Let's just be safe and say I own nothing in the following pages. Not even the words, I think. Webster does, or whoever writes the Dictionary.
6
When school let out and the work day was over Rose and Blessing were called in for a chat at the Plaza. They sat together in the interrogation room, holding hands as their lawyer went over their story before the detectives came in. "I think I'd better take this one," said Goren, watching them carefully.
"Of course you do," said Eames. "Be careful."
"Of what?" He felt that with the evidence they'd gathered since the warrant to search the women's apartment, he was invincible.
She sent him a look. "Anyway," he continued. "Look at their reactions—their postures, the way they look around the room, keep staring at the mirror and watching the door."
"Rose seems nervous and confused, but look at Blessing."
"Like a lioness defending her cub." Eames nodded. Goren finished. "I don't think Rose had anything to do with this."
"Sexual favors can still be traded between two people."
He nodded. "We'll see."
Eames began to worry Goren had forgotten how to have normal sex. Carver came in, followed by Mercy. "Hope I'm not interrupting," she said, closing the door behind her. "I wanted to catch the show."
"Not at all," said Deakins. "Make yourself comfortable."
"Ready?" Goren asked no one in particular. Everyone nodded and watched his broad back retreat out the door, leaning in closer when he appeared again before them in the cell-like room. "Good afternoon, ladies," he said cordially.
"Hello, Detective Goren," said Blessing. "Where is the lady detective?"
"She's on another case," he said. "And you two can call me Robert if you like."
"This ought to be good," said Alex, crossing her muscular arms. Mercy chuckled. It wasn't a new tactic, using his sexuality to get the information he wanted, but it wasn't his favorite.
"I'd prefer we kept this professional, Detective," said their lawyer apprehensively.
"No problem," said Goren. Before his sat down, he slid off his jacket and drooped it on the back of his chair. "Is it too warm in here for you ladies?" he asked, facing the mirror and loosening his tie, making sure they got a good long view of his powerful shoulders, his third favorite part of his body.
"Actually," said Rose, "It is a bit hot, now that you mention it."
Goren nodded and tapped the glass, pointing down. Mercy and Alex exchanged glances. Deakins did as he knew he was requested and turned the thermostat down. "That's my boss in there," said Goren, facing the table, "making sure I don't jump ya."
Eames snorted as the girls giggled and the lawyer shifted uncomfortably. Before he started questioning, he unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up to his elbows, watching his reflection sadly. "I need a haircut," he said lightly, but no one in the viewing room believed that was what he was so depressed over. Mercy lifted her hand to the place on the mirror level to his right shoulder and curled her fingers as though wishing she could give him a companionable, comforting squeeze.
"Anyway," he said, finally seating himself and laying his hands flat on the table as though wondering where to begin, serving both make him look friendly and informal, as well as making sure they got a good look at his second favorite part of his body.
Rose had hardly looked away from his long fingers before they were moving toward his brown notebook and deftly pulling back the zipper. "Well, your alibis are iron-clad, but I'd like to ask you a few questions about Sam St. Claire."
Rose looked surprised as Blessing's eyes narrowed. "Sure," she said, "whatever you want."
"When was the last time you had sex with Sam?"
Rose cocked her head, thinking. "Oh God, I guess it's been about… almost six and a half years. We found out Monica was pregnant in June of '97…"
"And you, Blessing?"
There was a pause as Rose looked at Blessing, her eyebrows raised. Blessing became defensive. "I have always been faithful to my love."
Goren nodded. "Answer my question, please."
Another long pause and Blessing looked as though she were struggling. "Never," she said at length.
"I believe you," Goren lied believably. "I can tell you don't like to lie."
"Blessing is a horrible liar," vouched Rose.
"That's good," said Goren. "Then please tell the truth the first time when I ask how this used condom with Sam St. Claire's fingerprint wound up in your trashcan?" He showed them a picture of what was unmistakably a condom, and then a comparison of the fingerprints found on it and prints already in the system. "He's on the record from a public intoxication back in 1992. This is a perfect ten-point match. Would you like us to spend thirteen thousand dollars on a DNA test, or would you rather tell us what happened?"
Blessing's eyes darted from face to face; her lawyer's mild curiosity, Goren's patient encouragement and Rose's increasing suspicion. "It's obvious, isn't it?" said Blessing hard-headedly. "I slept with him once. That was all. Rose was out for the day and he dropped by. It happens sometimes, to both of us. It was no big deal." She was talking to Rose now, pleading.
Rose dropped her face into her hands and breathed steadily. "You slept with Sam St. Claire." She sounded as though she couldn't believe her own words. "How could you do that? He should be designated for breeding purposes only. That man is barely worth as much as his sperm. How could you lower yourself to him?"
Goren listened, interested.
"Man, they've got a crappy lawyer," Eames commented. The others nodded, thankful.
"It wasn't for me! I got no satisfaction from it!"
"That's not surprising. He's hung like a Chihuahua; it's like doing it to a thermometer." Rose seemed to be steps away from crumbling into despair.
"I thought size didn't matter," said the lawyer.
"Yes it does," said Rose, Blessing and Goren at the same time.
Behind the mirror, everyone watched as though hypnotized. "I'll bet you guys have some interesting bathroom graffiti on this floor," said Mercy without a hint of a smile.
"I did it for you!" cried Blessing, getting desperate.
"Ha!" exclaimed Rose. "How, Blessing? How could betraying my trust like that possibly benefit our relationship? How could it help me?"
Blessing looked frantically from Rose to her lawyer to Goren and back at Rose. "I can't tell you."
"Because you have no reason!" Rose picked up her purse and got to her feet. "We're through."
"No!" cried Blessing. "Rose, I did it because he could give us Cynthia."
Time froze for who knows how long. Not a heart beat, not a breath drawn, not an eye blinked. "Miss Knowles, don't say a word," her lawyer was the first to say.
"No, I want to hear this," said Rose.
"I want to tell her," said Blessing, calmly. "I'd rather go to prison than have you hate me, Rose. Prisons in America are nothing like life in Africa. I can handle it."
Powerless, her lawyer threw up his hands and sat himself down to enjoy the show. Rose stood at the end of the table as Goren pulled the chair back for her and pushed it in, just as she sat down. "Go on, Blessing," he said.
"You told me he was Cynthia's father. I thought he would care about where his child would end up. He said he had a kid who could take care of it for us," she said without hesitation. "He said there was a child who could kill her and make it look like a random thing. When he gave me the child's name, I recognized it; he was in my music class."
"How did you and Sam come to discuss this?" asked Goren.
"I went to his class," she admitted. "Just once. I wanted to see if he, himself, would kill Monica."
"Blessing, why would you--" Rose began, but Goren shushed her.
"He wouldn't do it. He was a coward. But the boy he knew, and I knew, he could kill her very easily. We all three had something to offer each other. But the stupid child forgot to take her purse." Her head sank into the crook of her arm on the table. "He threw the knife at her—can you believe it? It was supposed to be a stab, steal and run, as Sam put it. But Nathan was too stupid to carry it out properly. He didn't care about the plan. He just wanted to kill."
No one moved as Blessing and Rose wept silently. After a beat, Goren motioned for a guard to come in and take her to her cell. Goren joined the team in the viewing room, looking dehydrated. "One down, two to go," he said.
"I'll take the next one," she said. "Nathan. We'll have to take Sam down together."
Goren nodded as Mercy handed him a cup of water. "The brilliant Robert Goren," she said. "Sometimes we forget that brilliance comes in knowing when to stay quiet.
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