Wade sat forward. “Okay,” he nodded. “What happened that day?”
“The first thing you should know is that I alone killed the doctor, nurse and guard at the clinic that day. That is something I never denied. However, it was not murder. It was self-defense, and I would do it again to protect my wife.” He sat forward. “When you were three years old, your mother noticed your exceptional memory. When she mentioned it to me, I listened, but not really. It wasn’t until later, when you did things no three-year-old should do. At first, I put it to the fact that you were Star’s child, and she was brilliant as a scientist and I as a mathematician. Then we discovered there was more. You have what is called an eidetic memory. Everything you read, touch or experience stays with you. To your mother and me, science was beautiful, but in the wrong hands it can be dangerous. We worked for a firm called DiscoveryU. Your mother was one of their top geneticists.”
“The study of genetics,” Wade stated.
“Right,” Godwin became animated. “She developed a gene-altering technique that could help people in so many ways. People with defects would benefit. She was so excited to have a way to prevent children from being born with certain defects. Imagine a child with the sickle cell trait being spared of living in fear. We expected pushback from those who may have felt we were altering God’s plan. However, we did not anticipate it being used for greed.” He shook his head. “While some of the shareholders of DiscoveryU looked at the help factors, others were contemplating its usage to manipulate and control. I uncovered the plot formed by members of the board to use our discovery in an unsavory fashion. Imagine charging thousands of dollars to ensure your child’s eye color, hair color or even skin color. That was not the purpose of our years of research. Since it was her discovery, Star made the decision to destroy the research and resigned from the university. But before she did, she sat you down and showed you every sheet of paper where she had documented her actions. Those who were funding the research considered our actions a breach of contract and a way to discredit us in the scientific field. It cost us our reputation and financial stability. But to keep her research out of their hands, it was worth the sacrifice. We vowed then and there we would never let anyone know about your mind or your abilities. We packed up and moved to what we thought was a safe small town in Virginia. Things were good. We had simple jobs that paid the bills, but most of all, we had you.”
Wade cleared his throat, then sat forward. “You think I have that research in my head?”
“I know you do,” Godwin replied. “Your mother will reveal it all to you in time.”
“She’s dead,” Wade raised his voice to emphasize the words.
“Only in flesh,” Godwin replied.
“What happened the day of the murders?” Monty insisted.
Godwin sat back with a sigh. “We were happy until that day. You were about six years old. Your mother and I dropped you off at school. On the way home, we joked about playing hooky from work. Since she had a doctor’s appointment for a flu shot, I agreed. We both called in using the same lie.” He chuckled. “We said you were sick, and we wanted to be there to take care of you. I told my boss your mother could not get off and she told her boss I could not. Little did we know the prosecutor would use that lie to prove premeditated murder. The lesson: don’t tell little white lies.”
“They can get you life in prison,” Wade joked.
“Exactly,” Godwin replied then sighed. “I drove your mother to her doctor’s appointment. It should have been fifteen, twenty minutes at the most. After I had been waiting for close to an hour, I walked over to the window to ask the receptionist to see what was taking so long. The receptionist disappeared. Ten more minutes went by, and no one came back to the window. The guard who was in the clinic stepped outside. I waited another five minutes. The receptionist nor the guard returned, so I walked to the back to see what was taking them so long. There were two rooms. The first one was empty, but when I came to the second room, Star was on the table with her legs up in the stirrups. I asked what in the hell was going on, since she only came in to get a flu shot. As I walked around the table, I noticed Star was sedated. I yelled again, ‘What in the hell is going on?’
“The nurse shoved me, saying, ‘You can’t be in here, Sir. You have to leave.’
“‘Not without my wife,’ I yelled back, pushing her aside.
“She fell to the floor. The receptionist came running in. The nurse told her to get security. The doctor had a needle with a tube on the end in his hand. It wasn’t the regular tube you would gather blood into; this was something different. I scanned the room and saw culture dishes being placed inside an incubator. I’m a scientist, so I knew instantly what was happening. He was harvesting eggs extracted from my wife. I rushed over, knocking the culture dish from the doctor’s hand. By this time, the security guard ran into the room. He tried to pull me away. I grabbed the guard by the neck, jerked, then swung him against the wall. I ran back over to Star, trying to wake her. That’s when the doctor came at me with a syringe. I knocked the doctor aside, causing him to hit his head on the edge of the metal cabinet. I grabbed the syringe and stabbed the nurse with it. I went back to Star, shaking her until she was half-awake. Once I had her sitting up, I called the police. They declared all three people dead. They arrested both of us at the scene. I explained to them what happened, and they seemed to be listening until a man I had never seen before walked into the clinic. He spoke with the police, then walked into the examination room where I found Star. Next thing I knew, Star and I both were arrested for murder,” Godwin stated again.
“The court convicted you of multiple murders and Star of being an accomplice. Based on what you stated, Star was the victim,” Monty summarized. “What was supposed to be your motive?”
“Drugs,” Godwin replied. “We were of a different race, so naturally all of us are drug addicts. The story doesn’t end there. One of the men from the board of trustees at DiscoveryU, the legal head, Edward Ackerson, came to see me in jail, but he wasn’t alone. The man from the clinic, Bradford Chambers Jr. was with him. Chambers worked with genetics and recognized Star from some of her publications on the topic. He contacted DiscoveryU to gather more information on Star and was referred to Ackerson. Neither believed she had destroyed all of her research, and they offered me money to reveal where she put the documentation. I refused his offer. I told them what they did to my wife that day was rape. That doctor in the clinic had taken something from my wife against her will. Chambers stated he was working on a form of genetic testing, and he believed Star’s findings were a key element to his research. He was willing to compensate us for our troubles. I refused his offer. A strange thing happened, and I know this is going to sound crazy. So here it is. He watched me intently for a while. During those few minutes, I felt like he was trying to read my mind.”
“It doesn’t sound crazy at all,” Wade stated. “What did he do when you refused him?”
He stated he had extensive finances and would make sure your mother was implicated in the murders and see that you were placed in a detention center. I’m a Black man living in the South. I knew he could do what he said. Son, knowing what we knew about you and what manipulative scientists are capable of, there was no way we could let them get their hands on you. To be honest, I did not believe they would charge your mother.”
He stopped as if in agony, took a moment, then continued. “They did. I pleaded guilty. The rest is history. I thought at the time my court-appointed attorney was inexperienced. But later I found that was not the case. My attorney was working more to ensure a Black man went to jail for murdering white people. As was the judge, and everyone involved with the case. I did what I had to do to protect your mother, and I would do it again. My only regret was that Star lost her freedom. As they threatened, you were put in a facility near Roanoke.
“Your mother and I were placed in separate facilities. But we were able to keep in touch through letters. We had to be careful what we wrote because we knew the letters were being monitored. Both of us sighed a breath of relief when we were notified that you were being moved to Richmond. The further away from us, the better. The day I received a letter from Dan Tyson requesting my signature on documents giving up my rights to you, I struggled. But your mother wrote me, saying it was the best thing to do for our child. But I had to be sure Dan Tyson was not one of them. He was rich and powerful, just like Chambers and Ackerson. I had to know the measure of the man I was signing my son over to. I researched what I could on him. Once I was satisfied with Dan’s character, and his ability to protect you in the event Ackerson or Chambers discovered you, I signed the papers.”
He glared at Wade. “But make no mistake, son, if they discover what you know, they will bring the full force of the government on you. And they can. Ackerson is now Congressman Edward Ackerson, Chairman of The House Judiciary Committee.”