Trials

Dear Readers,

Lyssa and Mercy give testimony,

Enjoy,

KemMyst

*******

That afternoon they drove to the police station so that Lyssa could give her statement. The policewoman who took it seemed skeptical but seemed to dutifully take down everything. Ron Sr. had been taken into custody while they slept.

The police chief came out to tell them that the trial would be proceeding the next day and that she should be prepared to take the stand in the morning.

The news had the reports of both her abduction and recovery. The outlets had been frustrated by her recovery in that she was rescued before they knew it so no one had footage. A couple had tried to get on to the property to talk to her but had been turned away, and none too gently.

The pack phone rang, almost constantly, for hours.

Anna took eight messages from various affiliates and stopped after they kept calling back, asking if Lyssa was available, if they could speak to her. About midway through their second go ’round, she left the phone off the hook for about half an hour. When she put it back on, the rate of calling only got worse. She settled for turning off the ringer.

——-

[CLAYTON ROSS!]

Half the pack winced at the call. The second call for the Alpha heir, who had, obviously, not answered his mother.

The Alpha, Stephanie Ross, had cautioned them all that she was bringing her pup under control. In between the death of her mate and their former Alpha, she had had to assume the role of Alpha and deal with pregnancy and the birth of her first pup. It had been a steep learning curve.

A pack without a strong leader grew fearful and uncertain, prone to unexpected actions. It had taken a lot of her time and attention to keep the pack together and under control. Previously a warrior by choice, the physical aspect helped, especially when she had been challenged. The stress associated with the Day of Discovery hadn’t helped. However, running the pack, even with an experienced Beta, meant that something had had to give. That something had ended up being the discipline of her pup.

Clayton would be expected to be the next Ross Alpha and a wild, uncontrolled Alpha was not a good thing.

Nothing. She knew he could send over the range’s distance. And he shouldn’t be that far from the den to begin with.

He was being even more recalcitrant since she started putting her foot down.

[Who has eyes on my pup?]

Stephanie waited, but no answer came. He was hiding.

They didn’t have time for this but she was going to have to have them search. Alright, then. [Who saw him last?]

[He was in the orchard.]

[He ran through the kitchen.] Considering all the pack members’ movements, it could be done but it would be difficult to scent track him.

[Wolven?]

[Yes, Alpha.]

[Sampson, Albert, Harris, guard the exits of the den. He’s inside.]

[Second floor, my Alpha.]

Her office? Her bedroom suite? The Beta suite? No, she had cautioned the pack that any interference in her discipline of her pup would be met with punishment. While he seemed to favor their Beta’s mate, he would know better than to try to hide there.

One of the young females, Jessica, pointed toward, ah, the safe room.

Its construction meant there was only one way in or out.

Stephanie tried the door. Locked, from the inside. She growled. He was headstrong and it was exhausting trying to keep him in line. [Clayton. Open the door.] She tried to make her tone as neutral as possible but she thought a trickle of anger made it through. He had to know he was in for it or he wouldn’t have locked the door.

He couldn’t stay in there forever, but, since it was stocked with supplies to last a number of wolves for a few days, he could stay in there for a good long time. [Phillip. Please bring the keys for the safe room.]

[Yes, Alpha. It will take me few minutes to get them and come to you.]

Phillip was her Beta’s mate, though on the weaker side for a wolf. Those who didn’t know him would consider him unimportant but she trusted him. He wouldn’t let others know where he hid them.

Stephanie stripped and shifted. Clayton would be in wolf form when the door opened and she would punish him accordingly. She sat near the door, growling.

Phillip approached. “Madam Alpha, may I make a suggestion?”

Stephanie dipped her head and brought it back up.

“If you go in after him, he’ll try to get away and you’ll probably make a mess chasing him around til you get him.”

[Yes.]

“The room has communication. If you play some annoying noise loud enough he’ll either come out or curl up in a corner.”

Stephanie considered, gusted out a breath. [Alright. We’ll try it.]

[Stan, blast some hip hop to the safe room.]

[On whose authority?] Phillip didn’t have that kind of clout, even as the Beta’s mate.

[Mine.]

[Yes, Alpha.]

Hinges were on the inside. She positioned herself directly in front of the doorway. Phillip stayed back a bit, but nearby. The pup tended to gravitate to him and, though he knew the young wolf needed discipline, was worried about him.

Wolf ears were sensitive and it didn’t take long before the door gapped open. Then slammed shut. [Turn up the volume.] [Phillip, please stand before the door.]

