Fatal Convictions

71

With Khalid’s trial only eight days away, Thanksgiving was just another working day at Madison and Associates. The only member of the firm who didn’t come to the office on Thanksgiving was Ramona Madison. She had been serving the homeless Thanksgiving dinner for twenty-five straight years, and she wasn’t about to skip a year now. Alex gave her the full day off but made her promise to cook dinner for everyone else.

By six o’clock, the firm was sitting down at Ramona’s dining room table, ready to dig into the feast. Shannon generally spent Thanksgiving with her folks in Alabama, but this year she couldn’t get away. The fourth member of the group, Nara Mobassar, had never shared a Thanksgiving meal with anyone. Alex had also invited Khalid, but Ghaniyah had been reluctant to participate, so Khalid decided to stay home with his wife.

Ramona had put her best china on the table and made Alex mute the football game while they sat down to eat.

“Do you mind if we hold hands and say a brief prayer?” Ramona asked Nara. “We won’t be at all offended if you choose not to join us.”

“That’s fine,” Nara said. “Actually, I’d like to join you.” She held out her hands, and the others took the cue.

“Alex?” Ramona said, once they were all holding hands. “You’re the minister here.”

“ Former minister,” Alex reminded her.

He kept the prayer short, focusing on the things for which they were thankful. At the end, he couldn’t resist a quick petition for success on Khalid’s case. After his amen, the others echoed the word, and the feast began.

“How did you have time to cook all this stuff and work at the feeding kitchen too?” Shannon asked as she passed around the main courses.

Ramona gave Shannon a sly smile. “I donate five hundred a year to their Thanksgiving feedings. That should entitle me to a few leftovers.”

Alex’s head jerked up from slapping the mashed potatoes on his plate. “You took food from the homeless?”

“They had plenty,” his grandmother said, somewhat defensively. “And if I do say so, I think they got the better end of the deal.”

Undeterred by the source of the bounty, the Khalid Mobassar legal team dug in with great enthusiasm while Alex periodically ribbed his grandmother about her wonderful cooking. Ramona had established one firm rule for Thanksgiving dinner-no talking about the case. Alex could tell that it was killing Shannon.

Just before dessert, with Ramona clearing the dishes, Nara provided Shannon with an opening.

“When is my mother’s case going to trial?” Nara asked.

“January tenth,” Shannon said. “But your mom will be deposed a week from Saturday. I’ve been pushing for depositions of the defendants, and the judge ruled last week that the defense lawyers get to depose Ghaniyah first.”

“I still can’t believe Judge Lewis did that,” Alex said. “I think he got intimidated by Strobel.”

They had had this same conversation around the office several times. Mack Strobel and Kayden Dendy were anxious to depose Ghaniyah. Shannon had resisted, knowing that her client wasn’t yet ready. Recently, Strobel had gone to court to complain, and Judge Lewis had ordered Shannon to make Ghaniyah available for deposition. Shannon refused to miss a day of Khalid’s trial, so a compromise was struck. Ghaniyah’s deposition would take place on a Saturday.

“She’ll make a terrible witness,” Nara said.

The comment seemed a little out of line, and for a few seconds, nobody responded. “Actually, the problem we have is that your mom might make too good a witness,” Shannon responded. “Her recovery is coming along great, which is a good thing. But if she does too well in her deposition, the jury might not believe she’s suffering from a serious brain injury.”