Published: 17 Aug 2023

From The Previous Chapter:

“Your honor … my next witness … he is still in school and … he isn’t scheduled to be here until after the lunch time break,” replied DA George Morris.

“I see. Seeing the next witness is still in school and it is close to the lunch break, we will go to lunch a bit early this day. The trial will resume at one o’clock at which time the prosecution’s next witness will be called to the witness stand. This trial will resume at one o’clock,” stated the judge, as he banged his gavel on his wooden block and then stood up.

The bailiff quickly called out, “All Rise!”, and the people watching the trial stood, as the judge exited the courtroom.

“Mr. Ken, ahh, could we come back and watch? I’ll bet the next witness is Mark, and … well, I’d like to hear what he has to say. And, we probably need to remind him not to say anything about the coin,” reasoned the teenager.

“Well, I did clear my schedule for the entire day, so they won’t miss me at the office. OK, we can do that, but I do have to make a few phone calls, and I can make them while we have lunch. Let’s see if we can find a nice quiet place to eat that isn’t too crowded, too,” agreed Mr. Ken.

The two Covers didn’t have to go far to find a nice place to have their lunch. Lucky for them the trial’s break went before many of the other trials, so there wasn’t a large influx of people trying to find a place to eat lunch. Mr. Ken told Billy to take a side booth, so he wouldn’t be out where everyone could hear his phone conversations.

After their waitress took their lunch orders, Mr. Ken made his first call.

“Judy … I hope you have a few moments. This won’t take long,” Billy heard Mr. Ken say over his cell phone.

Then, as Billy listened to Mr. Ken’s side of the phone conversation, he gathered the gist of the exchange was that Mr. Ken was asking the Director of Children’s Protective Services if she was able to contact the judge about Phillip getting to visit his mom.

Then learning that she hadn’t been able to get on his schedule, Mr. Ken asked Ms. Judy to ask him if the boy could have visitation rights until she was released from the rehabilitation center, and started her court ordered requirements, so she could get her son back. He then asked if Phillip could visit with his grandmother, too.

Mr. Ken’s second phone call was to Phillip’s grandmother.

“Adeline, Ken Thomas, Phillip’s foster dad. Do you have time to talk?” Billy heard his foster dad ask over the cell phone.

As the teen Cover listened to the second phone conversation, he learned that Phillip was concerned about their apartment. Phillip wanted to know if anyone was paying the rent because he wanted to make sure he and his mom had a place to go when they got back together. Also, the teen’s younger ‘brother’ wanted to know if anyone had cleaned up the apartment after the men had trashed it.

Billy heard Mr. Ken work out a deal with Phillip’s grandmother to help with the cleaning up of the apartment, since the woman had a key. Adeline would go to the apartment and determine what all needed to be done and she’d call him back and the two would talk. Mr. Ken said he’d have a remediation company come in and take care of the mess, but that she would need to be there to identify what would be kept and what would have to be thrown away.

As the two Covers ate, Mr. Ken told Billy about his phone calls, since the teen heard his side of them. The man explained that he wanted Phillip to be able to visit with his mom, while she recovered, and he felt that they shouldn’t keep his grandmother away, too.

Mr. Ken then told the teenager that Phillip was concerned about the apartment. Billy said he heard that portion of the call, and said that he could understand what his ‘brother’ was feeling. He told his foster dad that he thought about his house and what would happen to it after his mom was convicted and sent to prison. He told the man that he never knew.

The two finished lunch and hurried back to the courthouse in order to catch the Goldersons before they went into the courtroom. They were in luck. They caught them before George Morris did. The Covers pulled them into an interview room where they would be kept just before the trail would start for the afternoon.

The group made the usual pleasantries before Mr. Ken pulled them all aside, as he had something he needed to talk to Mark about.

“Mark … Bill wants to tell you something,” lightly said Mr. Ken.

“Mark … you’re probably here to tell your story about what happened the night of the home invasion. You’ve got to remember … you can’t … you can’t mention anything about the coin. I testified this morning … and all I told them was after you came out of the Safe Room, that I told you to go back there … until someone came to get you.