Stephanie backed away and Phillip placed himself before the door. The door again cracked open, a nose stuck out and sniffed. Young Clay popped out and ran into Phillip’s legs. Stephanie bolted over, knocked him down, and put a paw on him, jaws around his snout.

He wriggled.

She growled.

Phillip winced at the music. [Stan. Turn it off.]

Clay whimpered but his mother maintained her hold.

Phillip watched, concerned. “Alpha?”

She growled and continued to hold her son down.

Nothing, all he was doing was whimpering. She had left this too long, he didn’t understand how to respond to normal, simple punishment.

Finally, he stopped wriggling and lay there, panting.

[Mama.]

She sighed. [Do you know why you’re here? Of course you do. What do you have to say for yourself?]

[I was having fun.]

[I don’t care. You come when I call.]

[But, mama…]

[No, everyone else comes. You will too. Every time.]

He didn’t reply and she knew he’d defy her again. She tightened her grip a little bit more until he yipped and she tasted his blood. Then she let go and stepped back. He scrabbled upright and growled at her. She knocked him down again, a large paw on his chest.

Clayton stilled more quickly and she let him up again.

He ran off.

She stood there a few moments, head down.

“He’s been spoiled. It’ll take some time.”

She bared her teeth at her Beta’s mate, then stalked off to her room. He was right and she couldn’t help but hear a reproach in the words. She’d had so much to learn in a short time, but that was no excuse. She’d waited too long to bring her son to heel.

——-

Lyssa groaned as the alarm sounded and her mate shifted beside her. She had to testify against Ronnie at Court today. She knew she had to do it to get him sent away for Jamie’s murder but she was so not in the mood.

Lyssa rolled over, closer to Emmett, and settled in again. He cracked an eye open, looked at her, and shoved her out of the bed.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“Can’t be late, mate, get going.”

She glared at him for a moment as he lounged up on one elbow and stood with a huff.

He watched in appreciation as she grumbled her way into the bathroom. Emmett was half tempted to join her there but they wouldn’t make it to the courthouse on time if he did.

——-

Lyssa was in a pale blue blouse and a pair of navy pants. After the numerous gaffes, they would go alone to the courthouse. She drove, with Emmett in the passenger seat, quiet. She pulled into the lot reserved for participants of the trials that were going on, pulled into a space, and put her forehead against the wheel. Emmett put his hand on the back of her neck. “Are you alright, sweetheart?”

“Y..,” she cleared her throat and raised her head, “Yes.” She turned to look at her mate’s milk chocolate eyes.

She took both his hands, “Em, the other attorney is probably going to ask me a lot of nasty, personal, invasive questions. They’ll try to get me to lose my temper, discredit me. You can’t come to my rescue. You have to trust that our lawyer will stop the worst of it and that I can handle it. Can you do that?”

“I have to, don’t I?”

She nodded. “It’s the only way we can get Ronnie for killing Jamie.”

Lyssa sat with Emmett on the bench outside the courtroom. A guard stood nearby to prevent anyone from accosting them. It was just after 9 a.m. when they were called into the courtroom. Emmett sat in the front row behind their attorney, while Lyssa stepped up into the witness box.

“State your full name.”

“Lyssa Marie Forrester.”

“How long have you been a werewolf?”

“Six years.”

“How did you meet Emmett Forrester?”

Lyssa told the story of finding Emmett, injured, on her back porch. “We’ve seen your husband in wolf form.” She thought briefly of correcting him but decided against it. “You thought he was a dog?”

“I thought, yes, that he was a dog. I even tried to feed him dog food.”

Emmett smiled at that memory. She started out feeding him warm bloddy roast that she’d pulled out of the freezer but, that being expensive and thinking he was a big dog she’d gone out and bought dog food. And ended up with a small mess on her floor when he tried a bite to placate her and threw it up.

She told how she threw Ronnie out of her house and his returns. About her troubled integration, then her acceptance into the pack. The loss of her house.

After a short break, questioning resumed.

The questions moved on to the Day of Discovery and the bite that Emmanuel had given him. The lawsuit that followed and the award Ronnie had won for pain and suffering. Then came the painful part, her recollections of the night Jamie died.

“And, why did you think the killing might have something to do with your ex-boyfriend?”

“Ronnie hated Emmett.” Ronnie gave her a bit of a smirk. It was true; Ronnie hated Emmett.

“But, why, then, would he want to shoot another werewolf?”

Lyssa closed her eyes and took a moment. “Mrs. Forrester?”

