Righting A Wrong

"Target's not having themselves a very good Monday," Richard smiled. "Mrs. Jones, her boyfriend Latavius Jefferson, and a friend, Prentiss Shaw are all in Bender Lock Up," Richard said. "I'll e-mail you the report soon as I write it up."

"You said they're in lock-up?" Penny asked.

"Yes ma'am; Target's boyfriend attacked me, his buddy pulled a gun on me then the target herself came out and took a swing at the arresting officer," Richard shrugged. "It's all on the second disc; boyfriend was so busy grabbing for my digital, he didn't even notice the video camera I had going."

"Where's the daughter?" Penny asked, reaching for the telephone.

"Don't know; didn't see her," Richard admitted.

"Yes, this is Penny Richards," Penny said into the telephone. "You have a client of mine; Lisa Jones? Would you happen to know where her daughter is?"

She listened for a moment then dug her cell phone out, scrolled through her list of phone numbers and hit 'Send' when she reached Russell's phone number.

"Thank you," she said into the telephone and put her cell phone to the other ear while hanging up her office telephone.

"Mr. Jones?" Penny said when a very sleepy Russell answered the telephone. "This is...Mr. Jones I don't need that kind of language. I'm calling you to tell you that your daughter is at Lisa's home with no adults there. Please go get your daughter."

She held the cell phone away from her ear for a moment, then put it back to her ear.

"I am well aware of the order of protection banning you from entering the house," Mr. Jones, remember? I'm the one who filed it? There is an exemption in case of emergency; I assure you, as Mrs. Lisa Jones' attorney, this qualifies as an emergency," Penny said, smiling slightly.

She nodded her head, as if Russell could see through the phone.

""Very good, Mr. Jones," she said. "Go Bears."

"Go Bears?" Richard asked.

"My son's on his baseball team; they're the Bears," Penny smiled.

"Oh," Richard said. "Go Bears. Need me to meet him down there?"

"Oh, yeah, please. Video everything so no one can come back and say he did anything wrong," Penny said.

Richard arrived a few minutes before Russell; the loud music was still blaring from the house.

Russell pulled up and got out of his battered pick up truck.

"Hi, Mr. Jones?" Richard asked, hoisting his video camera. "I'm Richard Boudreaux; Mrs. Richards asked me to video everything, make sure nothing happens."

"Oh, okay; good," Russell said. "She um, she give you a key? See, Lisa changed the locks on me and..."

"Why don't you knock on the door?" Richard suggested.

"Jesus fucking Christ; what the fuck happened here?" Russell spat, looking at the splintered door and ruined screen door.

He knocked on the door.

"Katy?" he yelled through the door. "Katy, Honey? It's Daddy. I'm here to get you, okay, Sweetheart?"

A stocky black youth opened the door glaring sullenly at the two men.

"Who are you?" Russell asked.

"Who you?" the boy snapped.

"I'm Russell; Katy's dad," Russell snapped back. "Going to ask you one more time, who are you?"

"I'm L.J." the boy responded and moved to shut the door.

"No sir," Russell said forcefully, shoving the door backward, moving the boy out of the way.

"Russell looked at the door; from the inside it was apparent that someone or something had struck the door quite hard from the interior.

"Turn that shit off," Russell said; the music was deafening.

"Fuck you; ain't got to do shit you say, Cracker," L.J. sneered. "This is my house; you don't come on up in my house and tell me..."

Russell walked over and yanked the cord out of the socket, then yanked the cord out of the stereo itself.

"Thank you; shit was giving me a head ache," Richard said, still videoing the dark living room.

Katy ran out of her bedroom to see why it was suddenly quiet.

Daddy!" she screeched happily.

"Hi Sweetheart; what you been doing?" Russell asked.

"Playing in my room," Katy said. "You need to come see my room, it's got.."

Richard moved the camera around to capture the filthy condition of the living room. The hallway's threadbare carpet was filthy as well.

In the kitchen, the counters were covered by dirty plates, fast food restaurant bags and containers, and more than a few cockroaches.

Richard tried the light switch in the bathroom, only one bulb flickered on.

Richard recorded the unsanitary conditions in the bathroom, then continued his travel down the hall.

"So you and L.J. share this room?" Russell asked, trying to keep his voice light, pleasant.

He could see masculine toys scattered around and could also see boys clothing wadded up in the corner.

Uh huh and this is my favorite doll," Katy said.

"Okay, you um, you need to get some clothes together, all right? You're going to spend the night at Daddy's, okay?" Russell said.

He was outraged; there was only one bed in the room. His four year old daughter did not need to be sharing a room, much less a bed with a boy that appeared to be on the precipice of puberty.

