Chapter 41 #2
“Well first, I’m not on trial so you’re gettin’ off topic. And second, I just think it’s real telling how a black man in America can’t make a large amount of money without someone thinking there’s criminal activity just around the corner.”
“It’s pretty well known around this town that your family is mixed up in some pretty criminal offenses.”
“Objection,” I intercepted. “That’s speculation.”
“Sustained,” the judge beside me agreed.
I cut my eyes to Silas’ table, annoyed that his own team of lawyers had not made a single objection to Caplan’s flawed ass questioning. Caplan had asked me at least three questions so far that would’ve sustained an objection. Where the fuck did Silas get these lawyers?
“So you stand by the claim that your father is harmless?” Caplan moved to confirm.
I nodded. “Pretty much.”
“So answer me this,” Caplan started. “Where was your father on July 31st, between the hours of three and five?”
My eyes narrowed. That was the night Lauren was shot. This piece of shit is not about to go there.
Caplan repeated the question, getting very off topic. “Where was your father on July 31st, between the hours of three and five?”
“He was in Memphis.”
“Where were you?”
“Objection,” I replied. “This has no relevance.”
Judge Lopez slammed his mallet once. “Overruled.”
“Answer the question, Kain. I’m gonna bring it all back to the topic at hand, don’t worry.” Caplan crossed his arms, keeping his eyes on mine. “Where were you?”
“I was leaving a club after my birthday.”
“With who?”
“You already know who.”
“The jury doesn’t,” Caplan retorted, restating the question. “Who were you with?”
“My girlfriend.”
“What. Is. Her. Name?”
He was trying to catch me in a vulnerable spot in order to trip me up. The name almost passed painfully through my throat. “Lauren.”
“Lauren what?”
“You know her fuckin’ last name.” I refused to bend. “She’s your daughter.”
Nobody in the courtroom was surprised. Evidently they had all been tuned in to the news. Caplan went on to give a short monologue.
“Ladies and gentleman of the jury, on July 31st, my daughter, Lauren Alyssa Caplan, going through a bit of a rebellious phase, was out with the defendant’s son. That night, a lone gunman happens upon them and shoots my daughter. The defendant’s son was left unharmed. Isn't that convenient?”
Caplan was painting an ugly picture, made worse by the fact that he knew more than anyone exactly what happened that night.
He already knew who the “lone” gunman was.
And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, a picture of Lauren in her hospital bed was put up on a screen for the whole courthouse to see.
I swallowed, feeling a lump forming in my throat.
He continued to address the jury. “Now, Lauren’s shooting is a separate incident, and not what the defendant is on trial for, but let the records show that Lauren's best friend has come forward and attested to the media that Lauren told her in April that Silas Montgomery wanted her dead as an attack on me, an attempt to sabotage this case. Why would an innocent man go to such lengths? Kain Montgomery, allegedly, told Lauren to not contact authorities because he could - quote - keep her safe himself. A few months later, after running away from home to be with him, she was shot in a parking lot. What do you say to that, Kain?”
I shook my head at the nerve. Anger—the violent kind—was brewing from within me. “She didn't run away from home. You kicked her out and she had nowhere else to go.”
“So everything else I said was true?”
I couldn't lie about this one. It would implicate me later if Lauren woke up and decided to talk.
She had the text messages to prove it. Hell, she had a whole phone that I paid the bill for somewhere.
She could hang us all out to dry the moment she woke up.
And after practically getting shot in the chest, who would blame her?
“I plead the fifth.” Pleading the fifth amendment on the stand never looks good. Caplan smiled, taking that as a win.
“Why would Silas Montgomery want to kill my daughter?”
“If that’s even true—that’s a question for Silas Montgomery,” I replied.
“So you’re saying that’s not true??”
I nodded.
“So what were you protecting her from, Kain?”
I lied, “I wasn’t protecting her from anything.”
“Clearly,” Caplan stated, gesturing toward the photo of Lauren in her hospital bed displayed. That one hit me right where it hurt. I flinched, prompting him to come to the realization, “You love her, don’t you?”
“This isn’t relevant.”
“It’s a simple yes or no question.”
“It’s a simple yes or no question that isn’t relevant.”
My combativeness set something off within the man facing me.
“Do you really think you love her?” Caplan shouted.
He was skeptical and very clearly losing his temper.
The jury whispered among themselves, casting worried looks to the back of Caplan’s head.
I glanced at Silas’ lawyer, willing him to intercept this courtroom violation.
Silas held his counsel down, wanting Caplan to continue on the tirade he was on. I understood the motive.
As Caplan stayed off topic, talking about Lauren, who was not what this case was about, he was essentially throwing away his own credibility. He looked unhinged, incompetent, too emotional. This had all the trappings of a mistrial.
Caplan was going to make himself look like a raving dumbass, using tax payer money to simply drill into a boyfriend he didn't approve of. It appeared as though everyone in the room could see Caplan fucking up, except for Caplan himself. Silas’ lawyers did not interrupt Caplan’s unprofessionalism—a smart move for them, absolute torture for me.
Silas was going to win this case through a technicality. And all he needed to do was let Caplan keep talking about Lauren.
“And so… how do you…. How do claim that you love someone, and then ultimately set them up for murder?” What the fuck was he accusing me of?
No way… Was he really gonna act like I had something to do with the hit he carried out?
Joshua Caplan wasn’t human. “Did you help your father set Lauren up?
" He was reaching record levels of low. "Riddle me this…
after she was shot, why did you bother calling the ambulance at all?
Don't you think you ruined your father's plan?”
I hit back. "Objection. Inflammatory."
If Silas' lawyers weren't going to do anything about this highly unprofessional questioning, I was going to fucking do it myself.
“Why do you go to the hospital as often as you do? You think we don't know you have some sort of agreement with the night staff?”
“Objection. Relevance.”
“Do you really think that you love her?”
“Objection. Relevance.”
“Lauren is in the hospital because of you, Kain. She's one foot in the grave, and it's your fault!" He was unstable. Because I knew the truth about how Lauren had come to have one foot in the grave, I was on my way to getting unstable as well. "You and your damn father.”
I called another objection. “Objection. Badgering the witness.”
Caplan tried to appeal to my sensitivities then.
“If you love her, think about what she's going to feel if she wakes up and watches this testimony. Think about how betrayed she's going to feel.”
We were reaching new lows. I felt like if I didn’t play ball, he could very well go to the hospital and pull the plug on her tonight.
But I couldn’t look Lauren’s almost killer in the face and do anything to help him.
Even as he appealed to my sensitivities about her.
I couldn’t bring myself to do anything for this monster.
I rose from my seat, straightening my tie, and pushed passed the man standing in my way.
Nobody stopped me as I made my exit from the trial room.
This trial was trashed, and everyone knew it.
Think about how betrayed she's going to feel.
I was already thinking about all of that.
When I showed up to court that morning, I knew exactly how to hit Caplan where he’d feel it.
His job.
I knew if I got on the stand and did the opposite of what he was expecting me to do, it wouldn’t be long before he began to feel like his job was on the line.
Joshua Caplan, I’d come to learn, cared about his position more than anything else—even his own daughter.
The moment he felt it was threatened by a humiliating witness, he would lose his composure—as he did. This would ultimately be his downfall.
But it would ultimately be mine as well.
Because one day Lauren would wake up, and believing it was Silas who was the reason she was shot, and not her own father, she would see the aftermath of my testimony. She would see it as me defending the man who tried to kill her.
And I knew that would destroy her.