by Bell, A. C.
Cassandra came out swinging. She had a forensic scientist explain that Peter’s blood was found on Gabriel’s body, and while they hadn’t found any of Peter’s DNA on Quinn’s body, her blood was found on his clothes. Wyatt made the argument that it could have gotten there because he was helping Quinn, but the jury didn’t seem swayed. When it was finally Wyatt’s turn to call someone up, he called on Nikki. Nervous, she inhaled deeply before standing.
“Why isn’t Peter going first?” Mom whispered.
Raiden swiveled to explain. “Wyatt wants the jury to hear what Peter is actually like first. Otherwise, they’ll assume he’s lying to cover himself.”
***
Peter watched Nikki step up into the box and sit gracefully. She wasn’t a crucial witness, having been present for none of the events leading up to his disappearance, but having her here to vouch for his character made Peter feel better. Once she was sworn in, Wyatt stood and clasped his hands behind his back.
“How well do you know Mr. De la Cruz?” Was Wyatt’s first question. Peter squirmed in his seat a little.
“I’ve known him for five years, ever since freshman year of High School. He’s one of my closest friends,” Nikki answered.
“And how would you describe him?”
“He’s always been a bit of a know-it-all.” Nikki laughed and combed her hair with her fingers. Raiden had suggested not making Peter out to sound perfect. It worked, too, because some of the jurors chuckled. “He likes to deflect with humor, like, all the time, but he always cares. You can always rely on him if you need help.” Her glance flicked over to Peter and he felt his cheeks flush.
Wyatt paced amiably around with one hand in his pocket. “And did he ever, to your recollection, mention Gabriel Escobar?”
“No.”
“He never mentioned that the man who raised him wasn’t actually his father?”
She shook her head. “No. He’s always called Elias ‘dad’.”
“Have you ever seen him display a violent temper in any way?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Do you think he’s capable of killing anyone.”
“Not at all. Once, he wouldn’t even kill this huge spider at my house a few years ago. He put it in a bowl and moved it outside instead. I didn’t go out into my backyard for a week.” She leveled a sassy look on Peter and he chuckled, as did the jury.
“Thank you, Ms. Ware. No further questions, Your Honor.” Wyatt sat on Peter’s other side and Cassandra stood. Her heels clicked loudly across the floor and Nikki straightened a little, ready for the assault.
Cassandra’s kind smile was easy to see through. “Ms. Ware, would you say you’re a good judge of character when it comes to men?”
Oh no.
Nikki went rigid. “I’m not perfect. No one is.”
“In fact, just a few months ago, wasn’t your long-term boyfriend arrested for domestic violence against you and the attempted murder of your best friend?”
“Yes, he was,” Nikki answered bitingly. Cassandra let the jury think about this for a few moments.
“That’s a risky tactic,” Lorraine whispered behind him. “She’s turning Nikki into a sympathetic person to the jury.”
“She’s counting on them thinking Peter could be like Justin,” Slade whispered. Peter scowled at the back of Cassandra’s head.
“I’m sorry for what was done to you,” she said in contrite sympathy. “But can you honestly say that you are 100% positive that Mr. De la Cruz isn’t also hiding a violent side?”
“Yes, I’m positive. Peter would never do this.”
“Have you seen a picture of the victim?”
Nikki was startled again. “No. Why?”
Peter cursed inwardly. What a dirty trick. Cassandra pulled a small remote control from her pocket and pulled up a picture on the large screen. Quinn. Her blond hair, heart-shaped face, narrow nose.
“This is Quinn O’Flannan. She looks an awful lot like you, don’t you think?” Cassandra asked.
“What are you getting at?”
“It’s not uncommon for disturbed individuals to target surrogates if the person they’re infatuated with doesn’t reciprocate their feelings.”
“What makes you think I didn’t reciprocate?” Nikki looked at Peter. His breath caught. They hadn’t talked about the night everything had gone down. Or, more specifically, what had happened before Adeline’s abduction. Nikki’s lips turned up just a bit and their eyes locked.
