SOME CALL IT JUSTICE

By Steven Granson

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA, ONCE LITTLE MORE THAN A MOSQUITO-RIDDEN SWAMPLAND. TODAY ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST RENOWNED BEACH RESORTS. RADIANT SUN, SURF AND SAND--TRULY AN ISLAND PARADISE.

EACH MONTH COUNTLESS TOURISTS POUR INTO THIS OCEAN RESORT. MANY ARE YOUNG ATTRACTIVE AND INNOCENT YOUNG GIRLS, LOOKING FOR MORE THAN JUST A GOLDEN TAN.

SOMETIMES WHAT THEY FIND IS CONSIDERABLY MORE THAN WHAT THEY WERE LOOKING FOR.

"Greg Manley, a retired professor of philosophy, the sole witness to the vicious attack on a young girl ... faced with a failed legal system, is forced to make the fateful determination if there is a time when it is right to do a wrong."

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440160035

Steven Granson

STEVEN GRANSON, AUTHOR OF REVERIES AND OBSERVATIONS OF AN OLD MAN AND ZANDO, LIVES WITH HIS WIFE SUSAN IN SOUTH FLORIDA.

Book preview

Contents

PROLOGUE

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EPILOGUE

TO MY WIFE, SUSAN

Miami Beach, Florida, once little more than a mosquito-ridden swampland. Today one of America’s most renowned beach resorts. Radiant sun, surf and sand  truly an island paradise.

Each month countless tourists pour into this ocean resort. Many are attractive and innocent young girls, looking for more than just a golden tan.

Sometimes what they find is considerably more than they were looking for.

PROLOGUE

He could not stop staring at her. She was stunning. Her hair was dark brown and fell below her shoulders. Her face was beautiful. She was reading a book two tables from where he sat. From time to time she would look towards him. He knew she was aware he was staring at her but he could not help himself.

He wanted to go over to her, but felt tongue tied and could not think what to say. After a while she picked up the book she was reading and walked out of the college library.

That night, as he lay in bed, he could not get her image from his mind. Each afternoon for the next two weeks he returned to the library in the hope of finding her there … all for naught.

Then, just as he was near giving up, there she was. He felt his heart miss a beat. Without a thought as to what he would say, he walked up to where she sat and blurted out, I’m Greg Manley … I saw you here a couple weeks ago and I’ve been looking for you ever since. Then he simply stood there, feeling foolish, not knowing what else to say.

She looked up at him, smiled and said, "I remember. You were staring at me. I had hoped you would come over and introduce yourself then. I’m glad you did now … I’m Ginny.

They went for coffee and later for burgers. He saw her the next night and the next night and each and everyone after, till the end of the semester. By then he was utterly and completely in love with her.

After finishing college with a major in philosophy, he had served in the army for two years, witnessing first hand the ugliness of war. Upon completing his tour of duty, he returned to the university to do graduate studies in philosophy; consumed with the need to better comprehend the explanation of and the justification for the horrors he had seen.

The war had affected him … made him more introverted. It was Ginny who helped heal him. Brought him out of the shell he had gone into. Little by little with her lighthearted humor and caring ways, he learned to laugh and enjoy life once again.

When he completed his graduate studies she still had one more year to go to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree. He elected to stay on as an associate instructor at the college, for he could not bear the thought of being away from his Ginny.

One week after she graduated they married. They moved into a small cottage near the University and started their life together. The years flew by. Greg progressed from instructor, to full professor, to head of the philosophy department.

During the school year their home on weekends was always filled with his students, who gravitated there for continued discussions and arguments over philosophical issues, as well as for the crullers and cider Ginny served. Perhaps more than anything they came because of Ginny, with her warm caring ways. For many of his students it became their home away from home.

Summer was their time to travel. Each year Ginny would find different places in different countries for them to travel to. Greg never tired of seeing how excited Ginny would become as they wandered in and out of new places. Through her he too grew to love their traveling adventures.

The one sadness in their life was losing their baby daughter; born frail and not surviving beyond her second year. Then finding they were unable to have more children. Yet somehow, this misfortune created within them an even closer bond.

Over the years Greg received many offers from larger, more prestigious universities to head up their philosophy Department. But Ginny and he were too content in their little world to even consider making a change.

The only move they ever planned was to come to Florida when Greg retired. On their honeymoon they had gone to Miami Beach and fell in love with it. Together they shared the dream of spending their last years there.

Some Call It Justice

 < 1 >

It was late. He lay there unable to sleep, just as he had every night for the last eight months. Since the day of the phone call, telling him his wife had been killed by a hit and run driver, as she was crossing Collins Avenue.

