Page 150 of Precise Justice

“No, I did not.”

“You were mad as hell, weren’t you?”

“I suppose, yes.”

“Resentful?”

“Yes.”

“Regretful of what they did to you, weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“But you did not physically harm anyone as a result, did you?”

“How about Ava?”

“Objection,” Jennifer said.

“Sustained, move on, Ms. Raines,”

“You were angry, resentful, mad as hell, so you wrote a serious complaint letter to both doctors then, let it go, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

“You even found love, a partner to marry and live with, didn’t you?”

“Yes!”

Raines just about kept going but decided she had elicited enough for their closing argument.

“I have nothing further.”

While the courtroom was emptying for the lunch break, Jennifer asked Marc for his impression.

“Both sides scored. We can still argue that there are plenty of suspects out there. The police did a half-ass job investigating.

“They can argue that yes, people can get angry but don’t have a murder weapon found between their mattress and boxspring.

“Sorry, Robbie,” Marc said.

“It’s okay,” Robbie replied.

“The defense calls Blake Craig, your Honor,” Marc proclaimed.

It was almost two o’clock on a Friday afternoon. Marc and Jennifer had done a good job of scheduling witnesses. Blakewas the ending. The last one, a biased character witness to give the jury a last minute something to think about during the weekend.

Of course, as his father, he would have nothing but glowing things to say about his son. Probably the best part was when Blake took full responsibility for allowing his son’s mutilation. Mutilation being Blake’s word.

He went on for almost two hours talking about Robbie’s life as a boy. His difficulty making friends, his poor athletic ability and Priscilla’s nagging about wanting a daughter.

“Could Robbie have done this?” Marc asked toward the end.

“No, never. He was always too kind, too willing to defer to others. Eager to help and please even when being bullied at school, which he was. Just because he wasn’t much of an athlete, a lot of boys aren’t. They don’t become crazy, angry murderers.

“In fact, I can guarantee, Robbie did not commit these crimes,” Blake looked squarely at the jury and said.

Marc ended it there and passed the witness to the prosecution.