“Mark … you’ve never been on the witness stand and you’re going be scared, and believe me, I know. That was how I felt the first time I did it and I was only a little older than you are now. If they ask you two or more things in the same question … ask them … ask them which one they want you to answer first, and then ask them to repeat the question. It will slow them up and give you time to relax, and think about how you want to answer their question,” suggested the boy’s ‘older’ brother.

“Oh, there you are,” called out George Morris, upon seeing the Goldersons standing talking to the Covers. “Let’s go and talk about how the afternoon session should go, shall we?”

When the trial began that afternoon, George Morris thanked the judge for allowing his next witness the time to arrive from his school. The district attorney then called Mark Golderson to the stand. The DA then qualified the youngster as to who he was and why he was testifying in the trial that afternoon. The defense attorney had no objections.

Billy could see that Mark was scared. The first few questions that the DA used to identify who Mark was and why he was there did settle the boy down some. But Mark knew that he was now going to have to tell what happened during the home invasion and he tensed up.

“Mark … I want you to think back to the night those three men … the night they invaded your home. Then … I want you to tell this court … what you remember about that night. Can you do that for us?” asked George Morris.

Mark looked a little relieved to Billy. The teen heard The DA give his ‘brother’ a softball question that will allow him to tell his story as he knows it. The teen hoped that Mark would just begin to relax, as he tells his story in his own words.

Mark began telling how his ‘big’ brother got mad at him, and immediately the defense counsel stood up and objected. The attorney said that he wasn’t told the Goldersons had an older son, and he wanted to know who and where this boy was.

DA Morris immediately stood up and told the judge that this issue was covered that morning when Willian ‘Billy’ Dirketson explained that he called Mark his ‘little’ brother. He went on to reason that if one boy, the younger one, is the ‘little’ brother then, the older one, is the ‘big’ brother’.

The judge asked Mark if that was the case. Mark said that was how they looked at one another, and he liked having Billy as his ‘big’ brother. The judge then asked the defense counsel if he was satisfied with the explanation. The attorney reluctantly said he was ‘happy’.

When asked to continue, Mark went back to his story and told the court, “Billy … he was really mad at me because … well, I had answered his cell phone and … and I didn’t tell him about it. Billy then demanded I tell him who it was that called, and … and who was it that could be at the front door.

“I told my ‘big brother’ that the person who called was … that his name was Kaden. When Billy heard the name, my ‘big’ brother … he told me I better get up to the ‘Safe Room’ and stay there, and that I was not to come out for any reason until he, or my parents, came to get me.

“I asked why I couldn’t meet his friend. But Billy … he yelled something about that Kaden was a drug dealer, and that he might be there to cause trouble for him. Then my mom … she got really mad and I think she was scared, too, and she yelled at me to do what my ‘big brother’ told me to do.

“So, I started up the stairs to go to the Safe Room, and as I was slowly walking up then I heard my mom … she demanded that Billy tell her why I needed to go up to the Safe Room. That’s when I heard Billy tell her that Kaden … that the boy who had called his cell phone had been arrested with three men, and that he was being charged as the drug supplier at the high school he attended.

“Billy … he then told my mom that if he had the time to think about it, he’d bet that Kaden was the one responsible for the drugs being placed in his room, but he had no idea how he could have done that.

“It was as I reached the top of the stairs that I heard … that I heard a lot of noise and commotion coming from downstairs near the front door. It was then that I hurried and went and hid in the Safe Room. I thought that what was happening downstairs wasn’t right and … and so when I got inside the room, I … I pushed the Panic Button.

“My dad … he had the Safe Room installed when he was made a branch bank president and he told me that if I ever had … that if I ever had to go in the Safe Room, it had to be bad enough that I should push the Panic Button to summon the police. But nothing happened. I pushed it several times, but the police … they never came,” replied the youngster.

“Mark … what do you remember after that?” asked the DA.

“Well … it was very quiet for the longest time. I was tempted to go out and see what was happening, but I remembered how my ‘big’ brother sounded, when he sent me up there so … well, I stayed where I was.

“But I still didn’t hear anything for a long time and that’s because the Safe Room … it’s located between the two bedrooms, and if there are clothes hanging in the closet it makes it even quieter. Anyway, you could only hear what was being said in the bedrooms, and maybe out in the hallway some,” answered Mark.

