Passage 53
James sat in the court room as the new evidence was brought before the jury. Mrs. Molusky testified the events that put James in the area and time of each of the woman he murdered. What was a simple single murder case shooting for temporary insanity has now made national news of a serial killer that started his killing spree as a preteen.
He thought he would have never got caught if his mother wouldn't have ever met Bethany. Now he is being gawked at by a jury he hand picked to sympathetic towards mental health illness as a defense.
The councilers argued and went back and forth until everyone was heard. James was doodling on a legal pad board out of his mind. Then he heard the verdict.
We the jury find James Barry guilty for the murder of one Kaylee Davidson , Jessica Barry, Norma -jean Barry, Amelia Barry, Liliana Walton , and the attemptive murder of Gurthis rude Barry . We find him guilty on all accounts of murder in the first degree with murder in the second degree murder for one Gurtrude Barry.
James snapped out as he heard the verdict served. He lost no. He wasn't done. He still had to get Regina . No. He thought as he angerly hit his fist in the table he was at. No as he flipped the table over as the table flew at the bench . Four bailiffs surround him as James thought I'm going to the pin I'm going to make it worth it .
He turned to Timothy and grabbed his neck with both hands without a word and applied all his strength. Timothy was stronger than James thought and he stood up applying pressure to James wrist as James kneeled in pain.
" You are dumber than I thought. " Said timothy.as the baliffs cuffed him and pulled him out of the office. He wanted to kill Timothy as a last admission of guilt. If he was going away for a six life sentence he was going to get one more in for the road.
The room was in an uproar as James was dragged out of the room by four men .
Meanwhile Bethany had came to a building site as she refused to build now that she knew there were bodies found there. She saw it as a bad omen to rebuild on a crime scene. Bethany watched as she was looking over the plans as she was going to make luxerious apartment with high end appliances and even furnish it .
She wasn't going to charge the returning tenants a dime more than their normal rent. She was on a time crunch since she only paid one year rental lease with a promise she would rebuild for them to come back. So far she was happy with the units. She made them more spacious and more loft like that apartment small cramp spaces. She wanted her tenants to be comfortable. She even built a front office in the entry hallway that had a tag to scan to open the door . This would help with security.
Cameras was installed and air conditioning and heat was installed in each unit. Bethany was going to make the best of the situation. She made efforts based on the family preferences. She had to keep her promise to Norma -jean. When all was said and done she went home since Caden was finally enrolled in school. Caden and Sunny were always together and the boy seemed more relaxed and actually acting like a kid.
Bethany smiled at the sight of Caden and Sunny moving like magnets . Axel started Sunny on light routine training as she adored Axel. Bethany would have Paul over once a week feeling bad he was all alone in the condo by himself. Paul had become a regular at the house and Bethany even took up some training twice a week at the gym.
Things were coming together all they were waiting for was the puppies Axel promised the two kids . Axel took the children to the breeder and immediately Caden ran to a boy puppy and picked him up the puppy licked his face as Sunny looked around trying to pick a girl. There was five girls and one boy puppy in the litter so the boy was easy to spot. Sunny looked at one sitting by herself away from the others. She was smaller than the other ones in the litter and immediately she wanted that puppy.
Both children hugged their new furry family members as if they were going to run away. Axel paid the man and woman breeders and they took the puppies home. Bethany smiled how Caden toted the dog around like he couldn't walk on his own as Sunny put hers down and kept whistling for the small dog to follow her.
" Can I name him Flash?" Said Caden wanting to name him after a comic hero.
" You can name him what ever you want. Just know it's his name forever once he responds to it." Mused Axel as the puppies ran all over the house .
" I'm naming mine Mercy." Said Sunny.
" Mercy. That's a unique name." Paul said as he walked in the door coming over for his weekly dinner .
" Yes as in have no mercy. I'm training her to be a guard dog. Because I need protecting ." Sunny said amused in her name choice.
