Shades of Eva (66 page)

Here, I finally spoke up. “My mother was not
the only person who shot Fred Levantle!” I almost hollered this. “I
did, as well.”

Kalwitz looked surprised, if not irritated,
but did not respond to me.

I sat down. My attorney tried to consult me,
but I was more interested in Detective Ramsey’s response to what
I’d just admitted to. So long ago, he had grilled me over just that
question: who really shot Fred Elms? The answer was that both my
mother and I had shot him.

I looked to Ben Levantle, as well. Detective
Ramsey and he were each smiling at me.

Kalwitz continued. “These facts work to
validate Eva’s historical claim of having been preyed upon by
Fredrick Levantle, which as I understand it was dismissed decades
ago as a false, and hostile allegation, as you have testified, Dr.
Norris.”

 Dr. Norris was nodding.

“Additionally, it appears that because of
the effects from psychosurgical procedures performed over the
course of a lifetime, that being the impairment of one’s long-term
memory, it seems that Eva did not realize the man living next door
to her was a former neighbor and, sadly, her former rapist.

“It is also understandable that Brad
Rennix—” Kalwitz said, turning to address my father, “would not
have known Fredrick Elms was an alias, nor would he have known he
was the man his wife had accused of raping her, and would therefore
be exempt from any charge of negligence in so far as the welfare of
either his wife or his son was concerned.”

“Thank you,” my father said, standing
quickly and then sitting back down.

Kalwitz turned his attention to Dr. Norris.
“It was your testimony that you presented Ben Levantle, just days
ago, Dr. Norris, with police and autopsy photographs in an attempt
to clarify this long-held suspicion of yours that the man Eva shot
and killed in 1970 was, indeed, the man Eva McGinnis-Rennix alleged
to have raped her some thirteen years prior to that shooting, is
that correct?”

Dr. Norris: “Yes, I did.”

Attorney Kalwitz: “It is your professional
opinion that, having worked with many stalkers over your tenure at
Coastal State, that when Fredrick Levantle returned home and saw
Eva, he may have approached her, and when Eva failed to recognize
him, he took the opportunity to assume an alias and create a new
identity, bringing his wife with him and setting up shop, so to
speak, right next to Eva and her family, whereby he could indulge
his fascination with her under the protection of an assumed
identity in light of her amnesia, is that also correct?”

Anna: “Yes, it is.”

Attorney Kalwitz: “And in working with
amnesia patients who’ve underwent electroconvulsive therapies in
the 1950s, it’s your opinion that Eva had a burst of memory that
was induced by the trauma of the incident that took place when Eva
discovered that her son, Mitchell, was being sexually assaulted,
and that Fredrick Levantle’s true identity was thus apparent to Eva
at that point, is that correct?”

Dr. Norris: “Yes, it is. Persons with
amnesia often experience a
burst
we call it, of repressed or
lost memory in the face of extreme stress. I believe this is what
happened to Eva.”

Attorney Kalwitz: “I’d like to thank you,
Dr. Norris, for your work on behalf of Mitchell and his family,
specifically for his late mother, and I’d like to commend you in
your role in the resolution of locating Fredrick Levantle.

“Mr. Mitchell Rennix, if you would stand for
the recommendations of this office.”

I stood.

Attorney Kalwitz: “Mr. Rennix, the DA’s
office is considering several counts of fraud and/or conspiracy
charges against you. Regarding fraud. One count for the
impersonation of an armed security officer, and a second for felony
infiltration of a medical hospital. Regarding conspiracy. One count
for conspiracy to commit extortion in the amount of one point two
million dollars from the person of Ulysses McGinnis. And one count
for conspiracy to unlawfully exhume and tamper with human
remains.

“Before this indictment hearing, the DA’s
office asked that you and Officer Abigail Angstrom undergo a series
of psychological evaluations to be performed by medical staff at
Coastal State. We have also asked for their recommendations
regarding the fraud charges for impersonation and infiltration.

