And I Trusted You (24 page)

“Curtis, Curtis B. Lawson”

“Well, Curtis, we don’t know crimes are going to be committed before they happen. If we did, there would be no crime. But as soon as we find out, we come. And, sometimes, we can prevent crimes from happening or catch some as they are committing a crime. Do you know Tasha Burrows well?” Asks officer Woodson.

“I guess you could say that. I met her last week and I’ve been watching and getting to know her. It’s a shame she couldn’t identify her attacker. It was smart of him to bend her over. But it’s such a shame. Tisk, tisk tisk.” He says shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”

“I said, it’s a shame he bent her over and raped her. I’m sure he only did that so she couldn’t identify him. She probably wouldn’t have been able to since he had a mask on anyway. Such a shame.”

“Mr. Lawson, would you mind taking a ride with us. You have made some interesting points. I would like to put these observations in my reports as we look for the suspect. But my reports are at the station. We can bring you back when we are finished, if you wouldn’t mind coming with us.” Officer Woodson prompts.

“Sure, anything I can do to help. Tasha is such a talented lady and Sonny feels bad about this happening. He never should have left her alone you know. He should have known better than that.” Curtis says rising from his chair.

Officer Woodson walks over and lends him her arm. She can see he’s not steady on his feet. Her partner grabs the beer bottles and puts them in a bag to carry with them. As they walk out, she winks at Sonny. He nods and then they are gone.

Once they arrive at the station, the beer bottles are processed as evidence and a rush is put on them.  Officer Woodson wants to find out what else Curtis knows about the rape. She leads him to an interrogation room and grabs her reports. She begins by asking him how he knows Tasha. What he thinks of her, and how he found out about the attack and when. She asks where he was when the attack happened and other questions. Then she suggests that because he knows so much, they need to rule him out as the attacker. She says he’ll need to be in a lineup. He agrees without hesitation.

Woodson calls Tasha and explains things to her only giving her minimal details. She agrees to come to the station right away for the lineup.

A short while later, Tasha and Ed walk over to officer Woodson’s desk. “I hope things will go better this time.” I say doubtfully.

“I hope you’re right. Let’s get started. You guys have been through this before, is there anything you need refreshing on?” Says Woodson.

“No. Let’s just get this over with.” Says Ed. They all walk to the room to view the men in the lineup. Immediately Tasha feels apprehensive. “I don’t wanna do this. Okay, get a hold of yourself, Tasha. Do this and get back home. They are never gonna find this guy and you’ve got to find a way to live with what happened. Life goes on and you have a beautiful one. Bad things happen all the time and you can’t give in to them. If you do, you are allowing the bad people who do them to win. Get a grip!” 

She walks over to the window and reaches back to grab Ed’s hand. He gives hers a slight squeeze. All of the men have on masks and are holding balloons filled with helium. When they are all done, she asks for number five to repeat this statement with the helium.  A slight surge of hope begins to fill her. But then again, she was sure of the last person she had chosen and it was the wrong man. The DNA results had proven that. Nothing matched. So, she waited a few moments until the effects of the helium had passed and the men spoke the same lines in their natural voices. Again, she asks that number five repeat his lines.  She couldn’t be sure, this time. Not after what happened the last time.

She asks Officer Woodson if they can talk. Woodson gives instructions to the other officer and she accompanies Ed and Tasha to a place where they can speak freely. “I see some familiar things in one of the men, but I don’t know. I can’t be sure. I mean, I was so sure the last time and I was dead wrong. I don’t want to have to go through that disappointment again.  Not to mention, the pain of knowing I accused the wrong person. How much evidence do you have on this person, if any?” I ask skeptically

“I can tell you that this person has intimate knowledge of the attack. They have revealed to me things that only the attacker would know. You haven’t given anyone the details of the attack, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. I haven’t even told Ed what happened.” I say holding his hand. “I just want to forget what happened, if we are not going to be able to catch the person. What should I do?”

“It is up to you. But, with the evidence we have, we have enough to hold the person for further questioning. It would be better for the prosecution if you picked the person out of the lineup. It would make the case more airtight. But if you can’t, I understand.” Woodson says patting my hand.

“Okay. I don’t want to pick the wrong person, but number five is familiar. He seems to have the same voice. So what do we do now?”

“We get some samples and wait for the results. I’ll call you as soon as we have them back, okay. Are you still going to the counselor?”

“I had an appointment scheduled for today. In fact, I should be there right now. But I can reschedule. She is a nice lady to talk with. I’m trying to follow her suggestions and a few things are getting easier.”

“Good, glad to hear it. You try to get some rest and hopefully we’ll have good news soon.” Woodson says.

We go back home. I walk into the kitchen and immediately begin preparing a meal. Ed doesn’t say anything. I’m slamming cabinets, then dicing onions, celery and bell peppers. I’ve got my eggs sitting on the counter and a large bowl with milk and sugar. I don’t have any music on and she’s moving with lightning speed. Ed can see I’m on edge. He knows from experience to stay out of my way.  Time passes and I have been in the kitchen all day long. The boys come home from school and I’m still cooking. I instruct the boys to get Ed to help them with their homework while continue what I’m doing. Finally around 6 o’clock, I announce that dinner is done.

Just as we
were about to pray the phone rings. I get up to answer it. “Hello. Yes, this is she. Oh. Thank you. I’ll see you soon.” I say then hang up.

I come back to the table and nod to Ed to go ahead with the prayer. He finishes and we begin to eat. There is a thanksgiving spread of food. We have a meatloaf, homemade dressing, baked hen, collards, kidney beans, mashed potatoes, rice, gravy, candied yams, fried okra, cornbread, banana pudding, sour cream pound cake and iced tea. The boys are excited about all of the food. They aren’t used to getting this much food and it not being a weekend. They all eat with gusto.  Then the doorbell rings. I get up to answer the door.

I look out the window to make sure of whom it was. Opening the door, I say, “Hello officer. We can go into the office to talk.” I motion for Ed to join me as the boys look confused about what is going on. They have never seen this officer before. Once we are inside the office, the door is  closed. Officer Woodson begins by saying, “First off I wanted to thank you for coming down to the station on such last minute notice. Secondly, we have the test results back. They are a match.” She smiles at me.

“Oh, my God. You mean you’ve caught him?” I say slumping into a seat.

“Yes. You helped to catch him. Number five was the man we were questioning. I couldn’t give you that information for fear of tainting your judgment. Anyway, we have enough evidence and the prosecutor is getting the case together. What I need to know from you is if you are willing to testify, if needed, in open court.” Woodson says carefully.

“I would not want to, but if it’s the only way, then I’ll do it. I realized today I can’t let him win. He took something from me and I can’t let him take my life as well. I’ll do what I have to, to put him behind bars.” I say as Ed rubs my back.

“The fact that we have other evidence and your lineup results, helped put a super rush on the results. The lab is in the building, so they worked on it all day to get it pushed through. You were a big help in catching this guy.” Officer Woodson points out

The officer leaves and the family goes back to dinner. Ed explains to the boys that something happened at Tasha’s job and the police came by to speak with them about it.

**********

“Curtis B. Lawson you will be spending some time here with us for the rape and attack on Tasha Burrows.” Says Woodson.

“You don’t believe I did that. Besides, I saw her that morning when I brought her breakfast and she was fine. I didn’t do it.” Curtis says frowning.

“Sure. Now you can make one phone call. They have already read you your rights. You didn’t break her after all you know.” Woodson says leaving the cell.

Curtis sits on the small cot and remembers the feel of being inside Tasha.
“Dang”,
I thought
“I was so careful at that shop.”

The End