DRAKE: Kate, I'm fine. Sophie can stay with me. Really, I feel great. No headache. I'm totally chill, brah.
KATE: Brah??? Have you been talking to Jules? :)
DRAKE: No, actually. Just a dude who was in the waiting room with me. I asked him if my tie was on straight before I went into the ADA's office and that I was nervous. He said, 'You look totally chill, brah.'
KATE: OMG, that's a keeper. I'm going to use that the next time you look stressed. Chill, brah! Here I thought it was Bro...
DRAKE: Bro is so GenX. Get with it. This is the new Millennium. It's brah.
KATE: Guilty as charged. I'll see you when you get home. We can have lunch and relax, whatever happens. I still want Karen to take Sophie out so you can rest all afternoon.
DRAKE: If she can't, no problem. I'm fine. Really, Kate.
KATE: Okay. See you soon. I love you.
DRAKE: I love you, too.
I put my cell away and tried to push my worries about Drake into the back of my mind, but it was hard. I felt all fidgety, waiting for Karen to call me back with her answer.
Finally, about fifteen minutes later, she did.
"Hi, Kate. I got your message," she said. "I can take Sophie, no problem. I'll come by at about two o'clock and take her for a walk through the park before putting her down for a nap at my place if that works for you. Poor Drake..."
"I know," I said, my sense of relief strong that Drake could spend the afternoon alone. "He says he's okay, but he's such a stoic and rarely lets anything show, but I know this is really upsetting to him. He's paid such a high price."
"Well, don't you worry about it. I'll be happy to take Sophie so you can go to the studio and Drake can rest. His testimony is tomorrow, right?"
I sighed. "Yes, unfortunately. But at least once it's done, we can move on."
"I heard a report on television today. The local station is really running with the salacious content. It's disgusting."
"I know," I said. "I guess it sells ad copy so what can you expect?"
"Exactly. See you around two o'clock?"
"Great."
I hung up, and sighed, happy that I'd be able to go to the studio and escape all the worries for a few hours. I'd be able to concentrate knowing that Drake could just lie on the sofa and sleep if he wanted, recover from the morning. He sounded in good spirits, but you never knew...
Of course, it was then that a news report came on with a breaking news banner. I turned up the volume, only to see the announcer talking about a video that had been released of Drake and some unknown woman that was too violent to put on television, but the announcer said it was available online for anyone who wanted to see it for themselves.
I knew at that moment that the video of Sunita and Drake had been released. Now that was going to make everything harder because there was no way to deny Drake had spanked and caned her and she had the welts on her leg and red ass to prove it.
Now, it was there for all the world to see...
Drake
My morning with Assistant District Attorney Canmore went as well as could be expected. She was sharp as a tack of course, and had won pretty much every case she tried with the exception of a few high-profile murder cases of very wealthy men. Lisa's family had connections in the NYPD, but those couldn't help her deny the evidence, since it was that very police department who provided it. And the evidence was damning. According to Canmore, the evidence was so good, so damning, that it was pretty much an open and shut case.
"Usually, I don't like to say that because it sounds arrogant and circumstances can always change on a moment's notice, but if there was ever one, this case is. We have emails, we have bank records, we have forensic evidence, we have a body, and we have the confession of one of the two suspects. The only thing the defense has is mitigating circumstances that might reduce her sentence, but she won't get off. No way."
"I hope so," I said, wanting to believe she was right but still having this low-level sense of doom hanging over me.
"Trust me," she said and waved her hand dismissively. "I've been doing this for years. The jury will convict on the evidence. She'll either spend 10 extra years or the rest of her life in jail. There's no way she'll be found innocent."
We spent the hour allotted to us going over the questions she would be asking and potential cross-examination questions the defense lawyer might ask. Of course, at the top of the list were questions about my relationship with Derek Richardson, how I met Lisa and how we became involved. She focused a lot on my refusal to continue the relationship because I didn't really enjoy exhibitionism and found a new submissive. I then talked about the next time I saw Lisa at NYU and recounted our meetings, how I had sought advice from Derek and how I had tried to withdraw from the fellowship program because of her attempts to force a relationship on me.
"Much of this was covered in her earlier trial," I said.