CHAPTER 68 - HOW THIS REALLY BEGAN AND A LION’S ROAR

ALLEGHANY COURTHOUSE - DAY 4, MID MORNING

DR TREVOR MORRIS

I watch the door anxiously and two things almost have me weeping in relief: one, that Justin is not here, and two, that Brian is not with Arthur. I think I have worked it out.

“Arthur, where’s Brian?” I rush up to him.

“In the car speaking to Justin. Will be about five minutes. Why?”

“I have…” I spot a member of the press looking our way and pull him into an empty office. “I need you, as well as getting him on the stand, to call Brian and ask him this question in this particular way…”

COURTROOM ONE - TWENTY MINUTES LATER

ARTHUR

She sits quietly, but every so often looks across at Brian. He doesn’t look at her, and part of me wishes he would, so that she can see that she’s not got to him. I still can’t believe I didn’t spot it, but then again he’s the expert and we’re the victims. I was glad of the delayed start as she was ill, but weathered the storm and has come in to face the justice she deserves...if she thinks we believe that and the clutched tissue then she’s more stupid than she is haggard looking...and she looks more haggard than Merle; I mean Oberon and how she is now, she’s been dead since 1973!

“Counsel, are you ready to proceed?” Judge Balsam gives me a wry smile as I seem to have drifted and I nod.

“I call back to the stand Deborah Jane Grassi.” With a sigh she gets up and takes the seat. I can feel the press pack leaning forward, for only they know what was said on Friday. With a bit of Ironmen and Leo Brown magic, they kept it off the front pages, and amazingly enough, the internet. “So, Miss Grassi, how are you feeling? I mean after revelations of your true thoughts and true self?”

“I wish to explain my outburst. I was under a lot of strain as you can imagine, and…”

“I can imagine a lot of things, but never saying that to a child who I purported to love. And, speaking of children, I have been thinking about what my son said a few days ago, and it now makes sense why you really stopped and why he really began. I mean, deep down why he kept doing what he did.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Witness is excused, right to recall.” There are surprised mutterings. “I call to the stand Brian Aiden Kinney.” He too looks surprised as he takes the stand. I watch his eyes land on Trevor and he starts to breathe. “How are you doing, Mr Kinney?”

“Fine thanks, Mr Fitzgerald.” He has a bit of snark...this is good. “So what do you want to know?”

“When was the first time - and I guess the last - that he hit you.”

“Who, Jack? I can't…”

“No, Michael. When did he hit you and why?” There are gasps and cussing, but one look from Courtney and they are quiet again.

He blinks rapidly and is silent. I think I am going to have to ask again when he clears his throat. “It was a Thursday. I can't remember which one, but it was a Thursday, she worked late on Thursdays. He wanted to sneak out, Dad, I mean. Mr Miller wasn’t in, can’t remember where he was, but I said no as I wanted to get my homework done. Besides, she said we were to stay in. He kept whining that I was being a suck up, I said I wasn't I just didn't want to let her down like he did, and he hit me. It didn’t hurt, he can’t hit for shit, but it was the surprise of it. I just went home after, never said anything to anyone. We never discussed it either.”

“When was the next time you saw Mr Grassi, and how was he?”

“I didn’t see him for a couple of days, but when I did he had a busted lip and…” I see the moment he gets it and he looks across at him. “...she found out, not sure how though, and she must have kicked the crap out of him. I guess that’s one of the reasons why he kept doing what he did.”

“Witness is excused. Right to recall.”

“Defence to cross?” They both shakes their heads, and their clients look nauseous.

“I call back to the stand Deborah Jane Grassi.” She wobbles as she stands, then looks hatefully at her son as she sits down. “So, it must have been a shock. After all Brian had been through, how did you find out?”

