Chapter 15 #2
“You also state that you had no choice but to use force because you feared for your life.” The barrister made a show of looking between the man in the witness box and a spot at one of the desks where, presumably, the defendant was sitting.
“I shouldn’t have thought a big man like you would be afraid of many people. Not least a child.”
A child? Casey craned her neck to get a better view of the desks and gasped when she saw Jared, looking small and timid in a suit that was too big for him. “Oh no!” she moaned.
“It would seem that young Jared broke into the store to impress his friends in this reality too,” Margo said with an uncharacteristic sadness in her voice.
“ ’E could’ve ’ad a knife!” Mr. Brickly replied.
“He could have,” said the barrister. “But he didn’t. The police found no evidence of a weapon on the defendant.”
“ ’Ow was I supposed to know that? A kid like that breaks in, you take precautions.”
“A kid like what, exactly?” The barrister left a gap for Mr. Brickly to reply, but he only offered incoherent grunts and grumbles, so the barrister continued.
“Nobody would deny that caution is all to the good, but I suggest that in this instance you got carried away. Your adrenaline was pumping from the chase, and you used unwarranted force on a fifteen-year-old boy, half the size of you, and who posed no physical threat to you whatsoever. But rather than admit that perhaps your personal biases caused you to act irrationally in the moment, you doubled down and decided to press charges.”
“I’m not the one on trial here!” Mr. Brickly bellowed.
“Gosh!” Margo exclaimed. “Exhilarating, isn’t it?”
Casey looked at her in disbelief. “No, Margo. It’s terrifying.”
Margo looked chastened. “Or terrifying, yes, terrifying works too.”
Mr. Brickly left the stand, and Nigel took his place in the box. Another barrister—presumably for the prosecution—got to his feet and began to address him.
“Do I know Nigel in every life?” Casey asked hopefully.
“No. The meme doesn’t exist here and as such you weren’t chased into that dark alley by a predatory reporter and thus never found the need to attend Nigel’s self-defense classes.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t imagine not having Nigel in her life, or Vern. Wherever Other Casey was, her life would be poorer for not knowing them.
The barrister for the prosecution paced up and down as he spoke. “Mr. Pinner, you are the regular night guard for Coopers and Co., but you were not at work on the night in question because of a back injury.”
Nigel cleared his throat. “That is correct.”
“But you do know the defendant.”
“Yes.”
“Could you tell the court how you know him?”
“I rent a cottage to him and his uncle.”
“And how would you describe the defendant?”
Nigel looked over at Jared and gave him a reassuring smile before answering. “He’s a quiet young man with a kind heart and he’s great with animals. I have a small farm—”
The prosecutor cut him off. “You wouldn’t describe him as troubled?”
“No.”
“Would you describe him as a troublemaker?”
“No more than any other teenager.” There was defiance in his voice, and Casey loved him for it.
“And yet, I am given to understand that he was sent by his mother from his home in London to live with his uncle because he got into trouble. Is that right?”
Margo pointed to the attractive young woman who was sat next to Jared, rubbing his back and looking as though she was holding back tears. “That must be Jared’s mother.” Casey could see the resemblance between her and Ajay.
Nigel shifted in his seat. “Um, well, I don’t know the ins and outs of it but—”
The barrister cut him off again. “I’m only wondering, just how much trouble must a teenager be for their own mother to send them away?
” He gave a derisive little half laugh and looked around the courtroom with an expression that asked, Am I right?
“Surely based on this fact alone, we could reasonably surmise that the defendant is both troubled and a troublemaker, and this is before we even touch upon the fact that he broke into the department store with the sole intent of causing as much property damage as possible.”
“I didn’t go there to cause damage!” Jared called out, his words catching on a sob.
His mum, Tanzie, shook her head at him and pressed her fingers to her lips.
Two hands reached over the back of the pew and rested on Jared’s shoulders, and Casey saw that it was Ajay.
She hadn’t recognized him in his suit. Ajay whispered something in his nephew’s ear, clearly trying to soothe him, but Jared shook him off and turned back to scowl at his uncle.
Ajay sat back, rubbed a hand across his forehead, his expression pained, hopeless even, and it cut Casey to the quick.
The memory of their kiss was still fresh in her mind; she had barely thought about anything else since.
They’d parted having made no plans to see each other, Ajay respectful enough of her boundaries to let her make the first move, which—once out of his orbit—she’d easily convinced herself that she would never make.
But the urge now to reach out to Ajay and comfort him was nearly overwhelming, and it both surprised her and made her question her resolve.
She barely knew him! The boom of the judge’s voice shocked her out of her reverie.
“I would ask that the defendant does not shout across my courtroom if he wants to remain here,” said the judge. “Counselor, you may continue.”
The barrister nodded at her in a way that managed to be both wheedling and supercilious.
“Thank you, Your Honor.” He turned back to Nigel.
“In fact, isn’t it true that the defendant, your tenant, that you describe as kindhearted, stole the keys to Coopers and Co.
from your house, jeopardizing your job, in a premeditated act of illegal trespassing with the express intent to vandalize, thieve, and commit violence? ”
“Now hang on a minute!” shouted Nigel.
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
“That’s not true!” Nigel protested. “You’re twisting things.”
The barrister ignored him. “You may step down, Mr. Pinner.”
“What the fuck?” Casey shouted at the barrister, who could neither see nor hear her.
“He’s stitching Jared up!”
“He’s doing his job, he’s the prosecution.” Margo saw Casey’s thunderous expression and added, “But yes, he is rather over-egging the pudding.”
“But it’s not fair!”
“His defense will do their best, I’m sure.”
“Where am I, Other Casey?” she asked, looking around the courtroom.
“You’re not here. You don’t know any of these people.
In this meme-less glimpse, you had no need to attend Nigel’s self-defense class and therefore you and he never met and he never suggested you for the job at the store and you weren’t there when Jared broke in to play his prank and you didn’t call Ajay to come sort out his nephew’s mess. ”
“Are you saying this is all my fault?”
“Ripples. Remember? There is no fault here, only ripples.”
Casey looked over at Ajay, whose complexion had grayed. He looked weighed down, older.
“That Brickly chap doesn’t know Jared from Adam, so he called the police and Ajay and Officer Peel arrived at the scene,” Margo went on.
“Ajay was forced to arrest his own nephew or put his career in jeopardy. He was already skating on thin ice after the incident in London. He made a decision. One that might haunt him for the rest of his life.”
“Poor Ajay.” She couldn’t imagine how awful that must have been for him. No wonder Jared had shaken him off. Would he ever forgive his uncle? Would he ever be able to see that he’d put Ajay in an impossible situation?