"Your Honor, the prosecution would like to call Leo Lutz to the stand."

Kennedy took a few deep breaths, trying to convince herself to stay calm. She had never been an anxious person before but being on trial for the murder of your abusive stalker/ex-boyfriend changed some things about the way your brain worked. Probably. She refused to see a shrink until the trial was over and all the damage had been done to her psyche. Might as well get her money's worth.

No point in wasting someone's time when she could easily be traumatized further the following day in court. Perhaps that wasn't a healthy mindset. She would figure it out with the shrink if she didn't get thrown in jail.

Leo Lutz walked up to the witness stand, raising his right hand and swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help him God. He sat down and his eyes met Kennedy's; she wondered if she were the most interesting PI case he had worked.

"Mr. Lutz, how do you know the defendant?" ADA Karl began his direct examination.

"I was hired by Mrs. Elizabeth Wilcox to track down the person who killed her husband. My investigation led me to the defendant." His eyes were no longer meeting Kennedy's.

"And who did you speak to about Mr. Wilcox's murder?"

"Objection, Your Honor." Brianne Hotchky stood from beside Kennedy, "Inflammatory language."

"Sustained." The judge nodded in Hotchky's direction, "Mr. Karl, if you would restate your question for the witness."

"Of course, Your Honor." Jaxson nodded, "Mr. Lutz, over the course of your investigation, who did you speak to about Mr. Wilcox's death?"

"I spoke with a few people at different bars and locations that my investigation took me to, but I spoke the most with Miss Rebecca Eaves."

Kennedy resisted the urge to turn around and look for Rebecca in the crowd behind her. She felt as if the courtroom grew more cramped with every passing hour that she sat there, trying not to appear too nice or too mean, too feminine or too masculine, or like she was capable of strategically planning out a murder and executing it to this level of perfection.

Perfection was probably the wrong word, since she had been caught.

"What did Miss Eaves share with you about her experiences with the defendant?"

"Objection, Your Honor." Hotchky stood again, "Unless we hear from Miss Eaves herself, anything Mr. Lutz testifies to is hearsay."

"Wait until your third witness, Mr. Karl." The judge nodded, "Objection sustained."

"Very well," Jaxson turned back to Leo, "Mr. Lutz, what did you do when Mrs. Wilcox, the deceased's wife, asked you to investigate her husband's murder?"

"Objection, Your Honor." Brianne stood for a third time, "The ADA's language is inflammatory."

"Sustained."

"Mr. Lutz," Jaxson began again, smirking, "what did you do when Mrs. Wilcox asked you to investigate her husband's death?"

"I take all of my cases very seriously, and this one was no exception," Leo began, "After being hired by Mrs. Wilcox, I looked into everything she could give me relating to her late husband. I looked into credit card statements, social media history, text and call logs...anything I could think of that Mrs. Wilcox had access to. Mrs. Wilcox also informed me that she knew her husband had been having an affair for quite some time. I wanted to know who the other woman was.

"It was difficult to find anything to work with, until I noticed an odd charge on his credit card from September 2019. He had given a speech at Clemson University, where Miss Abrams attended school. A bit more digging helped me discover that Miss Abrams was the woman that Mr. Wilcox had been cheating on his wife with."

"What did you do after you got this information?"

"I decided to look into Miss Abrams a bit more. After I had done my research on her, I decided to speak with Miss Eaves, who had been with her quite often over the previous few months. Miss Eaves confessed to me about Mr. Wilcox's murde—excuse me, Mr. Wilcox's death."

"And over the course of your investigation, did you find anything that pinned the defendant as a possible suspect?"

Leo nodded.

"I did. I found bar receipts and the defendant's credit card statements, as well as the credit card statements of the deceased during the same time period."

"Your Honor," Jaxson turned away from Leo to pick up a few pages from the prosecution's table; he spun on his heel and tossed a few of the pages on the defense's table before turning away from them. "Permission to approach?"

"Granted."

"The state would like to enter Exhibit A into evidence. It is a compilation of the evidence Mr. Lutz found against the defendant during his investigation. All were obtained through legal means."

"Does the defense object?" The judge asked, looking down her nose in Kennedy and Brianne's direction.

Brianne stood.

"No, Your Honor."

"Exhibit A has been entered into evidence." The judge nodded.

"What the hell? Why didn't you object?" Kennedy muttered out of the corner of her mouth as Jaxson handed a few more pages to the court reporter, "Isn't that your job?"

"I didn't have grounds to object if the evidence was obtained legally. If I object too much, I look like I don't know what I'm talking about, and like I have a weak case that can't stand on its own." Hotchky shot back, "Let me do my job, Miss Abrams. You hired me, now you have to actually trust me."

Kennedy nodded and leaned back in her seat, looking up to see Jaxson staring at her, waiting for the two to stop talking. The judge looked irritated.

"Continue, ADA Karl." Judge Adamson muttered under her breath as Kennedy's face turned as crimson as her rival university's mascot.

