Golden

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Today was the day. It was the first day of Tom’s trial and we were all nervous. Nathan and the rest of the boys wore suits, while me and the girls either wore dresses or skirts since it was a formal occasion. We were all gathered in the lobby of the court, Dean, Jayne, Martin and Tom’s brother and parents were all here too. There were a few other people that were working with Dean but since I hadn’t met them before I had no idea who they were.

No jokes we made as we waited for 11 o’clock to roll around, in-fact hardly anyone spoke. We were all in our own thoughts, consumed by happiness at the prospect he could win the case, but also dread that he might lose, well that’s why my thoughts were like anyway. I was hopeful that we would win, I really was. I mean Dean had a lot of good evidence, he better have anyway with everything he put us through.

Glancing over at Tom you could visibly see he was nervous, he paced from one side of the room to another biting his nails, not really paying much attention to anyone around him. I felt for him I really did, I mean what would happen if things go the way we hoped?

“The case of Mr Parker will now start” a woman in a black suit said coming out of the court room we would be going in any minute, I think everyone took a deep breath before we stepped into the room and took our seats. Tom walked to the stand and Dean took his place with the rest of his team at the front of the courtroom. The judge was writing something down and hadn’t looked up at the slowly filling the room, but then again he didn’t need to until it actually started; he was the one with the final decision.

“All rise for the court” someone announced, I didn’t see who it was because I was too busy calming Kelsey down who was on my left, Nathan was on my right followed by Max and Shellie, Nareesha and Siva, and finally Jay and Em. Tom’s brother was in-front of us along with his parents so we were all here supporting him 100%.

The judge began informing the court room that everything must be the truth and abide by the court rules. “We are here today for the case of Thomas Anthony Parker who is accused of assault with a deadly weapon, assault with the intention to kill and attempted murder” the judge announced and the case began. Today was the turn of Dean to put all his evidence forward and tomorrow would be the turn of the prosecution.

~

Dean began by putting the evidence we’d given forward, it involved things about how much of a good man he was, how we knew he was going out with some friends to go for a few drinks, and that it would never be his nature to intentionally hurt anyone. From then Dean called Tom’s friends forward Harry and Mike as witnesses. Harry was the first one called to the witness stand.

“Now you were with the accused the night the stabbing took place, correct?” Dean asked forcefully. Harry nodded without saying anything, looking down at the wooden floor in the process. “You got drunk first out of your two friends didn’t you” Dean stated at the evidence Tom had obviously given. “I think so” Harry muttered. “You think so?” Dean pressured further, you could see Harry getting more and more agitated as the process went on. “Well I can’t really remember much” Harry admitted, Dean raised his eyebrows smirking obviously happy with the way things were planning out. I had to admit even though Dean was a right idiot outside the courtroom as it was going on he was really good, you could see where he got his reputation of being one of the best from, he was determined and focused which I had to admit kind of annoyed me because I wanted him to have a few flaws.

“Really? So you don’t remember getting into an argument with the victim after you drunkenly bumped into him? You don’t remember that he followed you outside? You don’t remember pulling knife out your pocket and stabbing him?” Dean was on a roll and I had to admit I was loving every minute on the look on Harry’s face. You could see that he remembered something but he shook his head still in silence. “Are you sure you don’t remember any of that? You don’t even remember running away from the scene with your friend Mike and leaving the accused at the scene, covered in the man’s blood who he tried to save? You don’t have the guts to admit your crime and instead you would let your so called friend take the blame for your actions” It was getting exciting, you could see all of Tom’s supporters silently cheering on the inside, I knew I was anyway.

“I- I don’t remember, no comment” Harry muttered, as the truth began to get too much for him. The judge was writing something down again but made no move to stop Dean. “Alright so what if I said your DNA was found on the weapon at the scene of the crime, and also on the man’s shirt? What if I told you we had CCTV evidence of you running away the scene minutes after the stabbing took place along with Mike here” Dean claimed indicating over to Mike who was sat in the stand opposite us. Everything seemed to be coming together, though I knew I couldn’t speak too soon.

“It wasn’t me!” Harry exclaimed panicking, but Dean chuckled at his attempts to remain innocent. “Unfortunately for you Harry I have the DNA results right in-front of me and the CCTV footage in my hands, have you got anything to say to that?” Harry shook his head so Dean sighed as he walked over to the judge and handed him the DNA results. “Even though the accused DNA was found on the weapon it was in-proportionate to that found of Harry’s. His was largely found and only the minority of it was the accused, this got contaminated when the accused tried to save the victim by pulling the weapon out” Dean informed the court and I nodded my head glancing over at Tom, I had to admit even he looked slightly less nervous as before and more entertained by the whole thing.

“And the CCTV footage?” the judge asked, Dean nodded going over to a TV, putting the DVD into the player and hitting play. “As you can quite clearly see Harry here is fleeing the scene along with his accomplice Mike. There is no footage from the pub car park where the incident took place but I think you can quite easily see from all the evidence bought forward that the accused is innocent, and his so called friend who let the accused take the blame is guilty. What do you say about that Harry?” Dean asked smiling as he turned to face a rather pale looking Harry.

“I-I-“ he began stuttering, he paused for a minute and looked over to Tom, in that one moment the two of them made eye contact you could tell Harry had decided what he was going to say. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. It was the alcohol, I never meant for Tom to take the blame” Harry mumbled getting his words out, everyone on Tom’s side let out a breath of relief. Tom burst into a huge grin and Dean tried to do a discreet like fist pump, though I think a fair few people noticed. I turned to a smiling Nathan and he returned my gaze with a wink.

The judge sighed and took his glasses off he’d been using to write things down. “Alright, I think that will be all for now. Even though it’s pretty clear about who stabbed the victim I still want to hear from the prosecution tomorrow, though I think their case has already fallen through. I want Mike in the witness box tomorrow and Harry arrested, that will be all for now, thank you. Court adjourned” I was so happy, Kelsey couldn’t contain her relief and jumped around in excitement, even though it was pretty clear that Tom would be found not-guilty we had to wait until tomorrow for him to be cleared, but at least we’d sleep well tonight.

Tom’s dad thanked Dean for working to get all the evidence together, and I even gave him a forced smile – though as soon as we got out the court room he would be inundated with death glares.

When Tom joined us and his family it felt completely normal, even though we were all here for one reason it was such a relief.  We all decided to go out for lunch, the boys, Nareesha, Em, Michelle, Kelsey, Jayne, Tom’s parents and brother, and even Dean. It was sort of a half celebration, I’m pretty sure when everything was confirmed tomorrow it would be alcohol we’d been celebrating with – but inside the confides of a house and not a pub where everything could go disastrously wrong, again!

A/N – Let me know what you think! Happy?!! Comment, vote, fan and I’ll see you next Friday when the case will finish! Oo! Happy Easter! :D S xx

P.S. I drew the picture of Nath at the side in two hours, hope you like that too! :D x