Read Online Gideon - 04 - Illegal Motion by Grif Stockley - Free Book Online

other. I realize I’m glad he isn’t coming to dinner with us.
    Why? Racism? Or is it that I don’t want him sizing her up like a piece of meat? Yet, I’ve done the same a thou sand times when I’ve thought I wasn’t being observed.
    There’s a difference though. I’ve never raped anybody.
    Dade Cunningham may have. I understand now why Sarah would be uncomfortable.
    “She’s a super kid.”
    “Yeah,” Dade mutters, not at all expecting a dinner invitation nor perhaps even remotely desiring one unless I am going to pick up the check. What was I thinking when I mentioned it to Sarah? Most of my clients I wouldn’t trust to take out my garbage. Is it because this kid is a Razorback? Or have I gotten to be too impressed with the notoriety of defending high-visibility clients?
    “What happened?” I prompt him.
    He sets his jaw, and as he talks I can now hear his mother’s voice.
    “Robin was in my communications class last spring. We sat next to each other and got to be friends in that class. She was okay. I’d be nervous right before I had to make a speech, and she’d talk to me, kind of calm me down. After the pros, I want to be a sports announcer like Greg Gumbel. Anyway, I started coming to class early, so Robin and I could go over stuff if I had a speech or something. It was easy for her. She talked all the time anyway. Some white girls you know are laughing at you as soon as they’re out of sight. She wasn’t like that.”
    He pauses, and I ask, “Anybody in the class know y’all were working together?” I remember my own anxiety in a speech class taught by a retired Army colonel from Illinois My small-town eastern Arkansas accent sounded to me stupid and hicky. Try as I might, I couldn’t pronounce a single vowel to suit him.
    “Mr. Page,” he said the last week of school, “you turn single letters into whole words.” I can imagine Dade’s embarrassment and consternation if he got an asshole like Colonel Davis. No matter how intelligent he may be, Dade has already given himself away by saying “wid” for “with,”
    “chew” for “you.” Perhaps, when he really concentrates, he can sound the “s” on all his verbs, but I know from my own experience it is difficult to worry about form and sub stance at the same time.
    “I don’t know,” he says.
    “We’d just meet in the class room early, since it was empty. It wasn’t an everyday thing. She’d practice on me, too, when it was her turn.”
    I try to form an image in my mind of the scene he has described. With his strong chin and firm mouth Dade is undeniably handsome. Throw in his coffee-with-cream six-foot-two-inch frame, his earnest manner, and status as a Razorback, and it is easy to see why even the whitest coed in the state would be interested.
    “Did she flirt with you?”
    “You mean, did she come on to me?” Dade asks, slinging his leg over the chair, which seems built for endurance rather than comfort.
    “We kidded around some. I know it’s hard to believe, but I thought it was just a friendship thing. She was good in that class and could watch and tell you exactly what you were doin’ wrong and how to fix it.”
    I put my pen down. This kid is growing on me. He doesn’t put out the arrogant, in-your-face trash I’m accustomed to seeing on TV from some black athletes. Yet, I know I’m seeing the side he shows to his coaches.
    “Did you see her outside of class last spring?”
    The chair groans as Dade shifts his weight.
    “I invited her to a party off campus over at a friend’s place. She and a roommate came. Jus’ a couple guys from the team and two girls. Nothing happened.”
    “Tell me about it,” I encourage him.
    “Did you have sex with her that night? I hear she’s pretty goodlooking.”
    “I didn’t even touch her, man!” Dade says vehemently.
    “It was jus’ a party. I invited her, kind of to thank her for her help.”
    “What were the names of the people there?” I ask, noting his