Jaxson Karl went over the evidence collected with Leo, and Kennedy tuned them out slightly, her mind focusing instead on the people in the jury. They seemed like they were relatively normal, rational people—at least from the outside. Hank had seemed like a normal, rational person as well at first.

Two of the jurors, both women, looked like they could be about Kennedy's age. They were both staring at Leo as he talked, taking everything in. Perhaps it was their first time on a jury. Kennedy wondered if they had ever been stalked. If they had, she wondered if it would help them sympathize with her as a defendant.

She was still slightly put off by the fact that a plurality of the jurors seemed to fit the exact same demographics as Hank: middle-aged white men. Kennedy felt as though they were more likely to find her guilty and side with the state, since they could probably see themselves more in Hank than they could in Kennedy.

Six white men on her jury. It didn't bode well for someone who had just killed a white man.

Although, perhaps Kennedy was thinking too much about identity politics. Perhaps these men didn't care that the victim was like them and the killer was not. Perhaps they would be able to look past their differences with Kennedy and have sympathy for her.

But judging by the way two of them were glaring at her in that exact moment, she thought that might be wishful thinking.

"And final question, Mr. Lutz," Jaxson's voice echoed around Kennedy's head as she tore her eyes away from the jury, "In your professional opinion, did the defendant have motive to kill Mr. Wilcox?"

"Objection, Your Honor." Brianne stood from beside Kennedy, "Counsel is leading the witness, and Mr. Lutz, however proficient in his occupation, is not an expert witness in this case."

"Sustained." Judge Adamson nodded in Brianne's direction.

"I have nothing further for this witness." Jaxson stated, turning around to walk back to his seat.

"Ms Hotchky, if you would like to cross."

"Thank you, Your Honor." Brianne stood and walked over to Leo. Kennedy took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her racing heart. They weren't even through the first witness and she could already feel the orange jumpsuit on her skin.

><><

"Mr. Lutz, how many investigations of this sort have you performed before in your career?"

Rebecca tried not to fall asleep in her seat at the back of the courtroom. She was exhausted from a wide number of factors, and despite the fact that she was intensely interested in what Leo was testifying about, she could hardly keep her eyes open.

She heard Leo's answer vaguely: six or seven similar investigations.

"Similar in what way? A car accident? A famous person involved? A college student involved?"

Leo cleared his throat and made eye contact with Rebecca, which made her sit up in her seat a bit straighter.

"A hit and run, with a famous victim. That similarity."

"And how many of your investigations have led to the culprit being caught and charged?"

Leo shrugged.

"One or two."

"In how many of those investigations has the culprit you found been the actual guilty party?"

Leo was quiet for a second.

"Mr. Lutz?" Brianne prodded.

He was silent still.

"Mr. Lutz, answer the question." The judge instructed.

"None." Leo said, so quietly that Rebecca wasn't even sure if that was actually what he had said.

"Let the record show that Mr. Lutz has had no successful investigations of this kind over the course of his career." Hotchky said loudly, watching the court reporter type away. She turned back to Leo, "And do you consider yourself to be good at your job?"

"Objection, she's badgering the witness." Jaxson stood to voice his concerns and Rebecca looked at him carefully. He seemed like a very put-together person, and she wasn't quite sure how he fit into the whole Hank situation. It didn't seem like Jaxson was the type to get involved in someone else's affairs like this. But there he was, bringing a case against Kennedy and acting as if he had no idea who she was or who her stalker had been.

"Objection sustained." Adamson nodded.

"I have no further questions for this witness." Brianne smirked slightly and walked back to her seat beside Kennedy.

Adamson called for a ten-minute recess and Rebecca pushed her way up to the front of the courtroom, right behind Kennedy and her lawyer.

"That's all you asked? Why is that all you asked?" Kennedy asked Brianne as Rebecca sat down.

"I made him a less reliable witness in the eyes of the jury, Miss Abrams. If you keep questioning me, I'm going to resign as your lawyer and you'll be left to defend yourself."

Kennedy let out a loud sigh and crossed her arms, glancing behind her and noticing Rebecca was sitting there.

"What? Did something happen?" She asked as Brianne turned to talk to her co-counsel.

Rebecca shook her head.

"No, nothing's happened. But I'm waiting on a text from Celeste about the PI. I think they might be able to find something while everyone's in court."

"Good." Kennedy nodded, "How do you think it's going? Who do you think did better on their questioning?"

Rebecca shrugged.

"I don't know, Ken, it's not like this is an easy thing to read into. Leo answered all the questions and that was that. Hopefully Mrs. Wilcox doesn't do anything stupid with her answers, and then there's just me. I'll try and work in as many points in your favor as I can."

"Thanks." Kennedy nodded, "I appreciate it."

Rebecca shrugged.

"It's no big deal. I'll see you after court gets out."

She stood and walked back to her seat, checking her phone again. Nothing from Celeste, but a new text message had popped up from a number that she didn't have saved in her contacts.

I hope for your sake that you answer the questions correctly.

Rebecca opened the message and stared at it for a second before deleting it from her phone. She didn't need anything else clouding her judgement when she went up to testify.

She did wonder what the person meant by "I hope for your sake."