On the Run by Fineman Sue

Author:Fineman, Sue [Fineman, Sue]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
Published: 2011-04-07T05:00:00+00:00

The courtroom was an imposing place. How frightening it must be for a defendant to stand in front of a judge who sat up high and looked down at him, passing sentence as if he were God Almighty.

The dignified man who sat in the place of honor had white hair and pale blue eyes. It was the man in the picture Dave had shown her. Her grandfather, Judge Alexander Summers. Neen couldn’t take her eyes off him.

The judge looked down on the defendant, a dark-skinned man not more than twenty years old, with a cold eye. Had he looked at Ramon that way? Whether this young man committed the crime or not, she had a feeling he’d be found guilty in this courtroom.

A jury sat on the side of the room, looking from the judge to the attorneys and defendant and back to the judge.

Neen sat with Dave on the defendant’s side, behind a woman who kept wiping her eyes. The boy’s mother? Neen slipped her coat off and Dave folded it and put it on the seat beside him.

Before she sat down, she looked up to see Judge Summers staring at her. His eyes widened and the color drained from his face. Without looking away, he said, “We’ll take a ten minute recess.”

Neen sat quietly beside Dave as people stood and milled around her. Dave leaned close and whispered, “You look a lot like his wife, especially in that dress.”

After the courtroom emptied, the bailiff escorted them to the judge’s chambers, where he sat behind an imposing desk, robe off. “Please sit down,” said the judge.

Too nervous to sit, Neen walked around examining the pictures and awards on the walls, while Dave introduced himself and showed the judge his ID.

“Well, it looks like you know a lot of important people, Granddaddy.”

“Of course I do. I’ve been a judge in the state of Oklahoma for well over thirty years.”

She turned to face him. “Was it worth it?”

“Was what worth it?”

“Killing Ramon Ruiz?”

The judge slowly came out of his chair. “Young lady, you’ll speak to me with respect or—”

“Or what? Or you’ll send me to prison and have me killed, too?”

“I didn’t have anybody killed. The boy had enough drugs on him to make it a felony, and I take a hardnosed approach with drug dealers. I always have. I have a reputation to uphold, and—”

“Reputation to uphold?” Anger built inside her like a white-hot poker. “Was your reputation more important than my father’s life?”

“If you’re talking about that Mexican boy, he wasn’t your father.”

The judge had raised his voice, but Neen spoke softly. “Are you sure about that?”

“My daughter would never associate with—”

“With someone you deemed inferior because of the color of his skin? Is that why Ramon went to prison to die? Because you didn’t like the color of his skin?” She almost spit out the words. “Are you going to convict that kid in the courtroom today because of the color of his skin? Who in the hell

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