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“My sister stole my inheritance from me.That’s what is going on.”The judge looked at him as John continued.“She somehow talked my mother into leaving everything to her, and I’m betting now that she was supposed to give it to me so that I can manage it.Women have no head for money, and I have a deal that will make me—err, us millions.”The judge asked him if that was true.
“No, your honor.Mrs.Brown was the sole heir to her mother’s estate.There was no mention that Mr.Chase was to receive anything as she felt that he’s stolen enough from her while she was alive.She mentioned in her will that she believed that John, her son, had murdered his father and brothers.”Chase said he’d done no such thing.“I have the revised death certificates of Theodore Chase and John’s three younger brothers—deceased.After exhuming their bodies, it was found that they had all been given a lethal dose of fentanyl just hours before they passed.”
Barkley handed the paperwork to the judge and then to the attorney for Chase.John wouldn’t even look at it when his attorney handed it to him.As he went on to talk about the death of the husband of Elizabeth, having the same cause of death, the judge looked at John.
“Not only does Mr.Strong here have you for trying to sell property that didn’t belong to you, but he’s also dug up some very damning information on the deaths of a few family members as well.What do you have to say for yourself, Mr.Chase?”He asked if he had any proof that he supposedly did this.“Mr.Strong?”
“When the police entered the home of Mr.Chase, they found several prescription pads from a doctor that has been deceased for a number of years with his signature printed on them.I don’t believe they are able to do that anymore.But all of the prescriptions that had been filled on those pads had been bought and paid for by Mr.John Chase.He would be required to sign his name that he’d picked them up.Also, I’ve talked to the pharmacies around the area where he would get them filled, and there are receipts for all of them being filled for fentanyl.Over two hundred scripts were filled for Mr.Chase over the last eight years.”The judge asked if he’d heard him right.“Yes, sir.Over two hundred of them.As you can imagine, the pharmacies are being investigated for filling them without checking to see that the doctor in question had been deceased for fourteen years by then.”
“I had a good thing going there, too, until he put his ass in the way.Do you have any idea how much you can make off of one pill of fentanyl?Why I can get upwards of five grand for just a couple of pounds of the shit.More if it’s in a place where they’re rich people wanting them.”The judge asked him to be quiet.“I will not.I want this over with too.I have shit to do, and being in here is not allowing me to get busy with it.My sister isn’t smart enough to have our parents’ land.Besides, what is it?Twenty or so acres.Christ, I’m getting four million for it when this is over.I think that alone is worth it for her to keep her trap shut about me not owning it.”
“Twenty acres?”Tessa looked at her uncle and smiled.“You’ve no idea what you’re talking about.Not only are there one hundred acres here in town, but there are twenty thousand acres on the ranch out west.More than that in Texas as well.You selling it for a sum of four million wouldn’t even make a small dent in what all that land is really worth.Christ, you’re dumber than I first thought.”
“You should know better than to talk to me that way.You hear me?”Tessa just flipped him off, and Barkley burst out laughing.So did Judge Marshall.But then he caught himself and told Tessa to keep her language clean.She grinned at the judge and told him that she was sorry.Barkley didn’t think that neither he nor the judge believed a word that she said.
Chapter 7
Carrie waited until the judge called the room to order before she stood up.Having notes on what she was to say was helpful.More than anything, she wanted this to work out the way that she wanted it to.Careful planning had gone into this one moment.
“Ms.Boone?”She nodded to the judge and asked if she could come to the front.“Does this have to do with the pretrial that is going to happen in a few minutes?If so, can it not wait?”
“No, your honor, I’m afraid that it can’t.You’re bringing in both Mr.Michael Cartwright and his son Mick Cartwright together, and I’d like to ask you something before they enter the room.Please?”He nodded, and she moved to the front of the room.“I believe you’ve been made aware of Mick’s help in getting all the bodies found on his father’s land, correct?”
“Yes.There were forty-three of them, if memory serves.The Feds were also given a book kept by Mr.Cartwright on the names as well as the supposed crime that happened that put them there.All good information.”She told him that they found one more just last night, so the count was forty-four.“All right.So it’s forty-four.What does that have to do with these proceedings?”
“I would like to ask if it’s possible that Mr.Mick Cartwright be given a much lighter sentence than would be normal for the crimes that he committed.”She handed him a file that she’d been working on for the past three days.“There you have Mick’s medical records, as well as the psychiatric profile that was done on behalf of the courtroom today.If you’ll notice, the doctor said that with his childhood trauma as well as the harm done to his daughters, it’s small wonder that Mick is terrified of his father.”
