Read Online Jury of Peers by Troy L Brodsky - Free Book Online Page A

she’s better.  And listen, I've seen all kinds of trauma.  I've been all over, and I know that what happened to your face was not something that you did on your own.  We tracking?"
                  “What’s that mean?  I was honest.”
                  The doctor paused and their eyes met.  “Honestly.  Honestly, it means that she’s still very sick.  We’ll know more tomorrow, but right now we’re still in the deep woods.  And secondarily, it means that despite the cop in the hall, and the detectives and all of the drama, you didn't do all of this and then smash your own face in to throw everyone off.  Period.”
                  “Thanks,” Seth said.  His eye throbbed when he held it open, so he relaxed and let it close.  "Thanks.”
                  She left without another word.
                  Seth turned away from the television and the nurses watched him do so on the closed circuit video.
                 
    *              *              *
     
                  Whitaker Meek had never really taken a great deal of stock in the notion of traditional father son relationships, nor did either of them see much benefit in extending olive branches when they would likely be woven into a crown of thorns.  And thus the two had lived separate lives.   
                  Seth was a product of a brief union between Whit and his mother, one that left all three of them feeling a bit sullied.  His mom had been a single, successful young woman working just out of college for an off shore bank out of Aruba.  The Caribbean had left her tanned, relatively wealthy, and on track.  Wiring money wasn’t terribly impressive in and of itself, but doing it for the all of the right people and with just a pinch of panache, especially for a svelte young islander, had more than once landed her in the sights of the neuvo –rich with their yachts and airplanes and cocky smiles.
                  She’d enjoyed the life, the attention, and the perks until Whit.  Not that he was bad to her.  They’d sailed nearly around the world after they’d met, three months of pure lust, the sort of passion that precludes everything else:  life, family, and common sense.  The fun kind.  It was a romance of vice, and while other people were waiting in mile–long lines to fill up their cars with gas, Seth’s mother was flying around the world in Whit’s jet and hoping that she’d never have to come down.  She was a couple of steps ahead of the game. 
                  Until Seth.  Seth was realistic about it, knowing that his life was a result of his mom’s decision to give birth instead of send him packing in a suction tube.  It had to be an agonizing decision.  Abort, ignore, resume.  Or, have the kid, end the whirlwind, and settle down away from the life she’d come to love.  Whit had lobbied for the former, which, in truth, Seth couldn’t really blame him for; it wasn’t personal really. Having a kid was a hardcore downer for a guy who was used to waking up to the midday sun on his back.              
                  The shock of it was the beginning of the end for the two lovers.  They went forward, young and determined, and married later that year.  The seed of doubt, though, had been sown in Whit, who was moderately paranoid about most anything anyway.  Seth was sure that he spent his wedding eve wondering if he’d been trapped, wondering if he could still get out, and if his father was right to tell him to cut and run.
    The morning of the wedding there had been a knockdown drag out fight, one that attained legendary status in Seth’s mind as his mother told and retold the tale later.  The couple had nearly come to blows over Whit’s alcohol–fueled speculation that he’d been cornered by a gold–digger.  He’d qualified the statement by