Somebody is gonna get hurt real bad...

Chapter 21:- The Trial

 "Crime butchers innocence to secure a prize. And innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime."

Robespierre.

The truths are turned to lies in the court of law

Virtues are squashed beneath the treachery's claws

As the blind justice refutes the see the reality

Merely to the game of words reduces the actuality.

Even though the devil in the County was caught, closing a chapter; and temporary fictitious peace had returned to the Irisvile County, the end of the book still seemed far. No story is complete until justice is served, until good triumphs over evil; and the guilty was yet to be punished. The sanction which seemed to be implied was in reality much more difficult to achieve. With the blind morality weighing words of one person against another, the truth seemed defeated. An honest person lost the battle of equity as he failed to brew up a story. An innocent shouldn't be punished even if a hundred guilty go free, yet each time it seems like while the sinner is protected by the treachery, the integrity of ethics and morals is stripped naked. Is justice merely a war of words?

Sheriff was back in that not so memorable courtroom. He was jumping between past and present as he tried to erase the unwanted memories. It was a regular room, not too small, not too big. The walls were painted in cream color. There were benches properly arranged at certain distances for the audience and media to sit. In front of those benches were barricades after which the chairs and tables for the parties and their attorneys were arranged.

Mr. Nil Grant along with his advocate was sitting on one of those chairs in his usual gracefully annoying posture. He wore an expensive suit, completely buttoned up, neat and tidy as if to create an impression of an aristocrat. He had stubble seemingly the result of his time spent in jail however his confidence wasn't that of a guilty person. He had perfectly combed hair and as soon as the Sheriff and his team entered the room, he smirked. The cavalier didn't hesitate to give a smug look to everybody who had defied him. Sheriff braced himself for something worse, as he was reminded of the baffled state he was left at the beginning of the last trial. Hitchcock refused to attend either of the trials, saying it was too much for him.

"Did you see the stunt he pulled outside?" Officer Ted asked.

"Yes." Sheriff murmured.

"For all those who support me, have faith in me... I promise..." Officer Walter scoffed as he mocked Officer Grant's speech. "We'll get through this phase together. Sooner or later the truth would come into light." Officer Walter said, as he pressed his lips in frustration. "Seriously!"

"For a perpetrator of those heinous crimes he has a lot of sympathy from the public." Officer Ted whispered. "Residents of Laine Lane."

"They are not the problem." Officer Walter said in a disappointed tone "Even many residents of Irisvile and many press personnel refuse to believe that he committed those rapes, those murders. He's been perceived as a victim and not the criminal he is..." These words are not of Officer Walter. Sheriff thought as he remembered a conversation with Hitchcock.

Sheriff Jackson, Officer Walter, and Officer Ted were sitting just behind the barricade from where they could easily communicate with the prosecutor, who was sitting in the front to the opposite side of the barricade. Now there are just two! The witness stands which occupied the two corners of that room were between the barricade and the judge's podium. There was a typewriter stationed beneath the podium to record the testimonies. Every wooden item had the same glassy sunmica of variant shades of brown.