“He told me.” She scoffs. “Not immediately, but on Saturday morning. He hadn't come around as usual, and I was worried, so I asked where he was. Said he was most likely sulking because of the punch.” Her son stares at Brian. “I was already putting on my coat, when he said that he had hit him because he called him a suck up. He bitched about Brian saying he didn't want to let me down like him...and I popped him a couple of times…”

“A couple of times?” He shouts. “You kicked me in the ribs, and…”

“Kicked you in the ribs?! Are you kidding me?! With my weight and your scrawniness, which has not changed for either of us!” She snarls at him. “I hit you three, maybe four times maximum, and felt like shit afterwards. I was angry at myself and at Brian because he said the words I have never heard from you! He didn't want to let me down and you always did!”

“Once again this is a good place to stop!” Judge Balsam declares. “Recess for forty minutes.”

INSIDE GRANGER’S CAR - 10 MINUTES AFTER RECESS

BEN

“Wanna work off some of that angst?” Granger strokes the back of my head as I rest against his shoulder.

“How are you finding humour in this?”

“Because if I don’t I will try and find them. Imagine blaming him for you disciplining your son for doing something so very wrong, and then trying to make him look after him for your mistake?!”

“The times she told me, and everyone, that would listen about how she looked after Brian…”

“Yes, she gives Rudyard a run for his money. Though, that being said, you looked hot getting right in her face…”

“I have never been so mad or so relieved at the same time for people to hold me. I really want to slap that witch, I can't even remember the last time I was this furious. On the other hand, I don’t want to give her any ammunition to get sympathy, and the last thing I want is to give her a reason to sue me.”

“And she would have…”

“Yeah, but you have to admit for once she looked scared of me…”

Start of flashback

OUTSIDE COURTROOM ONE - 10 MINUTES EARLIER

We walk out of the courtroom and there she is, the mother from hell, the person who lets every evil stepmother from every fairytale on this planet look like Glinda the Good Witch. And as soon as she sees us she stomps towards us, towards Brian, and she starts yelling again.

“You good for nothing son of a bitch! I hope you are happy now! You had one job, the only thing you had to do was to give us what we deserved for giving you shelter! But no, you chose to betray us and look where we are now! You fucking asshole!”

She lifts her arm to slap him, but I grab her wrist before she can.

“This shit stops right here, right now! Who the fuck do you think you are, you fucking whackjob? After all you have done, after everything you pulled, you and your goddamn placenta that you raised instead of a baby, you have the nerve, the audacity to insult and hurt him even more? I am going to count to three and you better be gone or I swear I will make the rest of your pathetic life a living hell! Don’t you ever, ever come near any of us again, or...”

“Or what?” She screeches. “What do you want to do, you disease-ridden...”

“ENOUGH!” I yell, and only Carl and Emmett grabbing my arms stop me from jumping on her face. “You lost your right to talk to any of us! We are done listening to your insults, belittling us whenever we don’t obey! We are not your dogs, but you are definitely an ugly, pathetic bitch! Nobody wants you here, not now, not ever again! Your gene pool needs a huge amount of chlorine since the best parts of you ran down your mother's legs, maybe then there is an iota of hope for future generations! Right now, should anyone of us feel the need to kill ourselves, we only have to climb up your unbelievably high ego then jump down to join your very low IQ! And now get out of my sight you sanctimonious, ball of excrement pressed into human skin, or I swear to everything holy on this goddamn planet, that I will end you!”

End of flashback

“Do you want to go back in? I think Brian will understand if you don’t.”

“No. I promised him, and like him I don’t break them. How long we got?”

“Another twenty minutes. Why not just rest your eyes for a bit?”

“Thanks, G, you are…” His mouth is warm, his kiss deep and soon my mind is soothed.

COURTROOM ONE - AN HOUR LATER

MICHAEL

I knew it! I knew it, they are over! And the way he has been looking at that guy, he has moved on very quickly indeed!  I hope his daddy’s money keeps stinky-twink nice and warm while he sobs into his pillow! At least that we have in common, his daddy’s money, but I don’t cry so much now! I check out the guy again and he really isn’t his normal type, but each to their own. He was with that fucktoy after all.

“Mr Grassi, please take the stand!” His attorney bellows, and in my haste to get up, I stumble over the chair and land in a heap, jarring myself on the chair leg. “Ouch! That’s your fault! If you hadn’t startled me…!” I exclaim as I stand up, rubbing my butt.

