Back To Life (Series 2 Completed)

Chapter 5 - The Truth

Mrs. Jones was making coffee while I was in the living room looking at old photographs. "Is this your son?" I asked. "Heavens no, that's my late husband Mr. Jones sr." She explained. Big guy huh? I wondered. "He stood 6' 8" and weighed over 250lbs. " "Wow, I'm sorry for your loss," I said. "Yeah thanks, it happened during our son's trial. He had a massive heart attack. He didn't even make it to the hospital and our son was accused of a crime he didn't even commit ." she explained. "Interestingly enough I wanted to ask you more about that; how can you be so sure of his innocence?" I asked in a gravitated tone. "Honey that's none of your concern and I'm going to have to ask you to leave now! I don't talk about my son, besides shouldn't you be getting back to your wife." She said in a stern voice.

I had blown it again, I thought to myself, and this time there was nothing more to do. Damn, but wait! I still had an ace up my sleeve. I thought silently to myself. She started to close the door; as I put my foot between the door and the outside. I lowered my head to her eye level reveling the hole in my head. "Oh, you poor child what happened there?"  "This is what your son did to me!" I explained. She opened the door once again as she poured another cup of coffee and asked me to sit down. "Paul Campanelli the victim, right?" "Yes," I said.

"Now you sit there and don't move a muscle; I'm only gonna say this once and don't even think about interrupting me or I will stop and you leave, and you will never come back again, got it." She said in a loud voice. "Yes, M'am!" I responded in a firm voice. "Good," she said. Mrs. Jones sat down herself in an old rocking chair as she laid her coffee on the table and said "Oh boy here goes nothing."

Mrs. Jones POV

My son learned to write even before he could speak. As a boy, he had a lot of trouble socializing with others. He couldn't express his feelings unless it was in writing. Not surprisingly, he did well in school, academically that is. He became a cop. That particular day my son was undercover with the Westside gang you know, the arch enemies of the Eastside gang. He was investigating a possible fraud into the lottery. You see the Eastside gang had a member that figured out how to win every time and that morning that member of the Eastside would claim another prize. As it turned out the member didn't want any part of it anymore. He knew he could be killed for having so much money on hand. So he put the ticket in a briefcase under and lock and key not knowing Westside knew all about it. My son and another member of Westside screeched into the Avenue the member pulled out a 38mm firing multiple shots at the Eastside gang member. The member took cover dropping his briefcase behind an unsuspecting man who was texting on the phone. All the while the Westside member jumped out of the car in order to retrieve the case. But the police were already at the scene handling a car accident that had occurred earlier. The gang member who fired the shots hid in the alleyway waiting. When the police looked up, my son was all alone. Looking as guilty as he could, and to top it off the gang member had thrown the gun on to my boy's lap. None of the witnesses had seen the other bastard! My son was charged with attempted second-degree murder. But the bastard wasn't able to get the briefcase either, you see when the victim had been shot down, his cell phone fell on top of the briefcase. Naturally, the cops thought it was his. Nobody said otherwise until the Eastside gang member, in fact, told the cops;  "Yup that's his briefcase, I've never seen it before in my life."  

Basar to Paul's POV

Mrs. Jones was in tears I tried my best to console her. But I had to ask. "How could you know all this?" "My son was a cop remember and besides my son wrote a letter explaining what he knew, hoping they would exonerate him. Instead, they condemned him and sentenced him to 74 years in prison with no possibility of parole." She explained breathing heavily as a sea of endless tears fell from her brown eyes.