“I would agree with the recommendations of
Drs. Norris and associates that your fraud charges be waived,
Mitchell, and mandate outpatient counseling services for no less
than two years, once per week, to treat suspected conditions of
Alcohol Hallucinosis
with concomitant
PTSD
.

“I will accept their request that the fraud
charges be dropped dependent on the conditions I just listed, due
in part to your efforts to talk Specialist. Angstrom out of doing
what she ultimately did. Institutional and law enforcement
authorities have submitted affidavits testifying that you behaved
extraordinarily in an attempt to disarm and de-escalate the hostage
situation Officer Angstrom created, and were unaware of the plot
Specialist Angstrom had contrived.

“With regard to conspiracy to extortion. The
DA’s office has taken into account certain mitigating factors, and
testimony submitted to us by your father, Brad Rennix, as well as
attorneys for Abigail Angstrom. While the Court would never excuse
your behavior, we have to balance our responses in light of the
evidence provided to us by all parties—one party being Ulysses
McGinnis, himself.

“This office believes that in considering
the conversation you had, Mitchell, with your uncle, that Ully did
profit monetarily from allowing his sister to be sexually
assaulted. While it is not your right or responsibility to exact
vengeance based on this despicable action, this office can
understand the response you and Abigail Angstrom chose to take in
exacting what Abigail is calling a financial retribution.

“That said, there is one other person worth
mentioning with regard to the extortion situation—that of Staff
Sergeant Sophia Bermicelli—who lost her life in her role in this by
attempting to cash out the account in the Cayman Islands. Regarding
her death, law enforcement officials have put forth two possible
scenarios. The first is that Sophia was killed by an ally working
with her and Specialist Angstrom, an ally who got greedy and
decided to eliminate Bermicelli and abscond with the funds, which
incidentally, have not been recovered. A second scenario is that
Mr. McGinnis, before his death, arranged for a confrontation and
possible assassination of Staff Sergeant Bermicelli, or anyone
assigned to cash out the newly created account, in order to protect
his assets.

“In any case, the DA’s office has no choice
but to hold you personally accountable for your role in this
extortion attempt and recommend criminal prosecution based on that
role.

“Lastly. Conspiracy to the unlawful
exhumation and tampering of human remains. While your intentions
were noble in this effort, as were those of Abigail Angstrom to
identify Elmer’s biological father, and to do it in an expedient
manner and to as well, provide a proper burial for whom she
believed was your brother, it was without consideration and
foolhardy. But it was a plan that ultimately brought justice to
your brother, and accomplished the aims Abigail Angstrom set out to
accomplish as per her mother’s, and before that, her Aunt Emily’s
wishes.

“As I have said, your cooperation in
returning those remains will not go unnoticed. But for your role in
this charade, there is a price to be paid.

“In asking what that price might be, we have
to consider the impact your behavior may have on subsequent persons
who might consider such a response. To that question, it is a
difficult one to answer. Your mother was abused in a most horrific
way, as were you. In light of your past history of abuses—each of
yours—I find the impact of your behavior negligible. For all of
those reasons, the State is not seeking to press charges for
conspiracy to exhume or in tampering with human remains at this
time, though the state holds the right to do so at a later
time.

“Fortunately, for you, you were not actively
involved in the plot to shoot your uncle, and as far as this office
is concerned, were somewhat incapacitated by your psychiatric
conditions as attested to by Drs. Levantle and Norris, and, as
well, by Specialist Angstrom.

“I would like to advise you that you have
escaped criminal prosecution on all charges excepting extortion,
and I’d advise you that your apparent interest in the accumulation
of monetary wealth be an interest that you check very carefully in
the future. Lives are lost in these sorts of monetary interests
every day, and it doesn’t have to be that way.

“That said, you deserved more, in my
opinion, materially, as a child than what you were given by your
mother and your father, but that was not entirely their fault. Your
family lost out on an inheritance for different reasons.”

Kalwitz had turned to address my father at
this time. “From what I can gather, Eva tried to provide a stable
home for you both. A happy home. Though I hesitate to speak too
idyllically about any one person, I think it’s safe to say, from
perusing your mother’s writings, Mitchell, and in looking at her
artwork and in reading her poetry, that she cared very deeply about
the immaterial things in life like devotion, and spending time
with, not money on, someone; and about truth.

