Then Ricki decided to come at her brother a different way. “JoJo asked about you,” she said.
Davey seemed genuinely confused. “What he asking about me for?”
“You guys aren’t close?” Vince asked.
“Close? Me and JoJo? No. We ain’t never been close.”
Then George and Milo walked in. “Sorry to disturb you, Davey.”
“What y’all want?” Davey asked them.
George looked at Vince and Ricki. “The assistant DA assigned to Erica’s case is problematic.”
“In what way?” asked Ricki.
“In a lot of ways.”
“Who is this DA?” Vince asked.
“That assistant DA assigned to Erica’s case. McDonald is her name,” said Milo. “Althea McDonald.”
“Althea?” Ricki asked. Then she looked at Vince. “As in Al? Could Althea McDonald be the Al that JoJo claimed hired him?”
“That’s what they call her,” said Davey.
They all looked at him. “That’s what who calls her?”
“Everybody. She’s Al McDonald around here.” Then a lightbulb seemed to go off in Davey’s head. “And she’s related to JoJo.”
This surprised Ricki and Vince. “Are you serious?” asked Ricki. “Related how?”
“Their cousins or something. At least that’s what I heard his mama’nem talking about once. They were bragging when she graduated law school. I don’t know if it’s true or not.”
“It might be if she’s the Al that JoJo told us about.”
Davey winced as if he was experiencing even more pain. “But what does JoJo have to do with this?” he asked.
“He said somebody named Al tried to pay him to take out Erica,” said Ricki. “He even came to town to do the job. But he said he thought about me and backed out.” She wanted to tellhim what happened to JoJo, but not until he was in better shape himself.
“And that’s why we’re here,” said George.
“What is it?” asked Vince.
“The evidence against Erica? Badly flawed. Perhaps criminally so.”
Everybody was looking at George. “How so?” Vince asked.
“The prosecution, led by Althea “Al” McDonald, claimed that Erica Richardson’s DNA was at the Proctor crime scene. That was their strongest evidence against her.”
“You’re saying it wasn’t her DNA?” asked a hopeful Ricki.
“Oh it was Richardson’s DNA mixed with his blood alright. But what Miss Al failed to mention in her court filings, was that there was Y-chromosomal DNA markers at that scene, not the XX chromosomes.”
Ricki frowned. “But what does that mean?”
“It means,” Milo said, “that the DNA was consistent for a Richardson to have been the murderer alright, but not a female Richardson. Only males carry the Y-chromosome. It had to be a male.”
Davey winced even harder. “But I didn’t kill that man! There was no way my DNA was at that crime scene.”
