“I don’t have forty dollars. Let alone forty thousand dollars.”
Vince looked at Ricki. She looked so defeated. “What were you thinking was going to happen when you came all this way, Rasheda?”
“I was hoping the charges would be dropped,” she said. “Or, if not, they would let her get out on her own signature.”
Vince studied Ricki. She was street savvy as hell, but where the rubber met the road she was as innocent as a lamb. “No. It doesn’t quite work that way when we’re talking a homicide.”
Ricki looked as if she was going to just fall to pieces. “Why don’t you sit down?” he suggested. But just as he was suggesting it, Ricki saw McAfee, her sister’s public defender, come out of the courtroom.
She hurried over to him. “I’m Erica’s sister,” she said quickly.
“You’re Ricki?”
“Yes sir.”
He looked around. Then he gathered her further down the hall, away from any listening ears. Vince went too.
“And you are?” he asked him.
Vince didn’t quite know what to say. “I’m with her sister,” was the best he could come up with.
“He’s with me,” Ricki confirmed. “Now about my sister? They won’t drop the charges?”
“Oh no. No way. She’s going to trial. Or plead out.”
“Can I see her?”
“Not tonight. But I’ll put you on the list for tomorrow at eleven.”
“Tomorrow?”
“At the soonest, yes.”
Ricki was disappointed. “Okay.”
“What I need you to do for your sister, however,” McAfee said, “is to get your family members to get on board with her defense. I haven’t been able to get them to so much as give her a character reference for the trial.”
“What can I do about that?”
That sounded like an odd question to Vince.
“You can ask them, beg them if you have to, to help your sister,” said McAfee.
“How does it look for her sister?” Vince asked.
McAfee exhaled. “Bad,” he said. “Real bad. She’s gonna need a miracle. Or an attorney that doesn’t have fifty other cases on his caseload and have an investigation budget. I’ve got to run.” Then he looked at Ricki. “I’ll put you on her visitor list,” he added, and left.
“Come on,” Vince said to a distraught Ricki, and they left that courtroom and that courthouse altogether. It was a sobering experience for both of them.
But when they made it to his car, Ricki still seemed stunned. “Where to?” he asked her.
Ricki looked at him. They were standing at the front passenger door. She had no clue where to.
“Want me to drop you off at your parents’ home?” Vince asked her.
“My parents?”
“Yes.”
