MADMAN'S DEMISE

20

We were only a couple minutes in on the continuous period of the trial when it took an unexpected turn. It was as Frederick Harding called a witness to the stand everything suddenly started to head in another direction. A direction including a wrong turn we were not prepared for.

The witness was sworn in as Leo Myer, a former colleague of Arthur Barlowe. The man was broadly built. Squared shoulders. Muscular arms. Thick thighs.

He was a bloke. Heavy body. Trudging walk. A rather frightening appearance. An obvious soldier. Maybe an officer even. His voice was fitting to his look. A coarse, deep tune lacking emotion. He was no sensitive man. He had been through stuff. Stuff worse than testifying in a homicide trial.

As Frederick started examining Leo, the atmosphere in the courtroom completely changed. The oxygen diminished. The silence enhanced. Everyone was suddenly uptight and tense, myself included. But it was when Leo started to explain his reason for being here, my heart stopped.

October 5th, 1949.

The day Marion Acker, and the two children, Vernon and Manuel Acker, were found dead in their home.

It was a Wednesday. A regular Wednesday for any other person. But not for the Acker family, yet for Leo Myer. He remembered that day, very specifically, which was why he decided to come here and take part in this trial. According to him, there was a military committee meeting that day, on which he claimed Arthur Barlowe was present. Firstly I couldn't believe what I had just heard. A burning arrow of anger and fright and frustration struck my whole being. Did not Arthur have this in mind while planning this goddamn calamity?

I watched as Brandon's whole existence sunk beneath the chair by the prosecution table. It was so painful, so heart-wrenching not being able to run over to him and take him in my arms. All these hours, all this patience, all this time of Brandon managing to keep himself in control. It was all in vain now. Slowly, but surely we were reaching our downfall. Because what weighed heavier than an alibi?

It only got worse as Frederick Harding brought forward a paper document with the listed attendants of the committee meeting, and requested it to be entered as an exhibit. So there was even evidence of Arthur attending the meeting nine years ago. Although Roscoe called out in objection for lacking authentication, Judge Sawyer approved the evidence to be entered.

My stomach ached, ears rang, hands trembled.

I tried to keep track and inspect every movement of Brandon's, but my dizziness and lack of sense failed to read him properly. All I could be grateful for was his ability of staying settled and calm in spite of this horrifying, unpredictable turn, because I could barely myself.

Probably, Roscoe already prepared Brandon for any happening, and that was what managed to keep him composed in this moment. He knew he had to let Mr. Van Doren and his expertise conduct this, so he put everything into his professional hands, and for once allowed himself to stay out of control, for his own sake.

The examination continued. Further questions asked by Frederick Harding, assuring Arthur's alibi and Leo's trustworthiness. The frustration had my blood boiling. The tears stung behind my eyes. But I couldn't let them out. I couldn't allow Dorothy, who was sitting next to me, to witness how this affected me. Instead I tried to breathe, and persuade myself that this didn't have to mean that the case was lost.

Then it was time for Roscoe to cross-examine the witness. Instantly, he started shifting focus, and asked Leo how certain he was about physically seeing Arthur Barlowe at that meeting in 1949. Leo went silent, hesitation pulling the corners of his straight mouth. But then he claimed he was certain due to his name being on that list, because a list of such importance could never be mistaken. Roscoe did not accept the answer and led the questioning further. His interpretation was clear and what he needed was only to persuade the jury as well as the judge that the testimony was not sufficiently reliable. Leo was not sure enough that he saw Arthur with his own eyes. There was no memory of the two speaking at the meeting. No memory of where he was seated or what he was wearing. No photography taken at the assembly. There was only the document, and Leo's words.

I was impressed by Roscoe. How he managed to quickly come up with an alternative scenario. He meant there was a possibility Arthur did not attend the meeting, and later on, added his name to the list since he was one of those having access to the committee archives. He spoke about Arthur as a smart man, an exalted military, who would have been clever enough to get himself an alibi the same day he planned to commit three homicides. Leo didn't demonstrate.

That's when Roscoe involved another name.

Nina Barlowe.

Brandon's figure immediately strained as her name was brought up. His whole aura fuming from grieving pain. Although I read her name several times during my research on the case, I never heard someone mention it loudly. Brandon never wanted to speak about her, even mention her existence, since the matter was too overwhelmingly sensitive for him to ever touch upon. Therefore I never asked him about her either. I knew what it was like losing a mother, yet mine didn't get brutally murdered by the man who was supposed to love her.

I could see his lips compressing from my distance. His discomfort growing as Roscoe asked Leo about Arthur and whether he ever mentioned his prior marriage with Nina.

According to Leo Myer, Arthur's words concerning his whole family were always in positive tone. Apparently, he claimed to have cherished them all. Nina, Stephan, Ruby... even Brandon. It didn't make sense to me. Brandon told me Arthur had not treated them very well toward the end. I never knew in what way he meant exactly, but what I did know was that he suddenly left his family without prior notice shortly after Ruby was born, and he never returned. Instead, he divorced Nina after a year of absence, and thereafter she ended up in the company of Joseph Acker and later on got murdered along with her two small children. Seven and three years old...

"Mr. Barlowe rarely shared a smile with anyone. But anytime the name of Nina Barlowe was brought up, something ignited in him. He loved that woman. I am positive. As well as those children."

Leo's words confused me, and I could see they did the same to Brandon's since his fists clenched white before him on the table. Either was Leo lying, or Arthur actually did speak well about the family he left behind without even stating a reason. Maybe it was all a facade. Maybe he wanted to appear as happily married although he had betrayed his wife and three children.

I could barely look in the direction of the defence table as Leo responded to Mr. Van Doren's questions since the disgust against Arthur Barlowe only seemed to increase inside me. What kind of a man was he? No man at all. He was nothing but a coward who didn't have the guts to tell his friends about leaving his whole family behind. A coward who didn't dare to come forward even when his ex-wife and children were slaughtered in cold blood. A coward who couldn't even show up to support and care for his only remaining child. The child who found his mother and two younger siblings in a pile of blood on the floor in his own home.

Earlier I was glad we were all here. I was glad Arthur was here, as a dying, sick man facing his faith of spending his remaining days inside a narrow prison cell. It was all he deserved. Darkness, sickness, and pain.

But now all I could feel was regret. I was the one who brought Brandon into this, who forced him to suffer the process of a trial all over again, to face his father after all these years and encounter all the mental challenges among it all. I was the one who forced him into this loss,

this downfall.