CHAPTER 72: PART I CONTINUED

FAAL

We were going to go and get something to eat but when we got out to the car park, it was like the diner has opened up.

“What the hell?”  Debs gasps, looking around as baskets, coolers and hot boxes are opened up and food handed out.  “Someone explain this to me!”  She demands.

“The Avenue is protecting. And protecting also includes feeding. So eat this.”  A leather bear explains.  “Where’s Zee?”

I just point at the coach in bewilderment and watch as he loads up a plate for her and hands it to an eager twink. “If she’s asleep don’t wake her!” I manage to call out but when he comes back empty handed, I head to the coach.

FAMILY COACH

I smirk as she reluctantly picks out the jalapenos and cherry peppers. Bubble doesn’t like spice.

“Hey.”  I settle behind her and snaffle a pepper.  “That was tough to hear.”  I smile as she tears the burrito in half, opens my half and puts in the peppers and jalapenos in.  “She doesn’t mind it second hand?”

“Seems that it’s okay if it’s dialled back a bit. It’s lucky I love kissing you.”  She mumbles round a mouthful of veggie burrito.  “I can’t wait to be able to eat sushi again. I had to leave when I saw the tuna tartare. I can’t believe the people who are here.”

I have to laugh because I can’t believe it either.  She swipes a pepper before spitting it out quickly.

“Seriously Bubble, give me a break!”

I try not to laugh but fail. She glares at me before softening her gaze as she looks out the window at Matt and Hunter.  “Do you think Hunter knows?”

“Like we said, we tell all tomorrow and he’ll know then.”  I tell her and rub her stomach.

“Uncle Faal, Aunt Zee, we’re being called back in!”  Jenny shouts from the door.

We watch in amazement as the parking lot is cleared in about five minutes and then we look incredulously as they wait for the family to go in first.

COURTROOM 1

JUDGE PAAL

Now that everyone is settled and he’s realised exactly what position he’s in, I turn to the prosecution.

“Continue your cross counsel.”

I take in the confusion on his face as he looks across to their side.  I know what he wants to know but he doesn’t get to know that now, if ever.

“So Mr Novotny, was the jacket the last piece of their property that you stole?”  Meriam asks.

“Wh-what?”  He turns back to her, still frowning.

“The jacket that you ripped into Jenny over, was that the last piece of their property you stole?”

“I took back what he no longer wanted.”  He corrects her haughtily.

“Is that a yes or a no?”

He glares at Meriam and I clear my throat hard.  “Yes, that is the last piece Brian’s property that I…I…um….yes.”  He trails off.

“Mr Novotny, you’ve made a great play of the relationship you have with Mr Brian Taylor-Kinney.   Have there ever been any incidents in which he has had cause to react to something you’ve said or done to his now husband?”

“No.”

“Mr Novotny, you are under oath so try that answer again.”

“Of course, we’ve had our spats; we’ve known each other since childhood for heaven sake. But nothing that caused the…”

“Yes, yes caused the rift that Zaden and Faal Ugerstacht caused.  I call, if you pardon my French, bollocks.  They weren’t there at Lindsay and Mel’s anniversary party, were they?”

He starts to shift in his seat and looks away.

“Mr Novotny?”

“No.  But Boy Wonder cheated on him and I defended Brian as a best friend should.”

“Uh huh and what did Brian say about your defense of him?”

“He toughed it out like he normally does.”  He replies.

“Isn’t it true, and before you reply remember you are under oath and that I can ask any member of the Avenue, isn’t it true that they were in an open relationship and you, prior to turning up at the party, had told Justin Taylor-Kinney to get out of your lives?”

Silence.

“Unless you correct me, I shall take that as a yes.”

Silence.

“And isn’t it also true that Brian Taylor-Kinney punched you that day?”

“Yes but I took the punch for Boy Wonder, who he really wanted to hit.” Yells of “lies” and “you lying fuck” were blurted out among the Liberty Avenue faction.

“Silence in court!”  I order and wait for the room to settle down.  “Continue counsel.”

“You took a hit for a man you clearly don’t like?  Why?   Because you were afraid of the hurt he would cause Justin?  Or was it because you said to Brian that he should have left Justin Taylor-Kinney to die in the parking garage after he was attacked?”

The ‘oh God’ was out of my mouth before I could stop it and the shock is radiating around the room.  For a few minutes, there is nothing but then he lifts his head.

“I didn’t mean it literally like that.”  He folds his arms across his chest.  “I don’t want him dead.”

I look back at our side and am glad that we know what we know as he has laid the trap for himself.

“You’ve also made great play of the influence of the Ugerstachts have over Brian, particularly Zaden, why do you feel that?”

He seems to grow a few feet and he smirks at them.  “He most likely got turned by the cache of her being in the security business, which as I said…”

“Yes, yes we have heard your statement.”  Meriam interrupts him sharply.  “And you were so afraid of her that you turned up for dinner at every given opportunity.”

“I was too afraid not to turn up.”

