Law of Love

41

The next day in court, Kate was nervously chewing on her lip and when Stevie walked in, she simply placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders and gave them a gentle squeeze.

"At this time your honor, Defense would like to recall Clark Hutt to the stands and Defense's co-council Lindsey Buckingham will be examining him," Kate announces.

"Kyle Hutt was, your younger brother is that correct?" 

"Yes." 

"Were you close growing up?" 

"Yes." 

"Did you approve of him?"

"Approve of him?" 

"I have two older brothers, I'm the youngest in the family.  I'm currently in my second marriage. My middle brother wasn't too thrilled that I got divorced and was getting remarried to another divorcee, as he and his wife were devout Catholics and though my wife and I aren't, my sister-in-law didn't like me wife hated her. Hated her because she put people in prison, and she was divorced. So since his wife didn't approve of my wife, he didn't approve of her and stopped talking to me for about a year. We called and told my mother she was expecting about a year after we got married and my mother told Greg. Then we finally got a congratulatory call and they started coming around more. But my older brother loves my wife. He's deduced in the eighteen and a half years I've been married to her, that she was a better mother to my three children than their biological mother and I not only did what was right for my children. William was thirteen, Cole was seven, and Kate was four. But I also did what was right for me. And when they started calling her mom and she legally adopted them, he threw us a party. So I'll repeat did you approve of him?"

"Well of course. Kyle was outstanding at whatever he did and he had a good head on his shoulders and he did what felt right for him. Even if he was secretly married to three people."  

"Did he have a lot of girlfriends." 

"I suppose." 

"What about yourself?" 

"The usual." 

'The usual, or not many...are you married?" 

"No." 

"Is there a relationship at the present time?" 

"No." 

"How about in the past?"  He stays silent.

"Mr. Hutt we know that Kyle had three wives. Now, any way you look at it has to be trying on a person. I have one wife and that's challenging. Love her to death but it's a challenge at certain times. Like our sleeping habits. She likes the room freezing cold. I don't. She goes to bed at one-two in the morning, even though we both have to be up at six. Five when the kids were younger. I go to bed at ten every night...but with three, I mean that would be so hard. Especially financially." 

"I suppose." 

"But Kyle was a successful businessman." 

"Yes, quite." 

"That's what is interesting to me. Along with the...everything else, is that in spite of how bright he was and successful he seemed to be, he didn't actually own anything business-wise did he. I mean he just worked for you." 

"Kyle was a genius at what he did. It made for a great partnership." 

"But that's not really the case is it. He wasn't literally your partner." 

"Technically the company was in my name." 

"You started it didn't you?" 

"Yes." 

"And you owned it." 

"Yes, but it was a partnership in the true sense of the word." 

"In every sense of the word accept financially. Kyle worked for you. He was literally an employee." 

"I suppose if you want to be legalistic, he was. But neither of us ever thought about it that way." 

"You didn't think about it that way even after you discovered he had been dipping in the till." 

"Who said he was dipping into the till." 

"Didn't you order an audit of your companies finances two months ago." 

"Yes." 

"And didn't the auditor discover so discrepancies in Kyle's withdrawal of company funds." 

"Kyle and I discussed it and we set up a schedule for repayment. Naturally, I was disappointed but he swore it would never happen again." 

"I think the night of the murder you knew about at least two of his wives and you went over to confront your brother on that and the audit." 

"That's not true." 

"You didn't go into his house after Dana Hutt left that night?" 

"No." 

"And you didn't argue with him and during some kind of struggle he fell and hit his head and was killed." 

"Absolutely not."

"Your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence this briefcase. Call it Defense exhibit A." Lindsey grabs a briefcase under the desk.

"You recognize it?" 

"Yeah, that's my brother's briefcase." 

"And it has his initials on it. KBH Kyle Brent Hutt." 

"Yes, sir." 

"Do you have a briefcase like it?" 

"Yes, they're identical. " 

"And your initials are?" 

"CLH Clark Lee Hutt." 

"Your honor, this is people's exhibit 15." He places a paper on Stevie's briefcase and starts passing them out to the judge, the witness, and the jury. "It's a police lab photograph of the scene of the crime and let's call this defense exhibit B. This is a detailed blowup of an object in the back of the police lab photograph. What is that Mr. Hutt?" 

"It's Kyle's briefcase." 

"It has his initials KBH. Are my eyes deceiving me or do those initials read CLH?"Lindsey asks as Stevie puts her glasses on. "Those aren't Kyle's initials they're yours." 

"Yes well, we must've gotten them mixed up." 

"If that was the case. why do you suppose he brought your briefcase to his house by mistake. Why do you suppose he put it on the sofa instead of on the floor by the front door as he always did? I bet you switched those briefcases the next morning, sometime when the police weren't looking you picked up your briefcase from the sofa and put Kyle's there by mistake. These briefcases didn't get mixed up at the office they got mixed up at his house that night just after you murdered him didn't they." 

"He was a liar, he was a cheat, he was always a womanizer, but he was my brother. SO I took him in. Three wives. He cheated them, he cheated me. All my life work is all I've ever had and he took that too." 

"I'm sorry Mr. Hutt, just so everyone understands. during your struggle. you shoved him, he hit his head, he fell to the floor dead. Then you panicked instead of picking up your briefcase you picked up his and ran. The next day you switched them. Is that about it?" 

"Yeah." 

***

Walking out of court, Lindsey had his arms around his two daughters. 

"Well, we did it." Kate smiles

"We sure did."Lily agrees. 

"It was something wasn't it...hey Steph." Stevie comes out of the court and meets up with them, " I still can't get over that guy. Three." 

The three women share a look and the girls just walk away with their mother.