Chapter Eighteen —
Guilty

Rosa sat beside Gordie in the town hall, tapping her pen lightly against the wooden table in front of her.

Across the room, Dewey was seated with Helena, who was acting as his defence lawyer for the upcoming murder trial.

Allie had proposed the idea of a trial a few days ago, which Rosa thought was a fair idea, right up until she asked her to participate in it. As Rosa had the most experience in law, with her parents both having worked in that job sector, she agreed, but swore firmly she wouldn't act as defence attorney for Dewey, telling Allie she wouldn't have it in herself to give him a fair trial. So instead she was made prosecutor, following in the footsteps of her mother's job.

"This is the trial of Greg Dewey, who is accused of the murder of Cassandra Pressman the night of June 23rd," Allie announced into the microphone, allowing silence to settle within the room. "Rosa will be the prosecutor. Helena is defending Dewey." She looked towards the jury. "And you guys have to listen to everything carefully. And at the end of the trial, you'll decide if he's guilty or not. Everyone got it?"

Rosa met Helena's eyes across the room, both girls giving each other a faint nod before returning their focus back to Allie. The trial began, and Rosa was first to speak, calling Gordie up to give his view on the evidence he'd collected during his investigation.

"Those were found near Cassandra's body on the morning after she died." He held up a glass jar, which had two bullets encased in it, before handing it over to the jury. "I found them. They're the two casings to the two bullets that killed her. Not the actual bullets. You know, the casing get ejected after each bullet is fired. The casings remain intact," Gordie explained. "If you notice, they have a headstamp which indicates that they were made by a particular manufacturer. It's a company called Precision Target. I mean, they have 'PT' on each of them. Now, this is the gun that was found when the Guard raided Dewey's house." He indicated to the weapon. "Now, there's two bullets missing from the clip, and the bullets that remain have a visible headstamp. PT," he paused for a moment, allowing the information to sink in. "They match exactly the bullets that killed Cassandra."

"This is bullshit!" Dewey declared.

"Dewey," Allie warned.

"They planted that!" He protested.

Allie's eyes hardened, addressing him once more. "Dewey."

"Hey, man, shut up," Jason cautioned, leaning forwards to make his presence behind Dewey known.

Dewey shook his head, muttering to himself as he slumped back in his chair. "This is bullshit."

Helena shifted forwards, glancing at Dewey, then Rosa, before moving from her seat. "Stop." Helena held a hand up, making her way towards the jury. "I have some questions." She turned to Gordie. "Does this prove that Dewey's gun is the gun that shot Cassandra?"

"Do you mean, is it possible that, even though no other gun we found, not one, had the exact same two bullets missing? " He reiterated her question. "And even though Dewey's is missing exactly two and had fresh powder residue in the chamber? I mean, is this some sort of incredible coincidence?"

"Yeah," Helena said. "That's what I mean."

Gordie hesitated for a moment, sparing a glance at Rosa for assurance. "I mean, I guess."

"Because you didn't search every house, right?" Helena pointed out. "And even the houses you searched, they could have been hiding the gun they used. That would make sense, wouldn't it?"

"Well, these are pretty rare bullets from a very small manufacturer," Gordie countered.

"You're not answering the question."

Gordie sighed. "It would be a big coincidence."

Helena pursed her lips. "But possible."

"Anything's possible."

The crowd began to murmur amongst themselves. Helena headed back towards the table. "Right. Another thing." She motioned towards Dewey. "Dewey has bruises all over him."

"Yeah, they fucking beat me," he piped up, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We had a problem guarding him," Allie spoke quickly, quelling the noise in the room as the crowd began to react. "It won't happen again."

"You arrest him..." Helena started. "You beat him up."

"It's not relevant," Rosa interjected, levelling her eyes at Helena, whose expression faltered slightly.

"It's not relevant how the people in charge of this prosecution behaved?" Helena challenged her.

"It was a mistake," Allie stated.

"It has nothing to do with the investigation into whether he's guilty or not." Rosa directed her attention towards the jury. "Which, may I remind everyone, is the reason we are here, and the focus of the trial."

Allie nodded in agreement, looking back at Helena. "Move on."

Rosa watched slightly uncomfortably as Helena's jaw tightened, but her friend did not press her questions any further, quietly sitting back down beside Dewey.

Allie glanced over at Rosa, nodding for her to continue with the trial.

Rosa swallowed heavily, placing her pen down on the table. She began to rise from her seat, fingers skimming the material of her skirt as she smoothed it down.

