Naive Charles Royce (great novels .txt) 📖

also worked for Élan, so I got to see him all the time.” She realizes she has been babbling.

“Ms. Ancelet, can you tell me about the relationship between you and Mr. Josh Harrison?”

“Sure! We are best friends. Super close. For like ten or twelve years. Josh is a freelancer too. We all saw each other a lot.” She stops to rephrase, to make herself sound smarter. “We saw each other a great deal, a great deal.”

“Since you guys saw each other a great deal, did it surprise you when Josh and Lennox started having an affair?”

“Not really.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, Micah, and excuse me for saying so, Micah has always had a jealous streak. On several occasions, either at the office or out at a bar, Lenny always got a lot of attention. Micah would, too, but he was so wrapped up in Lennox that he never saw it. Micah would get jealous, sometimes give Lenny the ice shoulder, or sometimes just walk out of the bar and go home. Does that answer your question?”

“Sort of,” Astrid says. “Specifically, Ms. Ancelet, can you tell me about the affair between Josh Harrison and Lennox Holcomb?”

“The affair. Yeah. Uh, that kinda started right under my foot. I saw the attraction between Josh and Lennox, and I think I may have stoked it. I mean, I always loved Micah, don’t get me wrong, but Josh was my best friend, and I simply adored Lennox. It’s not something I’m proud of, and Micah and I have talked about it. I had no idea it would turn into a thing.”

“A thing?” Astrid hopes to focus her witness.

“Yes. It was definitely a thing. Micah found out about Josh and Lenny, I’m not sure how, but he also knew I was hiding it from him. We didn’t hang out for months.”

“Can you tell me about the confrontation between Josh and Micah? I understand you were there?”

“Yes, yes, I was. Micah and Josh were scheduled for the same meeting at Élan, a meeting that Lenny and I were to be at as well. It was a high-profile campaign that needed a lot of money, so that’s why Lennox and I were there. Outside the conference room, Micah approached Josh and started screaming obscenities.”

“Like what?”

“Homewrecker. Whore. Fuck this and fuck that. There was a look in his eyes I’d never seen from him before. From anyone really.”

“Did he ever threaten Josh?”

“Yes. After he was screaming for a while, he looked at Josh right in the eyes, got all up in his face and said something like, ‘If you ever get near him again, I will kill you both.’ Josh didn’t leave his apartment for weeks after that.”

“Thank you, Ms. Ancelet. I have no further questions.” Astrid Lerner nods in approval and walks back to her seat.

“Your witness, Mr. Connelly,” the judge says.

“Ms. Ancelet, may I call you Jenna?” asks Shawn, injecting a sense of professionalism between two friends.

“Yes, you may.” Jenna plays along.

“Jenna, you said you saw a look in Micah’s eyes that you’d never seen before from anyone, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“What did Lennox look like when he fired you?”

“Objection! Assuming a fact not in evidence.”

“Your Honor, prosecution has the same access to all the company files as we do. I’m simply asking about a fact that has relevance to this witness.”

“Tread lightly, Mr. Connelly. Overruled.”

Jenna is visibly shaken. Ambushed by my friend, she thinks.

“Jenna, you were fired by Lennox on March 21, 2016, is that correct? Remember you’re under oath.”

“I know I’m under oath, Shawn.” She lowers her voice. “It’s just hardly anyone knows that, and my current job could be in jeopardy now, thanks to you.”

“Please answer the question.”

“Yes, I was fired. They sent me off with a glowing recommendation, as long as I signed an NDA, which I did. But I did nothing wrong.”

“Do you think lying to your current employer is wrong?”

“Objection.”

“Sustained.”

“Isn’t it true that after Lennox found out that you were thinking of leaving Élan, even suspected of stealing company secrets, that he screamed at you and called you names in front of several people in your department?”

“Objection. The witness is not on trial here.”

“Sustained. Mr. Connelly, you are on thin ice.”

“Withdrawn. We have nothing further but retain our right to recall this witness in the future.”

Jenna, not having the chance to defend herself, or right any misgivings about what was said, gets up out of her chair. Heavy-hearted and powerless, she looks at Micah and Shawn. Neither looks back. She leaves the room, her heels clonking and scraping against the rugged vinyl floors beneath her.

C h a p t e r   3 7

“Stab number one scraped the spinal cord, slightly severing it,” the witness begins.

A short, bald man with twenty-two years in criminal forensics, Dr. Eddy Frischell, dressed in a white lab coat, is on the stand offering expert testimony. He holds the remote control for the television monitor, clicking through a series of morbid photos of Lennox’s naked body. Dr. Frischell is a favorite of Astrid Lerner’s. With an attention to detail and an ability to address the jury in layman’s terms, he still manages to convey the science without overdramatizing.

“This wound is the deepest, approximately two inches, directly in the victim’s back. This MRIof the lumbar spine demonstrates a partial transection of the spinal cord at the L3/L4 spinal level, which we believe caused partial paralysis of the legs. Stab number two went directly into the abdomen and was thrust upward. However, this stab was not fatal, as it narrowly avoided both the stomach and the heart. Stabs three and four were to the victim’s side, hitting two ribs and puncturing the right lung. Again, not fatal. We believe these were inflicted with the left hand due to the angle.”

Micah fidgets in his seat, but he knows the afternoon will be like this. He is prepared but fears he will doubt his ability to hide his discomfort with each new witness.

“Stab wounds five through twenty-two are along the