Manhunt (26 page)

“I... Because... She...” Michael stammered, his face turning red.

“Isn’t it possible that if you had intervened sooner, in a more socially acceptable way, Sebastian Cross might still be alive?”

“Yes,” Michael admitted.

“You know what I think, Mr. Brennan? I think that you didn’t kill Sebastian Cross to protect Nikki. You killed him out of jealousy and hatred that he had what you lost.”

“No, that’s not true!” he replied at the same time as Wes stood and said “Objection, your honor.” The D.A. either didn’t hear him, or pretended not to, because she kept going.

“No? Which part? The part where you killed Sebastian Cross? The part where you were protecting Nikki? Or the part where it really all boiled down to jealousy?”

“Objection, your honor!” Wes said a little louder, but again, Michael answered.

“I only wanted to protect Nikki. Keep her safe.”

“So you weren’t jealous of Sebastian?” the D.A. pressed, her voice now a little louder and speeding up. She was obviously trying to get the answer she wanted before the judge could rule in the defense’s favor.

“Of course I was!” Michael replied angrily. Nikki cringed, praying to God he kept it together. “He stole her away from me! He had everything I ever wanted and he treated it like dirt. How could I not hate him after he hurt Nikki, the most pure and wonderful person I’d ever met? How could he abuse her, torture her, make her feel worthless? He deserved to die.”

There were a few gasps from the jury box and the district attorney smiled in victory.

“No further questions, your honor.”

Wes started to stand and Nikki thought he was going to ask Michael rebuttal questions, but Michael was already out of his seat, bolting for his place at the defendant’s table. Wes paused for a second, then seemed to decide against pressing the issue.

“At this time, I would like to call Nicole Wright to the stand.”

The judge looked at his watch then shook his head.

“I don’t want to get into another witness testimony this late in the day. Let’s adjourn for the evening and pick this up tomorrow, shall we?”

Nikki let out a sigh of relief which she noticed Wes shared. It seemed as though Wes was hoping for just that reaction from the judge.

Wes whispered in Michael’s ear as everyone else filed out of the courtroom. Nikki didn’t miss the way Michael’s eyes narrowed at him before he was led away by the bailiff. If by some miracle, Wes managed to get Michael off, Michael was going to have some serious making up to do with Wes for treating him so hostilely.

Wes approached Nikki and asked if he could come over after dinner to go over a few things and help her prepare for tomorrow, and Nikki readily agreed. After watching everyone else up there, she was under the distinct impression the district attorney was going to eat her for lunch.

Chapter 23

“Seriously, Nikki, these are the best muffins. Ever. Good God, if Christian hadn’t already paid me to represent Michael, I’d seriously be bartering for a lifetime supply,” Wes enthused with his mouth full, little crumbs of muffin flying from his mouth while he talked. He was leaning slightly over the plate as he stuffed another large chunk into his mouth. Her own attorney, Dorothy, nodded in agreement whilst chewing voraciously.

Nikki just chuckled and took another sip of her tea. Wes could take his time. He could take all night if he wanted to. She wasn’t in a hurry to have this conversation.

Fifteen minutes and two muffins later, Wes hummed in appreciation and rubbed his belly before bending over to pull out his folder and the ever-present yellow legal pad. When he looked back up, he was all business again. His eyes were scrutinizing, piercing almost, and it frightened her a little.

“Nikki, I want to go over what’s going to happen tomorrow, what my line of questioning will likely include, as well as the district attorney’s cross-examination. That way, you’ll have it in your head what your answer is going to be and you won’t break under the pressure. Understand, I’m not telling you what to say. Just get up there and tell the truth. We are just doing this to eliminate stage-fright, all right?”

Nikki turned to Dorothy, who nodded to her unspoken question and placed her hand over Nikki’s in silent support.

Wes’s eyes flashed again as he took a deep breath and clicked open his pen. It was disconcerting.

“Let’s start with your relationship with Michael.”

“That’s an easy one. I love him.”

Wes nodded. “That’s good, and that’s a fine answer. We want the jury to know that his feelings for you were— are mutual. Just remember to be as specific as possible.”

“Okay.”

“I’m going to try beating the D.A. to the punch as much as possible, so I’m going to ask you what would surely be her first question upon cross-examination. If you and Michael love each other so much, why were you in a relationship with Sebastian? And an abusive one at that?”

Nikki’s eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t remember it all. Some of it I only know through conversations with Michael. But the long and short of it is he retreated from me, and I turned to Sebastian for comfort.”

“You can’t discuss anything you don’t personally remember,” Dorothy advised. “Things Michael or anyone else explained to you, but you don’t have personal knowledge of, don’t count in a court of law.”

“Let’s talk about what you do remember about Sebastian. From the police reports, it wouldn’t seem as though Sebastian was particularly ‘comforting,’” Wes insinuated, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s not exactly true! There were a lot of good things about him too,” Nikki replied defensively. She didn’t like being viewed as a battered woman, but that was something to focus on another day. She sighed and continued. “But it was always Michael for me, and Sebastian knew it, even if I couldn’t admit it. I think jealousy just ate away at him until he lashed out.”

“We’re going to need to talk about Sebastian’s abuse. Are you prepared to discuss that? It’s going to be critical that the jury understand the severity of his actions, especially on the night in question.”

...call me a fucking abuser to the cops...

Sebastian’s voice echoed in her head, as though he were behind her whispering it in her ear, thick with malice. Nikki shivered in fear. She was certain it was a memory, but she couldn’t place it. Just one more flash without any indication of a timeline to help her make sense of it.

