My Father's Gift (19 page)

Later, the same evening as her world continued its downward spiral; D’Cerner received a phone call from Chaplain Davis.  He informed her Mr. Detson was requesting to see her and he wanted to know if she could come right away.  She told him, since she was going to be in the next day, she would come early enough to spend some time with him then.  After she hung up with the chaplain, she felt an uneasiness come over she could not explain.  At first she attributed it to her being a bundle of nerves.  The last two days had taken its toll. 

The phone rang constantly.  Many of those calling were offering their support, but some were just out and out nosy.  She could not imagine how or why this story was such a big event.  She finally concluded that nosy people needed a life.  She also received a special delivery notice from the pastor’s council requesting her presence for a preliminary hearing in two weeks.  She finally decided that the hearing notice was the reason for the uneasiness and shrugged it off.  As she prepared to go to bed, her body ached all over.  She knew part of the pain was from her frenzied housecleaning and would disappear with the morning light.  The other part of the pain was buried so deep that Hades would have to dig for it.

The next morning she packed her tote bag as she usually did with additional bibles and tracts.  After eating breakfast and chatting with her children for a while, she left to go to the prison.  She was so upset, still reeling from all the events that occurred on the cruise she had completely forgotten this was the day for the Steering Clear prison visit.  When she arrived at the prison, the presence of additional security served to remind her, but she also sensed something else other than the anticipation of the children coming to visit.  She prayed silently as she usually did while waiting to be allowed through the locked gates and noticed the room next door to the one she used was being prepared for the visit.  It was a fairly large auditorium, so she thought it was very appropriate and didn’t think too much more about it.  When the guards escorted Mr. Detson in, he appeared to be more agitated than he normally was.

After the guards left, she asked Mr. Detson why he had requested her visit on the day before.  Apparently he had decided he couldn’t take any more confinement and was determined he had to find a way out, even if it meant suicide.  She tried calming him down and eventually persuaded him to stay for bible study.  She reminded him he had missed a few sessions and perhaps that was why he felt so forsaken.  When the other inmates were escorted into the room, she again sensed, something wasn’t quite right.  They were more fidgety than usual and eager to begin the session.  After prayer, she asked if they had any questions before she began the day’s lesson.  Several hands went up.

She called upon one of the inmates she had known for awhile. His question was regarding the recent story about her behavior.  When she asked him how he knew about it, he told her that a friend of his was a member of one of the churches whose pastor was on the cruise.  D’Cerner sighed and attempted to explain what happened.  All of sudden, Mr. Detson jumped out of his seat. 

“You hypocrite!  You ain’t nothin’ but a lyin’, ho.”

Before she could react to his outburst, he grabbed her and held an eight-inch kitchen knife to her throat.  The other inmates were apparently as surprised as she was and were in total shock, watching what was unfolding before them. They were too stunned to move.  She knew the guards could see what was happening, but she wasn’t sure what they would attempt to do.  She tried signaling desperately to the others with her eyes to remain seated. 

Mr. Detson, however, had other plans.  He ordered two of the inmates to block the door with chairs and he stared at the cameras shouting. “If any body tries to come in here, I’ll kill her.” 

The inmates moved quickly, doing as he ordered, not wanting D’Cerner or anyone else to get hurt.  They put a chair under the doorknob to jam it and stacked desks in front of the glass paneling.  Mr. Detson then ordered some of the inmates to remove their shirts to put over the cameras.  They complied without question.  As soon as they covered the cameras, he ordered them back into a corner while he still held onto D’Cerner. 

She didn’t move a muscle, couldn’t move.  Petrifaction took root.  When everyone moved away from them, he relaxed his hold on her, but didn’t move the knife very far away from her throat.

“Now that nobody’s watchin’ us no mo, I wanna to hear what really happened, you slut.”

D’Cerner attempted to speak, but cotton had infiltrated her saliva glands. All she managed to get out was a whimper.  The sound of her whimpering evoked an even greater verbal attack from Mr. Detson. 

“ ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear’,” he mocked her. “Yeah, that’s what you say.  So what’s the matter, cat got your tongue, or did that preacher friend of yours cause you to lose your voice since y’all was so busy gettin’ it on?”

