“What’s that?”
“You are not the only witness they badger. It’s like when they don’t get the answer they want, they reword the question hoping to get the answer they want.”
“Yeah, well, that’s not going to happen. The truth is the truth, no matter how many ways they ask the question. I don’t lie, and I won’t for them.”
“I agree.” He wrapped his arm around her and brought her closer to him. They remained silent for a long time, then he looked at her with a grin. “Room service, restaurant in the lobby, or go out somewhere?”
“What are you interested in eating? I’m not very hungry.”
“Not now, but what about in a couple of hours. Court stopped at three, it’s only going on four.” He pulled his phone, accessed something, and turned it to show her. “Do you want to take in a movie? This isthe one we both wanted to see. It starts today, and they have a showing at seven.”
“Can we still get tickets for it?” She perked up, and grinned when in less than five minutes, he showed her the QR code with their tickets. “Thank you, I’m going to shower the courtroom off me, change, then I’ll be ready to go.”
“Do you need someone to wash your back?” Pedro asked sheepishly and jumped to his feet when she winked at him. They took their time with the shower, making love, and getting dressed afterward. Because the movie theater was only a few blocks away, they opted to walk, and saw a restaurant they wanted to check out on the way back to the hotel. The rest of the night they relaxed as they watched the movie, ate a leisurely meal, and talked more. By the time they returned to the hotel room, they were relaxed when they climbed into bed, she looked at him with a look that made him pause.
“What?”
“I think I’m falling in love with you.”
“You think? Because I know I’m in love with you.”
They fell into each other's arms, and made love well into the night.
When court resumed,it was time for the DA and Jason Black to start with their witnesses. When theycalled Myrna to the stand, the DA didn’t pussyfoot around. He asked his questions with precision, listening to Myrna and the other witnesses he called to the stand. By the end of the second day, the judge was ready to send the jury out to deliberate and Myrna was glad for that.
“What now?” Myrna asked as they stood in the hallway after the jury left, and the judge dismissed the rest of the court.
“We wait,” Ilsa said with a heavy sigh. She reached out and placed her hand gently on Myrna’s forearm. “It could take hours, or days, it depends on what they think.”
“What do we do?”
“Stay close to your hotel room.” She looked at Daniel, the DA, and Jason. At their nods, she turned back to Pedro and Myrna. “When the jury has reached their decision, they will contact the judge, and his clerk will call Daniel, who will reach out to us to tell us to come back here to hear the verdict.” She looked at her watch and shook her head. “I don’t know if we will hear anything tonight, because it’s already close to five o’clock.”
“Will the jury spend the entire night in deliberations?” Myrna asked.
“No clue, but they might be sequestered for the night.”
“Which means?”
“That no one on the jury will be able to go home,watch the news on their phones, or read a newspaper.”
They started toward the front of the courthouse, and when they were outside on the sidewalk, Myrna looked around and quietly asked a question, “I know I seem to ask this all the time, but what happens after the verdict comes in?”
“Then we go to the next step.”
“Which is?”
“We take Officer Mosher to court for her part in everything.”
“What about Mark? Will you try him?”
“Yes, the next step is to try Gus for horse theft, then we’ll tie Office Mosher to that. When that verdict comes in, then we’ll move onto the trial for Mark, and again, Mosher will be tied to that case also.”
“Can she be convicted from different trials?”
“Yes, the way I’m laying it out, she can be. If I had lumped all the charges against her in one trial, the severity of the charges would have been lost. By tying her to Gus, then Mark, separately, that proves what a bad person she is.”
“Wow, okay, I have one more question, then I think I’m done for now.”
