Chapter 16: Relative Reactions

"Tell me Mr. Carson, how much trouble am I in?"

"Well Deacon, I can't tell you that everything's going to go away but we'll talk about it and maybe you'll give me some ideas."

Kevin Carson and Deacon Robert Ramsay had just heard the prosecution's case against him or at least what they were required to reveal.

"I'll go through things in order. First, did Rita Gonzales work in your factory?"

"Yes, for a while."

"Did you supply her with clients for her prostitution business?"

":Uh, yes ... I guess that's what I was doing."

"We saw the video so we know you instructed Henrietta Jackson about being a prostitute and there's evidence there that you received money from her. Do you want to deny that?"

"Doesn't the video make it impossible to deny?"

"There's a chance ... a slim one but still a possibility that I can get the video evidence excluded as entrapment and then it would be only your word against hers. Did you have sexual intercourse with Alicia Foster?"

"No, never."

"How about Rita Gonzales."

"Uh yes," and the Deacon turned red with embarrassment.

"She says she wasn't eighteen yet when you took those pictures. I don't think they can prove that ... she doesn't have any papers to show her age so there's a good chance we can get the statutory rape charge thrown out, and that's the most serious charge. But the charges of pandering and aiding and abetting prostitution will likely stick unless we get the videos thrown out.

Ramsay went home to his cheating wife and pregnant daughter but neither would talk to him. In their minds he was guilty as charged.

His wife Marilyn was worried that somehow her relationship with his partner, George Smart would be revealed and that she would be shamed just as her husband was.

Ramsay's eighteen year old daughter was saddened and disappointed by her father's actions. He was as bad as her mother and all the pregnant eighteen year old wanted to do was talk about it with Reverend Gillis, the father of the baby growing in her belly.

George Smart and Michael Ogden had met with the prosecutors right after Carson and Ramsay had and now they were also discussing the case. Only discussion isn't really what was happening.

"How can they do this to me? Those girls were all willing and if I hadn't helped them out they'd have been plying their trade on the street and God knows what would have happened to them."

"Nonetheless Mr. Smart, you were breaking the law. You were making money out of a criminal activity."

"Bullshit! If there was a criminal activity involved they were the ones doing the crime, not me."

"Did you have sex with Alicia Foster?"

"Do you mean, did I fuck her? Damn right I did ... but there'd already been a lot of slices taken off her loaf. She was even selling it in our church."

"Yes but she was only fifteen and here a girl has to be eighteen before she can legally say yes."

"Well dammit, then prosecute her for saying yes illegally. Look Ogden, I'm paying you big money to get me off so earn the money. Do whatever you have to ... I'll pay."

George Smart's pregnant wife was not as nasty as Ramsay's wife. And his daughters each reacted differently to his problem.

Bonny Smart was worried that somehow out of all this her husband would be in prison or, even worse, penniless. Could the state take all his money like they could for drug crimes? But if worse came to worst maybe she could get a divorce and marry the father of the child she was carrying. Being married to Reverend Gillis didn't sound bad especially when compared to being married to George Smart.

George's oldest daughter, Kathy, didn't believe what she heard. Since that night four months ago when the teacher, Hollis Newman took her virginity she had dreamed of a repeat but he had ignored her. And now he was seeing Ms. Tyler, another teacher. Her father's travails seemed insignificant to her. He'd had lots of women and if some of them were girls, so what? If they were like her, they wanted it and eighteen wasn't a magical age for that. And as far as the girls selling sex, why not that too? If men were willing to pay then the girls earned it and if her father got a commission that seemed fine too if he found clients for the girl.

Julie too did not disapprove of what her father had done. Deacon Ramsay was doing the same thing for her and now she had a lot more money than before. She just needed a few years of this and she'd be independently wealthy. She hoped that both her father and Deacon Ramsay would get out of this OK but especially she hoped for Deacon Ramsay. She was glad the police didn't know about her business because then they'd have made her testify and she couldn't lie. She'd apparently been raped, statutorily, and the Deacon had definitely been responsible for her becoming a ... a courtesan. She so preferred that word to the others they used to describe girls who did what she did. But he was a good man.