Cassandra eyed Nikki for a few moments, judging the risk of letting her continue and possibly spoiling her point or just leaving Nikki’s comment where it was. Then she sighed.
“No further questions, your honor.”
Nikki was dismissed. Lorraine was called up next, but all she could do was give an account of what Gabriel did to her. She didn’t know Peter very well aside from the fact that he had been helping her with math and the jury already knew that Gabriel was guilty. The question they needed answered was, did Peter help him? Adeline was next.
Hail Mary
I smoothed any wrinkles from my skirt and strutted to the stand. No way was I going to let this woman slander Peter. Having so many people looking at me was more nerve-wracking than I expected, but I focused on the man swearing me into oath and then on Wyatt when he approached the bench. I stopped myself from wringing my hands together. “Try not to look nervous. They’ll think you’re hiding something,” Raiden had warned throughout the last few weeks.
“Ms. Parker, when did you first meet Gabriel Escobar?”
“I met him on September 23rd of this year, but I didn’t know it was him.”
“What do you mean?”
“He was in his cynephi form. I followed Peter to this park by our school campus because he lied about where he was going. Turned out that Peter and his dad, Elias had tracked down the beast he suspected had killed a few neighborhood pets and a hiker. It was hiding in the forest by the park. Of course, I didn’t know any of this until Gabriel attacked me. Peter stopped him and forced him back into the forest where Elias could help him try to contain Gabriel out of sight.”
“And when did you actually meet Gabriel face-to-face?”
“The night he attacked and turned Lorraine Vega. He came to see me after work when Lorraine and I were leaving. He was looking for Peter.”
“Couldn’t he have been looking for him because they were working together? He is, after all, Peter’s father.”
I laughed dryly. “If they had been, wouldn’t he have just gone to Peter? Wouldn’t Peter have given him a way to contact him? He shouldn’t have needed a hostage to talk to his own son if they were on friendly terms.” Some of the jury members nodded in agreement.
Wyatt grinned. “Excellent point. Now, Miss Parker...” Apology was ripe in his pale eyes. I wouldn’t like this next question. “You were abducted recently, correct?”
My pulse quickened and I took a deep breath to calm myself. “Yes, by a man named Ian Brackett. It was the same night Peter went missing.” I squeezed my fingers together tightly in my lap. “Ian asked Gabriel for help when his first few attempts to abduct me failed. But when my friends showed up to help, Gabriel bailed on Ian so he could get what he wanted. Peter. I believe his exact words were, ‘I’ll handle the mutt, but the other one is your problem. I’m not dying so you can have some twisted date.’”
A low animalistic growling noise came from the judge. I looked over in surprise. Her dark expression was emphasized when she accidentally snapped her pen in half. She swore under her breath and discarded it into a trash bin beside her chair.
“Sorry,” I muttered in confusion. She shook her head stiffly, not scolding me but also displeased about something. After I finished recounting what happened between Gabriel and Peter that night, Wyatt returned to his seat and Cassandra rose for her turn. I tried not to glare too strongly.
“Ms. Parker,” she began. She laced her fingers together in front of her and paced around pensively. I waited for
whatever sucker punch she had prepared for me. “How long have you known that your friend is a canisapian?”
Okay, not so bad so far, but where was it going? “Since the night he and his dad tried to catch Gabriel.”
She nodded. “Right. And you said you saw him pull Escobar back into the forest. You didn’t see what happened after that?”
I clenched my teeth. “No.”
“Did you ever ask how he managed to get away?”
“No.”
“So, he could have let him go.”
I scoffed. “Peter had some pretty bad gashes on his chest the next day. I doubt that was from Gabriel waving goodbye.”
“Objection,” Cassandra bleated. “Speculation.”
“Agreed. The jury will disregard,” the judge said.
