Dear Lawyer | Jikook ff

39 - Manson Case (i)

"Do you want to apply to meet the witnesses?"

Jungkook asked this on the final day before the court convened.

To many lawyers, this was a superfluous question. As long as the time and conditions permitted, they would definitely find a way to meet the witnesses before the trial. Through careful manipulation of the conversation, they could discern what information the other party possessed; from which, deduce what would be harmful to their client and disadvantageous to their case.

In this manner, when cross-examining the witnesses in court, they would know what best to ask and what best to leave out.

There used to be a saying that circulated in the legal profession—when the prosecution or defence examined a witness, they could always anticipate how the witness would answer. If the witness gave an unexpected response to a question posed by the lawyer, then he must not be a very good lawyer.

But Jimin often didn't play by the book and wouldn't necessarily do what was considered a safe play by most.

Jungkook was familiar with his style, which was why he needed to ascertain this.

Sure enough, Jimin shook his head. "Do you mean Seo-jun and Juan? I'm good."

Naturally, Jungkook wouldn't interfere too much when it came to matters of the trial, but he still checked, "Are you sure?"

"Positive." Jimin said with a solemn expression, "I'm acting as a passable cinnamon roll. With only a few days, the average cinnamon roll would be banging against the wall like a headless fly. How can I have the mind to think about meeting witnesses?"

"..."

Jungkook chose not to reply to such nonsense.

However, just because Jimin said that he didn't need to, didn't mean that he actually didn't pay the witnesses any mind. On the contrary, aside from the visiting time at the detention centre, he spent the entire day going through the witness statements collected by police in the existing case file, as well as several surveillance videos taken from inside the villa on Yaba Island.

The surveillance in the villa was mainly set up in the hallway and the corners of the hall. Every suite door was in the visible range, thus the entry and exit timing of every guest could be clearly marked.

But the surveillance outside the villa wasn't without its blind spots. Glaringly, the missing surveillance on the outside wall of the victim's room, for the most gobsmacking reason—while drinking that evening on the windowsill, George Manson had accidentally damaged the security camera there.

Jimin thought back on it. It seemed to have occurred just before he and Jungkook left the central villa on Yaba Island. At that time, George Manson was still seated on the windowsill with his glass of liquor, talking to him in a drunken and unintelligible manner.

If memory serves, he did knock over something at that time and had his head lowered, cleaning it up.

Perhaps that was the time that he had damaged one of the most important security cameras. Fate did love its jokes.

****

While Jimin was combing through the information on the final day, Chen Zhang was negotiating with the warden in the detention centre. 

"Can I make a call?" Chen Zhang asked.

The warden's brows furrowed.

"I know that the rules require the whole process to be monitored," Chen Zhang said. "I know, and I'm cool with it. You can listen in and even record it if you want. I only want to call my family once more."