Above Water

18. Promised, overwhelming solutions.

Being in a courtroom, running a quick errand was one thing. Being in a courtroom, losing your cool in the gallery, and witnessing your girlfriend on trial for murder was another thing.

For more than half of the gallery, the spotlight was interspersed between the counselors and the witness they were examining. For Sadiq, his spotlight had been Amani, and a few times, he caught what the lawyers and witnesses were saying.

A year and a half had passed since their last contact. And while he looked forward to it, he was convinced the energy was one-sided.

When two officers, a male, and a female walked Amani into the room, right to the dug, her first step into the dug was a mishap. They had made eye contact as she lifted her foot. The action had startled her from afar, pure unreadable emotions accounted for her face. The officers behind her caught her, the woman mouthing incoherent words Sadiq could not hear from the defense's side of the gallery. He had jerked forward, an infertile instinct to protect her.

He could comment no worthwhile words on her look at him. It was...sharp, fast, and dismissive. As fast as their contact, as fast as she turned ahead, not forgetting to give a slight nod at her aunties, Laura and Hanne.

The cuffs left the confines of her wrist, and her reaction to it a quick rub of the bruised area.

Her stance, despite her deducted ache gave no way for weakness. Her fit, one he had never seen her achieve, one she had always shared the dream of achieving with him. She had done it, without him. How? He had no idea.

As the trial began again, Sadiq had no choice but to continually yank his nerve centers back to the court proceedings.

"What was the cause of Binta Wakili's death?"

"A hospital infection." The forensic doctor in charge of the case answered.

"Just a hospital infection?"

He nodded, "Just."

"Was there any sign of domestic abuse present on her cadaver?"

"No. Only signs of struggle that had mostly faded by the time she died."

"And what about the defendant's father? What was his cause of death?" Helen regarded the question with a wave of her hand to her right, Amani a direct audience to it.

"The knife killed him. It penetrated his heart and burst his left ventricle. He died of severe hemorrhaging before the ambulance could get there."

A form of satisfaction overpowered Helen's visage, she wiped her palm down her suit pants, nodding at the judge before taking the position back at her seat.

"Cross-examination?"

Mike waived the offer, rummaging page after page in his case file.

Sworn to oath, the next witness stated his specifics for the record. "My name is Muhammad Yakasai, head homicide detective in charge of this case."

"Detective, why did you arrest the defendant?"

"Because her fingerprints were verified on the murder weapon."

"So you arrested her because she was the murderer?"

The query drew Sadiq's eyes to Amani, lucky enough to catch the visible shaky breath she took, sending her upper limbs rigid.

"Objection, your honor. Conjecture." Mike protested.

"Overruled," Grace affirmed, crossing her arms. "You have to answer the question."

Muhammad leaned forward, "No. I had her arrested because she was the primary suspect at the time. A lot of shreds of evidence also pointed to her alone."