"You; you got a mom?" Russell demanded when L.J. appeared in the bedroom.

"Yeah; you?" the boy flippantly said.

"Nope she's dead, smart ass," Russell said. "Need to call your mom, tell her to come get you; you're not staying here by yourself.

"What? Why not? Me and Katy stay here by ourselves all the time," L.J. defended.

"Not no more," Russell said. "Call her, call her now, or I will get someone else like the police to call her."

"This is Penny," Penny intoned when her telephone rang.

"Thank you," Russell said. "I um, you um, you need to do something about how my little girl's been living though; it's horrible."

"Working on it," Penny said.

She placed calls to the Children's protective Services and to the Clerk of Court. Mrs. Anderson of CPS promised to investigate both Lisa and Russell's residences again. Ethel promised to get a temporary custodial provision signed by Judge Johnson before the end of the day.

Richard arrived, put the disc on her desk and shook his head. Penny was shocked; Richard's face was hard, unsmiling.

"That bad?" she asked, hanging up her telephone.

"Don't watch it on a full stomach," Richard cautioned. "Animals live better than that."

"Okay; thanks," Penny said, picking up the disc.

"And, there's some pretty inappropriate shit," Richard continued. "Of course, none of it's admissible; there were no adults present, so what that punk ass kid said can't be used against them."

"We'll get it in," Penny promised and slipped the disc into her laptop computer's disc drive.

Penny still felt nauseous as she drove to Darryl's house to pick up Lucas.

"Hey," Ethel smiled widely when she answered the door.

Penny did a double-take; the girl wore no make-up. Without make-up on, she was incredibly plain looking. If she'd had any other color hair than her straw colored blonde, Ethel would have been termed 'ugly.'

"Hey; here to get Lucas," Penny smiled.

"They're in the game room; think they're playing that Halo game," Ethel said, letting her dislike of the game show on her face.

"I've told Darryl about that game; it's way too violent," Penny complained.

"Yeah, I know!" Ethel agreed.

She called for Lucas and Lucas came running out.

"Hi Sweetie; here to get my little man," Penny smiled.

"Okay," Lucas said, walking toward her.

"Um, books?" Penny asked.

"Oh yeah!" Lucas said and ran to the stairs.

"So, Ethel um, where you work?" Penny asked as they waited for Lucas.

"Don't; been looking like crazy!" Ethel admitted.

She lowered her voice.

"Of course, Darryl's all like 'why you need to work, huh?' and I'm.." Ethel continued.

"Same thing he told me," Penny agreed.

She thought about it for a moment.

"Got your resume?" she asked the girl.

"Yeah; you want it?" Ethel asked.

The girl ran to another room. Penny could hear Darryl's voice, could hear it rise up as if he was arguing.

Ethel ran back and thrust a single sheet at Penny.

"Okay," Penny said after glancing and seeing that it showed Ethel's high school and place of previous employment; McDonald's Restaurant on Highway 54.

She dug out her business card.

"Be here at ten thirty tomorrow," Penny said. "Just wear, you know, a nice blouse, nice slacks; oh, and bring along your make-up, okay?"

"Okay!" Ethel said, then read the card.

"Um, ma'am? I don't know nothing about law," Ethel admitted.

"Know how to answer a telephone?" Penny smiled as Lucas finally came trotting up.

"Well, yeah," Ethel said, still unsure.

"See you tomorrow, okay?" Penny smiled and herded Lucas out the door.

Twenty minutes later, her cell phone rang.

"What are you doing?" Darryl hissed bitterly into the pone.

"Fixing to eat dinner; you?" Penny answered, immune by now to Darryl's anger.

"What is Ethel going to your office for tomorrow?" Darryl hissed.

"Interviewing for Gail's old job," Penny said and slid a grilled cheese sandwich onto a plate for Lucas.

"Uh huh, wouldn't that just be perfect," Darryl spat. "Two of you can get together and talk all about me behind my back, huh?"

"And the best thing is, I'll be paying her for it," Penny said brightly. "Need to get over yourself, ass hole; you're not that important."

"Just can't forgive me for getting me some better pussy, huh?" Darryl sneered.

"You had a better dick, you'd had better pussy right here," Penny said. "If there's nothing else, I'll be hanging up now."

"She's not going to be there, you hear?" Darryl yelled into the phone.

THIRD GAME

Ethel waved, smiling widely at Penny as she and Darryl showed up for the game.

Penny returned both smile and wave, noticing with approval that Ethel's make-up was much more reserved, even if she did have on extremely short shorts and snug tee shirt.