“If you had been listening, dumbass, then you would’ve heard them calling you to the stand!”

“Silence in court! While what was said was accurate, there will be no further deliberate barracking of the defendant!”

“Thank you, Your Honour.” I limp to the stand and sit gingerly down.

“And the defendant will pay attention to court instructions! Swear him in!”

I take the bible and repeat the oath then look once again at Brian before turning back to face his attorney.

“So, Mr Grassi, it must have been such a shock to have been disciplined by your mother like that.”

“It was. And it wasn’t just a few pops as she said, it was…”

“Wholly deserved. So what did you tell her happened?”

“What she said I said.”

“I am asking for a bit more detail. You must have told her how you hit him.”

“I just hit him.” I look across at his mother and she is shaking her head. “I did. I just hit him the once, and…”

“More than once!” She exclaims. “He told me that he hit him a couple of times! Why do you think I reacted like that? One joshing punch I could just about accept, but for you to hit him twice, you meant it!”

“It was a joke!” I shout at her.

“No, it was a lie!” I stop their squaring up. “Which backfired spectacularly for you! And it is not the first time you have lied about people you say you love, is it?”

“I have never lied about anyone. And if I have, it wasn’t deliberate, it was a symptom of…”

“How did your ex-civil partner become HIV positive?”

“What does Ben have to do with this? He’s long gone from my life, but not this earth!”

“And that is a source of bitterness and pleasure in equal measure for the pair of you, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you…”

“I have sworn affidavits here from Melanie Marcus, your fellow defendant, and Lindsay Peterson that you told them that he became infected because he cheated on his partner at an orgy.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“You did. You also, aware that he was infected and has a ‘delicate immune system’, knowingly had sex with him despite having an infectious disease, which he knew nothing about. He, unlike you, was honest from the beginning.”

“I...”

“We have a sworn affidavit from Lamar DeQuat, he was infected by you at a White Party and came home. You stayed on. How many people did you sleep with during that time?”

“I don’t…”

“Were you ever treated for it?” I go bright red with anger and humiliation. “Your Honour, please direct the defendant to answer. “

“Answer the question, Mr Grassi, or be held in contempt.”

“Yes, I was treated for it. It cleared up after a few weeks.”

“Who took you?” His voice is quiet, I can see the smirk on Brian’s face and I have to look away. “Okay, let me try this another way, isn’t it true that your mother took you because your then best friend refused to?”

“He was busy. Running…”

“He refused because he simply didn’t want to. He felt that since you got it, you should be the one to fix it.”

“I went with him to the White Party, he should’ve come to the…”

“But you got it before the White Party not at! We subpoenaed your records, you were infected at least a week before…you told Mr Kinney it must have happened then, but you knew you had it. And it wasn’t cleared up, you had a recurrence two weeks before you had intercourse with Mr Bruckner!” Ma is now looking incredulously at me. “Hardly upstanding behaviour from the son of the City’s former PFLAG Chairperson, is it?” He sits back on the table and smiles, shaking his head. “And it must have been particularly galling to find out that, yet again, Brian got the best of someone...and that someone was Ben. And that they kept it a secret.”

“They had no right! He should have told me! They both should have!”

“What do you mean, no right? Who are you to say who he should and should not make love with…”

“He doesn't make love, he fucks! Always has, always will!”

“If thinking that helps you make it through the day and night, then so be it, but why should they tell you? I believe his oft mentioned mantra is that unless it is your cock in his mouth, it has nothing to do with you.”

“He is my best friend! He tells me everything!”

“Not anymore, and judging by that hysterical and possessive reaction, they were right not to. I have just one more question before you can stand down. For now. When you and Ben split up, how did you feel?”

“I was devastated, especially the way that he did it. But I had hoped for the support and…”

“Financial and otherwise of your best friend, Brian Kinney, which is what your fellow defendant wanted of him for you, especially in the event of the early death of Ben Bruckner.”

