After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 93

August 4, 1993. 9:11 AM.

The final week of testimony against Jack was passing painfully slowly. Everyday felt like it should've been the one after it, and Jack was starting to wonder if time really could stand still. On Monday, Barnes called a couple more witnesses in regards to the Matthew Logelin incident. The officers who responded to the crime scene at the East Point Blockbuster testified, as did the two who picked Jack up several blocks away. Barnes attempted to get the officers to tell the court why no charges were filed against Jack that night, but nobody claimed to know anything about it.

Everybody's silence really was for sale, so long as you could offer the right price.

Barnes also called upon Roger Conroy's parents to testify early that week. Rhonda and Gregory were coerced into admitting that Jack spent time at their eldest son's house when he ran away back in December of 1991, and he was later caught in their own home with Roger in January of '92. They had no choice but to report Jack's whereabouts to the police because he was a known missing child, and that was the end of Jack's voyage as a teen runaway.

Wednesday was the day both Paige and Evan were expected to be called. Brett was guessing that there would maybe only be a single other witness to take the stand that day as most of the court's time would be held by Paige and Evan's testimony, as the two closest people to Jack. Or so Barnes assumed anyway.

Early that Wednesday morning, Evan Merridew was in an especially sour mood. He was evidently dreading having to take the stand today knowing that his job was to try and combat Dana Barnes' efforts to make his son look bad. Jack knew that Evan would've loved nothing more than to agree with Barnes, and would have been willing and able to spend hours on that stand helping her case. But his own fate was tied to Jack's, and saving himself meant saving his bastard son.

Jack and Evan never had a real conversation about the island. Jack never asked Evan if he believed that Jack killed Simon on purpose, or whether he had any real involvement in Piggy's death. And Evan never offered up his opinion on the matter either. Jack assumed that Evan believed in his guilt, if only because he wanted to believe it, because it fit the image he constructed of Jack in his head from the day their mother left.

By the time the Merridew family made their way into the courtroom that morning, Evan had barely said two words to Jack or even to Paige. The eldest Merridew sibling was especially encouraging of her little brother in an effort to make up for their father's poor behavior. Paige spent most of the morning promising Jack that today would be an okay day, that her's and Evan's testimony would be more helpful than Barnes would be expecting.

As usual, Jack was less than convinced that everything would be alright. Optimism was never his shining quality, but pessimism was ingrained in him like a bad habit. He was unusually quiet that morning, like Evan was. Paige never said it out loud because she knew they'd both be offended by it, but Jack and Evan were alike in a lot of ways.

About ten minutes after 9 AM, Barnes called Evan to the stand. He sat closest to the aisle, at the advisory of Brett, who knew that he'd be first to testify. Evan got up on the stand, and was sworn in by the bailiff before being handed into the claws of Dana Barnes.

"Mr. Merridew, what is your relation to this case?" Barnes asked a question mostly everyone in the courtroom knew the answer to.

"I'm Jack's father" he mumbled in his low but gruff voice, one that made always Jack's skin crawl with various emotions.

"And by Jack you mean Jack Merridew, number eighteen on the defendants roster?" Barnes sought to confirm.

"Yes" Evan nodded as he spoke.

Jack could read Evan quite well, in spite of the man's best effort to remain unreadable. He knew what Evan was feeling right now, could hear it seeping out in his voice, could feel it radiating off his skin; shame. He was ashamed of Jack, ashamed to be up there admitting his relationship to the boy, ashamed to be here on his behalf, ashamed of the crimes his son was accused of committing, proven or not.