“What do you remember after that?” asked District Attorney, George Morris

“Well … I finally heard some voices. They sounded like they were coming up the stairs. Then they got louder, and they all went into Billy’s room. There was my ‘big’ brother voice and three strange men’s voices,” explained the young Golderson.

“What did they say, or do, Mark?” asked George Morris.

“Well … the one man … it sounded like he threw Billy on his bed. Then … he started … he started asking Billy why he called the police on some guy named ‘Smokey’. Then … when Billy … when Billy told him he didn’t the man … the man hit him,” answered the youngster.

“How did you know the man hit your ‘big’ brother, Mark?” asked the DA.

“Well, Billy … he kind of, you know, he made a sound like when someone hits you. Plus, I thought I heard a slap, like the man slapped his face,” explained the young Golderson boy.

“What else did the men do, or maybe say, Mark? Continue telling us everything you heard. Can you do that for us?” encouraged the DA.

“Well, the men, all of them … they each asked Billy different questions about that guy ‘Smokey’, but they were, the questions, they were all somehow all about him calling the police and getting that man killed. They also blamed him for getting another guy named ‘Greaser’, or something like that, killed, too.

“And every time Billy didn’t give them the answer, they wanted to hear they … they hit; they beat him. I could hear it. It … it sounded so bad to me as they slapped him or punched him, or whatever else they did to him. I could hear Billy say oooph, or arrrgh, or make other noises as he got hit.

“The way I heard it in that small room it sounded … it sounded as though … as though they were trying to kill … to kill my ‘big’ brother,” added Mark, who then began to cry, from remembering back to that horrible night.

Billy began to get out of his seat, but Mr. Ken held him back. The DA asked the judge for a ten-minute recess to allow the boy to calm himself down. The judge agreed and called the court into a ten-minute recess, and he left the courtroom. George Morris called the boys mom to come up to her son.

Levi went up with his wife to attend to their son. Billy told his foster dad that Mark needed him too, and the teenager quickly made his way to the witness stand.

“You’re doing a great job Mark,” called out the teen Cover, as he went up to his ‘little’ brother, too. “And don’t be ashamed that you cried. I did that this morning too, when I talked about something I remembered that happened that night, as well. Hang in there, you’re almost done.” Billy then walked away.

“Thanks, Billy,” yelled Mark, through his drying up tears.

George Morris patted Billy on his back as he passed him, and thanked him too for helping with calming down his witness. Billy smiled back at the man and went back to sitting with Mr. Ken.

“All Rise!” called out the bailiff.

When the courtroom was settled, the judge told the prosecutor to resume his examination of the witness, Mark Golderson.

“Mark … what else can you tell the court that you heard … while you were hidden in that Safe Room of yours?”

Mark continued his testimony.

“I heard the men tell Billy that … that they had been looking for him ever since he was sent away from the estate on the lake. They didn’t know it was called Three Finger Cove, or just The Cove.

“They told him something about … that they were looking for the person who ratted out a man named ‘Smokey’ and had gotten him killed. And that they had finally found him and then they blamed Billy for that.

“But I heard Billy immediately protest that he didn’t get ‘Smokey’ killed.

“But one of the men … he yelled back, ‘Oh, yes you did. You also got your dad killed that night too,’ and Billy … he again argued he wasn’t responsible, and then I heard one of the men hit my ‘big’ brother. And that time it wasn’t a slap across the face. It … it sounded more like he hit him on the side of his head. At least that is what went through my mind.

“A few seconds later, I figured Billy was rubbing his head, I heard him say that the other man wasn’t his dad; that he was his step-dad, and that he wouldn’t have done that to his mom. Then Billy asked them something like, ‘Why would I want to have my step-dad killed?’

“Then I heard one of the men yell back to Billy something like, ‘You were the only one who knew that ‘Greaser’ was involved with ‘Smokey’, and that your step-dad went to meet up with ‘Smokey’ the night the police raided his stash house. So, don’t tell me you didn’t rat the man out!’

“Billy … he again argued with the man and said he didn’t rat on anybody that night. But he got hit again when he said that. After he recovered from that hit, Billy … he said he didn’t know where that man called ‘Greaser’ was going when he left the house that night. Billy said that his step-dad probably told his mom, but he knew she wouldn’t have called the police, because she was in just as deep in the drug dealing business as his step-dad was.