“I’d recommend you both reflect quite
heavily on what it was that Eva wanted for you both. She wanted you
to love her, and to remember her. Not as a poor woman, or a sick
one, but as a hopeful woman, who was extremely rich, rich in dreams
and in her yearning for justice.

“In many ways, you each—all of us,
really—have a responsibility to bring justice to Eva. Inasmuch as
we can continue to improve on how we relate to one another, and
treat the least among us, we will make her happy despite any
material aims—which is all I think she would have wanted from any
of us.”

April 27, 2012: Coastal State Regional
Psychiatric Hospital

Excerpt from deposition, Specialist Abigail
Angstrom, 117th Military Police Division, Taylor Armory

Every day was the same. The only variables
were who was going to die that day; what body part was going to
have to be picked up and by whom; and how many times you’d throw up
and how many men you were going to have to kill. You wake up
listening for the sound of sniper fire or an ambush, the click of a
booby trap or a blood-curdling scream. Anything that would make you
freeze or react, anything that might make you jump, and if you do
jump, or holler out, or throw up too loudly, you put your fellow
fighters at risk. You fear night ambushes, you worry about friendly
fire. You walk point, check bunkers, trenches, scan the landscape
and try not to pass out from the heat or from thirst or from
hunger. You worry about RPGs, IEDs, mortar attacks, running out of
ammo, jammed weapons. And on a bad day, it’s picking up the pieces
of your friends from streets you think are deserted, crawling
across them beneath gunfire and between landmines, trying to reach
those body parts because you don’t dare leave them, and the worst
fear—being taken. And if you are, it’s torture you have to think
about. And rape! How do you shut that off? How do you shut that off
when you come home to bury a mother and someone kills your husband
and daughter on the day of her funeral? How do you ever shut that
off?

Abigail’s indictment hearing took place at
the Owen County Courthouse one day later. I was seated in a front
row to the left of the courtroom, behind Abigail’s attorneys, when
Abigail was brought in.

It was the first time I had seen her since
the night of Ully’s shooting. She looked thinner, but strong. Her
skin was clear. Her eyes still had that determined quality about
them. An aura of peace seemed to be surrounding her. She looked to
me as guards escorted her to her seat in front of me. She smiled.
After all this time, she was still trying to reassure me.

The bailiff called for everyone to rise.

A judge made her way to the bench. She was a
Hispanic woman of middle age with glasses and a mixture of grey and
black hair that gave her an intellectual look. Her name was Justice
Feliz. She was there to hear Abigail’s plea. She was as sober a
person as I’d ever seen, and somehow, that sober appearance scared
me. Sobriety often yields impatience, and dare I say, sympathy and
sobriety, at least in my case, don’t often walk hand in hand.

We were told to sit, and we did.

Justice Feliz began to address Abigail,
directly.

“I have to give consideration on your behalf
to what Drs. Norris and Levantle have asked of me,” the Justice
began. “And in light of their requests for leniency in considering
your pleas, and for your protection by means of preserving your
anonymity in this matter, Officer Angstrom, I would have to agree
and both disagree. The sanctity of the legal system is bound by
certain expectations of its citizens. It is bound by expectations
of the Court for just and prudent response, despite backgrounds and
despite mitigating circumstances. This nondiscriminatory
expectation means that soldiers who have served their countries are
not treated differently than non-service citizens such as Jackson
Greer, or Ully McGinnis. A homicide is a homicide, and the Court
does not sanction murder and cannot ignore, minimize, or otherwise
devalue one life to suggest leniency for another.

“What you are charged with are crimes that
are calculated and cold-blooded—but not heartless. When I say that,
I do not mean to offend the family members and loved ones who are
demanding justice for Mr. Greer or Mr. McGinnis. But we have to
recognize certain mitigating factors that provide for the
considerations of the totality that your good advocates have asked
me to consider.