Dangerous Girls

“Objection!” Dekker rolls his eyes this time. “The witness has accounted for his whereabouts the afternoon in question. We have statements from him and his father.”

The judge surveys Gates over her glasses. “I agree, we should move on. Do you have anything else to ask?”

Gates pauses for a moment, but there’s no delaying the inevitable. “No. No further questions.”

The judge bangs her gavel, calling a short recess. Disappointment crashes through me. After everything, I thought Niklas was the key—that once he was up there on the stand, it would all come out. The drugs, the balcony, the fight. Surely they would have to see how crazy he is. How dangerous.

I was naive to believe it would make a difference at all.

The crowded courtroom disperses briefly in a wave of chatter and conversation. Gates takes a seat beside me at the table, staring blankly at his notes. “That’s it?” I exclaim, fighting to keep my voice low. “Their security cameras conveniently go down the afternoon she’s murdered, and he’s still not a suspect? He could have done it!” My voice breaks with frustration.

“His father gave him an alibi.” Gates shrugs, helpless.

“He could be lying to protect him!”

“Even if that’s true, there’s nothing we can do. Niklas’s father is a respected man; he has interests in shipping, and hotels, and—”

“Owns half the island,” I finish, sitting down with a thump. “I know.”

I look around, watching Niklas saunter from the witness stand. He flutters me a wave as he passes, and then heads on back to meet his father: a large blond man in a designer suit, flanked by other lawyers. They smile and nod, clearly pleased with Niklas’s testimony.

His lies.

“This is how it works, isn’t it?” I murmur softly, seeing it all play out so clearly now. For weeks, I’ve had my faith in justice chipped steadily away with every one of Dekker’s half-truths and sneering implications, but now, the last fragile pieces crumble into nothing. This is a sham, all of it.

“Niklas, and Tate—they’ve got money, they can buy their way out of anything.” I realize. “Say what they like, just to protect themselves. And here I am . . .” I trail off, thinking of my one lawyer compared to their dozens; dad’s company, sinking under the weight of my fees and expenses; the extra mortgage on the house, and all the fresh worry lines on my dad’s face. “It’s no contest, is it?”

Gates doesn’t reply, he just takes off his spectacles and polishes them on his tie, exhaling slowly.

That’s when I know—it’s over.

I swallow back a sudden rush of tears. It’s not his fault. He’s done what he can, but sometimes, David doesn’t beat Goliath—not when they’ve got an army at their disposal.

A noise comes from the back of the courtroom. We turn.

It’s Lee, pushing through the crowd, flustered but determined. His shirt is rumpled, and he looks as if he hasn’t slept in a week. He hasn’t been in court the last few days, but I figured it was just too much for him—the memories of his sister’s trial.

“I’ve got it!” he announces, arriving at our table.

“Got what?” I ask, confused, but Lee doesn’t answer me—he’s passing a slim memory drive case to Gates, carefully, like a treasure.

“It’s all there, just like Carlsson said.” Lee catches his breath, running one hand through his hair. “Just play the files. The first one’s the official cut, then the full clip.”

Gates grasps the memory drive, and slaps Lee on the back. “You did it,” he smiles, as if he can’t believe it.

Lee gives nod. “Time to nail the bastard.”

“Someone tell me what’s going on?” I ask again. My heart is already beating faster—their energy infectious even though I still have no idea what’s caused this change. “Is there new evidence? What’s happened?”

Lee turns, giving me a happy grin, just as the judge returns to the room and people begin taking their seats again. “Something good,” he promises as von Koppel bangs her gavel for quiet. “It’s the break we’ve been looking for.”

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I stay forward in my seat, on edge, waiting for their reveal. After Niklas’s testimony turned out to be a joke, we need something now—anything to turn this trial around.

The judge looks up from her notes, over to Gates. “Any further witnesses?” she asks.

“Yes, Your Honor. For my last witness, I’d like to call Klaus Dekker back to the stand.”

Dekker looks surprised, but he makes an expression as if to say, Sure, why not? He saunters up to the witness chair and settles in, looking amused.

Gates loads up the memory stick, bringing up the video on the screen overhead. “You’ve been in charge of the investigation from the beginning, is that true?”

“Yes,” Dekker replies bluntly.

“And all evidence, all materials relating to the case, they run through you?”

“Everything.” Dekker nods. “We have a chain of command, and I’m at the top.”

“So you decided what leads to pursue, and, in fact, what evidence to present here in court today?”

“I have presented all evidence relevant to the case, yes.” Dekker frowns, like he’s trying to figure out what Gates is leading toward.

He’s not the only one. I wait, breathing softly, praying that this big break is something real and substantial, and won’t just fade away like Niklas or Juan or all the other arguments we’ve made these last weeks.

“Can you tell me what this is?” Gates asks. He hits the controller, and a familiar video begins to play, up on the screen.

I exhale, disappointed. We’ve already seen this: the security footage from the grocery store down the street from the house. There’s date and time stamp in the corner showing the afternoon of the murder, and Elise is clear in view, idly browsing the snack aisle.

Lee leans forward from the seat behind me and puts his hand on my shoulder. “Just wait,” he whispers with another grin.

Gate hits pause on the video, still waiting for an answer.

Dekker answers cautiously. “It’s the tape from the store, the last time the victim was seen alive.”

“You already showed us this footage, I know.” Gates smiles. All his previous weary defeat has disappeared, now he’s the shark, circling for the kill. “In fact, you used it to establish the time of death, and prove that Tate Dempsey couldn’t have been the one who killed her.”