She shuffled the papers in front of her and leaned forward to speak to Madison, the only lawyer who wasn’t talking to someone else. “Can you take a quick look around and see if our witness got lost?” He nodded and was about to leave when the head partner, Jordan, ended his phone call and spoke up.
“He’s in the building. I just called downstairs, and they’re letting him through security now.”
“Thank goodness.” Roz said.
“Who’s up next?” Stan asked Jordan.
Roz didn’t know whether to be insulted or relieved. As the two of them chatted, she picked up her pencil and drew a couple of stick figures with frowns on their faces in the margin of her legal pad. She added a rifle to one’s hand, pointing at the other.
She glanced at Konrad, who looked amused at her drawing. He picked up the pencil lying next to her and added hair to the figure with the gun. It was a little longer in the front than the back. He added bullets coming out of the gun, flying toward, and hitting the other figure. When he erased the eyes and replaced them with x’s, she chuckled telepathically.
She added a few drops of blood, and their masterpiece was complete. Before anyone could see it, she flipped the paper over. Apparently she hadn’t been quick enough, because when she looked up, Stan was glaring at her.
People began drifting back into the courtroom, and thankfully Stan retreated to a bench far behind them.
The bailiff walked down the center aisle and over to Roz. “There’s a whole bunch of people who say they’re witnesses for the defense,” he whispered.
Everyone was still talking and moving around, so Judge Vader banged his gavel. “Let’s get this show on the road. Are your witnesses here, Miss Wells?”
She turned to see about a dozen people filing in and standing at the back of the courtroom, including Wendell, Lois, Barrett, and a few other wolves who weren’t with them the day she visited the private school. She smiled broadly and glanced over at Konrad. He looked like he was in shock.
She stood. “Yes, you’re honor. They’re here.”
“Well then, get on with it. Call your first witness.”
Roz called the first guard. She noticed the other guard had sat beside him, which was good, but she was more curious about what the pack had in mind. An alibi, maybe? At that point, Roz didn’t even care if the prettiest one said she was with Konrad all night. She just wanted to win this case. First of all to keep her lover out of jail, and second to tell Stan to shove it up his ass.
The guard was sworn in, and Roz had only one real question, but she might stretch it into two or three, just for fun. “We’ve heard the descriptions you gave to the police several years ago. Do you stand by those descriptions, or is there anything you’d like to change?”
“No, nothing I’d change,” he said.
“Did you get a good look at the men who bound you the night of the theft? I mean areallygood look?”
“Yes. As you said earlier, I was standing toe to toe with them. As soon as I realized they weren’t who we thought they were, I began making mental notes about their size, build, and coloring. I looked for any visible marks or tattoos that might be helpful in identifying them, but didn’t see any.”
“Very good. So even though it’s been twenty years, you’d recognize—”
The DA jumped up and said, “Objection. Leading the witness.”
The judge nodded and said to Roz, “Can you rephrase?”
“Absolutely,” Roz said. She turned back to the guard. “Would you recognize the thieves if you saw them again?”
“I’m pretty sure I would. I mean, they’re older and everything, but if they didn’t have plastic surgery, I’d remember their faces.”
“Good. Do you see either of them in this courtroom?”
The guard took a good look around. “No, I don’t think so.”
“Okay, let me be specific.” She turned to Konrad. “I’d like the defendant to stand, please.”
Konrad rose up to his full six-foot-four height, and held his head high.
“Could the defendant be one of the men you saw?”
The guard chuckled. “No way. He’s too tall, light skinned, and light haired, and I can’t see his eye color from here, but I don’t think they’re dark brown.”
“Thank you.” Roz looked over at the DA. “Your witness.”