“I then heard my ‘big’ brother say that ‘Smokey’ … that this ‘Smokey’ guy probably did it to himself after what he did the night of the 4^th of July. One man … he asked Billy what did he know about what happened that night, and what did he know that would have led the police to his stash house. Then another of the men said Billy was stalling as there was no way he could have known any of that information.

“I heard Billy angrily tell them that he did know something about that guy ‘Smokey’ and some other people, who were with him. Billy told the men that they all got arrested that night, but only that guy ‘Smokey’ was able to bail himself out and he went back to the carnival and tried to grab someone, but was almost caught. Billy told the men that ‘Smokey’ …that ‘Smokey’ had gotten himself on the Sheriff’s watch list that night, and he and the other people he was arrested with were all being watched ever since.

Mark told the court that the men didn’t like what they heard from Billy and they beat on him for telling them that story, because they told him they didn’t believe him.

Mark then continued telling what he heard and said that the men wanted to know how he learned about the watch list, as he hadn’t been living on that big estate back then. Mark stated that Billy told them that his foster dad, Mr. Ken … that he was good friends with Sheriff’s Lieutenant Dan Fischer and they used to talk all the time. That Billy told them he heard them talking about what happened during that 4^th of July Carnival, and the following night that ‘Smokey’ was shot and his step-dad was killed.

Mark revealed that after his ‘big’ brother’ told the men that that they hit him some more, a lot more. The boy told the court he figured they didn’t like hearing that ‘Smokey’ did it to himself.

Mark added to his story and told the court that the men continued to ask Billy questions and they wanted to know more about that guy ‘Smokey’ and how he got away from the carnival. The boy told how Billy explained that ‘Smokey’ had somehow stolen a boat from the houses next to The Cove, where he was living, to make his escape the night of the carnival and … and that ‘Smokey’ was found on that same boat the night of the shootout going around in circles.

“The men … they didn’t believe Billy,” started Mark, “and they beat on him some more. And after they stopped, I … I could hear Billy … I could hear my ‘big’ bother weakly argue that he didn’t rat out anyone that night. He … he told them to go ask his mom … but … but he said that she was in prison for a long time, so he guessed they wouldn’t go and check out his story with her.

“Then they hit him some more. I could hear it. It sounded terrible to me and … and I couldn’t do anything. I kept pushing that Panic Button, but the police … the police they never came.” And the courtroom observers could see some tears streaming down the witnesses’ cheeks.

“Then I heard Billy … I heard him tell the men that he’d even bet that the three of them … that they were probably on the Sheriff’s watch list, too, after being arrested, a couple of weeks ago, and that they also got Kaden involved, too. They … they hit him some more after he told them that.”

The almost ten-year-old told the court that he pressed and pressed the Panic Button and nothing ever came of it. He wondered why the police never came. He knew something was wrong, but he had no idea what it could be. He said he now wished he hadn’t left his cell phone down in the Family Room when he was sent up to the ‘Safe Room’.

Mark told the court that the men continued to berate Billy for his ratting out ‘Smokey’ and ‘Greaser’ and they held him responsible for their deaths. The boy said Billy told them many times that he didn’t call the police, but as they beat him, they told him he would suffer the same fate as ‘Smokey’ and ‘Greaser’, but they hadn’t decided on when, just yet.

Mark said that Billy had mumbled a question through what had to have been his swollen and bleeding mouth, because it was hard to understand all of it, but it sounded like he asked the men how they were able to get the drugs into his room. Mark said his ‘big’ brother’ wanted to know before they killed him.

Mark said the men laughed at Billy’s persistence to resist their questioning and then, on top of that, his wanting to know how they got him sent away from The Cove.

Mark then went on and said the men told Billy that they always blamed him for ‘Smokey’ and ‘Greaser’s’ deaths, and with him living behind those high walls and never being outside of them alone … they figured that there was no way they’d ever get to him.

Mark added, “One man told Billy that they knew, from what Kaden told them, what his Mr. Ken thought about illegal drugs. So, they knew what would happen if they were ever found, especially in his room. So, they devised a plan to get him away from there.

