Noah's Brother, Jesse

Prologue


         She laid naked on the ground with her arms above her head. Her breasts were large, possible implants but it was just as likely that they were real. She had forgotten, or chose not to shave for a few days. It was clear that she was not expecting a date that night. She wore no jewelry and had no tattoo’s making her skin looked to be smooth as milk. Porcelain doll came to mind.
         Her hair formed a halo around her petite face. Noah was sure that she had been someone’s angel. The teenager had to have been someone’s daughter, sister, girlfriend. It wasn’t fair that someone so precious had to be taken away before her time was up.
         “I can’t do it.” He tossed the picture down onto the oak table then picked up another. This picture was taken of the girls backside, the side that had been hacked with a butcher knife.
         “You don’t have to. Your brother and I will do it.”
         Noah’s face flushed with anger as he listened to his father’s words. He slammed the picture back down on the pile and looked his father straight in the eye.
         “Don’t do it.”
         “We need to. Its our biggest case right now and with your brother fresh out of law school it will be a career booster for him.”
“It is wrong. Your client murdered this sixteen year old!”, Noah held up the picture that showed her back sliced from her shoulder blade clear down to the small of her back, “Shall I refresh your memory?“
         “That is not needed, Noah.”
         “He slipped a drug into her drink then he raped her and took nude pictures of her then slashed her up. How can you even try to represent someone who could do that to another human being? Can you imagine what her family is going through right now?”
          “Your right, he did slip a drug into her drink but he took the drug also. It effected him differently than it should have. Ultimatly, her death was an accident.”
         “That is your reasoning? You are going to give a murderer a slap on the wrist for slipping some drugs into a girls drink? No rape charge? No murder charge? Not even a charge for child pornography?”
         Noah picked up another picture. The one that he held in his hands at that moment would be shown to the whole courtroom. It was of her being posed nude, her eyes just open a slit. Anyone else viewing the picture could have guessed it to be an erotic picture that a lover had taken on an outside adventure but Noah knew differently. The picture was the one that the guy had taken right before she passed out.          
         “Noah, listen to me, please,” begged his brother, “I need this case. I want to be partner in a firm. Without a big publicized case like this one then I won’t get partner. Once your out of law school it will the same for you too. Remember our dream? Me, you and dad taking over the law firm.”
         “That dream was when I was ten. I am not ten anymore.”
         “Well, it is still mine. I really need this case and I need you to help me with it. Nobody does the research as good as you. Please help me with this one and after we are done then I will listen to you whenever it comes to new cases. I promise you that.”
         Noah stood up from the table. He slammed his strong hands down onto table, making some of the pictures wisp onto the floor.
         “Promise? Here is a promise: If you even dare take this case then I will quit the firm and quit this whole entire family!”
         “Noah, please calm down,” Noah’s mother pleaded.
         “Mom, please reason with them. What if this was your daughter? Would you want the guy to get off?” He held up the worst picture of them all. His mother shifted her eyes from the picture, to his father and then back at him but wouldn’t look at the photograph again.
         “She isn’t my daughter. He is my husband and I stand by whatever he decides. I am sorry, Noah but it has to be this way.”
         Noah dropped the picture onto the table and turned his back to his family. Nobody uttered a word, probably didn’t even dare to breath until Noah left the dining room but he didn’t hear what was said because the door slammed behind him. He never looked back.