Here I am. Send me.--Chapter Six

Evelyn attends Josey's arraignment and Chris finally gets some quiet time alone.

CHAPTER SIX

Evelyn made it to the courthouse and parked in the underground parking garage as usual. It was a little spooky down there when she was alone, but it beat the walk if she hunted for surface parking. She rode the elevator to the surface and walked past the old courthouse and crossed the street behind it to get to the Birch Building. It took several minutes to get through security in the lobby, followed by a couple more minutes waiting for an elevator to the fourth floor. That gave her time for a five-minute bio-break before squeezing into the packed courtroom gallery with five minutes to spare.

She didn't bother to pull up the official docket on her phone as that would give Josey's appearance time as either 9:00 AM or 10:00 AM, which was the same as the other hundred or so cases scheduled for the day. Amanda got access to the privately held schedule used by the court and the police to schedule appearances which stated that Josey would be arraigned at approximately 3:00 PM. That was a guess at best but better than sitting all day. She scanned the gallery, looking for a vacant seat. She saw none and found an empty section of wall in the back against which she could lean.

It was over an hour before Evelyn heard "Case 2025-C-784, Josephine Marshall" announced from the front of the room. She had to turn sideways to make her way down the crowded aisle to the front of the gallery where she waited as the public defender got Josey situated in front of the judge.

The judge took a small sheath of papers from the court clerk and scanned through them for a moment before looking up. "Ms. Marshall, you will not be making your plea today. The court has decided to divert you into a mental health program administered by the Metro Police Partner-in-Care program."

The assistant district attorney spoke out of turn, "Your honor, the district attorney's office strongly disagrees with the suspension of these proceedings. Ms. Marshall is accused of a violent crime against a child and should be processed with the safety of the child and the children of Nashville/Davidson County in mind."

The judge wearily regarded the young attorney. "Counselor, are you satisfied that you've gotten your sound bite in for the evening news?"

"I have nothing further to add, your honor."

"Then, unless the District Attorney's Office has built and manned some additional correctional facilities of which I am unaware, I am diverting Ms. Marshall into the mental wellness program." She turned back to Josey, "Ms. Marshall, do you understand that you are still under indictment for assault, attempted murder, and assault of a police officer. You will have to come back and face the legal consequences of those actions."

Josey nodded, "Yes, ma'am. They explained that to me this morning."

"And you understand that the consequences you will face will be directly tied to how well you work with the mental health professionals to whom you are being entrusted."

"Yes ma'am. They told me that, too."

The judge looked up at Evelyn, "Is someone from Partner-in-Care here?"

Evelyn stepped forward, "Yes, your honor. I'm Evelyn Dunham with Psychiatric Health, Inc which is a contractor to the Metro Police Department for the Partner-in-Care program."

"Ms. Dunham, please take Ms. Marshall aside and explain the upcoming process to her."

"Yes, Ma'am."

The judge tapped her gavel. "Next case."

Evelyn took Josey's arm and led her to the side of the room. The public defender didn't even look their way. She just pulled out her next file folder.

Josey started, "Can I leave now?"

"No, you're charged with a violent crime which requires us to make special arrangements and we also have to find you a bed."

"A bed?"

"A place... in a hospital. It will be tomorrow before we have everything ready. It will probably be after lunch."

"Okay. I can make that. Will you be picking me up?"

"No. I won't be there. It will be a guy named Gus and one of the women on our staff. Gus is big and kind of scary looking but he's a sweet guy as long as you do what he says. His job is to make sure that you get to the hospital. He will do whatever it takes to make that happen. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

"Do what Gus says or he'll force me to."

"That's right. It's his job."

The bailiff sidled up behind Evelyn, "Are y'all about done here?"

Evelyn looked at Josey, "Do you understand everything I've told you?"

Josey nodded.

Evelyn looked to the bailiff, "We're done."

He touched Josey's elbow and directed her to two guards who took her back through the rear doors. Evelyn checked her phone. It was after 4:00. Going northwest to Metrocenter to the office and then driving back across town to her apartment in Madison would take forever. She would fill in her reports from home and e-mail them in. She made her way back to the top of the courthouse garage and patted herself on the back for remembering to stop and clock out on her phone before descending to the underground levels with no cell reception. Forgetting to clock out would mean an embarrassing e-mail to Amanda asking for a manager's correction to her timesheet.

