until closing...It was only three years ago...I'm sure they can be found...

Those panties.....They aren't hers...They aren't her size and they were never tested for DNA....and that lipstick kiss...not hers....She hadn't seen the man in two months since they broke up...She definitely didn't sleep with him that night...She was with another man....She didn't get home until four in the morning...Your father was dead by then....

Lastly, the police ballistic report shows the shooter shot from a left handed angle...and was six feet to six foot two...Sylena is right handed and five foot, five inches...." said Virginia.

"Thank you Virginia....All things I was going to bring up.....Did you ever file an appeal for her or help her write a writ?" asked Charlotte..

"I did..I helped her file a writ...She didn't have an attorney and right around that time, I got paroled. I had served seven years...Sylena had just served one year....I felt bad about her...bad that I couldn't help her." said Virginia..

"You may have helped her in a way you never imagined." I said, smiling at her... She was a very attractive woman...Prison had not hardened her at all...She was fortunate...to be paroled and to be given a job as an office manager and consultant for a top law firm afterwords..She hadn't lost her style...She still dressed to the nines...

"Those panties are still part of evidence...We are going to get them tested for DNA..."said Natalie.

"I'm going to call Milt...See if he can find those Barmaids and the Bartender from Ciros, who were there that night."said Brooke.

"It's not much, but it's enough to take to an appellate court, showing new evidence and garner a new trial." said Karen.

''She's at Dolly Madison....I think you should go visit her...I've been to see her twice..Her spirits are high...Me ,being a judge and being the victims daughter, I can't be involved....but I told her I'd get her legal counsel...." said Charlotte..

"ROAD TRIP!" I said, smiling..

"You'd love that wouldn't you?" laughed Natalie...

"To Tell you the truth...I'd love it too!" said Brooke.

Karen smiled.

III-

The Next Day-

Karen still had some friends over at the Police Evidence Lab....She and Natalie traveled there...

They picked up the panties that were in evidence from the case.....and DNA extracted from Sylena by her defense at the time that was never used or tested against the DNA in the panties.

They went to the independent DNA Labortories run by Dr. Goggins, Olivia and Beverly's and Yvette's go to person.

Her lab told us what we needed to know.. The DNA in the panties and Sylena's DNA didn't match....She was telling the truth....They weren't hers.....

Private Investigator, Milt Lewis found the bartender and all of the patrons who were still alive...

Brooke and I interviewed them on video and got signed affadavits from all of them...

We even interviewed one at Valhalla Women's Detention Center...

Our old "friend" Bull Bailey was working there that day....He was stunned to see Brooke without her husband and without Natalie, who he despised....

But with me...

As could be expected....He said next to nothing to me...He had one of his assistants search me...While he searched Brooke himself, all the while trying to make conversation....

Brooke was cordial, but still, she realized we had a job to do....

We got her testimony on video and a signed affadavit.....

All in all it was a successful day!

We made it back to our building...

In time for dinner....

"You guys are miracle workers.....Go visit her tomorrow and I'll have the names of at least three Judges in three different appellate courts you might want to appear in front of.." said Charlotte...

"Charlotte and I will stay here and co-ordinate that.....I already got three round trip train tickets for you guys." said Karen.

"Boss Lady you are nothing if not thorough.." said Brooke with a smile...

"Normally I'd be with you guys....but I'm involved in a court case." said her husband, Sean...

"I'm gonna miss you babe!" said Brooke.

"Well let's grab a seat and enjoy this food." said Natalie.

"Capital Idea." I said..

''Charlotte, you like it around here....I think you're contemplating moving into this building."laughed Jazzy.

"I swear ,I would if I could Jazzy....I love this cafeteria and your office spaces are beautiful.." said Charlotte.

 

"That's because they are all mostly fresh and new." said Jazzy's husband, Dabnis.

''Well you're welcome to hang out with us, anytime you're in the area." said Kayla..

"Yeah like tomorrow." joked her husband, Ray...

Charlotte laughed. "Yeah because after tomorrow I'll be back in court...I gotta case to hear....We are on a few weeks and then off a week or two..." she laughed.

