Law of Love

35

The next day, as the hearing was starting Lindsey, had the urge to vomit. 

"Your honor, in accordance with the councils' discussion in chambers this morning, I'd like to reconstruct as near as possible the conditions under which this witness identified my client." Lindsey starts. 

"People renew their objection." Stevie stands up.

"Overruled. Proceed, Mr. Buckingham." 

"Thank you, the first thing I would like to ask my client is to leave the room. And um, now Ms. John I'm going to ask the bailiff to turn off all the lights in the room, then after my client has reentered the room I'm going to ask him to turn the lights on slowly and carefully and when what you see by the light of the room approximates what you saw by the light that existed that night outside I'd like you to ask him to stop is that clear?" 

"Crystal." 

"Alright. I'll ask the bailiff to turn off the lights." 

They do their experiment and when she finally says stop, Lindsey smiles. 

"That's what you saw?" 

"That's exactly what I saw." 

"So what you're saying is the woman you saw entering Steven Williams' house the night he was murdered was Dr. Janel Burner?"

The crowd gasps and the woman removes her wig when the lights go up.

"I think what you're really seeing is you saw someone enter the house it may have looked like Vanessa, but it could've been anyone. Even one of Los Angele's most prominent physicians. Thank you no further questions." 

"Mrs. Buckingham?" 

"No questions." She smiles. 

"For my next witness, I'd like to call Dr. Janel Burner to the stand," Lindsey says. 

After she's sworn in Lindsey stands up even though his knees and his gut are telling him to sit back down because he's going to pass out. 

"First Dr. Burnur I want to thank you for helping me." 

"I was happy to do it." She grins.

"Luckily both you women are approximately the same height and weight, so I imagine that you swapped clothes often when you were in college." 

"Yes as a matter of fact we did." 

"Did Steven Williams interview you for that book he was writing?" 

"Yes, twice." 

"And that's because you were her oldest and best friends." 

"Yes." 

"So what did you tell him?" 

"Um, what Vanessa was like as a child and what she's like now. He wasn't looking for gossip, he was just doing research on her." 

"Did he do very much research on you?" 

"What do you mean?"

"Well did he know that you were in the habit of prescribing sedatives for Vanessa?" 

"I've prescribed for her on occasion." 

"Very addictive sedatives." 

"My patient needed them." 

"Addictive?" 

"They have the potential of being addictive. Yes," 

"That's what he wanted to hear about, wasn't it. This unhealthy relationship you had with Vanessa, how you kept her dependant on you. Through drugs."