JD jumped to his feet and slammed his palm down on the table. “Objection. I fail to see the relevance.”
Damon leaned forward. “JD, this is not a court of law. You are not allowed to object.”
“I know full well it’s not a court of law,” JD said loudly, making sure everyone could hear. “In a court of law you are innocent until proven guilty, not the other way round.” Again murmuring started and again looks of concern crossed the faces of some of the council members. “Or are you going to deny that that is how my father is being treated?”
Damon ignored the question. “Mark is entitled to ask any question he wants, regardless of whether you see the relevance or not.”
“Fine. As long as I get to do the same to Sandra.”
“Of course you can’t,” Damon said. “She’s a victim and will be treated with respect and courtesy. We need to make this as easy for her as possible.”
“Alleged victim,” JD said. “Nothing has been proven yet. And if you wanted to make things easy for her, why didn’t you make this a private session? Why make her testify in public?”
The murmuring got louder and Damon was forced to call for silence. JD was making some very good points.
“Shawn,” Damon said when the room had quietened down, “you will answer the question.”
Shawn looked at his wife as he answered. “Just once. On my stag night. I got very drunk and ended up in bed with the stripper. I told Linda everything and she married me a week later anyway. I have never so much as kissed another woman since.”
JD looked behind him at his brother. This was obviously news to him as well.
“Let me remind you,” Mark said, “that you have to tell the truth here. Lying will be punished. With that in mind, would you like to revise what you just said?”
“No, I would not,” Shawn said loudly and clearly.
“So you deny having sex with my daughter?”
“Yes, I deny it. I also deny beating her. I have never laid a hand on her in any way.”
“Stop lying. Confess now and the council will go easier on you.”
Shawn remained silent. The silence dragged on and just as Damon opened his mouth to order Mark to get on with it, he turned to JD and said, “Your witness.”
JD rolled his eyes. Mark had obviously been watching too many courtroom dramas. He didn’t stand up, choosing instead to question his father while seated. It gave the impression that he was calm and confident enough that he would prove his father’s innocence that he didn’t have to approach him.
“Has a student ever come on to you?”
“It has happened in the past. Some students, especially younger ones, develop a crush on their trainers. They admire them and mistake that admiration for attraction.”
“How do you cope with this?”
“I ignore it when I can. If they go too far, I explain why I cannot become involved with them.”
“And did Sandra ever make any moves on you?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Liar,” Sandra screamed out.
Damon banged his fist on the table. “Sandra, either you control yourself or you will be asked to leave. You will get your chance to put forward your side of the story. Please continue JD.”
“Thank you. Please tell the court, Shawn, if she took no for an answer.”
“No, she didn’t. No matter what I said to her, she still kept flirting with me. I had to stop having one-on-one sessions with her.”
“Did you ever have to physically restrain her?”
“No. After one training session, once everyone had left the arena, she tried to kiss me. I pushed her away and told her that if she ever did that again I would have her transferred.”
“Did you ever tell anyone about this? Did you report it?”
“I told my wife everything, but I didn’t report it. I decided to give her one more chance.”
JD looked across at Sandra. She was pretty with long blonde hair, blue eyes and a trim figure. “She’s rather attractive. Most men would have been flattered by her attentions. Were you?”
“No. I would have been, had I not been her trainer. But I am a trainer, and a damn good one, and her unwanted advances were interfering with me doing my job.”
“Just one more question,” JD said. “Did you beat and rape her?”
“No.”
“You can call your next witness,” JD said to Mark. “Unless you have any further questions, that is.”
“Just one. Do you honestly expect us to believe that a girl young enough to be your daughter would be attracted to you?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything. I was just told to tell the truth and that is what I have done.”
“I will prove otherwise. You may return to your seat.”
“Did that actually do any good?” Shawn whispered to JD as he sat down beside him.
“A little. At least people now know your side of the story. Whether they believe it or not is another matter.”
The next witness for the prosecution was Ben Kingston, the man who claimed to have witnessed the rape. He was a short man, a little over-weight, in his early twenties, with mousey hair which was a little too long to look tidy, and thick, dark-rimmed glasses.
He told how he was walking down the path, next to the river, when he heard screams. When he went to investigate, a man ran into him. They were under a street lamp so he could clearly see his face. He went on to describe finding Sandra’s beaten body and how he wanted to call an ambulance, but she wouldn’t let him, insisting instead that he use her phone to call her father.
He spoke about going with her to the nearest Sanctuary with a doctor and hearing her tell her father that she had been raped by her trainer. When shown a photo of the defendant, he recognised him as the man who had run into him.
Once his story was complete, JD took over the questioning.
“So you never actually witnessed the rape,” he said. Once more he remained seated. He asked the question as though he and Ben were just having a casual conversation.
“No.”
“And you never witnessed Sandra being beaten.”