“He was my civil partner, and…”

“You would not have inherited his estate.” My mouth hangs open and I look across at the smiling assassin that is the sack of sick I foolishly ‘married’. “His estate goes to Jenny Rebecca. He too was of the mind that you were adequately taken care of by Mr Kinney, or you would be. And just to be clear, it was always going to go to Jenny Rebecca, current events notwithstanding.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see nodding from the jury. Surely they aren't letting him pass on this betrayal?!

“No further questions, right to recall.”

“Do either of you have questions?”

“Yes.” Ma’s attorney stands up. “Mr Grassi, what is your justification for doing what you did during Mr Kinney’s teenage years?”

“As I have entered in my plea, I am suffering from Munchausen by proxy, and…”

“Medically diagnosed? History of it in your family?”

“Not on my mother's side, no, but you would need to check with her over my father’s side. I have since found out that who she led me to believe was my father wasn't…”

“Only just found out? Is that what you said?” I nod but feel my stomach start to boil. “Perjury carries a jail sentence in most circumstances.” She smiles thinly. “I would like to present Exhibit 3A, which is an email exchange between yourself and your Uncle, Mr Miller, dated four years ago in which you berate him for not telling you who your real birth father was, and, after having met him how disappointed you were.” She hands it to me. “Is that your email address, and has it changed in the intervening years?”

“Yes it has and no it hasn't, but I do, I mean did have another email address, but I no longer use it. I closed it down.”

“And you are telling the court that because?”

“Because they need to know that this is not the only address I had, and…”

“Mr Grassi, we have spoken to the family of Lt. Novotny, and there is no history of mental illness in their family, but you are wrong about your side of the family as there is mental illness there. You are a vicious, evil, and brazen liar! You lie without compunction to get attention, to get what you think is your due, but you are due nothing! Do you know what this is?” She holds up another piece of paper, and I shrug. “This is a court order freezing all of your assets until such time as a verdict has been reached.”

“What?! You can't do that!” I yell, standing up, but sit back down when the guard approaches.

“No further questions. Right to recall. I call to the stand Deborah Jane Grassi.”

She bumps me as we pass each other, and I glare at her, then fume as she looks once more cow eyed at Brian.

“Miss Grassi, your reaction to the refusal by Mr Kinney to be a trustee to your account was rather extreme, wasn't it?”

“Yes, and for that I am deeply sorry! I’m under a lot of stress these days, so I let said stress get the better of me and...”

“You seriously excuse what happened with stress, Ms Grassi?”

“Yes, I do, and I hope that he accepts that.” He doesn't look at her. “I truly mean it.”

“Good, good. So you will be pleased to hear that he has agreed to be the trustee to your account?” She smiles at him and I am absolutely livid. “Of course there is a proviso, once the verdict has been reached, no matter what it is. The monies in that account become the ownership of the Liberty Avenue Counselling Service, you don’t receive a penny. In fact, you won’t in either event, because if he becomes your trustee he will keep the money for himself. If Mr Kinney becomes a trustee he will give it away.”

I hold my breath. No matter how mad at me she is, she would never leave me destitute!

“I accept Mr Kinney’s terms in full, but listen up, you asshole, don't think you have won because you haven’t. You are the lesser of two evils, but at least you are an honest devil. He would say one thing and do another!” She turns to me. “After everything, everything, everyone went through...and is going through, you should have had more compassion, more thought. For you to be so casual about his health is despicable. No, I never wanted you and Ben to be together, but to lie and to endanger him like that…as I said then and I say now...he is the son I wanted, but I got what I deserve, which is you.”

“Witness is dismissed, no further questions. Right to recall.”

JUDGE BALSAM

“Any further witnesses to be called at this juncture?” They all shake their heads, and now the good bit. “Very well, we will reconvene on tomorrow morning at 0900. Counsel and bailiff to my chambers. Court is adjourned.”

CHAMBERS - 10 MINUTES LATER

“How is he really holding up? I saw Dr Morris, do I need to worry?”