Cassandra returned to me. “Why were they so sure Mr. Escobar was the one attacking pets and hikers?”
“I never asked.”
“Why not?”
“I was a little distracted having just learned that people like Gabriel existed,” I snapped.
“Adjust your tone, Ms. Parker,” Judge Knox warned.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Sorry.”
Cassandra was masking a smile of amusement while I tried to simmer down. She slid a piece of paper off her table. “How long have you known Mr. De la Cruz?”
“Five years, the same as Nikki.”
“And how is your shoulder?” She asked.
“My shoulder?”
“Yes. You were shot, weren’t you?”
Back to Justin, huh? “It’s fine. A magician was able to treat it.”
Cassandra nodded. “Good, good. So, you were also fooled by Justin Hall—”
“Objection, inflammatory to the witness.”
“Agreed. Watch yourself, Mrs. Hegarty,” the judge warned.
Cassandra took a deep breath. “How long had Mr. Hall been abusing your best friend before you noticed something was wrong?”
I clenched my teeth. “She told me it started a bit before summer break. We were gone over the summer helping relief efforts on the coast after the earthquake, but she said it started again when we got back.”
“And how long were you and Mr. Hall friends?”
“Three years, but it’s not the s—”
“And how close were you and Mr. Hall?”
“He was my best friend’s boyfriend for two years, so pretty close,” I admitted begrudgingly.
“And yet he was able to hide his darker side from you, just like Mr. De la Cruz.”
“Peter and Justin are not the same. You’re right, Justin lied to me. He hurt my friend and he hurt me. But he was also the lead actor in every play since he transferred to our high school our Junior year and again in nearly every play we’d had in college so far. He was practically born to lie. Peter can’t even bluff his way through a poker game. Almost always taps his fingers on the table if he doesn’t like his hand.” At the defense table, Peter’s mouth fell open. I had of course never told him about his ‘tell’ and now I could see him thinking back to every card game we’d played. Nikki laughed behind him.
Cassandra raised her brows and shook her head a little to refocus. “Okay, he may not be able to bluff at a game, but he did hide the fact that he’s a canisapian from you since you met. He lied every day about who he is.”
“First of all, am I wrong in thinking that Peter would have gotten in trouble if he had told me he was a canisapian? That would be exposure since I didn’t know what I was, right?” I asked.
“Yes, that would qualify,” The judge said.
“Okay, so he kept his secret to avoid breaking the law. I don’t see how that’s bad. Second, being able to change into a wolf doesn’t change who he is. What you’re talking about, being this violent murderer that you want him to be, would be different. He lied about what he is, not who. He is the guy who accidentally broke a leg to make us laugh—yes it happened once—or the guy who never passed a kid being bullied without standing up for them. The guy who helped me get out of a sinking car after Justin Hall,” I was careful to emphasize the name she was so fond of bringing up. “Ran my car into a lake to scare me off. Check police records if you don’t believe me. That’s who Peter De la Cruz is.” I settled triumphantly back into my seat and gave Cassandra a look challenging her to try again. She bitterly clenched her jaw.
***
After the first two hours, there was a brief recess. So far, Nikki, Lorraine, Raiden, Ben, and I had all testified. I was a little frustrated that Wyatt hadn’t called people with real information to the stand, like Nahamina or Elias, or hey, Peter. Even if we got him cleared for Quinn’s murder for a lack of Peter’s DNA on her body, his blood was all over Gabriel's because he had fought him to protect her.
Wyatt had now returned from making a very long phone call and kept glancing back at the doors. Who was he waiting for? Part of me hoped he had found a witness who had seen Gabriel kill himself, but I knew we wouldn't get that lucky. He would have told us about something like that.