Anger overwhelmed her at this remark and suddenly she didn’t care what happened.  She was not going to allow him to continue with his barrage of verbal abuse.  

“Mr. Detson, believe what you want to believe.  You have obviously made up your mind.  So if you’re going to kill me, get it over with.  I’m not going to try to justify my actions to you or anyone else at knife point.”

Surprised at her response, Mr. Detson relaxed his hold even further and repositioned the knife from her throat to further down her chest, just under her rib cage.  Then he started crying, but he was still holding onto her and the knife. 

He blurted out, “I thought you was different from the other women I’ve known.  I believed in you.  You was the only person that was makin’ a difference in my life.  Now, I find out you no different from them other b…s. You, the preacher woman, sleeping around.  Well, I’m not gonna let you tell no more lies to people ‘bout how God wants people to live.  You must not believe it so ain’t no point in you tellin’ other people that garbage.”  

D’Cerner waited until he calmed down before attempting to speak.  When she did, she was calmer and motioned for the others to stay where they were. 

“Mr. Detson, what other women are you talking about?”  She thought if she could keep him talking, he’d either calm down enough to realize what he was doing or someone else would have thought about how to stop this craziness.  They needed time on their side if they were to get her out alive.

“Every woman in my life has been nothin’ but trouble.  First my mama, then all those females who claimed to love me.  They all lied.  All they wanted was what they could get from me.  As far as I’m concerned, y’all all alike.  Gold diggers and sluts. I don’t why I listened to some woman preacher in the first place.”  He talked for over an hour, relaxing his grip only long enough to flex his arm from time to time. 

Everyone in the room listened intently, wondering when someone would bring this siege to an end.

*****

The moment the guards saw Mr. Detson grab D’Cerner, they knew there was going to be a problem, but they couldn’t move fast enough because of the traffic in the corridor from the volunteer visit next door.  They didn’t want to alarm anyone, so they deployed coded emergency procedures.  They knocked on the door next to where D’Cerner was being held hostage and explained to Chaplain Davis they were going to have to cancel the visit for the day. 

The kids were already in the room and Cal was curious about what was going on when the guards came in the room.  He heard an alarm signal but didn’t pay much attention to it because he presumed it was a natural occurrence.  It wasn’t until the chaplain announced they would have to reschedule the visit and said they must leave immediately that Cal became alarmed.  A wave of nausea crept over him and he had no idea why.  As they were leaving the room, he asked the chaplain what was going on, but the chaplain’s only response was that there was a security breach and in order to correct it, they had to evacuate all visitors from the building.  He noticed other guards were quickly congregating around the room next to them. Something was seriously wrong.  As he left the building with the kids and the other chaperones, going to their chartered busses, it suddenly hit him.  This was the day D’Cerner was usually at the prison.  He turned around to ask Chaplain Davis if she were on the premises, but he had already gone back inside the building.  As they boarded the bus, Cal knew intuitively that D’Cerner was in there and as they were leaving the parking lot, he spotted her car, which was all the confirmation he needed.  He immediately had the driver stop the bus and instructed him to take the kids back to the home.  He told the other chaperones to make sure everyone got back to their homes as soon as possible and he would talk to them later.  As he got off the bus, he had no idea what he was going to do, but he knew he wasn’t leaving there until he knew D’Cerner was all right.

Getting back into the building, proved to be more a problem than he had anticipated.  Cal was informed that the prison was on lock-down status and no visitors were allowed.  He asked for Chaplain Davis and he was informed that Chaplain Davis was currently unavailable.  He explained he was a minister and asked if he could wait for him.  They checked their list of screened applicants and gave him permission to wait in the lobby.  An eternity passed before Chaplain Davis and the warden arrived.

Chaplain Davis explained to him what was going on and his worse fears were realized.  D’Cerner was being held at knifepoint by one of the inmates.  The chaplain explained that even though they couldn’t see what was going in the room, they could hear.  They hoped that by waiting, Mr. Detson would soon wear himself out and they could go in without getting anyone hurt.  He admitted to Cal it didn’t look good since Mr. Detson was extremely agitated over what he heard about the two of them. 

