Naive Charles Royce (great novels .txt) 📖

“Something like ‘Hey, come up.’”

“Is it something like ‘Hey, come up’ or is it definitely ‘Hey, come up’?”

“Sometimes it’s ‘Hey, come up,’ sometimes it’s ‘Come on up.’”

“Sometimes, something like, huh? Is it possible that the reason why you don’t know is because you do it so often, it becomes rote, like second nature?”

“It’s possible.”

“Thank you. You also mentioned a casual way about Mr. Breuer that was out of place, or odd I believe is the word you used. But isn’t it also possible that people react differently to traumatic events?”

“Yes, but the defendant’s demeanor went beyond—”

“‘Yes’ will suffice, thank you. And do you have any psychological credentials this court is unaware of?”

“No.”

Shawn ponders a way to address the light switch but is wondering himself how there was no blood on it. He stalls by shuffling some papers on his desk, still figuring out his argument.

“Now, Officer Palino,” he begins, then pauses. He is about to try another ‘is it possible’ themed argument, but decides not to risk it. “I have no further questions,” he says, and stares straight ahead to the witness stand, as if he were about to say something else.

Officer Palino stands up, then halfway sits back down again, looks at Shawn, then shakes his head.

Shawn walks back to Micah. They lock eyes for a brief moment of unspoken confusion.

“Counselor Lerner, do you have anything further for this witness?” asks the judge.

“Nothing further at this time,” Astrid responds.

“Very well. Next witness.”

“The people would like to call Detective Bronson Penance, please.” Astrid smiles and lifts up her laptop she has connected to the monitors. The first slide of her PowerPoint presentation reads Timeline.

Detective Penance approaches and is sworn in. A stark contrast to the disheveled way he presented himself at Astrid’s apartment the night before, he is dressed to the nines in charcoal-grey pinstripes, with a red-and-black tie and a pocket handkerchief to match. He rattles off his credentials and lengthy history as detective for New York’s Southern District, as well as his role in the investigation.

“Detective Penance, did you notice the absence of blood on the light switch?” Astrid begins, wanting to reiterate her Perry Mason moment, as Elaine Holcomb’s husband had put it.

“Yes, yes I did.”

“You were also the one to put together this timeline of that evening, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Can you walk us through it, please?”

“Of course.”

Astrid hands him the remote control. He approaches the large monitor in front of the jury.

“Based on eyewitnesses, footage from several public and private cameras along the route, social media photo timestamps, GPS tracking on the phones of both the defendant and the victim, and phone calls from the defendant to the victim, I put together the following timeline.” He begins reading the slides and describing the events.

7:00pm–7:30pm: Initial stabbing

“Bloodwork and blood splatter results obtained from the scene indicate the murder happened between 7:00pm and 7:30pm. However, the victim was still alive after these stabbings.”

7:17pm: Micah Breuer leaves/enters taxi.

“We know this from the footage and timestamp of the city camera at the corner of Henry and Rutgers, across from the condo, which is the crime scene in question.”

((Photo of Micah leaving the building))

“The defendant, dressed in a black-and-white tuxedo, carrying a large Jack Spade canvas bag, gets into a taxi, which is corroborated by a receipt, direct from a company called LES Taxi and Limousine Service.”

7:20pm: Micah texts Jenna

Where are you?

“The defendant texts a friend asking, ‘Where are you?’”

7:40pm: Gas station stop of 3 minutes

7:45pm: 14th St at 5th Ave

7:50pm: Micah texts Jenna

Almost there

7:57pm: Micah arrives at event

“Notice the time lag here. Cameras at the event the defendant uses as his alibi clock him exiting the taxi at 7:57pm. It’s important to note here that traffic was light that evening, so what should have been a twenty-minute drive from the Lower East Side where Micah and Lennox lived to Midtown, where the event took place, took almost fifty minutes.

((Photos and videos of various camera angles showing Micah’s limo))

“Cameras did clock the taxi at a gas station at Houston and Lafayette at 7:40pm, which took a total of three minutes, as did a camera at 14th and 5th at 7:45pm, and another at 7:50, three blocks from the final destination, which was the event.”

“Thank you, Detective,” Astrid says. “Do you have any information on the taxi and its whereabouts during the stretch of time unaccounted for between 7:17pm, when the defendant left his apartment and got in the cab, and 7:40pm, when the taxi carrying the defendant stopped for gas? That’s over twenty minutes.”

“We do not. We cannot place the defendant anywhere during that time period. We spoke with the cab driver, but there was a bit of a language barrier there.”

“Continue,” Astrid says.

8:20pm: Micah texts Lennox

OH. MY. GOD. You said you’d be right here. Lemme know an ETA baby.

9:05pm: Micah calls Lennox

“Not much later, Micah calls Lennox. The voice mail transcript reads: “Hey baby, where are you? I miss you. I can’t tell you how many people are asking about you. Text me or call me, I have my phone. I hope everything’s all right.” This will also be made available to the jury as a recording.

9:15pm: Micah leaves event

“Witnesses at the event report Micah leaving around 9:15pm.”

9:34pm: Micah enters taxi

10:10pm: Micah exits taxi

“These times are corroborated both by cameras and taxi receipts. It wouldn’t normally take this long for a taxi to drive from Midtown to the Lower East Side, but nothing too out of the ordinary.”

10:15pm: Approximate death of victim, corroborated by both the victim and blood coagulation analysis

10:32pm: 9-1-1 call

“Note here that the 9-1-1 call came over fifteen minutes after the defendant comes home and discovers his husband in a pool of blood on the floor.”

10:38pm: Police arrive on scene

10:50pm: Detective arrives on scene

11:15pm: Defendant escorted to police station

11:50pm: Defendant is processed

3:10am: Defendant confesses

“And there you have it,” Detective Penance says, ending his timeline.

“Thank you, Detective. Correct me if I’m wrong here. The defendant calls his husband at 9:05 because he is very worried, yet