"Uh, the prosecution calls Harry Bingham as witness," Rosa spoke up, turning her head to catch sight of him. Harry met her eyes briefly as he made his way towards the stand. Rosa's expression remained neutral. "Harry," She addressed, stepping out from behind the table. "Can you tell us exactly what Dewey told you?"

"We were just talking, talking shit, whatever, and he basically just came out and said it," Harry began, his gaze shifting around the room for a moment, before his eyes returned to Rosa. "That he killed her."

"You fucking asshole!" Dewey surged forwards.

Jason grabbed Dewey by the shoulder, stopping him from moving any further.

"Dewey, sit down, or I'll have the Guard remove you," Allie warned.

Dewey remained still for a few more moments, before hesitantly sitting back in his chair.

Rosa turned her attention back to Harry. "You were saying?"

"He had this creepy smile," Harry continued. "Like he was proud of himself."

"So, he confessed?" Rosa pressed.

"Basically. Yeah."

Rosa nodded. Charter began to erupt through the room. "No further questions," she said, glancing from Harry to Allie before moving to sit back down.

Helena stepped out from behind her table, narrowing her eyes at Harry. "Basically?"

Harry nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"Were those his exact words?" She questioned, taking a few steps forward. "I killed her?"

Harry fumbled for a moment. "Not his exact words, but that's what he fucking meant."

"Why?" Helena spared a glance back at Dewey. "Why would he say that to you? Why would he confess to you?"

Harry hesitated for a second. "He thought it would make me happy."

The crowd gasped at the revelation. Helena took another step towards Harry.

Underneath the table, Rosa placed her hands in her lap, squeezing them together.

"Make you happy?" Helena interrogated. "That Cassandra was dead? Why would he think that?"

"I don't know," Harry scoffed at the question. "I guess 'cause he thought we were rivals in high school."

"Why should we believe you?" Helena pushed. "You say that Dewey confessed to you, but it's your word against his. Maybe you put the gun in his house. Maybe you set him up."

Harry shook his head. "That's not what happened."

"It's just your word," Helena argued, folding her arms over her chest. "Maybe you're lying."

"Yeah, 'cause I look really good right now," Harry bit back.

Rosa pushed her chair back as she stood, the sound grabbing the entire room's attention.  "May I remind the defence," she turned to face Helena, though did not meet her gaze. "That the witness is not the person on trial."

Helena's posture faltered slightly at Rosa's words, and she took a few steps away, retreating back towards the table. Nausea coiled in the pit of Rosa's stomach, guilt swarming her for the way she'd spoken to Helena.

"Look," Harry continued. "I didn't need to do this. Do you want to be here doing this? Defending him?"

"I don't want to be here," Helena said quietly. "I'm only here because I have no other fucking choice."

"He killed her," Harry stated. "And if we don't do something about it, he's going to kill someone else. Probably me, so," he mumbled defeatedly.

Helena's eyes drifted over Rosa, who tried to convey a sincere apology through her gaze, but Helena simply turned back to Allie. "No further questions."

Allie dismissed everyone for lunch, stating that the jury had until the next day to make a decision. As soon as she'd finished speaking, Rosa was out of her seat immediately, hurrying towards Helena, who was watching Dewey being pulled away by the guards. "Helena, I'm sorry–"

"It's fine," she dismissed quickly. "Just doing what you had to."

Rosa's mouth clamped shut as Allie approached them. "You both did really great, thank you for doing this."

After leaving the town hall, Rosa spent the rest of the afternoon working. She went to bed shortly after dinner, hoping to get a good nights sleep for once. However, she ended up awake until the early hours, the trial constantly running through her mind.

Images of Cassandra's body, of Dewey's bloodied and bruised face, and words of Harry's confession plagued her thoughts all night, until she finally raided the kitchen cupboard at two in the morning, downed almost an entire bottle of wine, and eventually crashed out on the sofa.

The next afternoon, she was back in the town hall, except, this time, with an absolutely splintering headache. The jury had finally come to a decision, and the entire town filtered back into the hall to hear Dewey's sentence.

Rosa was glad she had no more part in the trial, reason one being she could barely think because her head hurt so much, and reason two being she didn't want to be involved anymore than she had been already.

She stood out of the way, near the very back of the hall, powerless to do anything more, leaving her to only hope that the evidence they'd presented was enough for the jury to find Dewey guilty.

"Do you have a verdict?" Allie asked the jury, nodding towards the girl closest to her to reveal the decision. "You want to?"

"Guilty. We find him guilty."

