Page 7 of Innocence

“Funny, last time I checked a man is innocent until proven guilty. A man with as many years on the force as you should recognize he couldn’t have beaten himself in the back of the head with a baseball bat.” The officer blushed and stood to the side while Ghost glared at him.

“Mr. Moore? My name is Katrina Redhawk, and I’m an attorney. This is my colleague, Kari Robicheaux.”

He stared at the group of people, frowning.

“You didn’t need to bring bodyguards. I won’t hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Didn’t hurt that sweet girl either.”

“We know,” said Ghost. Sterling stared at him, confused. “You’ve got some good friends. Warren, Harry, and Edith.”

“Damn. Them kids never listen when I tell them to go home,” he said, shaking his head. “What if the men who did this saw them?”

“We’ll make sure the kids are okay,” said Katrina, “but I need for you to tell us exactly what happened.”

“I can’t afford fancy lawyers,” he said, looking at them.

“We’re not worried about that,” smirked Ghost. “The kids paid us.” Sterling stared at the big, tattooed man and then at the others.

“We had just finished practice. Harry, Warren, and Edith are always the last three. The three musketeers, I call them. I like the kids to be headed home while it’s still light out. I sent them on their way and turned the park lights off but left the security lights on for a while. I was picking up all the equipment when I heard someone behind me.

“I turned, and that poor child was walking toward me,” he said, shaking his head. “I raised my hands up so she would know I wouldn’t hurt her. She said, ‘help me’ and fell forward. I got to my phone, called 911, and then set my phone down. She kept saying she was sorry. I think she must have seen who was behind me. I felt something hit my head, and that’s all I remember.”

“What did she look like?” asked Katrina.

“A mess. Poor child was practically naked, cut up, bleeding everywhere. Her blonde hair was pink there was so much blood. She was bleeding all over me.”

“Had you ever seen her before?” asked Kari.

“Never. Then again, I see a lot of folks at the park. Sometimes parents, siblings, I could have seen her and not remembered. What I do remember is that I didn’t hurt that girl. I was with the kids all afternoon. Heck, them three that called you were just with me. I didn’t even have the time to hurt her if I’d had an inclination to do so.”

“Mr. Moore, we’re going to get you out of here, and we’ll be handling this case. It’s very clear that you didn’t hurt that young woman,” said Kari.

While Katrina continued to speak to Sterling, Ghost stood guard, and Razor went with Kari to the courthouse to get Sterling released.

“I heard what he said,” said the officer, looking down. “Y’all are right. It doesn’t make sense at all. He seems an easy target to blame it on.”

“Too easy,” growled Ghost. “But now the damage is done.”

“What do you mean? Y’all will prove he’s innocent,” said the officer.

“You’ve been around long enough to know that he will forever have a black mark on his record because of this. People will be hesitant to trust their children with him, even after he is cleared of everything.”

The officer’s face told Ghost that he understood the magnitude of all of this. An innocent man, even after innocence is proven, will always be thought of as possibly guilty.

Two hours later, Kari and Razor walked in with an order to release Sterling into their custody. Although the judge wanted a preliminary document submitted claiming Sterling’s innocence and the evidence that they had thus far, he knew enough to know that Kari and that team wouldn’t let him leave the state.

“Let’s go, Mr. Moore,” said Kari.

“Where am I going?” he asked, looking at the strangers with confusion.

“Home.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Miller, Trak, Nine, and Ian searched through the woods behind the ballpark. Trak immediately stopped, slowly turning, looking around the space.

“What’s wrong?” asked Nine.

“No one searched this area. How many police officers have we seen who have searched an area, the woods, fields, anything, and traipsed through like buffalo?” The other three men all nodded, noting that the grass was still high other than one tiny path. “They didn’t search these woods.”

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