Grand Jury

The parents' meeting was over. Nicole and Jess were last to leave. They walked across the dark parking lot to their cars.

"Do you really think he hurt her?" Jess said, when Nicole told her about her worry that Roger may have abused Heather too.

"I don't know. Gloria hasn't mentioned any behavioral problems. I was counting on that, until that Victoria Lewis said sometimes there are no signs…I don't know, I guess I'll find out when they come in November."

"God, I am dreading that." Jess had just been reminded that it wouldn't be long before she and Nathan would be flying home to Indiana for the two month holiday season. "If the kids were babies, I wouldn't even tell them anything about this, but I know one of them will say something, so I gotta tell the family."

"I know how you feel. Antonio and I are on pins and needles too."

xxxxx

Nicole went straight back to the hospital after the meeting. Antonio, of course, was still there.

"How's she doing?" Nicole whispered.

"She's doing well. I'm starting to believe you were right when you said she'd make it out of here."

Nicole smiled and reached in to touch Faith's hand.

"How was that parents' thing?"

"Pretty much what I expected. The district attorney, Julia, told me that they are charging Roger with two counts of aggravated assault against Zachary."

"That's all?" His voice became louder than he intended it to be.

"Shhh. I know," she whispered. "I was surprised too. But it's the best they can do. At least he won't be on the stand very long."

"But I thought that Roger never hit those kids."

"He didn't. The aggravated assault just means Roger made contact with Zachary and that the contact was threatening. Like I said, it's the best she could do…Anyway, the grand jury is going to be next week."

xxxxx

The next day, Jess waited until Nathan had left for work before she talked to her kids about testifying. Nathan hadn't asked about the meeting and she wasn't about to tell him anything, not yet anyway.

After the children had finished breakfast and gone off to the playroom, Jess brought Madison to her room to talk.

"Do you remember when Mommy told you about talking to a lady that wanted to put Roger in jail, so he can't hurt anyone else?"

"Yes," Madison nodded.

"Well, in a few days we are going to go to court. That's the place where you will tell the nice lady what Roger did. And I will be there with you, okay?"

"But I don't wanna tell again."

"I know. It makes you feel bad to talk about it, right? But this is important. And Mommy's going to be right there. And you won't be the only one who is going to talk to this lady. Other kids are going to be there too. All right?"

Madison nodded confirmingly, but Jess could read her resistance.

Jess's attempts to convince Joe and Toby to talk to the "nice lady in court" were futile. Toby adamantly stated that he had made up the allegations against his former teacher. And Joe said nothing at all. In fact, Jess realized, it had been days since she'd heard her eldest child speak. To try to break Joe's silence and to get Toby to tell the truth, she made an appointment for both of them with Doctor Lewis, who saw both boys two days later.

xxxxx

Joe happily played in the waiting room, surpervised by the clerk, while his brother and mother were talking to the doctor.

"I appreciate you seeing them on such short notice, Doctor," Jess said as they entered the room.

"Call me Tori. Why don't we sit here. I'll sit here and you can sit on Mommy's lap. How's that?"

Tori had good reason for the seating arrangements. She wanted little Nathan to feel close to his mother, but have his back to her. She wanted the boy to miss any grimaces or expressions that Jess may make while he was talking to the doctor. So she sat in a chair and had Toby sit on Jess's lap on the couch.

xxxxx

Antonio was back to work for the first time since Faith's birth. He was worried about being away from her, but the doctors said the worst was over. Faith had a good chance of survival now and he really wanted to get back to work.

After accompanying his boss on errands and then patrolling the grounds of the man's estate, Antonio ran into Layla, who was thrilled to see him back.

"It's good to see you too," he replied.

"How is everything?"

"So-so. Faith is…well, it looks like she might make it."

"I'm glad to hear it. How are you?"

"Exhausted. But I'm glad to be back into the swing of things. How's everything going here?"

xxxxx

Jess didn't think Tori would have any luck getting Toby to go back to his original statement and just as she was about to call it quits, Toby had a breakthrough.

"Do you think that your Daddy wanted you to say that Roger never hurt you?"

"Yes. He did."

"And is that why you said it? Or were you telling the truth?" Tori worded her questions carefully. The transcript of this session would be read in court. One slip on her part could give the defense a win at trial. It was certain Roger's lawyer would use the theory that the kids were brainwashed as a defense.

"It wasn't the truth," Toby said, slowly. He was treading dangerous ground now.

"What wasn't the truth?"

"Roger never hurt me. That's what I said. That was a lie."

"Can you tell me the truth?"

"When Daddy and Antonio took my brother to see his new teacher, Roger took me to the bathroom."

"Did Roger do something bad in the bathroom?"

The boy only nodded.

"What did Roger do?"

"He played with my penis."