“Ronnie knew what Emmett looked like as a wolf. Jamie’s wolf looked like Emmett’s. He would have thought he was killing Emmett.”

“Objection. Speculation.”

“Sustained.”

“The jury will disregard the witness’ last statement.”

“Mrs. Forrester, did Jamie, the wolf, resemble your husband’s wolf form?”

“Yes, they both had similar coloring.”

“And you found out that it was Mr. Wilson?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“He admitted it. I have a tape.”

“People’s evidence C, your honor.” An envelope with a small bulge in it was placed on a table. “So, Mr. Wilson called you and admitted to it?”

“No. He followed me onto the property and we… talked, I guess.”

“You hesitated on the word ‘talked’. Was it a conversation?”

“No, no. It was more accusations, name calling, yelling.”

“And somewhere along the way he told you he killed Jamie Wyeth?”

“No. He admitted he killed my mate.”

“But, he hadn’t.”

“No. He thought he did. He thought he’d killed Emmett.”

Their attorney looked at the jury, then at the other table. “Your witness.”

The other attorney stood and straightened his suit coat. “Permission to treat the witness as hostile, your honor.”

The judge looked at him over his reading glasses. “Granted.”

“You stated that Mr. Wilson followed you on to the property.”

“Yes.”

“How did he get there?”

“Excuse me?”

“How did he get there? How did he come to follow you?”

“He was next to me at a traffic light. He noticed I was in the car next to him and followed me.”

“You drove into the driveway and he followed you in?”

“No.” She glanced at their lawyer, who began to look decidedly uncomfortable.

“No? Where did he follow you to?”

Oh, crap.

“Miz Forrester?”

“I stopped at the back of the property and walked in.”

“The back of the property? Did you often do that?”

“Um. No.”

“So, why do it this time?”

Lyssa took a couple of breaths. The judge looked at her. “The witness will answer the question.”

The other attorney waved his hand dismissively. “Withdrawn. Miz Forrester, did you know Mr. Wilson was following you?”

“… Yes.”

“Did you mean to have him follow you onto the Wyeth property?”

“The police hadn’t been able..”

“Miz Forrester, did you intend to have Mr. Wilson follow you onto the property?”

She opened her mouth, closed it, swallowed. “Yes.”

“And how did you come to be driving down that stretch of road?”

“I was…”

“You went looking for him, didn’t you? You knew where he lived and contrived to ‘accidentally’ run into him. Why else would you have a tape recorder at the ready?”

Lyssa looked at their lawyer, who nodded solemnly. “I knew I could get him to admit it.”

“Judge,” the lawyer walked over and set an arm on the judge’s bench. “I submit that Mrs. Forrester subjected Mr. Wilson to entrapment and that the taped evidence is inadmissible.”

There were little gasps from both jurors and some in the audience. [Mate?] [They won’t let the jury listen to the tape.]

The judge brought both attorneys to the bench and Lyssa listened with dismay as what she considered to be their strongest evidence would be thrown out.

As the attorneys went back to their tables, the judge turned to the jury. “The jurors are instructed to ignore testimony of the past 10 minutes wherein the witness discusses an admission by the defendant. This testimony is invalidated.”

The defending attorney looked at Lyssa, Ronnie smirked. “No further questions, your honor.”

Lyssa was stunned. That was it? He wasn’t gonna ask her anything else? Their lawyer had expected the opposition would ask her a lot of questions.

And the tape was thrown out? This was a disaster.

The police commissioner testified as to the scene and the removal of the bullets, including Dr. Worthy’s designation of the kill shot. A weapon had never been recovered that could be matched to the bullets.

“Your honor, our next witness is a minor and will need to be brought to the courthouse as she was not expected to testify today.”

“Your honor, prosecution continues to delay these proceedings. I move for a mistrial.”

The judge looked at him. “Motion denied. Mr. Jaffe, you have two hours to produce your witness. Court is recessed two hours for lunch.” The gavel banged and people began moving out.

Lyssa, sitting beside Emmett, put her head in her hands. [Because I lured him to the pack lands to get a confession. That’s not allowed.] “Oh, Em, I thought I was helping.”

Emmett put an arm around her. “How bad is it?”

“Nothing’s better than a confession. It’s all going to rely on Mercy now. It depends on what the jury’s willing to believe. She’s a young woman; she was shot; she’ll look sympathetic.”

——-

Paul dropped Mercy off and reporters swarmed around, shouting questions and taking pictures. While they couldn’t know exactly who she was, they believed she was associated with the high profile case. She looked small and scared.