“No, Your…”

“Arthur…” I chide him gently. “...sit down. How are you doing? You look absolutely exhausted.” Courtney pours us all some water and then splashes in some brandy. “And when I say worry, I mean about you.” He takes a gulp and she gives him the finish it look before he does and she hands him another glass. We are all old and good friends here. “I am talking to you as a friend, do you think you need a secondary?” There are caring looks and nodding. He shakes his head...he has moments of stubborn pridefulness! “In that case, perhaps a witness order change?”

“Witness order change?”  

“Hmm. I see there is a Daphne Chanders to be...ahem to be called.” I press my lips together. “Get her in first.”

“Norace, what is going on?” Phyllis demands.

“You are a fine one to talk, throwing your poor defenceless mother of the year client into poverty like that!” Anita scoffs. “But back to Norace...ooh, Arthur, come on, what?!”

“I suggest earplugs and game faces tomorrow.” He sighs as he gets up. “It will be shriller than a drill bit through metal.”

“You got them?!” Anita gasps.

“Yes, and no subpoena necessary!”

OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE - HALF AN HOUR LATER

MICHAEL

“Hey! Best friend! I hope you are happy now! You finally have everything that once was mine. My money, my uncle, my mother's love! I hope that now, after fatass fucking boy wonder has left your life, you finally see that it should have been me all along! Why would you go after all the things I own, steal every person I once considered family, if not for the reason that you just want what I have and to be close to me? To be forever connected to me? You have made your point, I am jealous, I even admit, that I treated you badly, but can we just move on from that now and start our relationship? Can you just drop the charges, end this fucking charade, buy me some nice dinner, and then take me home and fuck me senseless? I promise to forgive you as soon as you give me what should have been mine all those years ago...you!”

BRIAN

“We only split up in your world, the one where you and I have a Grimm Fairy Tales happily ever after. Thank God for the real world! My happily ever after is with Justin, and only Justin! Face it, Mikey...all of him, his body, heart and soul is like ambrosia to me, and yours is like sulphur. He is the gift of life and you are the kiss of death. Realise, recognise, and remember that you will always be alone, you will remain unloved and die unmourned.”

The flashing lights are almost blinding, but I see inside the car, the smiling, but concerned face of Justin. As I get in, he says nothing, just pats his chest and Frederick closes the door.

CUSTODY HOUSE - NEXT MORNING

MICHAEL

As I come down the stairs, I spot the newspaper and pick it up. I am champing at the bit with fury, so much so that it feels like it is my very life essence. Nausea boils in my stomach and I force myself not to puke...for there on the front page are the last words Brian said to me, written large, but it is the picture that they have used that is particularly galling! I now know what being sucker punched looks like…

“Morning!” The guard’s cheerfulness is both irritating and startling, as I hadn’t heard him approach. “You are going to have to have your wits more about you in the Big House.” He snipes. “Oh...now that is an ugly crying face!”

He taps the paper. “I am going to watch some TV, you can put the other one on. Tested it this morning, it is working now.”

“Might as well.” I grumble, for once, grateful for the educational relief it will give me. All night they reported on the trial, and I had to have my door open so I could hear his TV playing it over and over again.

As I flick it on, I throw the paper aside and wait to be taught something. I close my eyes and wait for the droning to start.

“And in the historic trial of Kinney and The State vs Grassi and Grassi…”

I leap up and switch it off, then run to the john where I puke out my humiliation. I head to the kitchen for a glass of water and the guard mutes his TV.

“You alright?”

“Hmmm. Something I ate.” I mutter, downing the water.

“Okay.” He turns back to the screen and I turn back to refill my glass.

“...you will die unmourned.” Echoes around the room.

“Turn it off!” I shout, and I am surprised when he does so, but tense up when he approaches with a sinister expression on his face.

“Car’s here...seems there has been a media spike of interest in the case.” He washes out his mug. “Think you should eat when you get there.” I just nod as he puts on the cuffs then walk ahead of him, relieved that I am going without any punishment for my outburst. I am under a lot of strain after all.

As he opens the door, there is an explosion of flashes. “Lights out at seven and what you ate last night was the bitter pill of defeat!” He snaps in my ear, then pushes me towards the hungry wolves.