THE DRY CLEANER'S MESS

CHAPTER 11

"You are charged with the murder of Dennis Gray, a Brother of The Family. Guilty or not?"

She paused for a second. "Not guilty. I didn't murder anybody, it was involuntary manslaughter. It was a spur-of-the-moment action, I felt my life was threatened. I'm sure every single person in this room would do the same or even worse to protect himself. I also sustained bruises on my neck during the altercation."

Again they all nodded and took to murmuring among themselves. In those minutes, she and Luke maintained an unbroken stare. His eyes were like a wall, she couldn't see past it. What was going through his mind?

"We've heard from Miss Arielle Marie LaRue and it's time we bring in the witnesses." The pudgy Eye said. 

Arielle furrowed her brows in puzzlement. Witnesses? Cold sweat broke out on her forehead. What witnesses? Who were the witnesses? Andrew's face crossed her mind. She shook her head and in turn, her thoughts. She needed to stop suspecting Andrew whenever something was up. So who were the witnesses and what did they see that they were going to witness about?"

Two of The Eyes went out of the courtroom. They came back separately, each with a blindfolded man. She scrunched her face in confusion when the first Eye came in. Why was the man with him in blindfolds? However when the second Eye came in with his own 'witness', her heart thumped against the ribcage. It was Xavier aka Mr Hyde. 

He was exactly the way she remembered. Tall with broad shoulders, sleeves full of tattoos, scars on his face and she knew beneath the black blindfold were vibrant forest green eyes with specks of black in them. He was dressed exactly as she was dressed- sweatshirt and sweatpants. Just that hers was grey and his was black. That didn't surprise her though, she'd never seen him in another colour. His left hand was wrapped in clean, white gauze. 

"Remove the blindfolds." One of the Eyes instructed in an authoritative voice. 

They both took off their blindfolds and squinted their eyes. She watched with scrunched face as they both bowed at Luke. Wow, they really took the tradition really serious. 

"Please rise."

When they both did, as expected they both looked around the room. When Xavier's eyes locked onto hers, she saw different emotions flit across them. First, recognition, then animosity and finally, indifference. After a few seconds, he looked away. She didn't blame him though. If she was in his shoes, she'd hate her too. 

"The first witness, Xavier Graham McGregor, can start."

He moved forward and stood beside her. He gave her a sideways glance before he spoke. She noticed that the tattoo of the seal was on his neck, not his hand. She furrowed her brows. 

"It's always been my duty to take Lord Luke's laundry to Propre et Fraîche. On that particular day, the suits bags I was supposed to arrange in the laundry hamper were brought to my room. I didn't think to check the contents of each bag, there had never been a need to. After putting all the suit bags in the laundry hamper, I took it to Raphaêl's place. She worked there." He pointed to Arielle and continued. "I paid her $1200 as laundry fee and went back home, only to be told a few hours later that Leon's hand was in one of the suit bags. Immediately, I went back to Raphaêl's place and I was told her shift was over. I called Raphaêl and he gave me her house address. When I got there, she had long gone."

If she was alone, she'd have laughed at the last line of his report. So she stifled her laughter by biting the inside of her cheek. The Eyes nodded at his report and called the next witness.

"The second witness, Franklin Park Caleb. Please go ahead."

He stepped forward and Arielle kept looking at him. She could have sworn that she had heard his voice before but then his face was unfamiliar.