Midnight

"I’m Matt – Well, obviously,"Matt said.

"Is this your girl, Carolyn?"Gwen was whispering, showing a picture of the old Caroline at some dance, wearing stilts, and with tanned legs that went up and up to almost meet before a miniskirt took over, black and lacy. She had on a white blouse so tight at the bust that it hardly seemed able to contain her natural assets. Her makeup was exactly the opposite of subtle.

"Her name’s Caroline and she’s never been my girl, but that’s her – the real her,"Matt whispered. "Before Klaus came and did something to her boyfriend, Tyler Smal wood. But I have to tel you what happened when she found out she was pregnant – "

She’d gone nuts, was what had happened. No one knew where Tyler was – dead after the final fight against Klaus, turned into a ful wolf in hiding; whatever. So Caroline had tried to pin it on Matt – until Shinichi appeared and became her boyfriend.

But Shinichi and Misao were playing a cruel joke on her, pretending that Shinichi would marry her. It was after she realized that Shinichi didn’t care at allthat Caroline had gone total y bal istic, and had real y tried to make Matt fit the gaping hole in her life. Matt did his best to explain this to Gwen so she could explain it to the jury, until the judge’s voice interrupted him.

"We wil dispense with opening arguments,"said Judge Hol oway, "since the hour is so late. Wil the prosecution cal its first witness?"

"Wait! Objection!"Matt shouted, ignoring Gwen’s tugging at his arm and her hissing: "You can’t object to the judge’s rulings!"

"And the judge can’t do this to me,"Matt said, twitching his T-shirt back from between her fingers. "I haven’t even had a chance to meet with my public defender yet!"

"Maybe you should have accepted a public defender earlier,"replied the judge, sipping from a glass of water. He suddenly thrust his head at Matt and snapped, "Eh?"

"That’s ridiculous,"cried Matt. "You wouldn’t give me my phone cal to get a lawyer!"

"Did he ever ask for a phone cal ?"Judge Hol oway snapped, his eyes traveling around the room.

The two officers who had beat Matt up solemnly shook their heads. At this, the bailiff, whom Matt suddenly recognized as the guy who’d kept him in the jury room for around four hours, began wagging his head back and forth in the negative. They al three wagged, almost in unison.

"Then you forfeited that right by not asking for it,"the judge snapped. It seemed to be his only way of speaking. "You can’t demand it in the middle of a trial. Now, as I was saying – "

"I object!" Matt shouted even louder. "They’re al lying! Look at your own tapes of them interrogating me. Al I kept saying – "

"Counselor,"the judge snarled at Gwen, "control your client or you wil be held in contempt of court!"

"You have to shut up,"Gwen hissed at Matt.

"You can’t make me shut up! You can’t have this trial while you’re breaking al the rules!"

"Shut your trap!" The judge belted out the words at a surprising volume. He then added, "The next person to make a remark without my express permission shal be held in contempt of court to the tune of a night in jail and five hundred dol ars."

He paused to look around to see if this had sunk in. "Now,"he said. "Prosecution, cal your first witness."

"We cal Caroline Beulah Forbes to the stand."

Caroline’s figure had changed. Her stomach was sort of upside-down-avocado-shaped now. Matt heard murmurs.

"Caroline Beula Forbes, do you swear that the testimony you shal give wil be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

Somewhere deep inside, Matt was shaking. He didn’t know if it was mostly anger or mostly fear or an equal combination of both. But he felt like a geyser ready to blow – not necessarily because he wanted to, but because forces beyond his control were taking hold of him. Gentle Matt, Quiet Matt, Obedient Matt – he had left al those behind somewhere. Raging Matt, Rampaging Matt, that was about al he could be.

From a dim outside world, voices came filtering into his reverie. And one voice pricked and stung like a nettle.

"Do you recognize the boy you have named as your former boyfriend Matthew Jeffrey Honeycutt here in this room?"

"Yes,"the prickly nettle voice said softly. "He’s sitting at the defense table, in the gray T-shirt."

Matt’s head flew up. He looked Caroline straight in the eye.

"You know that’s a lie,"he said. "We never went on one date together. Ever."

The judge, who had seemed to be asleep, now woke up.

"Bailiff!"he snapped. "Restrain the defendant immediately."

Matt tensed. As Gwen Sawicki moaned, Matt suddenly found himself being held while duct tape was wrapped round and round his mouth.

He fought. He tried to get up. So they duct-taped him around his waist to the chair. As they final y left him alone, the judge said, "If he runs off with that chair, you wil pay it out of your own salary, Miz Sawicki."

Matt could feel Gwen Sawicki trembling beside him. Not with fear. He could recognize the about-to-explode expression and realized that she was going to be next. And then the judge would hold her in contempt and who would speak up for him?

He met her eyes and shook his head firmly at her. But he also shook his head at every lie Caroline came up with.

"We had to keep it a secret, our relationship,"Caroline was saying demurely, straightening the gray dress. "Because Tyler Smal wood, my previous boyfriend, might have found out. Then he would have – I mean, I didn’t want any trouble between them."

Yeah, Matt thought bitterly: you’d better walk careful y –