“Are you serious?!”  Meriam gapes at him, her professionalism slipping momentarily.

“Counsel.”  I warn.

She clears her throat and glowers at his smirk, which he wisely takes off his face.

“What’s gun oil?”  She asks.

“It’s um…well it’s a…um sexual product.”

“Or?”

“Or what?”

“It lives up to its name and does exactly what it says on the tin and lubricates a gun.”

He goes red and clears his throat.  “Yes there is that too.”

“You keep mentioning your fear of Mrs Ugerstacht.”

He nods vigorously.

“So why did you suggest to her…no let me correct that, challenge her that you could disarm her?”

“Uh what?”

“After you objected to her and her husband carrying a gun around the children, which, for the benefit of the court, they were not and do not.  You challenged her to remove the gun from her person, did you not?  And during one of the trials regarding the custody of your daughter then Jenny Rebecca, you attempted to attack Mrs Ugerstacht and was stopped by her husband…”

“I…”

“How did your nose get broken?”

“Justin Taylor-Kinney did…”

“I call the court’s attention to item 5B. This is a video of outside the courtroom following the formal adoptions of Gus Taylor-Kinney and Jenny Rebecca Marcus-Bruckner.”

“Wait…”

“Play the video please.”  I order.

“…cripple handed piece of boy ass…”  Echoes round the room and then he falls to the floor.

“Replay that.”  Supreme Justice Conway orders and comes closer.

Chuckles abound when he falls to the floor again and like him, I am trying to work out how it happened.  I look at the court room and everyone is straining forward.  Tank, Meriam and Ephie are almost leaning on the Supreme Justice.

“He says what he says and then the nose explodes. How? Seriously! Just fucking how?”  Supreme Justice mutters.  “Okay once more and I’m pretty sure, I’ve got it.”

“You heard his Supreme Justice, play it again.”

Novotny is scowling and bright red as we play it again.  “I don’t think you need to watch it that much!”  He snarks.

“Again, you are the defendant and have to be quiet!”  I rebuke him.  “However, watching it repeatedly refutes your suggestion that Justin Taylor-Kinney attacked you.  We can’t figure out who did but it wasn’t him.  Continue counsel.”

Meriam waits for everyone to get settled back down before she turns back to Novotny.

“You called Lindsay Peterson to act as a character witness. It’s a shame that as counsel it didn’t work out as well as you thought it would but as a defendant, it worked out for us.  Can you explain to the court why you went to visit Mr and Mrs Ugerstacht at their house?  The woman you were so afraid of.”

“That was because of the former husband of Zaden Uger…”

“Not husband. Grady Holster was never married to Zaden and well you know it.  In fact, didn’t you announce Lindsay and Grady’s engagement to Gus, Jenny, Hunter and his husband Matt?”

“As far as I knew, they were to be engaged.”  He bristles.  “It’s not my fault it didn’t work…”

“It’s never your fault, is it Mr Novotny?”  Meriam starts to circle like a hawk.  “Like it wasn’t your fault that there were holes in the condoms that Ms Peterson and Mr Holster were using and it was only because of his infertility that she didn’t become pregnant or because he only barebacks with one person that she or you weren’t infected?”

“Bareback?”  He echoes, going pale.

“And then of course, there’s the assault by yourself on Lindsay Peterson for refusing to have a baby with you so that you could persuade your mother to take the child for monetary gain?”

Again there is murmuring and cursing among the spectators.

“Silence in court!”  I bang my gavel a few times, even though I’m as repulsed as they are.

“I don’t see what any of this has to do with the evidentiary part of…”  He begins.

“It has everything to do with evidence of your behaviour.”  Meriam snaps.  “Counsel rests.  Right to recall.”

RECORDING SUITE

JUSTIN

“He’s lying.  He’s lying about how he feels about you.”  Brian’s voice breaks.  “Why does he hate you so much?  I thought he was over this by now?  He married Ben and then had David again for fuck sake!”

He has known this man for most of his life so I’m glad that we are alone so he can mourn properly.  I let him pace and shout before pulling him into my arms and holding him while he cries.

Finally, he scrubs his face and sighs.  “I hope he rots.”  He murmurs into my hair.  “He is on the same level of Jack from the abusive perspective.  In fact, he’s worse because he knows what Jack did and to take…”

He starts to cry again and I hold him tighter and try to absorb his pain.  

I watch as Michael head back to his desk. He looks like he’s been fucked wet and hung out to dry.  I have no sympathy for him.  He brought this on himself; actually he brought this on us.  I can’t help the shiver that mentally goes through my mind when she asked him about the garage comment.  There was something that flickered across his face.  

My attention is pulled away from the screen by a soft wheeze that he gets when his nose is blocked.

“Come on let’s go home.  I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough.”  I tell him and he slowly nods.  

“Yeah I’m done.”  He looks at the screen again and shakes his head with sadness.

“Of all the things I expected you to say that wasn’t it.”  I tell him quietly. 

“Everyone has their limits.  That look earlier was mine.”  He opens the door and leads me out.