Chapter 10 - The Trial Begins
Gideon Vale’s trial began eight months later.
By then the case had grown beyond anything I imagined.
Federal trafficking charges.
Racketeering.
Bribery.
Witness intimidation.
Conspiracy connected to Paul’s death.
Dalton had taken a plea.
So had Cody.
Butch held out until prosecutors showed him the evidence.
Then he cooperated too.
Not from conscience.
From fear of life in prison.
I was subpoenaed only for the intimidation case and the diner incident establishing how the chain of evidence began.
I hated courtrooms.
Too much waiting.
Too many people pretending certainty.
Sarah came with me.
Rex did not enter the courtroom.
Ava stayed home with him.
When Gideon arrived, he looked calm.
Navy suit.
Silver tie.
No leather.
No tattoos.
Nothing about him matched the monster people wanted criminals to resemble.
That mattered.
Evil rarely wears a uniform announcing itself.
Sometimes it sponsors charity dinners.
The prosecutor called me on day four.
I swore to tell the truth.
Then described The Rusty Spur.
Rex.
Butch.
The water.
The knife.
The note through Nora’s window.
The quarry.
The photograph of Ava.
Gideon’s attorney stood.
He smiled politely.
“Mr. Mercer, you are trained in combat.”
“Yes.”
“Extensively?”
“Yes.”
“You injured several men at the diner.”
“I defended myself.”
“That was not my question.”
“Then yes.”
“You told Butch you needed three minutes.”
I almost smiled.
“Yes.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“It was.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
The attorney looked pleased.
“You admit threatening him?”
“I told a man who had surrounded me with five others that he had made a mistake.”
“You then fought them.”
“They attacked.”
“According to you.”
“And twenty-three phone videos.”
Some jurors smiled.
He changed direction.
“You enjoy confrontation, don’t you?”
“No.”
“You served in combat for twenty years.”
“Service and enjoyment are different words.”
“Yet when told to leave town, you stayed.”
“Because Nora’s window had just been attacked.”
“You involved yourself in an investigation.”
“I spoke to a grieving mother.”
“You followed abductors to a quarry.”
“Yes.”
“You disobeyed law enforcement requests.”
“I waited until I believed Nora’s life was in immediate danger.”
“You believed.”
“Yes.”
The attorney stepped closer.
“So much of this begins with what you believe.”
I looked at Gideon.
“No.”
He waited.
“It began because Butch carried a dead deputy’s knife.”
Silence.
The attorney moved on.
He suggested I had become obsessed with Gideon.
I denied it.
He suggested the men at my home were freelancers.
I did not know.
He suggested Gideon’s SUV had genuinely been stolen.
I did not know.
That was important.
I refused to fill gaps.
Defense attorneys want overconfident witnesses.
Overconfidence creates holes.
I gave him facts.
When he finished, the prosecutor asked one final question.
“Mr. Mercer, why did you not pursue the SUV after it displayed a photograph of your daughter?”
I paused.
“Because I wanted to.”
The jury looked confused.
“I knew that was the reaction someone wanted.”
The prosecutor nodded.
“And what did you do?”
“I called the police.”
That mattered more than any fight at the diner.
The man I had been years earlier might have followed.
Might have turned a threat into a battle.
I had learned something.
Control was not weakness.
Sometimes not chasing was the strongest decision available.
After court, Butch passed me in a secure hallway while being moved between rooms.
His beard had been trimmed.
He looked smaller.
He stopped.
“Dog okay?”
I stared at him.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No.”
“I was drunk.”
“That explains nothing.”
“I know.”
He looked at the floor.
“I was trying to look tough.”
“That part was obvious.”
He almost laughed.
Then he said, “Vale told us everybody has a pressure point.”
I waited.
“Mine was respect.”
“What does that mean?”
“He knew if he made me feel important, I’d do anything.”
Butch looked toward me.
“Dalton was money. Cody was fear. Me?”
He shrugged.
“I just wanted people scared of me.”
“And Rex?”
His face reddened.
“I saw everyone looking at him.”
I understood.
Rex entered and the diner went quiet.
Butch needed the room back.
“So you humiliated him.”
“Thought I was.”
I said nothing.
Butch looked toward the floor.
“Then he just sat there.”
A small smile touched my face.
“That bothered you.”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t need anybody to think he was tough.”
Exactly.
Real strength had exposed imitation strength without moving.
Butch was escorted away.
Sarah had heard part of it.
She looked at me.
“You realize Rex caused a criminal empire to collapse by refusing to react?”
“That is an exaggeration.”
“Still.”
“He’s annoyingly competent.”
She smiled.
Then the courtroom doors reopened.
The next witness was Nora.
She walked toward the stand carrying nothing.
No notes.
No photograph.
She did not need them.
Gideon watched her.
For the first time during the trial, his calm expression disappeared.
May you like
Nora saw it.
And she smiled.