“No.”
“So all you saw was a man running away.”
“Yes. But he came from where I found Sandra so he had to have been responsible.”
“Did he?” JD asked, raising his eyebrows. “I beg to differ. So you identified my father from a photo. Tell me, were you shown a number of photos and you picked him out or were you just shown the one and asked if that was the man you saw?”
“Just the one,” Ben said. “But it was definitely him.”
“And how well do you know Sandra?”
Ben shifted in his seat. JD was making him nervous. “What do you mean?”
“Did you know her before you found her beaten and raped?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you absolutely sure?”
“Positive.”
“Interesting,” JD said, but didn’t elaborate. “I’m done. You may go.”
The next witness was the doctor who treated Sandra. JD did not cross-examine. He didn’t doubt that Sandra had been attacked, just who the culprit was and the doctor wouldn’t be able to help with any identification. A condom had been used and there was no physical evidence on Sandra’s body.
Then it was Sandra’s turn to testify. She made a good job of it, breaking down and crying at the right times, formally identifying Shawn as her attacker and denying ever being attracted to him. If JD hadn’t known that she was lying, he might have believed her.
When it was JD’s turn to question her, he started off gently. “You have been through a horrible experience and I am sorry that you had to just relive it. Nobody doubts that you were attacked. It just wasn’t my father who did it.”
Then he was through being nice. “How many men have you had sex with?”
Sandra stared at him, her mouth open. She couldn’t believe he had asked that question.
“JD,” Damon s
aid sternly. “Sandra’s previous sex life is of no relevance to this hearing.”
“And my father’s is?”
“I was trying to show that this wasn’t the first time he has cheated on his wife,” Mark said.
“And I am trying to show that your daughter is not the sweet little angel she makes herself out to be.”
“Change your line of questioning JD,” Damon said.
JD shrugged his shoulders, as if it was of no consequence. He had expected to be shut down, but his comments had been heard by all and mentally noted. He was suggesting that she wasn’t as innocent as she made out, at least sexually, and his suggestion was not being refuted.
“What do you do for a living Sandra?”
“I’m a student.”
“No part time job? No source of income?”
“No. Only what my father gives me. Why?”
JD ignored her question. “Can you please explain why you withdrew two thousand dollars from your account the morning of your attack? I have a copy of your bank statement here to prove it.”
“That’s none of your business,” she snapped at him. “How did you get hold of my bank statement?”
It hadn’t taken Jonathon long to find out which bank Sandra had an account with and all it took was a little flirting with one of the tellers to get hold of the information. Not that JD was going to tell anyone that. He couldn’t prove what the money was for, but he had unsettled Sandra. Now it was time to do it again.
“How well do you know Ben Kingston?”
The sudden change of direction had her confused. “What?”
“I asked, how well do you know Mr Kingston?”
“Hardly at all. We have spoken a few times, but that is it.”
JD picked something up off the table, stood up and walked over to her. “Then could you please explain why there is a photo of the two of you having coffee together.”
He handed her the photo and she stared at it. It was clearly of her and Ben.
“We met up once so I could thank him for helping me.” She was a fast thinker, he had to admit.
“I thought you would say that, which is why I have enlarged the man sitting behind you. He is clearly reading a newspaper dated a week before you were attacked.” He handed her another photo.
“Can I see those please,” Damon said. JD took them from Sandra, who seemed reluctant to let go of them, and handed them over. Damon looked at them closely, then passed them on to the council member sitting next to him. One by one the council members viewed the proof that Sandra knew her so called rescuer before her attack.
“So someone is reading an old newspaper. What does that prove?” Sandra asked.
“That’s your story is it?” JD said.
“Yes and you can’t prove otherwise.”
‘Oh how little you know,’ JD thought, but said nothing. He waited for Sandra to say more, but she didn’t.
“I have no more questions,” he said then sat back down.
“I have no more witnesses,” Mark said.
“In that case, we will take a half hour break,” Damon said. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I need a coffee.”
Shawn waited until most people had left the room before turning to JD. “How did you get that photo?”
“I had Jonathon do some investigating. He found Sandra’s ex-boyfriend. He’s a hunter in a different Sanctuary. He suspected she was cheating on him so he started following her and taking photos of everyone she met with. Our friend on the council was nice enough to supply me with a photo of Ben, taken when he became registered as a non-hunter with permission to enter these buildings. The ex let Jonathon go through all of his photos and we found a match. Luckily there was a man reading a newspaper in the background.”
“I thought I told you to stay out of it,” Shawn said to Jonathon.
“Like that was ever going to happen.”
“So will the ex-boyfriend testify?” Shawn asked.
“No, but we don’t need him to.”
“You’ve done enough to put some doubt in some people’s minds, son, but not enough to prove me innocent and it looks like the council are going to require proof.”
