Chapter 40: Assault and Battery

March 30, 1989, Chicago, Illinois

"Steve?" Keri said over the intercom. "There are two Chicago police detectives here to see you."

"Did they say what they wanted?"

"No."

"I'll be right up," I said.

I stopped at Elyse's office and asked her to come with me. I explained why, and she gave me a hard stare.

"I didn't DO anything, Elyse," I whispered. "I guarantee this isn't about Hope or Jacqui."

"You better be right," she whispered back.

We went to reception, and I saw two plainclothes detectives sitting in chairs. They stood up.

"Mr. Stephen Adams?" the taller, black one asked.

"Yes, Detective. How may I help you?"

"We got your name and your phone numbers from the JM Martial Arts answering machine. Is there some place we can talk privately?"

"This is Elyse Clarke, my CFO. I'd like her to sit with us, if you don't mind."

"Mr. Adams, you aren't under suspicion of anything," the shorter white detective said.

"All the same, I'd prefer that she sit in with us. The other option is I call an attorney, which will take some time."

The detectives looked at each other and nodded. We led them to the large conference room, and offered them coffee or tea, which they declined.

"What is this about?" I asked.

"Last night, just after 8:00pm, there was a battery committed by someone wearing a karate uniform in the vicinity of the JM Martial Arts. We're trying to identify who that person was."

"Well, there were probably a dozen students there last night, plus the instructor, Jolene Baxter."

The detective flipped open his notebook.

"Do you have a student there who is about five-and-a-half feet tall, with long blonde hair, a slim build, who would have been wearing a black windbreaker with white stripes around the sleeves, over a karate uniform?"

I knew instantly who it was — Stephanie! Holy shit! Elyse and I exchanged a quick look, and her eyes confirmed my guess.

"I, uh, think that might be my little sister," I said carefully.

"Do you know where we can find her?"

"It's Thursday morning, so she should be in class at UofC. I don't know her exact schedule. Could you tell me more about what happened?"

"Not at this time. Would you please give us her name?"

"Stephanie Adams," I said. "What are you going to do?"

"Find her and talk to her. What's her home address?"

"She lives with me," I said, and then gave the address of the house.

"You weren't at the karate place last night?"

"No, Detective, I wasn't. I was there for the lunchtime class, and then the afterschool class. That evening, I was at marriage counseling with my wife until 6:30pm, and then went home for dinner. The dojo owner is in Japan for training, so I split teaching duties with another black belt, Jolene Baxter. She handles the classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings."

"Do you know how we can contact Miss Baxter?" he asked.

"Yes. She works for Douglass Medical Associates. It's about four blocks from here on Drexel Avenue. I can get the number if you need it."

"Yes, please."

I got up and went to my office and got the number from the Rolodex. I wanted to call Melanie, but I didn't know that I could stay away from the detectives long enough to do that. I wrote down Jolene's name and number on a 3x5 card and went back to the conference room. I handed over the card.

"Do you have people who can vouch for where you were?"

"Quite a few, including the psychologist I was with, my wife, a close family friend, and my housemates. As for during the day, Ms. Clarke here can vouch for me being in the office, and there are probably a total of three dozen students and parents who can confirm I was at the dojo for those sessions."

"OK. That's all we need from you. You've been very helpful. Thanks."

They got up and Elyse walked them out. I went straight to my office and quickly ran through the people I needed to call. I had Jorge's number, and he had to be on the list. So was Melanie. I didn't think I could get to my sister before the police did, but I certainly could call Jolene and warn her. That had to be the first call. I was dialing as Elyse came into my office. I held up a finger to ask her to wait.

"Jolene Baxter, please. This is Steve Adams calling. Please tell her that it's urgent."

Jolene was on the line a few seconds later.

"Steve? They said it was urgent. What's up?"

"Do you know anything about my sister getting into a fight last night?"

"No! When?"

"I don't know the details, but in about five minutes, you're going to have two Chicago police detectives in your office asking about her. They just left here. The description they gave matches her. The dead giveaway was that windbreaker she wears, you know, the black one with white stripes around the sleeves?"

"Shit! What should I tell them?"

"The truth. You can confirm that it's probably her from the description, unless she traded jackets with somebody."

"No, I saw her put it on. I was talking to her and Melody when I locked up. Your sister headed in the direction of your house and Melody and I went towards campus, because she's in the dorms and my apartment is on the way."

