Unlikely Angel

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Johnny and Susan were ushered into an office where a short but robust man waited with an outstretched hand. Johnny took the offered hand but Susan merely curtsied.

“Please have a seat,” he gestured at two chairs in front of his desk. “I’m Andrew Beaton, prosecutor for this trial, and really for all of the trials around here. Can I offer the two of you anything? Something to drink?”

He was looking pointedly at Susan who shifted uncomfortably and looked uncertainly to Johnny. He smiled at her hoping to reassure her enough to allow speech.

“No thank you,” she stammered her eyes fixed on her hands in her lap.

Mr. Beaton’s expression filled with sympathy, he knew the basics of the case and he knew that preparing a child who had been through such things for trial would not be an enjoyable task.

“Susan,” Beaton began, “I know this is going to be difficult for you. If you need a break, please ask. No one will be upset.”

Susan said nothing and Beaton was unsure of how to proceed. Johnny spoke up.

“You might as well know that Susan is, well, different. She has troubles with new places and talking to people she don’t know. The defense will probably try to make her out as slow but you’ll learn she’s anything but.”

“I see,” replied the prosecutor. “And you’ve been acting as her father?”

“That’s right,” Johnny said nodding. “I guess it started with me not being able to just leave her all alone and then it just was the right thing to do. She needs me and I think I needed to be needed if you know what I mean.”

“I have children myself, Mr. Calder. I understand completely. There’s nothing quite like the love of a daughter for her father to make a man feel like he’s invincible.”

Andrew Beaton crouched in front of the chair where Susan sat.

“Susan, I know you are scared. I can see that. Do you know what my job is?”

“Yes,” she answered. “You tell the jury that the men are guilty.”

He smiled, “That’s part of it. The rest of it and maybe the biggest part of it is that I speak for the people. Some of the people I speak for don’t have voices because they are like your family and cannot speak at all anymore but some people have been hurt like you or in other ways and I speak for them. In a way I speak for the people who haven’t been hurt too. They need to be kept safe as well. If you can talk to me today, I can make sure the jury hears you and knows the truth. Is that a deal?”

“You can talk for me?”

“Sort of, I ask questions and you answer. If I know that something is really hard for you, I can ask certain ways. And I can make the judge yell at the other lawyer if he’s too mean to you. I can make the jury see him as a bully picking on a sweet little girl.”

“Okay.”

“Great. Now I need you to tell me the whole story.”