Counter Blow by Robert F. Clifton (ebook reader for pc .txt) 📕

He learned how to play chess and got good at it. He currently was involved in a match with Doctor Emile Winters, a physician also doing life for killing his wife by injecting air into her bloodstream.

Epps looked at the positive things of being in prison. As a prisoner he received three meals a day, clothing and shoes, plus health and dental benefits. He also had access to the prison library which aided him in his pursuit of knowledge. His one burning desire was to have a good telescope and a cell with a window so he could continue his study of astronomy. At the same time he wanted a college degree but lacked the necessary funds and way to obtain it.

Calvin Epps did not miss the outside world. To him it was an unjust society that he was born into. Discriminated upon most of his life he withdrew into himself, creating his own safe world.

At age eighteen he met the love of his life, Latisha Webster. With her he felt comfortable. With her he felt that there was no barrier that would stand in his way. One day she told him that she was pregnant. That made him happy. “Let's get married', he said. When she told him that the baby wasn't his something snapped and with his hands around her neck and his thumbs on her throat he strangled her to death.

Bennett learned all of the information about Epps from other Cons and as far as he knew there was nothing to fear. To him, Epps was a perfect cellmate, he was just weird.

The two men had one thing in common. They both were allowed visitors. Iris would travel by bus from Nautilus Beach to Trenton on weekends. Visitation days for them were Saturday and Sunday. Originally there were window visits. Eventually, with Bennett behaving as a model prisoner he was allowed contact visits. It was the visits of Iris that got him through the days, weeks and months spent behind the high thick walls of the New Jersey State Prison.

The mother of Calvin Epps came as much as she could. With her son in prison she had been forced to go on welfare. As a diabetic there were times when she couldn't afford the price of a bus ticket needing what money she had for medicine.

Sometimes, her brother would drive the distance from Nautilus Beach to Trenton, his old Plymouth automobile burning oil as it made its way over route 206.

A few times Bennett noticed a white man in a business suit seated at a table with Epps. One day Donovan asked Calvin who the man was. Epps told him the man was his new lawyer.

As model prisoners Bennett and Epps were given jobs in the prison. Epps was assigned to the library. His assignment called for him to place returned books to the shelves using the Dewey Decimal Classification. He was one of the few prisoners in the prison that knew and understood just what the system was and how it worked.

Donovan Bennett was assigned to the paint shop. His job was to either chip old paint off of cell bars, walls or floors, or apply a new coat of the traditional, battleship gray or sea foam green paint. It was easy work and it got him out of the cell for eight hours a day.

At the same time He received one day off of his sentence for every five days he worked. Calvin Epps wasn't so lucky. He was in for life.

Bennett quickly learned that the three most dangerous places in the prison were the yard, shower and mess hall. Even though there were constant searches and shake downs of the prisoners cells homemade weapons still got by the guards and the rate of fights, beatings and stabbings were an on going situation. Donovan made it a point to try to get along with everyone.

Iris Mitchell Bennett sat across from her husband at the provided table. As he watched she unpacked the canvas carrier bag that had been searched and the items permitted by a guard. She placed three packs of Chesterfield cigarettes, one Ebony magazine, a bag of hard candy and a Hersey's Chocolate Bar on the table.

“Don't see any Tasty Kakes baby”, said Bennett.

“The guard told me the last time I was here that you had to eat them here where you sit. He say your not allowed to take them into your cell”.

“He's full of shit. You bring them next time. You hear?”

“Same kind? Butter Scotch Krimpets and Chocolate Cupkakes?”

“Yeah and two apple pies.”

Iris smiled and took his hand in hers. “How you holding up baby?”, she asked.

“I'm cool”. Better off than Brother Epps sitting over there. Man been meeting with his new attorney time after time. He's sitting there right now hoping that by some chance he could get a new trial. Shit, white man sitting with him is just giving him jive. Did you bring me the radio?”

“Sure I brung it. Got just what you asked for. A.M., F.M radio and a set of earphones. Here it is”.

Bennett smiled.

That night in his cell, Donovan Bennett turned off his pocket sized radio and removed the earphones from his head. He leaned over from his bunk and looked down at Epps. “Hey Calvin. Any time you want to listen to my radio just ask. I think I get more stations then you. Just be careful with the earphones. Seems to me there's a short in the wires. The wires are kinda thin. I don't want to break them”, he said.

Calvin Epps stood up. “That right? Let me see them”.

Bennett handed his cellmate the earphones. “You're right. Here, use mine. See how mine has thicker wires?”Then, with the instrument is his hand Epps quickly wrapped the wire around Donovan's throat and began to strangle him. Using brute force Epps watched the wires dig deep into the skin of the man's throat cutting off air to his lungs.

