Sixty-Seven

Judge Ossom's gavel raps harshly, angrily, bringing the two emotionally-mad lovebirds cruelly to the present.

Chris and Effe breaks apart and look into the enraged face of the Judge.

"You're ten seconds away from the stiffest charge of contempt of court, Lawyer Kedem!" Judge Ossom says coldly, his voice furious. "That is the inanest and grossly inappropriate sight I've ever witnessed in my court. In case you forgot, this court is in session!"

Effe is suddenly aware of her surroundings, of witnesses, of cameras, of live feeds... and an expression of severe discomfiture seizes her. She is principled and firmly responsible, and would have condemned a similar spectacle from any couple... but then again it is Chris, a man whose mere look can rob her of all inhibitions.

Looking severely flustered, she looks at the displeased judge humbly. The court room, shocked into silence a few minutes ago, is now filled with low murmurings of disapproval, of mirth, of anger, and of understanding from a few observers.

"A million apologies, Your Honor. May I please approach the Bench?" Effe says, contrite.

"You better, Counsel!"

Effe sighs miserably and approaches the Judge. Quickly Jeff Atakora stands up and follows her. Effe looks up at the Judge, who covers the microphone on the desk with his left hand.

"You don't have to say anything, Effe. You're off. That was absolutely unacceptable!" the judge says angrily.

"Thanks, Your Honor. I'm sorry, but I can't prosecute him. I love him. I was very hurt, and blinded, but I love him."

"You've disappointed me, Lady," the judge says angrily. "Jeff, can you proceed, or you need time to prepare? I can postpone, you know, in the wake of that appalling and ludicrous behavior of Lead Counsel."

Jeff Atakora looks quickly at Effe.

He licks his lips.

"We built the case together, Your Honor, I can continue," he says somberly. "Sorry, Effe."

Effe nods humbly.

Sudden tears simmer in her eyes.

"Your Honor, I've reliable sources that shows that the Defense Counsel is just here as a mere stooge, and will not offer anything good to help the Defendant," she says earnestly.

"Don't dare, Effe, don't even go there!" the judge says with a dangerous growl. "The answer is NO, you can't and will not defend that man. You know better! Snap out of that madness, Effe!"

Effe is a picture of dejection as she looks at the judge with impotent fury. She is to be blamed for this. She had been so hurt and bitter that for a moment she had forsaken the man she loves.

"Can I speak to the accused, Your Honor?" Effe asks softly.

"Are you aware, Effe, that we're on live television? Every goddamn person who matters in this country is watching us. Why the hell do you want to compromise my hearing? You're damn lucky I didn't send you to jail for that silly scene you pulled earlier. Now get the hell out of my sight!"

"Please, I beg of you, Your Honor. I know I erred, but I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. Understand, this is not easy for me. Mr. Buabasah is just there to make things legal, but you know he's not going to defend Chris. How fair is that? Please, let me speak to Chris. Just for five minutes, please, I beg of you," Effe implores.

The Judge glares darkly at her, evidently unhappy. He turns his gaze on Atakora.

"Are you okay with that?" the judge asks.

Atakora looks at Effe, and there is pity on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm cool, Your Honor," he replies.

Judge Ossom removes his hand from the microphone.

"Will the Defense Counsel and the accused please approach the Bench?"

There are murmurings from the crowd as Buabasah and Chris stand up and walk towards the bench.

"Would somebody please take off those handcuffs?" the judge orders irritably.

Curtis scowls darkly, but he steps forward and unlocks the handcuffs on Chris. Chris flexes his wrists and stands besides Effe. She turns to him, and with tears in her eyes she points at Barbara.

"She was beaten, Chris. She had your semen in her. There was cocaine in your bloodstream. She had lacerations that point to rape," Effe says quaveringly. "I love you, Chris-Love, and I now realize I can't live without you. But if you did all that to her, then you deserve to be punished, because no man should treat a woman like that. If you did, I'll applaud your sentence, but I'll wait for you no matter how long. The lie detector showed she spoke the truth. Did you do that to her, Chris, my love?"

