Читать книгу Corrupt City - Tra Verdejo - Страница 10

Lucky was led back to the holding cell for his own protection. He had just made himself a whole new set of enemies with his testimony. It wasn’t just police officers who felt betrayed, but correction officers as well.

Even the prisoners hated him. They didn’t care that he was helping Perry’s case. He was still a dirty cop and a snitch, and was now what they would call easy prey.

Lucky just sat inside his single cell, his head leaned back against the graffiti-covered wall. He tried to figure out where things went wrong for him. He thought about his ex-girlfriend and daughter, also hiding somewhere safely.

Lucky kept his family business to himself. No one in the police department knew about them, he made sure to keep their identity a secret. Hurting a cop’s family was high on a criminal’s wish list. Lucky was starting to have second thoughts about his decision to come forward.

He stood up and began pacing back and forth in that tiny cell. “What did I get myself into? They are going to kill me for sure,” he kept repeating to himself.

He sat down and tried to relax his mind. He leaned his head back against the wall again and reminisced about his past, his childhood. Reflecting on his painful past had always helped him get through any issues he was dealing with in the present.

Donald was born and raised in the South Bronx. An only child, his mother, Dawn Gibson, was a Southern lady, born and raised in New Orleans up until she was seven years old. That’s when her family moved up to New York.

Dawn met Lucky’s father when she was sixteen years old. Four months later, she noticed her stomach was getting bigger, and she was dealing with morning sickness. She was devastated. She didn’t tell her sex partner until she was six months pregnant. Right after she told him, he got up, got dressed, and walked out. Dawn never saw Lucky’s father again. From that day on, she never looked back.

Young Donald was a witness to his mother’s suffering, and he made himself a promise to help her out as best as he could. All she’d ever wanted for him was a good education. He made it through elementary and junior high school unfazed. He was an honor roll student and was loved by his peers because he wasn’t a follower. Everyone considered him a leader.

By the time he reached high school, the smooth-sailing ride was over. Not having a father figure started catching up to him.

Donald was into girls heavily. Popular and good-looking, girls were throwing themselves at him. There were some questions he thought his mother couldn’t answer. He needed a male’s advice. He wanted to know how to handle them, and he didn’t want to listen to his friends.

His mother had always said, “Leave those fast girls alone. They’re nothing but trouble.” But, in reality, Donald wanted the attention. The word sex was now in his vocabulary, and he wasn’t waiting until his prom to lose his virginity.

He had sex for the first time after a home game with a cheerleader he really liked. She was his girl for three weeks, until the next one threw him some new pussy. He kept switching girls as they came. If his mother had any idea he was having sex with so many different girls, she would have had a heart attack.

He maintained a 3.9 average through high school. He lost his love for karate and grew a passion for football and basketball. He played safety for his school football team and shooting guard for the basketball team, breaking several school records. His senior year he ran for school president and won. All the faculty members wanted him to get into politics, while the coaches were arguing about which sport he should play in college. Everybody wanted to make a decision for him, but he stunned everyone with his decision to attend a community college and join the police academy.

No one understood why he would join the academy with such a bright sport career ahead of him. No one but his mother. She knew Donald grew a passion for his community and wanted to help turn his neighborhood around.

He’d joined the academy in hopes of having other African-Americans follow his lead. The police department had an image of only nerds and rednecks in its ranks. He figured once the public noticed a basketball and football star had joined the force, it would bring better qualified applicants. And he was right.

Everything was on track when things took a turn for the worse. The summer right before he was to start college, Dawn was involved in a very bad car accident. While she was driving home from her second job around 2:30 in the morning, she was involved in a head-on collision with a pickup truck. The other driver fell asleep behind the wheel. By the time Donald reached the hospital, his mother was pronounced dead. He didn’t even get a chance to say good-bye to her. Her last words were a voice mail she left him.

“Okay, baby, don’t you forget dinner is in the microwave. Mommy will be home late. I love you.”

Donald changed after his mother died. He never made it to college that year. He was lucky his mother had a $150,000 life insurance policy, with which he was able to pay off bills and survive for the following eighteen months in isolation with no problem. For an entire year and a half, he basically blocked the world out and only went outside his house like an inmate, an hour a day.

Donald had blocked the world out, but he didn’t shut down his mind or body. He kept exercising them both and grew physically stronger and mentally tougher, working out at least five hours a day. He was growing muscles he didn’t even know existed.

He read all the “survival” books, and would actually live out the drills in them, sometimes starving himself for a few days. He was trying to become a superhero cop. He restarted his karate training and learned how to live in the dark, and for four months didn’t turn any light on at the house and kept all the blinds down.

Lucky woke out of his daze when the district attorney, wanting to prepare him for the bombs the defense team would throw at him, came by to see him.

“Listen, Lucky, get ready to talk about your whole past. If you have any secrets, they are about to get exposed on that stand. Matthew will do everything in his power to damage your credibility, trust me. The important thing to remember here is your poise. Stay cool, calm, and collected under his attack. If you lose your cool in front of the jury, you could damage our case. Are you following me?”

“Yeah, I hear you. I’m ready. It’s not like I’m lying. I can handle Matthew, don’t worry.”

“Well, we got five minutes. Good luck. I will talk to you after court.”

“That’s funny, Mr. Johnson. As soon as court is over, I’m going back in the hole I crawled out of. You won’t see me anymore.”

“You just can’t disappear again. We could protect you, Donald. Give us a chance. We may need you again.”

“We got five minutes before court begins, right? We don’t have the time to talk about this bullshit right now. My decision is made. Thank you, but no, thank you.”

“Have it your way,” Johnson shot back and left the cell.

Lucky’s hands started sweating. He sat back down on the metal bed and placed his hands over his head. He didn’t have a clue on what to expect once he took the stand.

When the bailiff called his name, his heart dropped. He knew it was time to face the music one last time.