I looked anxiously about the room, wondering who among the spectators could be witnesses for the prosecution. When two security guards began shooing people into the aisles and insisted everyone stay seated, I expected the trial to resume. Instead, they pulled the doors open. Did I hear the clattering of chains approaching? Yes, I did…
A man in a grey prison jumpsuit was led into the room by an imposing escort of SAU agents. I found Ian’s tired face and my breathing stopped. His brown eyes flicked to mine. I spun forward, aware that all my friends were looking at me. Nikki whispered something, but I couldn’t hear it over the blood pounding in my ears. My breathing quickened. My heart raced. Was I wheezing? Great, an anxiety attack was coming on. I couldn’t let Ian see me like this, so as soon as he was seated, I pushed to my feet and hurried from the room. Other footsteps followed. In the hall, I leaned forward against the wall and frustratedly tried to get my breathing back under control.
“Adeline?” Nikki’s voice was worry stricken and she placed her hands on my back. I drew in rasping breaths that were becoming a little easier. Raiden appeared next but Nikki held out a hand to stop him. “What’s he doing here?” She asked heatedly.
“I don’t know.” Raiden looked helpless under Nikki’s withering stare. “Really, I don’t know.” His green eyes pleaded with me to believe him.
“I know you don’t.” My breathing was back under control, so I turned around to lean my back against the wall. The moment the doors opened again, anger contorted Raiden’s features. After a cursory glance to make sure it was Wyatt, he shoved him into the wall beside me and held him there. Nikki pulled me away in surprise. Wyatt held his hands up and took a deep breath to keep from flaring up as well, meeting his friend’s anger with cautious fervor.
“What were you thinking, bringing him here? You should have at least warned Adeline!”
“He knew Gabriel, right? Knew he was hunting Peter to hurt him, not to be reunited with him or whatever crap story Cassandra’s worked up. We needed an honest reaction from Adeline when she saw him. Now the jury knows the dynamic you all have with Ian, so they’ll be more curious about what he has to say.”
Raiden’s nostrils flared. “Why does he have to say anything? We’re doing fine.”
“No, we’re not. We’re floundering. The only evidence on our side is the lack of a murder weapon in Peter’s hand and that’s just because he can’t lift a truck. If we’re going to rely on character witnesses to provide reasonable doubt, then we need a Hail Mary.”
I wedged myself between the two to make Raiden step back and gripped his arms to draw his attention to me. “He’s right,” I said. Raiden gaped and I could feel Wyatt gawking at the back of my head as well. As furious as I was with him for not warning me, using Ian was a valid plan. “He’s the only person involved who’s impartial toward Peter, so he has no reason to lie. If the jury won’t believe us, maybe they’ll believe him.”
Raiden warred with
his stubborn nature and took a deep breath. “Your opinion is what matters here. If you think it’s a good idea, I’ll go along with it.”
“I do.”
Raiden exhaled and dipped his head in a nod. We trailed back in after Wyatt and the judge resumed the proceedings. Wyatt didn’t waste any time on his ‘Hail Mary’ and called Ian to the stand. As he was sworn in, I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of my breathing rather than the sound of his voice. I could not let myself be brought back to the night he’d abducted me. Not here, not now. Nikki and Raiden gripped my hands on either side. I felt my hands shaking in theirs.
Wyatt stood and I reluctantly returned my attention to the proceedings. Members of the jury were glancing warily between each other and Ian. As the son of the infamous Nathaniel Brackett, Paragon-gone-bad and raging bigot who had made it his mission to ‘cure’ dhampirs, Ian’s reputation preceded him.
“Mr. Brackett, for the record, can you explain your connection to the plaintiff for the jury?”
Deep bags rimmed Ian’s eyes and he idly scratched at stubble growing on his cheek. “I don’t know him personally. I was arrested a few months ago for...abducting his friend.” He almost seemed to begrudge having to call it an abduction. What would he prefer to call it? An intervention? I seethed further into my seat and stuffed my hair behind my ear.
“His friend, Adeline Parker?” Wyatt clarified. Nearly all eyes in the room moved to me. I sunk further. Slade’s hand gripped my shoulder from the pew behind and Nikki’s grip on my hand tightened.