Ella Descending

"And the rug had on it semen from two different men. Analysis showed us that these men were siblings and that one sample matched the semen on the sheet. From my perception I would say that the evidence is not only consistent in every way with Ella's story, but conclusive. We haven't even started on the murder evidence. The forensics on this one are equally damning, his prints were all over the murder weapon, he will probably claim that it's his bat so they would be, but when one of the prints has blood on it that belonged to his wife, I'd say the State has a good case. Then there's the blood found in the stitching of his hand made shoes, also hers. What else is there, bloody footprints, check, blood-stained clothes found buried in the back yard, check, evidence from the home security system that requires a PIN code to gain entry and his was used at around the time of the murder, check, and when pressed his brother withdrew his alibi. Do you want me to go on?"

"Mister Sutton?"

"It sure as hell look as if my client is guilty. Can I cut a deal?"

"What is it?"

"I assume that the DA will be now pushing to include incest on the docket, if I can convince my client to plead guilty to involuntary homicide will you cut us some slack?"

"Ms Wheeler?"

"No deals."

"Then I need to talk to my client."

"Very well you have five minutes."

Big Bill left and returned a couple of minutes later. "I informed my client of the new and compelling evidence that was about to be presented and he has agreed to plead guilty to the present charges on the proviso that no additional charges will result from this trial."

"Ms Wheeler?"

"Agreed." They returned to the court room.

Judge Pederson looked at Father. "I understand that you have decided to change your plea to 'guilty'?"

"Yes." He gave every appearance of a beaten man, gone was the self-assuredness he had displayed not that long ago.

"In that case I accept the plea and dismiss the jury. The court will reconvene in one week for sentencing. This court is adjourned." His gavel hit the block and there was a scramble for the exit by the reporters.

Troy was waiting in the corridor when Nicolle and I walked out of the courtroom. "I've booked a table for three in the restaurant across the road. I think a celebration is in order."

"I'll leave you two to it, I've got to get back to work." Nicolle was just about to walk away when Troy grabbed her hand.

"Oh no you don't. We owe you a great deal and we're going to see that you get it."

"Alright, but only for a little while. I do have to get back to work." The little while became a long while and we were all pretty merry when we left. Troy and I caught a cab back to the hotel, we were no longer required as witnesses so the State wasn't going to provide transport any more plus we had to check out of the hotel in the morning.

I knocked on Troy's door and he answered it in his shorts and a hotel robe which was more than I was wearing, I was just wearing the robe. "I thought I'd come and thank you for all of your help these last weeks." I stood on my toes and kissed him, my arms around his neck. He kissed me and the knot, if you could call it that, on my robe slipped and it fell open. "I want to really thank you."

"Are you sure that you want to do this?"

"Oh yes, I'm sure. Unless of course you're not interested."

"I've heard some dumb statements in my life but that one beats all." He kissed me and his hands were inside the robe and I could feel his interest increasing. It was going to be a long night.

"So life is good for you now?"

I looked at the my therapist seated opposite me. This wasn't the first time that I had gone through the story with him, every time it's the same ritual, I was told that by going over the story I would be able to come to terms with the elements of it and to search out the positives in those elements. "Yes, I would say it is good. Troy and I are planning to get married as soon as I finish my Park Ranger course and I'll have a job working with him making sure that animals that aren't supposed to get shot don't, and fixing up those that are injured in the process of getting away from irresponsible hunters. And I've met my birth mother, she's a really lovely lady, nothing like I was expecting at all and we get on just fine. She has a husband and a couple of kids, they're not wealthy but they are happy, that's the main thing. She's been very supportive and tells me often that I'm just like she hoped I would be, and that I shouldn't feel guilty about what happened to Father. I suspect that there's some bad blood between them, it appears that part of the adoption process was that she had to agree never to try to contact me."

"Do you still get depressed?"

"Yes. Especially when I think that if I hadn't written that letter to my mother she wouldn't have confronted my father and she would still be alive, I know that you keep telling me that I didn't ask for him to do those things to me, and that if I hadn't left the evidence for her to find he might have got away with it, and who knows where that would have left me. You keep telling me that I have nothing to feel guilty about." I'd been hearing this for the last year or so but it did little to stop me from sinking into depression, although these episodes were getting few and far between, and I have Troy to provide me with support. He knows just what to do when I'm down, he makes me laugh and then he makes love to me, and that is so much better than my first experience with sex.

I have almost stopped descending, at last.