Darryl, as Penny would expect, just glared at Penny.

Ethel, despite's Darryl's claim, had shown up for the interview at precisely ten thirty. Penny hustled her into her office, then bent to the task of removing the caked on make-up.

"But I'm going to look..." Ethel had whined.

"A whole lot better when I'm done, all right?" Penny had whispered as she applied a few strokes with Ethel's cover stick, minimizing the slight bags under Ethel's eyes.

Penny eschewed the heavy liquid foundation and just applied a light powder to Ethel's face.

As she applied eye shadow and light blush, Penny counseled Ethel on what to say during the interview process.

"There!" she said and sat back. "Now, that looks a whole lot more professional; what you think?"

Ethel looked at herself in her small compact mirror and looked again.

"Wow, you show me how to do that again?" she asked.

By Friday, Ethel had the application of make-up down and had bought a few more outfits suitable for working in a professional office.

Penny had not worried about how Ethel would do in her interview with Donald Pellichet; Donald was one of the most gentle and genteel men she'd ever met. She also wasn't all that concerned with Ethel's interview with Jay Richards; she was sure Ethel could have been speaking Klingon, Jay's eyes would be riveted to Ethel's breasts and Jay would not hear a word Ethel said.

"Uh huh," Jay agreed, then thought of another question to ask Ethel's breasts.

And Gail approved of her replacement and began to train the girl with real enthusiasm.

At the game, Penny heard a boisterous bark coming from behind the bleachers and turned to look. She smiled as she watched Katy playing fetch with Cookie, completely unconcerned with the game that her daddy was coaching.

"Go get it, Cookie!" Katy would shrill, hurling the stick a few yards away.

Russell had obviously heard the bark too and turned to look. His eyes briefly met Penny's and she smiled at him. He nodded his head in acknowledgement, checked that Katy and Cookie were all right and turned his attention back to his team.

The Bears managed to win; and it was Lucas that enabled that victory. He hit a bounding grounder that enabled Michael Two to race for home while Lucas only managed to get to first base.

But Darryl only criticized; Lucas had dropped a pop-up and the runner had managed to get to second base before Lucas hurled the ball to Scottie.

"You did great; everybody drops one every now and then," Russell assured Lucas.

Michael Two's father agreed with Russell, telling Lucas that his 'knocking that ball out there' had gotten them their one run.

"See you Monday," Ethel called out to Penny and almost fell over as Darryl jerked her by her arm.

"Can't believe I dropped that ball," Lucas grumbled as Penny drove them home.

"God damn you, Darryl Richards," Penny thought.

Monday morning, Ethel stuck her head into Penny's office to get her approval on the skirt , blouse, and simple jacket she was wearing.

"Looks great," Penny agreed, smiling.

"And, look, it's reversible," Ethel enthused. "It's also khaki, see?"

"Well isn't that smart?" Penny said pleasantly.

At ten o'clock, Ethel showed Lisa Jones and Latavius Jefferson into Penny's office.

Both were highly agitated about their time in jail, the 'bull shit' charges against them, and the fact that Russell, at least for the time being, had Katy in his custody.

"And that just ain't right; he's got that vicious dog," Latavius snarled. "That girl? She scared to death of them dogs, feel me?"

Penny frowned; Katy had not appeared to be frightened in the least of the large dog, even though Cookie probably weighed double Katy's weight.

During the third inning, Katy had run to her father, pleading a need to go to the bathroom. Penny offered to take the girl and Russell agreed. Cookie had firmly entrenched herself between Penny and Katy all the way to the dank public facilities and all the way back to the field. Katy had not been frightened then, had chattered happily about the swimming pool at her daddy's apartment and what they were having for dinner as soon as the 'stupid ' game was over.

"And where the fuck he got that mother fucking private eye, huh?" Lisa shrilled. "Huh? HE got that kind of fucking money; those private eyes ain't free, he needs be paying me a hell of a lot more, knows what I'm saying?"

"A friend of his loaned him the money, from what his lawyer told me," Penny lied.

She looked at the surly face of Latavius Jefferson.

""If you don't mind; I'd like to meet with my client alone, sir," she said.

"Nuh uh, this my woman," Latavius angrily declared. "That makes anything go on my business, feel me?"

"That's right," Lisa nodded her head.

"Fine," Penny snapped. "Then, Ms. Jones, you need to get Latavius Jefferson and his son, Latavius Jefferson Junior out of your house. You two are not married; that looks very bad in front of a judge."

"What? What you mean?" Latavius sputtered.