“I read that last night.I don’t know that I would have been able to be composed daily if those things had happened to me.”She said that she knew that she wouldn’t have.“I have the paperwork on his wife as well as the DNA tests on the children.They’re Michael Cartwright’s children.”
“Yes.But Mick has taken care of them—well as best he could under the circumstances of living with the three of them.I believe, as well as the doctor that has examined them, that it is small wonder that they survived living around their grandparents and mother.”The judge asked her if she had something she was getting to.“I do, your honor.In addition to Mick having a much lighter sentence than his father, I’d like to request that he be in an entirely different time zone from his father.He believes as do I and my brothers believe, that Michael will kill Mick because he’ll find out during this trial that he’s the one that had been helping the police.”
“I do believe that you’re right.And as much as I’d like to agree with you that it would work out for him to be put someplace safe, he won’t be.It won’t matter how—I’ve looked over the testimony that came with the paperwork for today, and Mr.Michael has a long arm that gets him what he wants.It won’t matter where either of them is situated.He’ll somehow get word to someone to have his son killed.”She told him she didn’t want that.“I don’t either, after having a talk with him last night.”
“I didn’t know that you’ve spoken to him.”He winked at her.“You’re a good man, Judge Marshall.What you did for the Brown women was well above what anyone could have asked for.And to have their relative put in solitary confinement for the rest of his life was a stroke of genius if you asked me.”
“Are you, by any chance buttering me up, Ms.Boone?”She felt her face heat up and said that no one had ever accused her of doing that before.“No.I’ve spoken to your future father-in-law and Barkley.You’re more of a get right to the meat of things sort of woman.”
“Yes, sir, I am.”She looked around the room.“I was going to ask you if it would be possible that Mick serve no time.He’s a good man and has helped the United States put a very-very bad man behind bars.He’s given up a lot for that, including his own safety.”
“Ms.Boone, I like you.However, it is my understanding that Mick, as you call him, committed murder twice.The people that he killed, you don’t think that their loved ones deserve justice for their deaths?”She told him what she thought.“I suppose you could be right.That they were happy just to have closure of finally putting their loved ones to rest.But he did do the crime.”
“I have statements from the two families, your honor.”He said something likeof course youdo, but she chose to ignore it.“They are thrilled to have their family members back, and they wouldn’t have gotten that without his help.Also, insurance policies were cashed now that they had a body.At a much-needed time too.The money that they’re getting will go a long way in putting their children through college and keeping food on the table.”
“You should have been a lawyer, my dear.I wish someone fought this hard for me when my missus is upset.”Carrie told him what to do.“Yes, I suppose that would help matters if I were to bring her home roses and candy once in a while, but she’d wonder what I’d done.”
“Good.Keeping her on her toes is good too.Don’t you think?”He laughed with her.“I think that if anyone deserves a second chance at life, it would be Mick.While you’re thinking on that, sir, Mick will need a new identity too, sir.So that he’s safe.”
“He won’t have anything to do with his daughters?Or his half-sisters, I guess?”She told him that she had adopted them legally and that as soon as she and Barkley were married, he’d adopt them as well.Also, he’d turned over all his worldly goods so that the girls wouldn’t have to worry about anything.“I would imagine that they’d not have to anyway being adopted by a Strong.But I do see your point.Let me think on this for a bit.In the meantime, I’m going to call a recess for half an hour.Do you believe that you can wait that long, young lady?”
“Yes, sir.I can.I know that you’ll do the right thing by all those innocent lives.”She went back to her seat only to stand up once more and address the judge.Her brothers all stood up with their wives when she stood this time.“Your honor, if you allow it, this is the support team that Mick will have along with the Strongs.We’ll all make sure that he has everything he needs when he’s put someplace safe and that even though we won’t see him, he’ll know that all he has to do is call, and we’ll all help him.Mick, for all that has happened to him, is a good man.And one that I’m proud to call a brother-in-law.”
Her brothers said the same.That they were proud of the things that Mick had done to make sure that not only was his father held accountable for his crimes but that his sisters were safe as well.
It was well past the thirty-minute mark, and she was getting nervous.She didn’t know what was going on behind those closed doors, but having her brothers there with her and Barkley too, she thought that she was handling things well.
“You all right?”She told Barkley that she’d be better once this was done.“Yeah, I think all of us will.What do you suppose is going on in his office?I mean, it’s kind of scary that it’s taking longer than he said it would.”
“I know.Why don’t you tell me what happened with the Chase hearing?I know you started to tell me once, but then we got sidetracked.Not that I’m complaining, but what happened there?”He kissed her on the nose, and she felt better.“You’re very good at distracting me, you know that, don’t you?”
