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

aggrieved tone. Maybe he can’t admit he was attracted to her because of his father’s admonition to stay away from white girls.
    “I’m going to need to talk to as many people as possible. The more I know about this the better off you’ll be.”
    Dade rubs his right hand over his face. This isn’t his idea of fun, obviously.
    “It was jus’ Harris and Tyrone and Tawanna and Doris. I don’t even remember her room mate’s name.”
    I try to get comfortable on the bed. This is going to be like pulling teeth.
    “Who are Harris and Tyrone and what are their last names?”
    “Harris Warford and Tyrone Jones. They’re on the team, but they don’t play much. Tawanna Lindsey was with Harris that night. Doris Macy wasn’t with anybody.
    She just kind of hangs around Tawanna. We cooked some ribs and drank a couple of beers. That’s all I remember.
    We ate and listened to some music, talked some. Robin’s roommate, I remember, knew a lot about sports. She asked a million questions about different team members, stuff like that.”
    “Whose place was it?” I ask, writing furiously.
    “Eddie Stiles. He’s a student,” Dade says.
    “He actually wasn’t there for the party. He jus’ lets us use it sometimes—to get away from the dorm.”
    “Did you want to have sex with her in the spring?” I ask.
    “She must have liked you, or she wouldn’t have come.”
    “I don’t know!” Dade answers irritably.
    “Nothin’ happened.
    It was just kind of a social thing.”
    Denial. I’ve never seen anybody operate without it.
    “Dade, it’s okay if you liked her sexually even the first moment you saw her. It’s human nature. We are attracted to certain people. We can’t help it. All the lectures in the world can’t change that. A jury would understand that. In fact, I doubt if they would believe you if you didn’t admit you were attracted to her.”
    Dade leans forward and rests his forearms on his thighs, staring straight ahead.
    “We were jus’ friends-that’s all.”
    I see I have a lot of work to do, but it can’t be done all in one day.
    “Did you see her again outside of class in the spring?”
    He shakes his head vehemently.
    “Jus’ that one time.
    School was about out, and we had exams. I went home.”
    “Did you call her or ask her to do something before summer came and she couldn’t?”
    “I might of called her once, but outside of class I didn’t see her.”
    This kid has been brainwashed more than he realizes, but so far he is so sincere I feel good about him. Even if he is lying about his feelings, a jury in a normal case could get beyond that. The trouble is that he is black.
    They’ll have to get beyond that first.
    “So how did you be gin to have contact this fall?”
    Dade folds his arms across his broad chest.
    “She’s a cheerleader, so I’d see her at pep rallies, and I was in this course called public speaking with her. She didn’t get friendly like she was last semester until a couple of weeks ago, and then we started working together like we did before.”
    “So it was her idea,” I conclude, watching his face carefully. This kid seems incapable of guile, but I remind myself I’ve had plenty of clients who had no difficulty believing their own lies.
    “Now it seems that way,” he says thoughtfully.
    “She’d talk at the first of the semester, but it was like she was too busy.”
    “Had you asked her to work together, and she hadn’t wanted to, or what?” So far it seems that Robin called the shots.
    “Not really,” Dade replies casually.
    “You can jus’ tell.”
    This kid is more sensitive than a lot of guys his age.
    His light color may have something to do with that. Thus far, he seems about as far from a rapist as I can imagine.
    “So you just started working together again?”
    “Yeah,” he says blankly.
    “We had a big speech coming up, and we agreed to get together and work on it a little bit the night before.”
    “Whose idea was that?” I