Chapter Two

I am employed by the State Prosecutor's office in my county.  My boss, Charlie Walker,  called me into his office and told me a few things about my new case.  Sarah Grace Westward is a fourteen year old girl who was born with a rare genetic disorder known as cerebral palsy.

   She had allegedly been raped by a man named Michael Clark, a friend of Sarah's mother, Jane Westward. I sighed and said to Charlie, "Well my day just got off to a good start, didn't it?" Charlie handed me Sarah Grace's file as he left the room.

I had been told that Jane Westward  and her daughter, Sarah, were waiting to see me.  I cleared my throat, opened the door, and invited them  into my office.

Mrs. Westward began by saying, "I have to raise my daughter on my own, you know." I told her I understood, shaking my head. Detective Sailor, who had just walked into my office, asked permission to speak with Mrs. Westward and her daughter as well. 

Detective Sailor wanted to know how long Mrs. Westward had been divorced from her husband. "We have been divorced for thirteen years this past summer," Mrs. Westward said. Detective Sailor nodded his head in acknowledgement to her answer.  He then moved on to ask questions about Michael Clark. 

  His first question was to ask Sarah if Michael had ever touched her in an inappropriate way.  Sarah slowly, and with a lot of struggle,  responded that Michael had not only touched her in her private places, but also forced her to have sex with him.

  Mrs. Westward gasped in disbelief and quickly hugged her daughter while crying hysterically.

Meanwhile, Michael Clark and Cole Westward, Mrs. Westward's ex-husband, were being interviewed at the police station in two different interrogation rooms. Once Detective Sailor saw that Mrs. Westward had gained control of her emotions, he continued by asking Mrs. Westward if it was possible that her husband and Michael Clark were friends or acquaintances. 

  Mrs. Westward explained to Detective Sailor that her ex-husband had met Michael at work, and that they had been business partners for a short period of time. She did not meet Michael until after the divorce. He asked her to explain what had brought on the break-up with her husband.  

   She said, "I  didn't want my husband to leave us, but I realized he could not handle raising a disabled child so I let him go. Cole shortly remarried and his new wife didn't want to have anything to do with Sarah. It has been several years since he has seen his own daughter."

Detective Jonesberg, the lead detective in the case, had been interviewing Michael for a little over an hour, when he asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee. Michael said, "Yes, please," and eventually drank the whole cup.

Detective Jonesberg asked Michael if he wanted a refill.  Michael said he would.  The detective picked up the cup and went outside the interrogation room where he  placed the used cup in an evidence bag and marked it as an exhibit in the case. 

   It was handed over to the medical examiner, Georgie Smith, who had been working in forensics for the last ten years.  She told Detective Jonesberg the results would be ready in the next two or three days.

I sighed. There was probably enough information to charge Michael but the detectives would have their hands full interviewing Michael and Cole as any other witnesses who might come to light during the investigation.

Meanwhile, back at school, Jacob had just come out of the cafeteria, fifty-five minutes after finishing his lunch. Jacob was marching alongside Izza, David and some other students.  He was having a great first day.

"Did you hear about our new teacher, Mr. Young?", Izza asked. " He's our new math teacher, and he's so fine," Izza said as she began to squeal with enthusiasm.

"Oh, Izza, that man is twenty years older than you," David responded.

"Yeah, so?" Izza answered back.

"So, he is not going to ask you out. I happen to know he is married with a wife and two kids."

Jacob and I returned home within five minutes of each other. I walked in the door and  laid my briefcase on top of the living room couch.  Jacob came running in the house shouting, "I had a great first day," I nodded my head and said, "That's wonderful!  Did you make any new friends?" Jacob cleared his throat and said, "No, not really, but I will eventually. I just need to get used to high school.  Everyone says that making new friends in high school can be a real challenge."

I chuckled, "Yeah, I was a high school freshman once,  and I promise you, it's something I would never want to go through again."  Jake followed me into the kitchen, and asked me a simple question. "What was it like when you went to high school?" 

"Oh, I was sort of a nerd.  I wore glasses, and everyone thought I was weird," I said, while walking up to one of the kitchen cabinets where I took out the cutting board from the cabinet next to the sink. " Did you eventually make any new friends?" Jacob asked, "Yeah, I met Yale, and Mason.  They didn't care that I was weird, because everyone in our school thought all three of us were weird, anyway. I met a few other "weird" friends and we all hung out together until we all graduated together."

    I began to plan out our dinner by going to the refrigerator to get a fresh tomato.  Jacob eventually began working on his homework.  Mrs. Baker arrived just on time to help Jacob solve a question that he did not understand. 

    Jacob gets very frustrated when he tries to solve a question in a subject he doesn't seem to get or one that he is not interested in at all.  This includes math. Mrs. Baker explained to Jacob (more like gave Jacob a hint) about one of his math words. Jacob finally understood and was able to solve the problem. Mrs. Baker said, "Yeah, that's correct," with a smile on her face.

"How is Jacob doing so far?" I asked, coming into the dining room, "Oh, I'd say he's still having a little bit of trouble with math, but I am sure he will eventually get the hang of it." I sighed, nodding my head,  I understood that this would be a subject that would probably always give Jacob a problem. 

   Mrs. Baker eventually left. Jacob and I ate our dinner which ended up being a very good green leaf salad.  By 9 pm we were both very tired from our days and decided to go to sleep and leave the problems of tomorrow for tomorrow.