Donovan kicked his feet. He attempted to strike Epps, but the more he tried the tighter the wires became. Finally, with no oxygen reaching his brain he passed out. Even in his unconscious state Epps continued to twist the wires. Ten minutes later he released his grip. Bennett was dead.

****************

Calvin Epps was charged with the murder of Donovan Bennett. He spent six months in solitary confinement. While there he enjoyed the solitude it offered him. He read, he wrote letters to his mother. After six months he was placed in a cell with a window. On that day he was given a Mede LX 2000 Telescope. It was valued at three thousand dollars.

His mother was moved from the project apartment where she lived on welfare and placed in an Assistant Living Facility where the cost of her stay along with any other expenses such as doctors and medicine were paid for by an unknown benefactor.

Calvin was tried and convicted. He received another life sentence for the murder of Donovan Bennett. Sentence to be concurrent with the life sentence he was already serving.

Chapter Fithteen

Bless Me Father

The Village of Running Deer, Montana is known for being right in the middle of excellent hunting and fishing areas during the seasons. It is also known for the Monastery of Saint John used by the faithful for religious retreats. The monastery had twelve monks, an Abbot, and three priests. Located on twenty acres there was also a convent housing twenty nuns. Both the monks and the nuns reported to each one's superior.

There was only one road in and out of Running Deer, Route Two. On one side of the road were two motels and a gas station. The Gulf station was located between Johnson's Rest and the Running Deer Inn. On the other side of the road were two hunting and fishing lodges, Sunset Lodge and Deer Creek lodge. They were two miles apart.

At six o'clock on a Friday evening. A man calling himself Edward Parsons checked in at the Deer Creek Lodge. Parsons was five feet ten inches tall, weighed one hundred and seventy five pounds. He had brown eyes and black hair. His reservation was confirmed and in the next half hour he paid for his required hunting and fishing license. The fee was eight hundred dollars. Parsons paid for his permit and his lodging with an American Express credit card. He was shown his room and then went outside with an attendant. There he opened the automobile trunk, removed one large suitcase, a rifle, fly rod and tackle box.

Father Salvador Presti arose before sunrise as did the monks. He got washed and dressed and after saying his morning prayers went to breakfast. He waited for the Prior to say grace and at the end of the prayer ate his breakfast consisting of a bowl of oat meal, bread and butter and coffee. He had an hours wait until he heard confessions.

Seated at the dining room table at the Deer Creek Lodge Edward Parsons sat eating a breakfast of bacon and eggs, toast and coffee. As he ate he asked questions about the hunting and fishing conditions. His guide for the day sat drinking a cup of coffee and assured Parsons that he would be guaranteed either a trophy fish, elk or deer, possibly all three.

At nine o'clock in the morning a young woman entered the confessional, and blessed her self making the sign of the cross. She waited until she saw the screen slide open and said, “Bless me father for I have sinned. It has been three weeks since my last confession.” Father Presti prayed and gave her a penance of five Our Fathers and ten Hail Mary's.

When the woman left the confessional Father Presti sat in deep thought. In his thirty five years of life all he wanted to do was to serve God. At age five the nuns in the parochial school had steered him into becoming a priest. After high school he entered the seminary. Ordained he was sent to Nautilus Beach where he was assigned to Saint Elizabeth's Catholic Church.

Father Presti anticipated that the life of serving God and the church would be difficult. However, when he was advised by the monsignor to simply attend to his duties and refrain from political situations he refused to believe that he should not support the civil rights

Of Blacks and Hispanics. As a result he dedicated most of his free time to the cause of the disenfranchised.

With the murder of the nightclub owner and the police officer, Father Presti read about the killings in the newspaper. He learned more about the case when he talked with Iris Mitchell, a parishioner who came to him for help.

It was after that when he decided to solve her problem of being a witness against Donovan Bennett. Fortunately, Donovan and Iris had applied for a marriage license before the murders. Their blood test results were in and the application approved.

On a Saturday visitation to the County Jail, Father Presti married the couple and under New Jersey Law Iris could not be forced to testify against her husband.

The County Prosecutor raised hell. People in the community were incensed. Their complaints went to the Attorney General of the State and when it was learned that the marriage was legal all complaints then went to Monsignor Andrews. The majority of the population of the city openly complained and demanded either an action or an explanation. Monsignor then sent the matter to the Bishop of the Camden Dioceses. After a short review the bishop ordered a transfer of Father Presti to a parish and place unknown. The place turned out to be Running Deer, Montana. Father Presti was discouraged even though he was told that the transfer was for his own safety.

Unknown to the priest one day Sam Pilgrim, a mailman picked up the mail for delivery at the rectory of the Catholic Church. Around the corner and out of sight Pilgrim found the letter addressed to Father Salvador Presti, Saint John