After ascending the levels of the garage, she crawled through the lines of creeping cars until she made it across the interstate to Ellington Parkway, the best-kept secret of the northsiders. She made good time until she got on Gallatin Pike and waited through the bumper-to-bumper traffic from Briley Parkway up to Old Hickory Boulevard. She was at her apartment a little after 5:00.

Beth worked remotely for a California company, and her entire social life was internet-based. So, it was not surprising to find her again sitting on the couch, hunched over her laptop.

"Hi, Beth."

"Hey." Her roommate didn't look up.

Evelyn went to the refrigerator and looked for the styrofoam clamshell that contained the leftover enchiladas from her last meal at Don Julio's Restaurant. She pushed the few items around in the refrigerator.

"Beth, did you eat my enchiladas?"

"Oh, yeah, I did. I didn't get a chance to go out today and figured that you'd probably grab yourself something on the way home."

"I didn't. And, even if I did, that doesn't give you the right to take my food without asking."

"Okay. Sorry." The apology wasn't sincere and included no offer to pay for the leftovers.

Other than a plastic tub of fake butter, a crusty bottle of ketchup, a crustier plastic squeeze bottle of mustard, and a jar with one sad pickle in it, the refrigerator was empty. She would have to go out if she wanted dinner. Then she would have to save up for a mini fridge to keep in her room behind a locked door.

***

Chris had not gotten nearly enough sleep. His shift started at 9:00 PM and ended at 9:00 AM. When he got to the store at 8:45 for the transition with the day shift, the store was still open, and some late customers were loitering about. The day shift guard was Dennis, who was a decent guy unless Chris was late to replace him. Dennis had no desire for overtime; he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and go out drinking with his friends.

Chris clocked in and Dennis went over the store's overnight schedule. It was brief since there was nothing special going on. The store frequently had stockers, repair people, or painters scheduled for overnight work and store staff were required to notify security in advance. Sometimes they did. Usually, they didn't. And they frequently scheduled something that required extra security personnel and then forgot to notify the security team when it was cancelled. That sent Dennis into a rage. More than once, Chris had to turn an arriving worker away at 10:00 PM because they were not on the schedule and the rules were that no one was allowed in unless they were. The store had to pay the worker for the full night, and the store manager was usually ticked, but she should have provided proper notification.

None of that mattered tonight and Chris stationed himself next to the door to provide a visual deterrent to shoplifters. There wasn't much he could do if someone decided to steal something. He would verbally address them and ask them to empty their pockets, but if they stepped around him and walked out, he was not allowed to touch them in any way. Which was for the best, physical altercations were not Chris's strong suit.

The store staff finally closed and locked the doors at about 9:15 after the last dawdling customer exited without making a purchase. The staff finished up, and Chris was alone by 10:00. The big floor-to-ceiling glass storefront stretched down Broadway and gave him a view of the Predators' Arena across the street. The honky-tonks down to the left were going full tilt, filled to the brim with loud music and drunken tourists.

Those same drunken tourists would, in a couple of hours, come staggering down the sidewalk in front of the store, hopefully headed toward hotels rather than cars. They would argue and scream and laugh and occasionally get into fist fights and, even more occasionally, a full-on brawl. His rules were clear: leave them alone unless they tried to break into the store. If he thought someone was hurt or in danger, he called the police. His job was to sit in the store by himself through the night.

He sat in one of the more comfortable customer seats at the back of the large showroom while the muffled white noise of the surrounding nightclubs faded in his consciousness. He did what he always did during quiet times alone. He prayed.

His prayers were not fancy and filled with 'thees' and 'thous'. Instead, he focused on people one-at-a-time. Then he focused on his love for that person. If he knew them, he would love them as an individual. If he didn't know them, then he would love them as his neighbor. Focusing on that love, he thought about God and turned this person over to God in his mind, praying that they would let God be a part of their life and that He would know their needs and meet them. Chris didn't need to pray for God to love them. God did that already.

As always, he started with his parents and his sister and moved to his friends, the other pastors and laity of Lakeland Church, and then his previous churches. After that, he prayed for Evelyn, Amanda, and Wendy at Partner-in-Care. And then Josey and Leyla...

The fear struck suddenly. Prayer was always a time of peace, but tonight he felt a wrongness. Chris was far from a mystic Christian and tended toward looking for commonplace explanations for things which others might ascribe to the supernatural. But, in this case, he knew that something bad was about to happen. Soon.