I watched the scene in front of me, and saw what she was talking about. He was wiping a finger down his cheek, then pressing it to various surfaces. After about two minutes of that, he pulled something out of his pocket, and crawled under the soundboard, all the way underneath. He disappeared for about ten seconds then crawled back out. Pressing a few more oily fingers around the room, including grabbing the chair with both hands, he seemed satisfied with whatever the hell he was doing and walked back out into the corridor.
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “I’ll bet a dollar he just planted evidence.”
“Didn’t they already search my studio?”
“I don’t know…” She stared at the screen, and a second later, a grin spread across her face. “But we can find out, can’t we.” Picking up the phone, she quickly dialed a number, watching me as someone picked up on the other end. “Hey, Raph. Yeah, can you come up to Jerry’s office? We have something we need your help with…”
CHASE
KYLE AND VINCENTSTOOD WITH MARCUSin the front of the courtroom, heads together chatting with each other. They werenotcomfortable with each other at that moment, and I wanted to laugh at Vincent.
We were here for the preliminary hearing, to see if Ed’s accusations were going forward to court. I didn’t see how they could, but discovery had brought up all the lurid details of what had happened in Boston to my boyfriend, and that looked bad.
There was new evidence, too, that the prosecutor had shared late. I’d heard Vincent curse the man out just a few minutes before and it had taken all Kyle had to pull the man off the other lawyer.
But now we were settled and waiting for the judge to get back from lunch.
I wanted this shit over with. I knew he wasn’t guilty, and they should just trust me. I sat back and harrumphed like a child, even folding my arms.
Raphael ran in just as the bailiff appeared in the door.
“Got it,” he panted and shoved two CDs at them.
“All of it? Like we asked,” Vincent said.
Raph nodded. “Just like you asked.”
“Good man, take a seat.”
“All rise for the Honorable Judge Michael Demico.” The bailiff stood at attention while the judge walked in and sat down.
“Be seated,” he called.
There was a flurry of shit I didn’t understand going on after that. Court documents, timing, reporters, transcriptions, and just all kind of things that didn’t make sense to my untrained ears.
What I did see was Marcus sitting quietly with his hands folded. For the first time since I met him, I couldn’t read him. I couldn’t tell if he was happy, sad, scared…
There was a yelp from the prosecutors table. We all turned to look and found the woman absolutely red-faced and shaking with rage as she stared at something Kyle had handed her just a few minutes before. Her manicured nails cut through the paper and she looked ready to scream.
“Your honor, may I have a ten minute recess.” She held up the paper and a CD.
“Objections?” the judge asked.
“No your honor.”
“Good.” He banged his gavel. “Pee break.” He stood, we stood, he trotted out, and the prosecutor hauled out through the back doors.
Dawn laughed lightly next to me. “I’ve never heard a judge so informal.”
“Old man bladder.” Kyle snickered. “He’s an amazing judge, but he has no duration.”
“Man needs saw palmetto,” Vincent mumbled. Kyle laughed, then caught himself and stopped it.
Oh, yeah. They had it bad.
“What did you hand the prosecutor?” Dawn asked.
“Magic,” Kyle answered, “in the form of a transcript and a CD.”