The crowd burst into applause, cheers filling the room.

Rosa had a tight smile on her lips, relieved that the right decision had been made, but she still couldn't help but think about Cassandra, how unnecessary and despicable her death had been. They shouldn't have even been in this position in the first place.

Allie exhaled in relief, turning towards the jury with tearful eyes. "Thank you to the jury for doing its job." Her emotional eyes scanned the rest of the room. "Now it's up to me to decide his sentence. It could take a while. Guards," She called out. "Will you take him back to his cell? Um, everyone, we can all go home."

Rosa moved away from her position against the wall, stepping aside as people began started to head towards the door.

"Wait, wait!" Helena shouted over the boise. "He wants to make a statement."

"Okay. Everyone, can you come back and sit?" Allie called out. Disgruntled moans were heard as people trudged back to their seats. "Dewey has something to say."

The entire room fell quiet as Dewey stood, focusing intensely on Allie. Slowly, he turned around to face the rest of the room, his cruel eyes darkening. "Cassandra was a fucking bitch."

Rosa straightened up, the muscles in her jaw tensing as she gritted her teeth, fighting to suppress the inner anger being irked by Dewey's words.

"So is her sister and her black boyfriend that makes all the rules."

"You make me sick, you fucking murderer!" A girl shouted from the crowd. Dewey simply turned and flipped her off.

"Be quiet!" Allie snapped, her own expression hardening. "Let him say what he thinks."

"So are all the women here," Dewey continued, a sneer twisting on his face. "Fucking bitches who won't give us the time of day, who think we owe them everything." He then addressed Allie. "I killed Cassandra for everyone because she had it coming. Because on the night of prom, we were all Harry's house," Dewey turned to face him and Rosa's stomach dropped, knowing exactly what was coming. "And he said he wished she was dead! And he knows it! And everybody who hated that bitch knows it."

Harry stood up suddenly. "That's fucking bullshit!"

"And Campbell helped me plan it," Dewey continued, pointing a finger in Campbell's direction. "He was there, he planned the whole thing."

Rosa snapped her attention over to Campbell, whose eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, wait! Wait!"

"So, fuck all of you!" Dewey yelled. Luke roughly grabbed hold of his arm.

Campbell stood up a few rows in front of Rosa, gesturing towards Dewey in disbelief. "All right, he's obviously a fucking liar." He shook his head, turning to leave. "I'm not– I'm not fucking listening to this anymore."

"Campbell, get back to your seat!" Jason ordered. Closest to the exit, Rosa quickly positioned herself in front of the door, her eyes narrowing at Campbell as he made his way towards her. "Sit down, Campbell."

Campbell attempted to push past Rosa, who shoved him back, her hand pressed against his chest to keep him at bay. She lowered her voice, firm eyes meeting with his. "Sit the fuck down."

"Get the fuck out of my way!" He pushed her hand away, muscles tensing in growing frustration as Rosa blocked his path again.

Jason quickly came to her side, forcefully shoving Campbell backwards.  "Sit down,"

"Now you know," Dewey finished, a satisfied smirk forming on his lips.

Luke pulled his arm, dragging him away from the front of the room.

"Allie!" Campbell called out to his cousin. "You put him up to this?"

Will turned his head to face Allie. "What do you want us to do?" He asked.

Everyone watched Allie expectantly.

"Arrest him."

"Are you–" Campbell was interrupted by Jason and Grizz swiftly handcuffing him.

Rosa took a step back, moving in front of the door again as she watched Campbell with a taunting look in her eyes, enjoying nothing more than to finally see that asshole being caught for something.

Rosa's instincts told her to believe what Dewey had accused Campbell of; after all, he was clearly capable of murder. But there was still a small niggling part of her that wasn't entirely sure if Dewey was telling the truth, especially after how genuinely surprised Campbell had looked. But she shook that away, deciding that, after everything, Campbell had it coming.

The town hall soon became chaotic. People began to shout slurs at both Campbell and Dewey as they were dragged away by the Guard.

Rosa met Harry's eyes from across the room, his gaze searching hers, almost pleading with her to believe that he had nothing else to do with it. Rosa nodded at him, eyes lingering on his for a moment longer for assurance, until a hand was placed on her shoulder, Glenn Byun steering her towards the exit.

Even as she began to follow everyone outside, Rosa could still hear and feel the chaos in the air, the shouts, the panic, the fear, the anger.

And, most of all, Rosa knew that this was only the beginning.

A/N

The way I hate Dewey.