Banana Girl: a thatcherjoe love story

Chapter 33- Suzi Vowles: laywer by day, superhero by night.

"Sorry, love. No personal items, electronics, mechanisms or jewellery, I'm afraid."
The huge guard with bulging biceps and a scar down the left side of his face stared down at me at me with a straight face. He had a tattoo of a dragon on his arm that reached right around to his other arm and up his neck, and it seemed to glare at me. His eyes were dark and deep, and his chin was covered in stubble. To be honest, he looked more like a bouncer than a prison guard.
Milo. I knew him quite well now: Joe had to be in here for a month until his trial. I'd visited him every single day for the week he'd been in here.
"Please, Milo! It's a gift..." I took the lid off of the small gift box I had in my hands, revealing a tiny book.
"What's this, Violet?" He looked at me as if trying to work it what went on in my mind. I took back the book protectively, knowing how personal it was to me.
"It's..." I sighed and gave in, showing it to him, "it's a journal. A relationship journal. All the milestones of my relationship with Joe are in this book."
He smiled and opened the door to the little room where I got to see and talk to Joe, the same one that we sat in a week ago.
"10 minutes."
"Thank you!" I rushed into the room, having gotten out of the wheelchair a week ago, and my arm was fully recovered.
I walked in and sat down, the chair squeaking on the floor.
I waited 2 minutes, maybe more, before seeing a tired Joe walk in to the room, hands cuffed and eyes drooping.
"Violet!"
"Joe!"
"I missed you so much!"
"I only saw you yesterday!"
"Yes, but each night in this place seems to last a year. I hate it.
"Oh, Joe..."
"Anyway. How's mum?"
"Oh, she's doing... Fine. She left for England last night."
"Oh, okay. I can't believe I missed our anniversary. I spent my 6-month anniversary of my relationship with the girl I love in prison! Can you believe tha- What's that?" He looked down at the box in my hands, and took it from me.
"I... It's stupid, I should just take it back. I don't know what I was thinking..."
"I don't care what you were thinking. Let's see."
I handed it over obediently, adding, "it's for you."
On the first page was the teeny scrap of paper that Joe wrote his number on when we first met.
The second page had the receipt glued to it from when Joe first said we were an item, whilst the third was the selfie I took with Zoe on the day I told Joe I love him.
Turning over the page, we saw the gift card attached to the box of my Pandora bracelet from our anniversary, and Joe was reduced to tears when he saw the one-way plane tickets to New York, which I'd doodled on when I was bored in the hotel.
"Violet..." His voice cracked as another salty tear fell from his face, "I can't believe you kept all this stuff."
"Of course I did!" I exclaimed, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"Please go. I don't want you to see me like this."
"Joe. I'm not leaving until they escort me from the premises. Look," I said, showing him the blank pages after the ones is shown him already, "these are the pages I'm going to fill with all the mementos of our future. See?"
He looked at the door as it was opened, and an official-looking woman with short hair and a briefcase walked in.
"Mrs Sugg?" She asked.
"Oh, uh, no, we're not married yet."
"Ah, well..."
"Violet."
"Violet, may I have a word? Outside? In private?"
"Of corse. One moment?"
"Right. I'll be out here."
I turned to Joe, "that's my queue. I'll see you tomorrow, okay? I love you."
"Love you too." His guards took him out and I saw him slip his book into his pocket as he winked at me.

-------------------

"Sorry, who are you?"
"Ah, I'm Suzi Vowles." I have her a blank look.
"Joe's Lawyer."
I had stepped outside to greet the woman with a briefcase and she passed me a cup of warm coffee, which I sipped occasionally.
"I have some news."
"Oh. Sure."
"First, I will need some ID and confirmation that you are who you say you are. A driving licence perhaps?"
I pulled it out to show her and signed some papers she handed me to confirm that was, indeed, Violet Stevens.
"Right. You may want to sit down. We have had a look into Joe's background and into his files, as has the judge, and we have decided to move his trial forward. To tomorrow, as you know."
"Tomorrow?!"
"No one told you? Oh. Well, yes, the trial is tomorrow. And I can feel you now that things are looking good."
I breathed out in relief.
"Yes, we have no witnesses, and the only evidence we have is traces of the drug in Joe's safety deposit box."
"Safety Deposit box? What safety deposit box?"
"Mr Sugg had put the substances in a safety deposit box he had in New York. Thing is, no one saw him access it, there are no witnesses."
"Meaning...?" I inquired, curious as to where she was headed with this.
"Meaning, Joe has an alibi, there are no reliable witnesses and he has no criminal record. Even if he did do it, he had a reasonable motive showing that the substance he was 'dealing' cures, not harms."
I gave her a questioning look.
"Meaning Joe Sugg will, with the odds on our side, not be proven guilty. Your boyfriend, Miss Stevens, should be proven innocent."