" Or if they say give me mercy or give me death . I would want death once I saw mercy ." Chucked Paul as he enjoyed the little girl had a sense of humor.
Caden looked between the two laughing and he thought maybe Rocky was a weak name since Sunny named her puppy Mercy . He started to think as he looked at the puppy.
" Well what do you want your name to be?" He asked the puppy more as a rhetorical question.
" How about Hercules. It's a mighty name for a might dog .he will be a large breed dog so a large name will be fitting." Suggested Bethany.
" Hercules. " Caden repeated as he liked the sound of the name. He say the puppy lay down sleepy .
" Hercules and Mercy ." Paul said making it note.
Axel tussled his nephews hair and smiled at him. His nephew happiness was all he wanted.
" But one rule. No feeding the dog at the table. We don't want them begging for scraps when we are eating." Said Axel stern and serious.
" It's true some of the food and spices we use in food can make a puppy very sick . Human food has to be monitored to make sure it's safe for them . Just for now stick to the puppy food." Agreed Bethany.
" Okay shushu no table food." Agreed Caden putting the dog down from his lap as he sat at the dinner table . The puppies didn't go too far as they payed together on the floor and went to sleep.
Caden had only interacted with Bethany a hand full of times but he liked her. Granted he never met anyone outside his intermediate family before her and Sunny he liked her . She made his uncle happy but also made his momma mad. Caden remembered how she acted towards Bethany but Bethany did not react to the way his momma acted towards her.
He was very scared when he saw his mother in the court house. She didn't look like his momma and she had become mean since nianai came home. He didn't know why she attacked Uncle and his friend. Caden was confused what happened and he wanted to know but didn't know how. Most of the time children were not allowed to ask about adult business.
Bethany was nice. She allowed him to have his own room and his own space. She allowed him to have a puppy . She didn't yell in fact she was always gentle and in good humor. She cooked many types of food he was never allowed to eat. His momma kept him on a strict diet. Everytime he wanted to complain about a salad or wheat bread she would remind him of the starving children that would be grateful for any food.
His momma didn't even introduce him to Roger. He was sitting on the sofa as he saw the man come out of his momma's room. The man never really sat down and talked to him. Just Pat him on the head as he left the house. He didn't like the man . He didn't care he was his father but for nine years all he saw was his momma , uncle, and grandmother. Where was he all those years?
Bethany smiled and joked with Paul as he and Axel joked and jabbed at each other. Caden looked at the group. So this is happiness? Thought Caden.
Joel Watson sat in the back pew with his mother Cynthia . In the court room as James trail was proceeding . They had always wondered about the disaperence of Liliana . Liliana went to her intern job one day and never came home. They called and called even visited the Barry apartments looking for her and she was there the entire time. Joel watched his mother cried endless nights over how cold the trail went.
It was one of the reasons he became a lawyer to have the power to look into his older sisters disaperence since he thought the investigation did a poor job and let the case go cold. When they found her they spoke to them as the described Liliana last moments as they came to claim the body. When they showed up her body was caved in and dark color from years of decay . There where bite marks and holes where the rodents had gotten to her over the years .
The only way to identify her was by the tattoo on her lower ankle . A butterfly with her zodiac sign on the wings. He remembered the tattoo because Liliana did it herself with a home tattoo kit her best friend gave her for her birthday. Joel remembers her sitting on her bed drawing it carefully with the tattoo gun. She wanted to be a tattoo artist but her mother thought it was an hobby rather than a career.
Liliana could have been a head of house for one of the upper class families like her mother but she went for finance as a major her second year in college. She met Norma -jean Barry at a community job fair . She was looking for a book keeper to help her since she was busier with Gurtrude being in dance classes . It was a hassle with two kids keeping up with the finances . Mr. Barry only came by to look over the books before he turned in the deposits.