"OK. I'm going to call my friend Melanie, who's an attorney, and get her advice. Call me when the cops leave, please."

"I will. Where's your sister?"

"In class, I guess. She didn't say anything last night."

"How do the police know?"

"I have no idea. They just said that they're investigating a battery."

"Maybe the person was taken to UofC. Perhaps one of Jessica's friends could tell you?"

"You know what, that's a great idea! Let me call over there and see if Alicia is on shift. If she is, she might know more."

"I'll call you when the police leave," Jolene said.

We hung up, and I dialed the number for the ER and asked for Doctor Lewis. She was there, and available, so she came on the line.

"Alicia, this is Steve Adams. This may sound like an odd question, but did someone come in last night beat up?"

"Actually, three Hispanic kids were brought in by the CPD. One of them was in really bad shape. Why?"

"Bad shape? How?"

"A ruptured testicle. Someone kicked him really hard in the groin. The police said a witness claimed some girl in a karate uniform attacked him, but we don't believe it. They're gang members, for sure. It might have been an initiation ritual gone wrong, and that's why they made up a story. Why are you asking?"

"Forget I even talked to you, please. I promise Jessica will give you the scoop later."

"You owe me one, Steve."

"I owe you a lot for helping Jess. Just add this to the bill!"

She laughed, "I will. I'm glad things are going well for her."

"Thanks. I'll talk to you soon."

I hung up and Elyse arched an eyebrow.

"Three kids who a witness reported were attacked by a girl in a karate uniform. One with a ruptured testicle."

"Ouch," Elyse said. "Well, that fits what you know so far. Are you going to call Melanie?"

"Yes. I was thinking about calling Jorge, and I need to warn Veronica that the cops might show up."

"Let me call Veronica. You call Melanie. I'm not sure if you should disturb Jorge at work."

"Are you kidding?! I'm going to call him immediately after I call Melanie."

Elyse went to her office, and I quickly dialed Melanie's office. It was morning, so I knew there was a good chance that she was in court, and that turned out to be the case. Her paralegal said that she'd call back as soon as she returned to the office, which would probably be around noon.

Next, I found Jorge's work number in my Rolodex and dialed. The person who answered the phone said that he was out in the field and would be out all day. She wasn't sure if he'd come back to the office or even check for messages. I left one, asking him to call just as Elyse came back into my office.

"Veronica has been warned," she said. "Did you get in touch with Melanie?"

"She's in court. Her paralegal will have her call me as soon as she's back in the office. Jorge is out on a job site, I guess, and isn't contactable. They aren't sure if he'll come back to the office before the end of the day or even check for messages."

"So now what?" Elyse asked.

"Now we wait," I guess. "Jolene should be calling in a few minutes."

I called Kimmy to refill my coffee, something I would really have preferred to do for myself, but she got such pleasure out of it that I felt it was the least I could do to let her take care of me. She winked as she left the office, causing Elyse to smirk.

"She's hopelessly in love with you, you realize?"

"I know. But she also knows that it can never, ever go beyond what it is. I'm seeing her on Saturday afternoon, with the blessing of Jessica and Kara."

"I know. They talked to me. I agreed it might be OK for her to come to the house, but I'm worried about anyone seeing her."

"That is a concern," I said. "And why I sent them to you."

"I think you'd be OK so long as there are no open signs of affection that anyone can see. The last thing you need is your son saying 'Dada kiss Kimmy'!"

"True. And you KNOW he would, at the most inopportune time!"

"It's your call, Steve. Well, actually, it's up to Jessica. I told her to think it through and decide."

"Good."

The phone buzzed and Keri put Jolene through to me.

"They just left. They asked maybe a dozen questions, I did identify your sister. They didn't say what happened, though."

"I got a bit of information from Jessica's friend, Doctor Lewis, but she just confirmed that some kid beat up some other kids. We'll have to see what they say to Stephanie."

"They said they were going to the University to find her," Jolene said.

"That's what they told me, too. They wanted to confirm with you that she was at the dojo, and when she left, right?"

"Yes. Exactly. And to confirm that you weren't there."

"I think that came about once I said she was my sister. To make sure I'm not trying to cover for her or something."

"Which you would do in a heartbeat, if you could."

"If I could," I said. "Thanks. See you tonight."