“They will get their proof, don’t worry.”
“How?”
“Just wait and see.”
————————————-∞————————————-
Thirty minutes later, everyone was back in the room, waiting for the hearing to continue.
“You may call your first witness,” Damon said to JD, who turned around to look at Gabriel.
Gabriel grinned. He had been looking forward to this. He could feel eyes on him as he walked up to the witness chair and sat down. Most of the women were admiring his body, probably some of the men too.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself,” JD said.
Gabriel looked around, at the council members, at the prosecution, then at the spectators, wondering how they were going to react.
“My name is Gabriel and I am the vampire that killed JD.”
Guilty
Pandemonium broke out as most people reacted. Some stood up and moved as far away as they could get without actually leaving the room, others stayed in their seats, too scared to move. Even some members of the council got to their feet. Someone screamed. Everyone was talking at once. Gabriel found it quite satisfying. He enjoyed scaring humans sometimes.
Damon banged his fist on the table three times to get everyone’s attention. “Silence,” he shouted.
It took a while, but eventually people stopped talking and the only sound was someone in the back sobbing.
Damon glared at JD. “What is the meaning of this?”
JD smiled at him. “It’s quite simple. I knew from the start that this was going to be a case of ‘he says, she says’ without there being any real proof either way. I suspected, and the way this has been run has demonstrated that my suspicions were correct, that there was bias against my father. I know it’s nothing personal. It’s just that a council member’s daughter has been attacked so of course she has to be believed.”
JD looked at the council members one at a time. Most turned away, embarrassed and ashamed that what he said was true, not that they were prepared to admit that.
“The only way we can get to the truth is to make everyone involved unable to lie. That is where Gabriel comes in. As I stated in my report, a greater vampire can control a human by injecting them with a little venom. It will not harm them I assure you. He can then command whoever he bites to tell the truth.”
Whispering started in the audience while Damon stared at JD, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Can you guarantee that this will not harm a human, that it will not turn them?”
“Yes,” JD said. “Gabriel did it to Katie and, as you can see, she is perfectly alright.”
Katie went red as JD signalled that she should stand up so everyone could see her.
Damon looked thoughtful as he continued to stare at JD. Then he looked at his fellow councillors, giving them the opportunity to speak. None did.
“Very well, I will allow this. To be honest, I am curious to see if it really works.”
“Thank you,” JD said. He didn’t mention that Damon didn’t really have a choice. Gabriel would do what needed to be done, with or without his permission.
“I will not let that creature anywhere near my daughter,” Mark screamed out. Tears of terror were streaming down Sandra’s face, though JD suspected they were not caused by the thought of being bitten, but instead by her dread of being forced to tell the truth.
Gabriel smiled at Mark, revealing his fangs. “And how exactly are you planning on stopping me? I could kill everyone in this room before anyone even managed to reach the door to scream for help.”
“Gabriel,” Sarah said in a warning tone. “Behave.”
Gabriel sighed. “Very well. I can kill everyone here, but I won’t. All I will do is make those I bite tell the truth. Is t
hat better?”
“Much,” Sarah said.
Damon signalled that JD should approach him. “Do you actually have any control over Gabriel at all?” he whispered. He didn’t know that Gabriel could hear everything he said.
“None whatsoever, but I trust him and so should you.”
Damon looked at Gabriel, who was relaxed back in his chair, a bored expression on his face, then returned his attention to JD.
“You’re that sure your father is telling the truth?”
“I would bet my life on it.”
“Very well then,” Damon said more loudly. “Proceed.”
Mark started to protest, but Damon silenced him. “I have made my decision. This will happen whether you like it or not, but I will make one concession. Shawn has to go first.”
JD turned to his father. “Well dad, what do you say? Are you ready to prove your innocence?”
If JD had said that Shawn looked nervous, it would have been a huge understatement. He had gone pale and was shaking. He looked at his wife, who nodded her agreement.
“Can’t you do it?” he asked JD.
“No. I don’t have that ability. And even if I did, I would never use it. How could I be trusted ever again if I did?”
“I won’t harm you Shawn,” Gabriel said. “I promise.”
“Alright. What do I need to do?”
“Nothing.” Gabriel stood up then moved next to Shawn so fast he was just a blur. There was no need for him to show off his speed, but he wanted to make a demonstration.
He took hold of Shawn’s hair and moved his head to the side. “This will sting a little,” he said, then bit his neck.
Gasps issued from around the room and again someone screamed.
When Gabriel stepped back, he looked Shawn in the eye. “Until you leave this room, you will answer every question you are asked truthfully and completely. Understand?”
“Yes.”
Linda took a handkerchief from her bag, walked up to her husband and dabbed at the trickle of blood that was rolling down his neck.
“I am very proud of you,” she said, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then returned to her seat.
Greater Vampires Page 24