“The man told Billy that Kaden … that he was working for them, delivering drugs to the high school kids, and with his knowledge of the house, he was recruited to plant the drugs in his room for them. But the man told my ‘big’ brother’ they had never planned on being arrested and Kaden being banned from The Cove.

“That they then had to come up with another plan and after some careful thought, they decided that on the night of the 4^th of July, while the fireworks were going off, Kaden … that their young friend Kaden, that he would figure out a way to get into the house.

“The man … he told Billy how Kaden walked onto the estate like everyone else did that night of the fireworks show. Then, since none of the security guards, or Sheriff’s Deputies stopped him, once he was inside the gate, he was essentially home free.

“The man told Billy how Kaden … how he watched a few fireworks and then, he made sure that no one was watching him, he worked his way to a shed out in the parking lot, next to the garage. From there, the man said Kaden … that he had to hope and pray that the garage side door was still kept unlocked, as it always was when the Covers were home. The man told my ‘big’ brother’ that Kaden … that Kaden found the door unlocked and he was able to enter the house and then work his way up the back stairs and plant the drugs in his room.

“The man who was telling the story was giggling the entire time. He told Billy that once Kaden was inside, he knew not to use the front stairs, because someone could notice a shadow inside. That was why he chose the back stairs. and went up that way.

“The man said that Kaden knew which bedroom was Billy’s, so he headed directly there. The man continued and said that Kaden, at first, didn’t know where he was going to hide the small bag of marijuana. The man said Billy’s ex-friend thought to put the drugs in the dresser or behind it, but when the teenager looked in the walk-in closet and saw some sort of panel in the back, he figured that it would be an even better place to try to hide the drugs.

“The man said that their junior partner didn’t take long to do the dirty deed. And that after he placed the drugs behind that panel, he said he came outside between fireworks, so he wouldn’t be seen. Then the man told Billy that to celebrate what Kaden had done, they drove over to Four Corners and had ice cream at Mr. Ken’s Kreamy Kone. That they each got banana splits to applaud Kaden for such great work.

“My ‘big’ brother’ … he wanted to know how they all knew those men, ‘Smokey’, and ‘Greaser’, but one of the men said he was tired of stories and began asking the teen again if he didn’t call the police on ‘Smokey’ and ‘Greaser’, then who did.

“When Billy said he didn’t know who it was, the men beat on him some more and every time they did that, they hurt him even more. I cried and cried knowing they were hurting my ‘big’ brother, more and more,” revealed a very tearful Mark Golderson.

Seeing how distraught Mark was, the DA asked the judge for a few moments to allow Mark to compose himself. The judge gave him ten minutes and called the court into a recess.

Miriam went to her son and got him calmed down. Mr. Ken kept Billy in his seat that time.

When the judge came back into the court and the trial was reconvened, the DA had Mark continue telling the court anything else he could remember from that horrific night.

Mark thought about it for a few moments, then he told the court, “I heard the men talking … they were planning what they were going to do with my mom and dad and … and Billy. They all … they all decided that they couldn’t leave any witnesses when they left so … so the men … the men … they planned to kill … my mom and dad and Billy before they left,” and with that said Mark burst out crying.

The people in the courtroom were in shock at what they just heard. The judge was equally shocked, as it was the second time that day that he heard that the men had intended to kill all three people in the Golderson’s home that night before they left. The judge gaveled the court into another ten-minute recess.

When the trial reconvened, Mark told the court that all of a sudden it sounded like one of the men ran down the stairs and then he heard muffled sounds that sounded like someone was shooting. Mark then added that soon another man ran down the stairs and there was another muffled sound like a gun shot, and then the third man ran down the stairs. Mark said soon thereafter there were a whole lot of muffled sounds that he said that had to be a whole lot of gun shots and then they stopped.

Mark said he waited, but he didn’t know for how long, but when the men didn’t come back upstairs, he slowly got out of the Safe Room to check on Billy. The boy said that his ‘big’ brother looked really bad. Mark said he remembered his ‘big brother’ was bloody all over and his face was bruised and swollen something bad, and he was curled up and holding his stomach.

Mark said he wanted to go downstairs and check on his mom and dad, but Billy wouldn’t let him go. The boy told the court that his ‘big’ brother told him to go back in the Safe Room and to wait for someone to come and get him. Mark said that’s what he did, and he fell asleep and it was late when Mr. Ken came calling out his name and that’s when he woke up.

