Dark Moonlighting Read Free Page A

I would like to recall one of
my witnesses to clarify—”
    “Approach the bench, Mr. Whittier,” she
interrupted. She motioned for the prosecutor to join us for the
sidebar.
    “Enough,” she said to me flatly after I
reached her. She lowered the volume of her voice to prevent the
members of the jury from hearing the conversation.
    “Your Honor,” I began to argue, but fell
silent when she raised her hand.
    “Enough,” Judge Yoest repeated. “You’ve
managed to draw out these proceedings by at least two weeks. Your
arguments are barely rational, you call eyewitness who haven’t seen
anything and you introduce evidence that has no pertinence. You
have wasted this court’s time on a case that never even should have
gone to trial.”
    “With all due respect Your Honor, it’s hardly
your place to decide what cases should or should not—”
    “Your client punched a pregnant woman in the
head on the sidelines of a children’s soccer game,” Judge Yoest
interrupted through clenched teeth. “No less than twenty people
heard them arguing about a call and witnessed him assault the
woman. Camcorder footage from various soccer moms and dads shows
the attack from three different angles. It’s over. You lost. Let it
go. It is now,” she paused briefly as she rolled up the sleeve of
her robe to check her wristwatch. “2:45. I intend to allow a short
recess and then we’ll hear closing arguments. The jury will spend
three, maybe four minutes deliberating before they come back with a
guilty verdict for your client. I can be home, soaking my feet in a
tub of Epsom salt and watching sexually promiscuous kids from New
Jersey by 5:30. I swear to God if the next words I hear come out of
your mouth aren’t ‘the defense rests’ I’m going to find some reason
to hold you in contempt. Do I make myself clear?”
    I did not answer immediately as I strained my
mind to come up with some alternative. Eventually I submitted with
a nod of my head and returned to my table.
    “Does the defense have anything else to add
to its case?” Judge Yoest asked, making no attempt to hide the
irritation in her voice.
    “No, Your Honor,” I answered with a polite
smile. “The defense rests its case.”
     
    Judge Yoest’s prediction proved to be wrong
as it took the jury fifteen minutes to return to the courtroom with
a verdict. To be fair though, I am sure some of that time was spent
on a bathroom break. To the surprise of absolutely no one present,
my client was found guilty. Judge Yoest wrapped up the pomp and
circumstance quickly, and she was halfway to her chambers before
the bailiff called for everyone to rise.
    I stuck around only briefly in order to watch
my client be ushered back to his jail cell. A bailiff escorted me
out of the courtroom and down the hallway just in case I ran across
any open windows during my departure. On that day the courthouse
employees had remembered to keep my exit route free of sunshine,
and the bailiff left me once we reached the underground parking
garage.
    My ride was an older model sport utility
vehicle I had purchased three years earlier. There was some water
damage to the interior, but the car was in excellent condition
otherwise. I had managed to purchase it for very cheap thanks to my
alternate life as a member of the Starside Police Department. I
considered myself lucky to grab the SUV even before it was put up
for auction. In retrospect I probably would have been the only one
to bid on it anyway. It had been seized by the police after a woman
suffering from severe postpartum depression used it to drown two of
her three children. Normal people tend to be a bit squeamish about
purchasing a car with such an unpleasant history. I was just happy
to save a few bucks.
    The money I saved was essential for the
special outfitting I needed to do to the SUV. Tinted windows are
easy to come by, but glass that completely blocks all ultraviolet
radiation is expensive and hard to obtain. I had been quite