Wearily, tired of tossing and turning, hoping for sleep’s relief, which would not come, he arose from the rumpled bed and turned on the light. The digital clock on the dresser said 2:30. Morning was a long way off.

Resigned to once again walking the lonely beach till the morning light, when another long day would begin anew. He went to the closet and retrieved his jogging outfit from where he had left it the night before. Once dressed, he left the beach house and started strolling the deserted beach; lost in his reveries. Only partially hearing the ocean sounds as it lapped onto the sand.

Next week would have been their fiftieth anniversary. Their dream was to spend their golden years on this beach in Florida. And now he was here, but she wasn’t. In the dream they were to be there together. Now because of a driver going through a red light at a high speed, he was here alone. They never found the driver who simply kept going. How hard they looked for him he did not know or for that matter really care. His wife, the only woman he ever truly loved was gone, and with it most of the reason he had for living.

He was barely aware of the ocean waves reaching out onto the shoreline. As he walked he was seeing, with a clarity so real, the face of his wife as she looked the first time he saw her. The hair, long and dark, falling below her shoulders; the way she had worn it then before she had cut it short. He started to say, Well Ginny, how do you like it? It’s as wonderful as we imagined, isn’t it? But then caught himself, feeling the returning weight of emptiness as he remembered.

From a distance noises were starting to register onto his conscious, tearing him from his reverie … frightened screams and angry curses. Looking towards the ocean he saw some movement and without thinking rushed towards it, not comprehending what he was seeing or what was happening, until he was almost upon them. What he then saw were two men. One kneeling in the water, holding a woman by the throat; forcing her under the water. The other man, cruelly laughing and yelling for the first one to drown the slut.

Stop it. He shouted, as he ran into the ocean, banging into the man, separating him from the struggling, half drowned girl.

The man, who he had charged into, regained his balance and with a curse grabbed him and yelled, Hit him snake.

He quickly turned his head and as if in slow motion looked onto the bony, vicious cruelty of a face with a swastika on its forehead; before the lead pipe came smashing down on him.

 < 2 >

He heard voices coming from afar. Someone was saying, Can I talk to him now doc?

And someone answering, Let me see. Give me a minute.

Then he sensed a light flashing by. As he tried forcing his eyes open he saw a person dressed in white leaning over him, holding a pen like flashlight and listened to him say, Are you awake? How do you feel?

He heard someone saying, Where am I? And then as he started to come to, realized he was the person asking the question. He tried to sit up but found it difficult and slumped back down. He experienced a shooting pain in the back of his head. When he put his hand on it he found it was wrapped in something.

The voice said, Don’t try to move you have a concussion. And then, Maybe you should come back later.

Later, how much later he had no idea; he heard the voices again. This time they were much clearer.

He heard someone say, Are you awake?

He answered, I think so. And opening his eyes said, Where am I? Who are you?

I am Doctor Semple. You are in a hospital. With me is Detective Miller. He has some questions to ask you. Do you think you are able to talk to him now, or should I have him come back later?

No let him stay … how is the girl? He asked, Is she okay?

The detective, coming closer to better hear him responded,

What about the girl? What do you know?

He was trying to drown her … I tried to stop him.

The detective looked hard at him and started to ask, Who was trying to drown her? But then seeing him wince in pain, said instead, Let’s take this from the beginning. What’s your name? Where do you live?

My name is Greg Manley. I live in my beach house on 2789 Collins. How did I get here? How long have I been here?

Mr. Manley, the detective answered, you were found unconscious on the beach by a passerby on Tuesday the 18th and brought here to Mt. Sinai Hospital by ambulance. Today is Saturday the 22nd.

After a moment, while he was trying to absorb what the detective had just told him, he again asked, What about the girl, is she okay? Where is she?

No Mr. Manley, she is not okay. She is in the morgue. Did you know her?

No, I’m so sorry. That poor girl.

The detective then said, Let’s take this from the beginning. Take your time and try to tell me everything you can remember.

Well, Greg said, It’s really not that much. I wasn’t able to sleep so I went for a walk on the beach. It was around 2:30 A M or so. I heard a woman screaming and a man cursing. When I went over to see what was happening, I found this guy holding a girl by the throat seemingly trying to drown her. A second guy was standing nearby laughing. I tried to stop the guy from drowning her. That’s when the other guy hit me with a pipe or something. That’s about it until now when I woke up to find you here.

Now Mr. Manley, this is important try hard to think. Do you remember anything about the two guys? Like how tall they were, their color, anything special or different about them?

"Oh, I’m sorry detective, I guess I’m