“Sustained,” Nick said sternly. “Let’s keep the line of questioning relevant to the case, Counselor.”
“Then let me ask a different question.” Parker gestured toward Julian. “Officer Donovan, is this your first time meeting the prosecution’s attorney?”
“Objection!” Julian snapped. “You don’t have to answer that,” he said, locking eyes with me across the classroom.
Nick held up a hand. “Where is this going, Counselor?”
Parker turned to the dais. “I’m only trying to rule out any conflict of interest, Your Honor. There are ethical considerations if the prosecution’s attorney has a personal relationship with a witness that might negatively affect my client.” She turned back to me. “You’re under oath, Officer Donovan. Is this or is this not the first time you’ve met Mr. Baker?”
“No,” I said through my teeth, “this is not the first time I’ve met him.”
Riley raised his hand. “I don’t think this is how a cross-examination is supposed to work.” Max slapped a hand over his mouth, sitting forward in her seat.
“I’ve definitely never seen this onLaw and Order,” Vero muttered.
Parker raised her voice over the murmurs of the class. “Officer Donovan, please tell the court when you first met Mr. Baker.”
Julian shot to his feet. “Objection, your Honor!”
“Overruled.” Nick’s knuckles tightened around his gavel as his eyes bored into me. “The witness will answer the question.”
“Oh, shit,” Vero sang under her breath.
I slapped down my script. “You really want to know? I’ve known Mr. Baker since October of last year.”
Vero stood up. “Can I declare a mistrial?”
“I’m lost,” Mrs. Haggerty called out. “What the heck is happening?” The class erupted in confused chatter.
Nick stood and banged the gavel. “Our volunteers will take questions from the class while the court takes a recess! Bailiff, you’re in charge.” Nick dropped the gavel on the desk, abandoning his cane as he climbed down from the dais. He shouldered his way past Parker and Julian, taking my hand as he limped past the witness stand and towed me from the room.
He pulled me behind him down the hall, checking the locks on every door we passed until one finally flew open. He dragged me inside the maintenance closet, closing us inside and flipping on the light, his dark eyes furious. I backed into a set of metal shelves, knocking over a broom. Bound stacks of paper towels spilled to the floor around me.
“Julian Baker? He’s the attorney you were involved with? For how long?”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“I’m not talking about your love life, Finn! I’m talking about the Mickler case! You knew I was investigating Harris Mickler’s disappearance! You knew I was talking to the bartenders at The Lush, and you never said a word! Were you seeing him then, too?”
“No!” I crossed my arms. “Seeing him isn’t exactly the right word.”
Nick laughed darkly as he rocked back on his heels. “Right. I forgot. The lawyer from your book. Is this the part where you tell me it was all just research for a novel?”
“Is that a rhetorical question, or do you really want me to answer that?”
The heat kicked on, warm air whistling through the vent in the ceiling. He shoved a finger over the knot in his tie and wrestled open the top button of his dress shirt. Bracing a hand on the shelf behindmy head, he leaned over me and pierced me with a stare. “Do you swear to tell me the truth, and nothing but the truth, right here, right now?”
I nodded, thrown off-balance by his nearness.
“Were you at The Lush the night Mickler disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Wearing that wig I found at Ramón’s garage?”
“Yes.”
A muscle tensed in his jaw, his voice low and tenuous when he finally spoke. “When I asked Julian if he remembered a blond woman in the bar that night, he said only one stood out to him and she left the bar alone. He said he talked with her outside before she left. A busboy and a patron said they remembered seeing them together in the parking lot. Was it you?”