"Back to court huh? A Judges life." said Jessica.

"We haven't been in court in a month." said her husband, Chip..

"Better knock on wood...before you know it a case could be coming up." said  Karen..

''Well tomorrow we're going to jail." sighed Natalie laughing.

"We've been in jail more than our clients." I laughed.

"Sometimes it does seem like that." joked Brooke.

"The Difference is...We get to go home after a few hours."said her husband, Sean.

''Amen to that." said Zoey.

"Yessssss!" said Lem.

''A Lawyers life." laughed Renee.

"The life we chose."laughed Tyrell..

"You two are just drinking sodas...Not hungry?" Charlotte asked Tony and Paris.

"We are eating dinner at Olivia's house with our wives." explained Paris.

''She had dinner almost every night. We stop by there and eat with them and our wives..."explained Tony.

"You guys got a regular little system goin....I love it." said Charlotte. 

 "It works for us...I usually buy and make a plate for my husband....and heat it up for him when he comes home...He appreciates that."said Yvette.

''We go home and chill out >"said Keith.

"Unless we decide to go to the movies or Aqua Bar and Stoleys on any given night."said Bee Bee.

"But it's usually home....We are tired after a hard days work.' said Sofia.

"Like today.Not in court, but a hard working day anyway, getting ready for court."said Kahlil.

"Yes..."agreed Jade.

"I love the system you guys got going on here....The way you hang out And Virginia, thank you for your help yesterday...it was invaluable..I didn't get a chance to thank you."said Charlotte.

"Oh it was nothing...Anything I can do to help a wrongfully convicted young lady get out of jail."said Virginia.

'She's good like that." said her husband Jetty, smiling.

IV-

Tender is the night...

We were at home....

I put my arms around Natalie's waist and held her , rocking her back and forth....

"You know we gotta be up early tomorrow to catch that train.." said Natalie..  "But you don't care, you still want some don't you?" she asked...

"Well, I was kind of uh thinking we could get a little bit of uh ruh action in..." I said.

"Just a little right?" she laughed...

"Just a little" I said softly as she kissed me slowly and softly at first...

"Ummmmmmm, then she kissed me more passionately....

"Ohhhhhhhh yessssss" I said.

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMM...OUUUUUUUU YEAH! " she said.

.She slowly and descretely ran her hands down my boxers, felt my now massive erection and squeezed it a little bit....Her eyes grew wide and she looked at Me...I was packing, she thought.. She smiled broadly...

"OUUUUUUU I'M ABOUT TO GET IT!" she said.

"YES YOU ARE!" I said.

I unhooked her bra and slipped her panties down and off.

I flipped her over and entered her slowly....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.......OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GODDDDDDDDD!" she moaned. She was having an intense orgasm already! Her body trembling/

"OHHHHHHHHH DAVID!!! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU LAWWWD!" she cried out

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW LAWWWWWD!" I moaned...

She wrapped her legs around my waist and put her arms around my neck as I plunged in deeper..

"WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she screamed..

Her head turned from side to side...her whole body trembled fiercely and she began crying like a little girl....She claimed I was the only guy who could make her cry like that...

She was having another intense orgasm...

"WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU LAWWWWD!" she screamed..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!  WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she cooed.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! LAWDDDDDDDDDDD!" I moaned...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYY GODDDDDD!!OUUUUUUUUUUU
WOUUUUUUUUU! DAVIDDDDDDD!" she screamed. Tears flowed down her cheeks!

Her body trembled and she had another quick almost embarrassing orgasm....

FOR THE NEXT EIGHT TO NINE HOURS we made passionate love....no quickie tonight..

She rested on my chest afterword as I caught my breath....

"David!" she said.

"Yes Natalie." I said.

"I love you and thank you for so many orgasms....I feel so damn good...Ouuuuuuuu!" she said...her left foot still trembling...

"You're always welcome Nat.....I love you too!" I said.

She gave me a wet sloppy kiss.. "I know you do." she giggled and dozed off to sleep.

(TO BE CONTINUED)