“Any particular reason?”
I chuckled. “Does anyone need a reason to go to the Swallow?”
“I suppose not, but you did have a reason that evening, did you not?”
I nodded. “My sister-in-law, Aspen, had just released another book, so we were out celebrating.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
“My brothers, their wives, me, and my wife.”
“You weren’t on duty then.”
“No sir.”
“Can you please explain to the court your first interaction with the defendant that evening?”
“To—” I cut myself off from using his first name, a habit born from years of berating him. “Mr. Walter…greetedus when we walked in the door.”
The prosecutor raised a brow. “Explain.”
“I believe he said something to the effect of, ‘Well if it isn’t Dusk Valley’s first family, coming to ruin everyone’s night.’”
“Was that sort of ‘greeting’”—he hooked his fingers around the word—“normal for the defendant?”
“Very.”
“Was that the extent of your interaction that evening?”
“No,” I replied.Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.
“What happened the next time?”
The key with witness testimony was to be as precise as possible…normally. In this instance, however, Trey had located security footage that was able to corroborate my version of events. Instead, I gave broad strokes. Tony’s wife (soon to be ex,marking this as his second divorce), Angela, sat in the gallery, and I didn’t want to cause her more stress than she’d already endured.
“Shortly after midnight, my family and I exited the bar.”
“Awfully early,” the prosecutor commented.
“We’ve all got kids,” I explained. He nodded for me to continue.
“I was at the back of the group, and as my siblings peeled off toward their vehicles, I heard a disturbance coming from the side of the building. They were almost out of reach of the streetlamps.”
“They?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Walter.”
“And how did you find them?”
“Mr. Walter had his hands wrapped around Mrs. Walter’s neck.”
As succinctly as possible, I replayed what I’d seen. Mrs. Walter’s purple face, eyes nearly bugging out of her head. The deep gouges on Tony’s hands and forearms from her fighting him, clawing for her life.
“How did you intervene?”
“I came up behind him and gripped the back of his neck, triggering one of his pressure points, until he lost consciousness and let his wife go.”
“And then did you haul him to the station?”