Darlene Smart had been surprised when she heard what her father had been charged with and she'd been especially surprised to learn that it was illegal to have sex with a girl under eighteen unless you were younger or the same age. So it hadn't been illegal when her brother David broke her in but what she was doing now with Peter Mahoney was certainly against the law. He could be charged just like her father was. If her father went to jail what would happen to her? She liked Peter a lot but he had a wife and a daughter who was almost the same age as she. But he was a lawyer so he likely had lots of money. Maybe he'd pay her to keep quiet about what they did? Also, did this mean that Mrs. Thompson was also guilty of statutory rape? Had David thought about getting money from her?

The youngest of the Smart family, David, was also the one who best appreciated what had happened. His father had been trapped by his two principal desires, the desire for sex and the desire for money. It started him wondering about girls he knew. Coleen might be persuaded but she was mad at him since he started screwing Mrs. Thompson. Sarah Newsome though might be willing. Could he get her? He remembered how submissive she'd been when he and Arthur were doing her and he was sure she'd agree if he was firm with her. And if he got her to fuck older guys then he could use the statutory rape thing to get more money from them. Even better, maybe if he threatened Mrs. Thompson that he'd tell what they'd done she'd be able to get girls for him. Should he try?

The cases were proceeding as the police and DA planned. Detective Dick Durham would be the charging officer and ADA Cheryl Mahoney would be the prosecutor. That had looked like a problem before Ramsay and Smart got new lawyers not connected to Peter Mahoney.

And then things began to come off the rails. Two days ago Dick Durham, after a bad day with his bitchy (and pregnant) partner had too much to drink and then he posted a photo of his partner with a cock in her mouth looking blank-eyed at the camera. And his partner saw the picture.

Louise Marker was livid with anger. She'd already been convinced that her bastard of a partner, Detective Durham had drugged her and impregnated her. Now, when she saw the picture, she knew that once more she'd been drugged and assaulted. The penis was clearly visible in the photo but the man was not identifiable. And then she remembered the video she'd taken of Durham with the fifteen year old hooker, Alicia. And Alicia would be testifying against Smart. On Monday she'd go to the Mahoney woman with the video and find out what she'd do about it. She didn't expect them to charge Durham with rape although they could but surely he'd be fired.

By Thursday Louise thought she had a better idea. She wanted to heap maximum dishonor on her so-called partner and if she went to the Mahoney woman the police would become involved up front and they'd want to minimize any potential bad publicity. They'd probably try to cover it up.

Michael Ogden was off the wagon but he still had things under control. He just needed a shot now and then to enable him to put up wth his arrogant and overbearing client, George Smart. He had finished reviewing the case with his client and heard the demand to do whatever he had to in order to get him off and now, feet on the desk, he was sipping cognac and wondering what wrinkle he could find to get his confessedly guilty client off.

"Come in," Ogden said when he heard a firm knock on the office door. He opened a drawer and put his snifter there out of sight as a beautiful woman entered.

Louise blushed with a mix of anger and satisfaction as she saw the rugged looking man's eyes obviously undressing her.

"Who are you?" Ogden's question was gruff and undiplomatic.

"I don't think you have to know who I am but I have something that might help you in defending Mr. Smart."

"Please have a seat. Can I offer you a cognac?" The sun's well past the yardarm and it's time to relax.

Louise was charmed by the sudden appearance of a friendly person behind the stern mask she'd first seen. "Yes sir, I'd like that."

Michael Ogden truly was a charmer, especially after a drink or two. After several however he was a vicious beast but Louise Marker had no way of knowing this and even if she had it likely wouldn't have altered her course. He ushered her to the futon that served as his bed when things were going badly but which now was simply a sofa alternative. Then he carefully chose a snifter without smudges and poured a generous dollop of cognac before taking it to her and sitting beside her.

"Now m'lady, what do you have for me?"

"Maybe you do need to know who I am, sir. If I tell you will it be confidential?"

"If you engage me to act for you then anything you say will be covered by lawyer-client confidentiality. That is, unless you're going to put me in a conflict of interest situation by doing or saying things that will harm another client.

"Consider yourself hired," Louise said with a smile after sipping the smooth nectar he'd given her. "If you decide to use what I have for you it can't hurt Mr. Smart and it may help him a great deal. But it will likely help him more if people don't know that it came from me."