Mark said he asked his foster dad what happened to his mom and dad and Billy, and again the defense counsel stood up and objected to the introduction of another person the defense counsel wasn’t made aware of. He complained to the judge that the district attorney had his witnesses continually introduce additional people that he was never made him aware of and he wanted a mistrial.

The judge gaveled the defense counsel to sit down. He then had Mark explain to the court who this foster dad was that he just mentioned and when he came into his life.

Mark apologized and quickly told the judge that Mr. Ken Thomas was eventually made his foster dad, until his mom and dad were well enough that they could take care of themselves and him. Mark continued that it was Mr. Ken who called out his name in the house and when they were outside, he asked him what happened to his mom and dad and Billy

The judge then told the defense counsel that the boy’s mixing up names and timeframes was no reason for there to be a mistrial. The judge then told the prosecution to continue.

“Your Honor, I have no further questions for this witness,” announced George Morris.

“Defense counsel; it’s your turn,” stated the judge.

“Thank you, your Honor. Mark … did you ever see the men’s faces … who supposedly invaded you home that summer night?” directly asked the attorney.

“No,” was all Mark said.

“So, Mark … there is no way then … that you can say that either of these two men (The attorney pointed to the defendants sitting at the defendant’s table.) were the men who invaded your home … and shot your mom and dad and beat up Billy, can you?” asked the smiling attorney, thinking he had a home run with that statement.

Mark thought about what the attorney said, and then he told the man that he could.

“How could you identify either of these men if you didn’t see them that night of the home invasion?” now demanded the defense counsel.

“Well … I didn’t see the men that night, but … but I did see that one man. I saw that man. (Mark then pointed at Bennett Grafflers sitting at the defense table.) … that man sitting there. Me and Matthew … we watched from outside Kaden’s hospital room when Mr. Ken … when my foster dad fought him to keep that man from killing Kaden,” declared the boy.

“I don’t believe you, Mark!” flatly stated the defense attorney.

“That’s your problem. Ask Matthew. Ask Mr. Ken. Ask the Sheriff Deputies who arrested that man over there that day … that day he tried to kill Kaden. They will all tell you that I was there that day. That man over there … he tried to kill Kaden and I watched it from out in the hallway.

“And … and if he tried to do that then … then he was one of the men who came with Kaden and were at my home the night my mom and dad were shot. Why else was he at the hospital trying to kill Kaden? It had to be because he could identify him!”

Mark then sat back and he was no longer a scared little boy. He now had a determined look on his face, and he wanted to make sure that one man, Bennet Grafflers, was found guilty for trying to kill his parents.

There was a murmur coming from the gallery after what they just heard from Mark, and the judge had to gavel them to be quiet. The judge then asked the defense counsel if he had any other questions for the witness.

When the attorney didn’t respond, the judge asked him again. The attorney was trying to comprehend what he just heard Mark say, and when he realized, the judge was trying to get his attention, he apologized and told the man he had no more questions for the witness.

Mark and his parents along with Mr. Ken and Billy gathered out in the atrium outside the courtroom where Mark and Billy testified. They talked about how Mark held up and then took it to the defense attorney at the end. Mark had a big smile on his face that he was able to tell his story, and he didn’t cry very much.

The group talked about getting together during the Memorial Day Picnic and then, out of the blue, Mark asked Mr. Ken that if Chief ever had puppies would he consider letting him have one. That question surprised the man as Chief never had a litter of puppies the entire time she was The Cove’s resident pet.

But Mr. Ken recovered and asked the mom and dad if they were OK with Mark having one of Chief’ s pups, if she ever had a litter. They told the man that if the puppy is half as smart as Chief is then they would be extremely happy to have one.

Mr. Ken and Billy returned home around the time the three younger boys arrived home from school. Matthew was happy to see them both and convinced Mr. Ken to join them for their after-school snack. Momma Maria was also happy to see Mr. Ken and Billy home so soon, too. She then talked to Billy about his helping her fix their dinner up at the Pavilion.