Of course she was, she’e never been around so many humans in her life, and one of the few times she had been near a human she’d been shot.

Mercy had been told what to expect but hearing about it was nothing compared to the experience. She’d never been to a mall or a big party. She’d never been outside the den. She wasn’t used to a large press of people, of humans. Mercy was nervous, rattled.

Lyssa and Emmett flanked her on the bench outside the courtroom. Adding some familiarity in a very odd and somewhat frightening situation.

Mercy looked small and faintly terrified in the witness box. She was dressed in a little sundress in a floral patterns, flip flops on her feet. She was not used to shoes.

“State your full name for the court.”

“Mercy.”

“Mercy what?”

“What?”

“What’s your last name?”

“Last name?”

“Certainly you have a last name?”

She looked perplexed.

“Your honor, let us stipulate that, based upon the natures of her culture and upbringing, that the name Mercy shall suffice.”

“Accepted.” The judge turned to her. “Young lady?”

“Yes?”

“You understand the difference between telling the truth and a lie, right?”

“Yeah.” [Yes.] “Yes.” She kept wrinkling her nose.

“Are you alright?”

“It stinks in here.”

“Stinks?” She nodded. [Yes.] “Yes.” The crowd tittered.

“The lawyers are going to ask you some questions now. Tell the truth and only what you saw or heard.”

“Can I say what I smelled?”

“Of course.”

“OK.” She pulled her feet up on the chair, hugging her knees to her chest. [Mercy, feet down, you don’t have underwear on!] Her feet slammed back to the floor. Thankfully, the skirt on the sundress had draped down.

“Hello, Mercy,” their attorney greeted her, “remember me?”

She nodded. “You have to speak your answers.”

“Yes.”

“Are you afraid?”

“Yes. I’ve never been around so many humans. And stuck in a room.”

“Nobody here is going to hurt you.”

She gestured with her chin. “He did.”

“Can you point to the person you mean?”

Mercy raised an arm and pointed at Ronnie, her lip started to quiver. “Him. He killed Jamie.” She dropped her head to her knees.

“Let the record show the witness has indicated Ronald Wilson, Jr.”

“Mercy?” She raised a wet face. “Tell me what happened that night.”

Mercy took a deep, shuddering breath and looked at Emmett and Lyssa. Emmett nodded. “Um, Jamie and I were running sweep.”

“Sweep?”

“Uh, yeah, running around the range to see if anyone had come on it.”

“Alright, what happened?”

“We came to a road. Jamie stuck his nose out and looked around quick. We were supposed to change and cross the road as human but that would take time and it was dark and we didn’t feel like doing it.” She sniffed.

“Who told you to change at the road?”

“The Alphas.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Wyeth?”

“Yeah, they’re in charge.”

“Why would they want you to change?”

“Cuz humans know about us now and some of ’em were sayin’ that they wanted to kill us.” A soft sob escaped her. “And, and..” A deep breath. “And they might do it if they saw wolves but they wouldn’t if they saw humans.”

“So, you and Jamie didn’t change?”

“No. We could just run across the road real quick. I mean, it would only take a couple of seconds.”

“So, you said Jamie poked his nose out and looked around. What happened next?”

“A human came over to the opening and shot Jamie. He, he staggered back a, a..” fresh tears coursed down her cheeks. “He fell back. He fell down.”

“I smelled his blood. I tried to get him to move. I heard the human coming. Then there was a flash and a burning in my foreleg that knocked me back. Then the stink from the gun.”

“So, both of you were shot?”

“Yeah.”

“Then what happened?”

“I hid behind a bush cuz I didn’t want to leave..” a hitch in her voice, “him. The human mostly ignored me but went over to, to… where Jamie was lying. Jamie snarled at him but couldn’t get up. The human came over to him and, and, and…” a wail, “shot him in the head! He killed him!”

She rose from the seat. “You killed him! He never did anything to you! I hope you die!”

[Mercy, please, you have to calm down.]

Mercy dropped back into the seat, put her face in her hands and started sobbing.

The judge banged the gavel. “Fifteen minute recess.”

Lyssa was allowed to come forward to comfort the young woman. She knelt beside the chair and gathered Mercy into her arms. “I want my mama. I want Jamie.”

“I know, sweetie. I know.”

“This is stupid, we…” [Stop. You can’t say that here.]

Mercy swallowed, hid her face against Lyssa’s shoulder again. [This is awful.]

[I know and I’m sorry. And, I have to remind you, Mercy. The questions from the other lawyer will be worse. He may get nasty.]