Upon hearing this, Cal’s spirits sunk even further.  He knew the rumors were a lot worse than when they began, but he didn’t think the inmates would have access to that garbage.  He decided that since the inmate was upset over what had supposedly happened between the two of them, he should also have to deal with his anger.  Somehow, he had to find a way to let D’Cerner know they were trying to wait out Mr. Detson before making a move against him.  After a rather persuasive argument, he was able to convince the chaplain and the warden to let him go in the room to check out the situation.

*****

When they first heard someone outside the door, everyone froze.  Mr. Detson’s grip tightened on D’Cerner, the point of the knife almost digging into her ribs. “Stay away from the door,” he ordered.

“Mr. Detson,” Chaplain Davis talked to Mr. Detson through the door.  “Reverend Recinoire is here and would like to talk to you.  He’s the gentleman that you heard was involved with Reverend Everett.”  

“This is just some kind of trick to get me to open the door.” Mr. Detson wasn’t budging.

“Mr. Detson, this is not a trick.  Reverend Recinoire was told that you’re upset about what you heard and thought that you should hear what really happened from him,” Chaplain Davis said gently, trying to allay Mr. Detson’s fears. “He’s not armed and I’m only asking you to let him in.  No one else.”

“Okay, he can come in, but I want to make sure he’s not carryin’ no weapon.  I don’t wanna see no jacket and his pants pockets need to be turned inside out. Tell him to leave his shoes outside, too,” Mr. Detson shouted through the door. 

They agreed to his terms.

Mr. Detson ordered the other inmates to remove the desks so he could actually see who was at the door. Dragging D’Cerner along with him, he moved closer to the door. He saw only Chaplain Davis and Cal. Cal removed his jacket so Mr. Detson would be able to see there was nothing hidden on him. Only after seeing Cal’s pockets turned out did he allow the inmates to open the door.  He moved away from the door just enough for them to see him holding D’Cerner.

“I’ll kill her if y’all try anything stupid.  I mean it.” The knife he held almost piercing her clothes and he knew they got the message.

Chaplain Davis moved away from the door and Cal entered in cautiously, hands where Mr. Detson could clearly see them raised in submission.

“Mr. Detson, I understand you’re upset with Reverend Everett about some rumor you heard.  I can assure you that what you heard is only a rumor.  Reverend Everett has done nothing wrong or anything that she need be ashamed of.”  As he talked, he kept his distance, trying to send mentally telepathy signals to D’Cerner to stay calm.

“If you want to blame anyone for what happened, blame me.  As a matter of fact, why don’t you let Reverend Everett go and hold me as your hostage.”

“Why should I believe your bull?  You come in tryin’ to snow me so I’ll let her go and you two can go back to playin’ house.  Man, f…you!  I oughta jack both y’all up.”  By now, Mr. Detson’s agitation was refueled. 

Cal listened to Mr. Detson’s rampage about D’Cerner’s conduct, and hypocrisy. Then he tried to explain how he was really the guilty party.  He told him about the jammed lock on his stateroom door on the cruise and how the incident was not part of an illicit opportunity. 

“I understand how you must feel, but if you want to be angry with someone, be angry with me,” Cal said, trying to mentally strategize his next move.  As he talked, he managed to get close enough so that he was only a few feet away from Mr. Detson.

“Look, take me and do what you want to—hostage, sacrifice, whatever.  This whole situation was really my fault and no one else should have pay the price for my mistakes.”

When Cal noticed the confused expression on Mr. Detson’s face and his relaxed grip on D’Cerner, he wondered if the posture change presented him with a sliver of opportunity.  As if triggered by some unknown cue, his military training resurfaced and he decided that Mr. Detson’s confusion was a perfect opportunity to disarm him and free D’Cerner.  He tried to signal D’Cerner to use her elbow to cause Mr. Detson to loosen his grip, but she misread his signal and Cal misread the opportunity for attack.

D’Cerner waited too late to act.  Before they realized what was happening, the knife Mr. Detson held plunged into her chest.  The moment D’Cerner fell with a thud to the floor, barely conscious, Cal’s foot split the air, kicking Mr. Detson squarely in the head.  The other inmates immediately sprang into action, with two of them pinning Mr. Detson to the floor while others ran, opening the door to let the guards into the room.