Chris looks at Effe with haunted eyes. He suddenly takes her hands, kisses her knuckles, and speaks desperately.

"I don't remember, my love, believe me. That day you left for Takoradi, she came to see me. She wanted to make love, but I told her you and I were back together," Chris says hauntingly. "I showed her the diamond-encrusted bands I had bought for me and you to start our love afresh. I told her to get out, and she still insisted she would never let me go. I was hurting already, and I remember yelling at her to leave me alone. The next thing I realized was that the police was all over the place, and I was arrested. I don't remember what happened, my love, but believe me, Angelface, I've never ever in my life done cocaine. Never."

Effe stares at him, shattered. Her heart is in pain as she suddenly hears Ira's voice:

Her head is not screwed on right... screwed on right...

"My God!" she whispers tremulously.

She raises a hand and places it on Chris' chest. Tears drip down her face.

"I believe you, Chris-Love. I don't know how, my love, but I'm not going to allow anybody to do this to us!"

She turns and quickly walks towards the Lawyers' Entrance and leaves the courtroom.

Judge Ossom heaves a troubled sigh.

"Enough of this nonsense already. Sit down, sit down. Let's restore some sanity here. Counsel, ready for your opening statement?"

When everyone is seated and an uneasy silence reigns, Jeff Atakora stands up and approaches the jury. He looks at their grim faces for a while, sighs, and begins to speak.

"Your Honor, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, my mission here is a simple one. I don't expect this to be a long-drawn case, because the hard facts are there, and there are no ambiguities whatsoever," Atakora begins. "I don't want us to glorify a criminal, albeit a most popular citizen we all love because of his prowess in the ring. He was the husband of my friend, and I personally like him, but wrong is wrong, and should be condemned no matter who commits it, because no one is above the law. Today, the people are charging Mr. Chris Bawa with violations of the Criminal Offences Act with the willful, deliberate and absolutely inhumane rape of Barbara Brooks. We are going to prove beyond doubt that Mr. Bawa is a heartless rapist who deserves no mercy. We will call three witnesses. One of them is Chief Inspector Dan Curtis, the policeman first to arrive on the scene, an unbiased government official who examined the accused's house, and he will testify about the state he found the victim and the accused in. Then, we will call Doctor Kenneth Pintos, the medical practitioner who examined the victim, and he will testify that indeed, Miss Barbara Brooks was brutally penetrated without her consent according to the forensic and medical examination. We will also call Miss Barbara Brooks, and live her ordeal right here. Today, we are going to prove that Mr. Chris Bawa is guilty, and deserves the maximum punishment of twenty-five years. Thank you."

There are murmurings again, silenced by the Judge's gavel hitting the sound block sharply.

Atakora calls Barbara Brooks to the stand.

Her face still shows the ordeal she had been through.

Her ribs are still bandaged under her dress, and her left wrist is also bandaged. She is helped into her seat by a young policeman. She is sworn in on the Bible.

As she sits dejectedly in the witness box she shakes, and any time her eyes fall on Chris she shudders.

"Thank you for being here, Miss Brooks. Are you sure you're ready to do this?"

Barbara smiles bravely, but there are tears in her eyes.

"Yes, please," Barbara says with tears glistening in her eyes.

Atakora takes her through the questioning, covering the period she arrived at James Fort Prison and how she had felt sorry for Chris. Barbara narrates how she sometimes cooked for Chris inside the prison and how they became friends.

She tells them of the phone she bought for Chris when he was released from prison and driving him around and finally taking him to Madina.

"You must have liked Mr. Bawa very much," Atakora says gently.

Barbara shudders, and tears come to her eyes and spills down her cheeks.

"Yes, I did. I loved him. I wanted him to be my husband."

"Barbara, there was an incident that happened prior to the final unfortunate rape ordeal. You lodged a complaint against Mr. Bawa for assault, and he was arrested. Later, you changed this story and he was released. Would you mind telling us what happened?" Atakora prodded gently.

