Make You Love

Chapter 21

Hunter, the prosecutor's first witness, stepped up to the stand and was sworn in. He was tall and broad-shouldered, and was wearing a grey hoodie. With a pleasant smile plastered on his face, he scanned the courtroom, studying the expressions of the jurors and the pressmen. Never once did his gaze drift near Craig.

The temperature in the room skyrocketed to 40 degrees in the past twenty seconds.

"Good morning, Mr Sheriff," the US attorney George Mason began as he stood up.

"Morning, Mr Mason."

"For the sake of the jury, can you introduce yourself?"

Hunter shrugged. "I'm just a twelfth grader. I have a girlfriend whom I love very much..."

"Is the girlfriend here?"

"She only has eyes for me, if that's what you're trying to ask." He winked. Laughter bubbled in the courtroom. The judge concealed her smile with the back of her palm.

"Okay okay." Mason raised his hands in surrender. "I'm taken too."

"Sounds great." Hunter chuckled.

" Were you at Miss Dehler's party? "

"Hell nah. I had a baseball game to win that weekend. My girlfriend was there to support me all the way. The best part is, I did win, and I'm sure it was because of her good luck kiss. I took her on a dinner cruise afterwards. A very romantic dinner cruise."

Everybody laughed, though it was kind of subdued since none of them wanted to piss off the judge. They seemed to like his sense of humor.

"Did you ever observe Novah's absence from the finals?"

He placed three fingers beneath his chin. Sighed a sigh that seemed final afterwards. Tears stung his eyes as he murmured, "We all knew. Novah was our queen bee."

His gaze was drawn to level with Craig's. He flinched visibly, then pulled back as if shot. Craig wore the look of someone that had killed thousands of people yet was willing to pull his trigger on a thousand more.

He seemed to be saying, "Go ahead Hunter. Say whatever the fuck you want. I'm coming for you."

"Queen bee? She was pretty popular, eh?"

"Totally."

"After her gruesome death, did her boyfriend reach out to you?"

"Definitely. Before we commenced our finals on Monday, he persuaded me to meet him for coffee. We had a cup of cappuccino each, then he looked me in the eye, a little like I'm looking at you now, and asked me to do him a favor."

"Do you recall what his exact words were?"

"Oh. I think he said, 'A lot of shit has gone down with me, bro.' "

"And by a lot of shit, you later understood that he was referring to Novah's death?"

"Sort of."

"You don't seem like the kind of guy cut out for this, Mr Sheriff. Perhaps he dared you to do the favor?"

"Threatened. When Craig wants you to do something for him, he makes you more scared of not doing it. He gripped me by my collar and threatened to holler that I'd raped his girlfriend."

"And all this while, you didn't reach out to the cops?"

Hunter took a long swig of water from his bottle. He smacked his lips.

"You don't get it, Mason. He's ruthless whenever he was to be. And nope, the cops wouldn't help because if I didn't run him over, he'd find someone else to do that for him."

"Someone else? I presume he's a gang leader of some teen Mafia?"

"He's right across the room. Why don't you ask him instead?"

Mason considered the idea for a split second. His thoughts swiveled to the defendant hunched over his box, grinning like the very devil. He wagged his index finger towards Mason as if saying, "Over here."

"I'd love to."

"Bad idea, sir. He doesn't give a shit about love."

"And his girlfriend?"

"He said, 'cut her in pieces and stuff her in a can, for all I care. The girl's gotta go'."

Cut her in pieces and stuff her in a can, for all I care. The girl's gotta go.

As for the witnesses, they couldn't go anywhere. Instead, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Here was the defendant, sitting like a completely normal teenager one minute. And the next, he's planning, or admitting conspiracy in his girlfriend's death. Silence descended on the courtroom in layers so thick that a knife wouldn't slice through.

"If you had the chance to change things, probably reverse Novah's death, would you?"

"Nope."

What? Now all they needed was some popcorn and the show would be on full swing

Even Mason was taken aback.
"You wouldn't?"

"Because he paid me ten thousand dollars in cash as soon as I agreed to accidentally crush him. I think he wanted an alibi. If he was in the hospital by the time Novah was confirmed dead, why would anyone dream that he orchestrated her death?"

The judge and jury went on an hour recess on the former's orders. By one o'clock, they were fanning themselves with their notepads. Even when the room was air-conditioned to the teeth.
Who kills his high school sweetheart? Craig. When does he kill her? Before Christmas. How? In a mock-up car accident. Why? The jurors looked at one another as if the answer to that question was written on their faces.

Why?

Why?

Damnit, why?

They shook their heads in unison.

"Let me pick up from there we left off. You said he bribed you, eh?"

"I wouldn't call it that. I'd say he wired me a couple of bucks... "

"Stop it! Damn you!" Every part of the guys there went on pause while their thoughts caught up. Their brains stuttered and their eyes took in more light than they expected. Was it just the light, or...?

Craig had leapt up from his seat. He was yelling at the top of his lungs.
"This court is a joke!" He thrashed and fought back the guards that scuttled to restrain him in handcuffs.
"I killed my girlfriend. Then what? Happy now?"