Billy was looking forward to helping fix the grilled chicken breasts and pineapple rings and he told Momma that since he wasn’t at school, he didn’t have any homework, so after he finished-his snack, he’d change and come back down and help her take everything up to the Pavilion.

Mr. Wayne and Mr. Dennis saw that their boss had come home early, so they came to the Study to talk to the man. Wayne told Mr. Ken the landscapers were doing a good job getting the flower beds in shape and they would be finished tomorrow. Mr. Dennis said he’d gotten all of the cleaning supplies the boys would need to clean the grease off the floor in front of the grill and make the restrooms smell brand new.

Mr. Ken asked Dennis if he would be there on Saturday. The Assistant Estate Master said he would be in order to show the boys how to use the new rotating surface cleaners. Mr. Ken told him that the boys were having a sleepover Friday night and that, if he wanted, he could be a chaperone and enjoy pizza, a Dive-In Movie and then breakfast cooked by the boys. Mr. Dennis said he’d let him know tomorrow.

Dinner at the Pavilion that evening was a fun affair for the Covers and Momma Maria. They all enjoyed the new atmosphere and the flavors Momma infused in the chicken, while using the pineapple and other spices to grill the chicken breasts and pineapple rings.

The conversation at the picnic table, of course, centered around Billy’s testimony at the trial that morning. The teen told his ‘brothers’ what he told the court, and how the defense counsel tried to trip him up, but wasn’t able to.

What surprised the boys the most was hearing that Mark was there that afternoon to testify. Billy told them that Mark was scared when he first went up on the witness stand, but after the DA asked him a few easy questions he began to settle down. Then Billy told his ‘brothers’ how Mark told not only what he knew, but at the end he blew the defense counsel out of the water.

The boys wanted to know how their ‘brother’ was able to do that. Billy told them that the defense counsel said something to Mark that essentially said that he couldn’t identify the men who invaded their home. Billy then told them how Mark told the court that he and Matthew had watched Mr. Ken fight Bennett Grafflers to keep him from killing Kaden, and that if he was trying to kill Kaden then he had to have been one of the men who invaded their home and was trying to kill Kaden because he could identify him.

Matthew spoke up and said that was what happened and that they did watch their ‘dad’ fight that man and that it was a doozie. Matthew then went on to explain what he and Mark saw as Grafflers picked up anything he could find to throw at their ‘dad’, but their ‘dad’ wouldn’t let him get away.

Momma was hearing something she never knew and she enjoyed it when the boys freely talked at the table, as she was able to pick up things that were going on at The Cove and with them. And that night she learned more of what happened to Mr. Ken, even though it had been reported on the TV News and in the papers, she heard a first-hand account of the fight that went on in that hospital room. She was amazed at the tenacity her Mr. Ken had that day.

When they were all finished eating, the boys helped Momma clean up the picnic table, the grill, collect the dirty dishes and put everything on a golf cart to take down to the house. While that was being done, Phillip pulled Mr. Ken aside and asked him if he would ever get to see his mom again.

Mr. Ken told him he talked to Ms. Judy today and he told him that she couldn’t get in to see the judge. The man did tell the boy that he asked her to ask the judge for unlimited visitation until his mother was better to include seeing his grandmother, but they had to wait until Ms. Judy could talk to the judge. Phillip was visibly disappointed, but said he understood and thanked his foster dad for trying.

At their evening meeting all the boys cared about was the sleepover the following night. Mr. Ken did tell the boys that Charles asked if they could stop at Edgewood while they were on their trip. He told them he hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Mr. Chris about adding that to their agenda, but that if they did stop there it would be for only one day because the park would still be undergoing renovation and no rides would be in operation.

The boys were sent up to their rooms to relax before going to bed and Mr. Ken and Wayne talked some before ‘dad’ Ken went up to say goodnight to his ‘boys’. Mr. Wayne headed home since he would be there tomorrow night for the sleepover, and he would be spending Sunday through Tuesday night with the boys, while his boss was gone.

There wasn’t anything new the boys wanted to talk to their dad about that night. They told him they were all looking forward to the sleepover. Phillip was the only one who was the most excited, as he never had someone sleepover, ever.

The night was calm and quiet and all of the Covers slept well.

The saga of Three Finger Cove continues. Let Chowhound know you are reading his story: Chowhnd at Gmail dot Com

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