Liliana basically ran the office by herself . When she came across James he was a snot nose teenager of fourteen. Didn't have many friends but was always up to not good. He had quick hands and she saw him taking items in the office when he thought no one was watching. When James hit her in the head she thought she fell down all of a sudden. Liliana was under the floorboards as James thought he killed her with the blow. Infact he nailed the floor shut trapping her inside .
When the detective told Joel his sisters nails were broken off like she was clawing at the wood flooring beneath. Liliana had woken up in a dark space and panicked . She tried to scream but was met no resolve. She tried scratching to find the edges of the confined space. The time Mr. Barry came back to collect the legers for the apartment lililana had died. She died slowly as she ran out of oxygen as she struggled trying to push on the nailed floor board.
Joel imagined his sister hurt and in tears as she suffocated alone trapped under the floor boards. It made him sick with how long they looked for his sister and she was there dying alone. When James was sentenced to six life sentences he still believed it was not enough for the way his sister died.
Across the ways not far away Chloe and Brett listened to what happened to there daughter Kaylee. They had never liked James always thought he was up to no good . His grades were barely passing and he didn't seem to get along with his peers . He was ofter a conversation at the table when Brittany was over . Kaylee would complain about having to work with a idiot like James messing up her future GPA. Brittney would tease her about how James had a secret crush on her and was doing unholy things at night thinking of her.
Brittney was crude and older than Kaylee. But her cousin always thought James was strange at school. They went to a school where all the grade levels were in one building. So she would pass Kaylee as James and her made plans to work on a project together. Even after the semester wrapped up he still shadowed Kaylee . Brittney sat beside her aunt and uncle that took her in after her parents had a crash from a vacation trip.
Brittney held her mom's sister Chloe 's hand in comfort as they explained the state of which Kaylee was found. Hidden in a wall. Brittney wanted to hurt James for taking her only cousin away from her. She let out a small laugh as she saw James trying to kill his lawyer after the verdict. It wasn't funny but it was exactly as she remembered him. Odd and creepy looking like the image of James after all these years was frozen in time from how she remembered him in school.
Her Aunt Chloe stared at Brittany at this reaction . When the baliffs drug him out like the animal he was Brittany clapped her hands in approval. She was ready to see this monster behind bars for what he did to Kaylee. It took a real sick person to keep visiting a body for months after he had killed her. During the entire trial she watched James laugh and grunt and even drawing on a paper . But she never saw him look remorseful.
As the court was released she watched his lawyer and saw the direction he left. She wanted to know where they were sending James. Because she wasn't done with him . She wanted to taunt him behind a glass wall . She wanted to break him and make him want her . He took Kaylee she was going to take his peace. She slipped out the back of the room with the excuse of need to use the restroom.
She caught the lawyer in the side door as she grabbed his elbow to halt him.
" Can I help you? Timothy said looking at his arm she held .
" Where is James being sent to? I just ask because well I've been watching this case for a while and we have a well fan club." She lied trying to seem in awe of James.
" There is a serial killer fan club?" Asked Timothy in disbelief.
" Oh yeah. Support your local serial killer. James is so handsome and dangerous that's hott." She said acting all fan girly.
" No that is disturbing. I tell you what honey. Stop chasing murders and grow up." He said coldly to Brittany.
" You don't have to be rude . I just wanted to visit James. You know to show our club support." She said pouting . This worked a lot on her aunt and uncle when she wanted something ridiculous.
" I don't know that. The judge usually does the placement . And what just happened in there him trying to kill me I don't care to know what hell hole they put him in either." He said pulling his arm away forcefully now.
Brittney didn't get the location of James new imprisonment but she did get who would know. The judge . She thought there is more than one way to get information . She would have to convince the judge to tell her. She wrinkled her nose at the man she saw in the court room as he was old enough to be her father . She rolled her eyes at the uselessness of the lawyer .
" Fine. Thanks for not helping me . The fan club will be so disappointed." Brittney huffed as she faked a defeated face.
" Your fan club sounds like they all need mandatory therapy." Said Timothy as he left the building to face flashing lights and microphones in his face as reporters swarmed him .