“But I don’t remember it all...” Nikki started wringing her hands in front of her, a nervous tick she’d noticed herself doing lately. She wondered if she used to do it, before all this, and made a mental note to ask Michael about it.

“I know, and I’m going to explain that to the judge and jury so they understand, and also to try and keep the D.A. from pushing too hard on you. Just tell me everything you remember.”

Nikki recounted the story to the best of her ability and when she was done, Wes put the pen down and turned to her thoughtfully.

“There are some definite holes in your memory from that night. Do you remember anything else? Anything at all?”

Nikki’s eyes closed and she strained to force something to surface, but all she saw was red, and a sick, nauseous feeling overtook her.

“Every time I struggle to remember, I have these flashes of red, like when you’re looking through closed eyelids on a summer day.”

“That might mean something, Nikki. It might be important,” Wes urged enthusiastically.

Something set off her flight-or-flight instinct. She just wanted to get away from this conversation. She failed to see how this was pertinent, and told him so.

“It might not be,” Wes hedged, not sounding at all like he believed that to be true, “but we won’t know unless you remember. I won’t push you like this on the stand, I promise, but right now I’m asking you to try. For Michael. Please, just try?”

Nikki saw Dorothy give Wes a warning look out of the corner of her eye, but it didn’t matter because Wes was right. This was for Michael. She closed her eyes tightly and concentrated, but nothing else was revealing itself. She stood up, intending to pace, but she got up too fast and got woozy. Wes caught her by the elbow and steadied her.

“Come on, Nikki, let’s get you to the couch.”

“Let’s get you to the couch...” Sebastian’s voice whispered.

“No! Get away from me!”

Nikki screamed, shoving Wes a few steps away. He put his hands up in a sign of surrender and waited while Nikki pulled herself together. She stared at Wes, not understanding his expression. It wasn’t angry, or shocked, or any of the other reactions she thought she would see. Instead, he almost looked... expectant. Or hopeful. Nikki was sorry she was going to disappoint him. She didn’t remember. It was all just flashes which made little to no sense, but terrified her nonetheless. She walked over to the couch on her own, and Wes moved to keep a wide orbit on her position as she did. Once she laid down and her breaths steadied a bit, Wes made his way to the chair.

“You know, Nikki, to be honest with you,” he said, his voice light and casual again, as though she hadn’t just had a nervous breakdown in front of him, “from what I’ve been able to gather, I’m surprised someone with so much strength would allow herself to slip into a position of so much weakness. It sounded pretty brutal.”

Nikki’s cheek muscle twitched. “I wonder if my dad would have been disappointed in me for not fighting back,” she mused sadly.

“Oh, but you did fight back,” Wes corrected her. “Don’t you remember Aaron’s testimony? You scratched the shit out of him. He had claw marks all over his face and his forearms, and his DNA matches the skin samples taken from under your fingernails.”

“That’s right, I guess I did.” Nikki wondered why that realization didn’t comfort her any.

“Nikki, you’re a much stronger woman than you give yourself credit for.” She looked over at Wes, and realized he was sincere. “I admire you. I don’t believe for a second you just stood there and took it.”

Wes stood up and he and Dorothy started gathering their things. Nikki watched from the couch as Wes walked to the kitchen.

He came back with his jacket and briefcase in hand. “Nikki, please forgive me if I’m hard on you. I only have yours and Michael’s best interests at heart.” Nikki nodded and smiled at him to let him know she believed him. “I’ll just let myself out. Try and get some rest, it’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”

Nikki couldn’t sleep. She kept going over her conversation with Wes and his insistence that her remembering everything from that night could be important to Michael’s defense. She kept feeling like she was missing something key, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Her dreams that night were even more abstract than usual. All she really remembered was Sebastian calling her baby in a way that made her skin crawl. Instead of waking up afraid, though, she awoke angry. Really angry. The fury radiated from her long after she got out of bed. Even Christian and Sophie seemed to keep their distance while they all got ready for another day at court. It wasn’t until the drive there that the unexplained anger wore off, replaced by butterflies in her stomach which got worse with every mile they drove closer to the courthouse.

Nikki couldn’t remember ever being so nervous in her entire life. Not that she could remember her entire life in the first place, but still. So incredibly nervous, in fact, that she barely even spared a glance for Michael as she walked to the witness stand and was sworn in.

Wes smiled at her comfortingly and waited for her to take a deep breath or two to get her heart rate under control. She was glad he gave her a second to calm down before jumping into questioning.

“Before I begin, I would like to state for the record that Ms. Wright is suffering from amnesia, and as such the jury should not read into any inability on her part to answer questions from either the district attorney or myself. Holes in the timeline of her memories, or even hesitation to answer as she tries to remember, should not be inferred to be avoidance, as might otherwise be the case.”

“Duly noted,” Judge Stone replied. “Jurors, please keep in mind that you are only to consider the testimony Ms. Wright is able to provide based on the memories she has. She has taken an oath, and as such, if she states she cannot remember something, she is to be taken at her word.”

Many of the jurors nodded silently.

“Thank you, Your Honor. Now, Ms. Wright,” Wes began.

“Nicole, please,” she interrupted. Outside the courtroom, Wes had taken to calling her Nikki. Everyone around him called her Nikki, it was only natural it would catch on. She knew he couldn’t be so casual during questioning, but something about him calling her Ms. Wright made her even more nervous than she already was.