Barbara narrates how she invited Chris to her apartment, and how he had tried to make love to her, and when she refused, he went berserk and threw her through her French glass windows.

"He was like an animal! I thought he was going to kill me. When he saw I was badly hurt he calmed down and rushed me to the hospital," Barbara says, and breaks into uncontrollable tears.

"So, if you suffered so much why did you change your report and let the police release him?" Atakora persists.

Barbara wipes tears from her eyes, and this makes everybody in the audience extremely sad, all except Wailer Vroom and Ira who are sitting just behind Chris, and looking at him with pity.

"Because I was in love with him. I thought he would change," she says tremulously. There is a low murmur of anger in the courtroom, and people point angry fists at Chris.

"Orrrrrder, Orrrrrder!" the bailiff roars.

Next, Atakora takes Barbara through her friendship with Chris.

"Barbara, before the incident, did you ever willingly sleep with Mr. Bawa?"

"Yes," Barbara says with a nod. "I once spent the night with him at the residence his sister-in-law gave him. He was having a terrible time, and I couldn't leave him. I shared his bed, and we made love. Afterwards, I told him it was best we didn't make love again because I wanted to save myself for the man I marry."

"And what did he say to that?"

"He agreed, and promised me he wouldn't do it again without my permission."

"And you believed him?"

"Yes! I was in love with him! And I trusted him! But he is a beast! A beast!"

She breaks down, and begins to weep pitifully.

The courtroom is shocked into silence. All eyes turn to Chris. The members of the jury regard him with blatant hatred. Ben Buabasah shifts his chair a little further away, and looks at Chris with a contemptuous curl of his lips.

"Are you okay, Miss Brooks?" the judge asks compassionately. "Can you continue, or you want a little break?"

"I can continue, please," Barbara says with a pained gasp.

Atakora sighs and walks back to his seat.

It is very evident that he is terribly affected.

He gets up and approaches Barbara after a while.

"That brings us to the morning of April twentieth, the day the sad incident happened," Atakora says.

He takes Barbara through the time she arrived at Chris' house.

"He called me the previous day that he has a package for the prison Chaplain, Jon Fii. I passed through to take the package," Barbara recalls.

She describes how she had seen Chris sniffing cocaine on the kitchen counter and she had tried to stop him, and when he wouldn't she had scattered the cocaine. This prompted a rage in Chris, and he had attacked her severely, beating her up badly and then raping her viciously. Afterwards, as he was trying to fix himself another cocaine fest, she hit him with a dumbbell, and when he fell unconscious she crawled to her bag, took out her phone and called the police.

Chief Inspector Dan Curtis and his team arrived a few minutes later.

"She lay there, torn and bleeding, seriously hurt by a man who knows how to use his fists," Atakora says in a shocked voice as he turns toward the jury. "Maybe she might have been dying. Torn, broken, helpless. And what does he do? He tries to fix himself cocaine. I must add, Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, that my colleague, the esteemed Effe Kedem, questioned Miss Brooks using a lie detector before we came to court. It showed she told the truth."

He turns slowly and faces the judge.

"No further questions, Your Honor."

The silence is electric.

Judge Ossom sighs deeply and looks at Ben Buabasah.

"Your rebuttal, Counsel?"

Ben Buabasah gets to his feet.

"No cross-examination, Your Honor."

He sits down, and some of the people in the audience laugh briefly.

Barbara is helped out of the witness box, still weeping, still pathetic. Some of the people in the audience are weeping now.

Ira wipes tears from her eyes, and Wailer scowls at her.

"Hey. Weeping for her?" Wailer asks.

"No, no, not for that lying witch. For CB, my love," she says passionately.

"Yeah. Looks bad for him," Wailer says sadly.

The crowd hurl insults at Chris, and no amount of warning from Judge Ossom can silence them. Judge Ossom has no other option than to call for recess.