Before long Tori had the whole story. Toby talked about seeing other boys molested as well, but stuck to the claim that it only happened to him once—on the first day he met the Halls. Tori told Jess that it was fine for him to only disclose that much and she said she felt confident that Toby could handle the grand jury.

When it was Joe's turn to talk to the psychologist, he said nothing, literally nothing at all.

"He hasn't said anything to anyone in days," Jess told Tori after she had sent the boy back out to the waiting room.

"He needs counseling. I'd be happy to recommend some others in this area if you want to shop around."

"No. When the time comes, I want him to see you."

Tori knew she had to be diplomatic, but she also knew that Jess was dragging her feet. "The last time we talked you said you were waiting to discuss it with your husband. Have you?"

"He still can't accept that Roger molested Joe and Toby. We're going to be going away for a couple of months. The kids will be spending a lot of time with family. It will give me and Nathan time to talk. Hopefully, he'll be ready to admit it to himself by then."

"And if he's not?"

Jess shrugged. She didn't know what she would do.

"Are you familiar with the term Elective Mutism?"

"No."

"It's when someone, usually a child, can talk, but won't. And since it has only been a few days, I can't diagnose Joseph as mute, in fact, it is better that you go home, let him spend some time with family and see if he breaks his silence. But if he doesn't, Mrs. Massey, it is crutial that he begin treatment."

"I understand. I really do. But I think he will get better long before we get back from Indiana."

xxxxx

That Wednesday, Jess, Antonio, Nicole, and half a dozen other parents arrived at a San Francisco courthouse with their children. Madison, Zachary, and Toby would take the stand that day, along with Kelsey Smith, Chloe Pierson, Brendan Frasier, and Alexandra Davis.

Nathan was at work, totally oblivious to the fact that his kids were testifying in a court of law that they had been molested. Jess wasn't going to tell him until they went to Indiana. Joe was spending the day with Nathan. Jess thought it would be a good idea to break him of his muteness, and give Nathan an opportunity to rebond with his son.

While Joe and Nathan were having a take-your-kid-to-work day, the grand jury would hear the children's stories and decide whether or not they thought the stories were true. If the grand jury believed the children, it would hand down one or more indictments and Roger would be arrested. If they didn't believe the kids, Roger was a free man. Roger was blissfully unaware that a group of men and women were deciding whether or not he was going to be arrested today.

xxxxx

By late morning, only three of the seven kids scheduled to testify had taken the stand. The rest were restless and running up and down the hall outside the court room.

Zachary was called next. And by two o'clock all of the children had finished their time with the grand jury. The parents brought their children home and waited for the call—the call from Julia Reilly informing them on what, if any, indictments had been handed down.

xxxxx

Towards four, Jess was getting anxious. Nathan would be home soon.

"What is taking them so long?" she complained.

"Now tell me again," Nicole said, "how you plan to execute this. I mean I get why you didn't tell Nathan about this before Toby and Madison had to go to court; you didn't want him to go postal and scare them out of it. But now that it's over, when do you plan to tell him? Wouldn't doing it now be better than doing it in Indiana with your whole family?"

"In Indiana, there are a lot of places he and I can go. Places where we'll have privacy and the kids won't hear him screamin'."

"I can watch them tonight so you two can go somewhere and be alone."

"There's no where to go. Nicole, he is going to have a fit. I want to be somewhere where no one can hear us."

The phone rang and Jess, who was closest, dove for it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Massey, this is Julia. I have good news. They handed down indictments on all the charges. We're going to trial. Tell your kids they did a great job."

"I already did. When do you expect the trial to be?"

"Roger is going to be arrested any minute now. This will go public, and when it does, we could have other victims come forward. This man's in his sixties. I'm sure the kids in that class aren't the only ones he has abused. Aside from that, we might have more victims from the class who denied being abused change their statements. So I think we will probably have another grand jury before we get to trial. If not, the trial will probably be sometime next fall. If we do have another grand jury, it will be in March or April and then we likely won't see the trial commense until late 2012 or early 2013."

"Okay. So is there anything else we need to do?"

"No. It's over until the trial starts."

"All right. Thanks."

"No problem. Bye."

"Bye" Jess hung up the phone. "We won."

Nicole smiled sastified. It was a weak smile. After all, it's not like they really "won". This was just a small victory in a heinous battle. And the victory didn't change the horror of the reality.

xxxxx

Roger's arrest was all over the news that evening. By morning, everyone would know. Naturally, the media kept the identity of the victims anonymous. But it would do no good. Everybody in Levi knew which kids went to the library's former daycare program. All of the parents' colleagues knew that they left their children in a daycare run by the library.

The next morning all the victims' parents would be greeted with sympathetic looks or people who tried to avoid eye contact when they were at work or in the supermarket.

Some of the victims who had older siblings that attended Levi Day School would experience the same treatment, or downright cruelty.

None of the families knew what they were getting themselves into and now it was too late to get out. It was only the end of day one and they knew they had a long, treacherous road ahead.