"I mean, it sets an extremely poor example for the minor child, Katherine Jones," Penny said.

"My house? You going to come on up in my house and tell me..." Latavius got to his feet, jabbing the edge of Penny's desk with a thick finger.

""It is not your house; it is Lisa Jones' house," Penny said, putting her hand on the thirty eight snub nose pistol she had in her desk.

"I can't have me no friends?" Lisa yelled.

"Friends yes, but not overnight guests," Penny said. "And both of you need to lower your voices; this is a place of business."

Penny then pulled out some eight by ten photographs she'd culled from Richard Boudreaux's video.

"When's the last time that grass was cut?" she asked, placing the photograph on the lip of the desk so that Lisa could see it.

"No, nuh uh, no ma'am, you ain't changing the subject," Latavius yelled, sweeping the photograph to the floor. "We going to talk about this me and my boy moving out shit; get that shit straightened out right here, hear?"

"It is straightened out; you're moving out," Penny said, again putting her hand on the pistol. "You have until the end of this week; Friday the eighteenth."

"Oh, just like that; you say it and we do it; you think it's like that?" Latavius yelled.

"It is not open for debate, Mr. Jefferson; you do not have any legal right to be there overnight. Your son certainly does not have any right, or any reason to be sharing a room with the minor child," Penny said, flipping ahead to the photographs of Katy's room and placing those on the desk in front of Lisa.

"So just like that..." Latavius yelled, again knocking the photographs to the floor.

"Mr. Jefferson, leave. Leave my office right now," Penny snapped. "Ms. Jones, I am your attorney. As your attorney, I would advise against you having any further contact with Mr. Jefferson, at least until this case is resolved.

"Come on, believe this shit, tell me leave," Latavius muttered angrily.

"I be right there," Lisa mumbled.

"Uh, aw no, nuh uh, this shit ain't happening; get your ass on up out of that chair," Latavius ordered.

"I be right there," Lisa yelled at him.

Latavius attempted to slam Penny's door, but the hydraulic spring prevented it from doing anything but shutting gently.

"So, again, when's the last time this grass has been cut?" Penny asked, picking up the three photographs.

"Two, maybe three weeks," Lisa lied.

"Ms. Jones," Penny said, pursing her lips. "I have a yard. My yard man cuts it every two weeks and it doesn't look like this."

She then pulled out the photograph of the front door's exterior, and the photograph of the door's interior.

"And what happened here?" Penny asked.

"L.J. was showing us some wrestling shit he seen on TV," Lisa mumbled. "Ran into the door."

"And you've just left it like that?" Penny asked.

Lisa didn't answer.

"When's the last time that kitchen's been cleaned?" Penny went on, showing Lisa a photograph of the kitchen counter. "Broad daylight and there's roaches everywhere!"

"I clean that every day," Lisa lied. "Y'all must have just took that picture. Remember? I been in jail!"

"Ma'am, look at the time/date stamp," Penny snapped. "Taken the same day you were arrested."

"Y'all ain't had no right go on up in my house," Lisa suddenly snapped.

"There was a child being endangered,," Penny said. "Her father had every right..."

Penny then played the part of Richard's video where L.J. admitted that he and Katy were often left alone.

"How old is L.J.?" Penny asked.

"Think he's nine," Lisa admitted.

"He's nine? And big enough to knock holes in doors?" Penny asked.

Penny opened the door of her office and ushered Lisa out. Latavius was leaning over Ethel, holding a discussion with her breasts. He smiled sheepishly as Lisa glared hotly at him.

"Okay, be here next Thursday with L.J.," Penny said, smirking at Ethel's relieved expression.

"Wait, why you need L.J.?" Latavius asked.

"Now, when I can go pick up Katy?" Lisa demanded.

"I told you; we need to have the psychologist talk with her and with L.J. then we'll take that to the judge," Penny explained. "Ethel, please get Dr. Leblanc on the phone for me."

"Why you need some Psy.... Psy... What you need him doing?" Latavius demanded.

"Don't worry about it," Lisa said. "Come on."

"Tell me don't worry about it; see I need to teach you something," Latavius snarled at Lisa.

"I be seeing you, hear?" he turned and leered at Ethel.

"Miss Penny, I need me a shower," Ethel shuddered after the door closed. "With one of them S.O.S. pads."

A moment later, Dr. Leblanc was on the telephone, agreeing to interview both children.

Penny scrolled down the list of phone numbers on her cell phone, even though she now knew Russell's phone number by heart. She then decided she'd wait until she saw him at practice that afternoon.

Donald Pellichet stuck his head in Penny's office.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

She nodded her head and he took a seat.