I said 'goodbye' and hung up the phone.

"Things were going too well," Elyse sighed. "Something had to happen."

"It does seem like that, doesn't it? The thing with Katy is about to boil over. I think Katy is going to be staying with us for some time. Unless Kenneth files for divorce against her for cause, or he agrees to waive the waiting period, it'll take two years for the divorce proceedings to even start.

"I honestly don't think she wants to live alone, and she's not in any state to try to get Lauren to move in with her, if Lauren will even do that at this point. Lauren is in college, her parents are paying for it, AND they don't know that their daughter is a lesbian. And just to top it off, they're evangelical Christians."

"The entire situation is potentially explosive," Elyse said.

"Yes. If Kenneth claims adultery, and names names, it could all just blow up. My fervent hope is that he agrees to the waiver and what passes for 'no-fault' divorce in Illinois. She's not asking for alimony, or anything like that, so it really is a matter of whether or not he wants to be civil about it. She hurt him badly, and he might well lash out."

"And you can't talk to him because you're part of the problem," Elyse sighed.

"Exactly. He and I never became close, and he always looked at me with a very jaundiced eye. And I'm sure he knows that she's here. And come to think of it, he never got close with any of the other guys, either. Remember, they more or less cut themselves off from us as the wedding got closer. At least Bethany had a good reason — morning sickness — for not being here much since Thanksgiving."

"So now what?"

"Now we wait. I seem to have to do a lot of waiting lately, but I have work to do, and I'm sure you do as well."

"How are you holding up now that Penny isn't here?"

"It sucks for me, but it's the best thing for her," I said. "She'll get married, have her baby, and concentrate on school. Veronica will watch the baby while Penny is in class. She'll be back here when it's time to do her internship, but that's not until her Senior year, so it'll be fall of next year."

"Wow!" Elyse said, surprised. "That will be the longest time you two haven't worked together on computers since you met her."

"You're right, but she needs time with Terry and her baby, and she needs to finish school. Both those are more important than me being a bit depressed by her not being here."

"Is Jeri going to move in to your office?"

"Hell no! Nobody is going to sit at Penny's desk. That would make her rethink her decision. You should know better than that."

Elyse smiled, "You and your girls."

"You're one of them, Elyse," I said. "Think about who I called to be with me when I needed someone just a bit ago. I'm very glad that you're here."

"Me, too. I need to get back to work. Let me know as soon as you hear anything."

"I will."

When she left, Alonzo poked his head into my office and asked me to come to the conference room to discuss some ideas Greg had for improving our database schema. Jeri, Jefferson, Alonzo, and I listened to Greg's proposal. His thinking was sound, but the changes were going to require a wholesale reorganization of every single customer database. We'd done it once before, but we'd had a much smaller client base and much smaller databases.

"We'll need to run this by Cindi and Dave," Alonzo said. "Do you think we can make the conversion fully automated?"

"I think so," Greg said. "But we'll need some customer databases to test on."

I nodded, "Ford, Jackson, and Finch would be one. Volstead and Braun, another. And Allen & Baker. All three of those firms will work with us. We'd just need a backup tape from each of their Novell servers."

"Let me present it to Dave, and if he's cool with it, then we'll talk to Cindi," Alonzo said. "My only concern is that resources are a bit tight because of Penny taking time off."

"That's Dave's issue," I said. "If this makes sense, then we'll get the resources. We do have some capital to work with, and if this improves our system in a measurable way, it's worth doing."

"Speaking of that, anything to share about the Pittsburgh office yet?"

"No. Julia will have something to say in a few weeks, I think. She and Elyse want to wait until we complete the refinancing of the note on this building before they commit to new expenses, and I agree. I'm sure you know Cindi is champing at the bit, like usual."

He laughed, "What else is new?"

All of us went back to work, while Alonzo went to talk to Dave about the plan. I was still waiting for phone calls, either from Melanie or my panicked little sister. I had some suspicions, now that I'd thought about it. If those kids really were gang members, then there was a chance that they'd made the mistake of accosting my little sister on her way home and she'd simply laid them out on the sidewalk. She'd received her brown belt just before Sensei had left for Japan, and I knew that she could very easily handle three guys, so long as they didn't have a gun. I wouldn't want to tangle with a feisty, pissed-off Stephanie, even with my black belt.