The Pretend Boyfriend (The Pretend Boyfriend #4)(13)
Author: Artemis Hunt

“Did you have a sexual relationship with Mr. Morton in college?”

“Yes.” Delilah seems composed. Norma nods at her encouragingly. This scenario has obviously come up in their conversations after Sam was caught breaking and entering into Delilah’s apartment.

“How long did it last?”

“Four days.”

“Four days? Not much of a relationship, is it?”

“No. Brian didn’t do girlfriends. He was quite clear about it.” Delilah says this as a matter-of-fact, without a trace of bitterness or regret.

“After this relationship . . . ended, you took an overdose of sleeping pills.”

Gasps run through the audience.

“Not immediately. Some time had passed. I was very . . . troubled by a lot of things. But not by Brian. My parents were in the midst of a divorce and I was very . . . affected by it. I loved my parents, and it killed me to learn that my Dad was having an affair with another woman.”

“So Mr. Morton’s rejection of you wasn’t a part of it? Because it was public knowledge on campus that he played an April Fools’ joke on you in loving you and then dumping you.”

Murmurs from the audience. The faces of some jurors wear disapproval. Sam hopes that this line of questioning won’t paint Brian in too bad a light. They are going to need the jury to like Brian later. But the truth has got to come out first.

“Objection. I don’t see where this is leading, Your Honor.”

“Your Honor, bear with me, please. I am establishing a possible reason as to why Ms. Faulkner is putting my client on trial for rape when he claims he can’t remember what happened.”

“Objection. Too much conjecture on the defense counsel’s part!” Norma’s face is apoplectic.

“Sustained.”

Karen composes herself. “Did you recognize Mr. Morton on the night of the alleged rape?”

“I was not sure at first . . . but later, yes.”

“And you did not confront him on this fact?”

“I had changed my appearance as part of my rehabilitation program after . . . my overdose attempt. Mr. Morton did not recognize me. I was playing along, wondering when he would recognize me. But it was too late because he had already attacked me.”

“Allegedly attacked you. Such a coincidence, wouldn’t you say? A man you had sexual relations with in college. Fancy meeting him again after all these years.”

“Objection!”

“Withdrawn.”

Karen paces in front of the witness stand for a while, makes a point to go up to the jury box, peers into the jurors’ faces, and then swivels back to Delilah. Delilah is looking a tad hot under the collar.

Karen shoots, “Who is the friend you were meeting at Mr. Morton’s apartment block?”

Delilah blinks. She isn’t expecting this. “Pardon?”

“Who is the friend you were meeting at Mr. Morton’s apartment block? You said you were on your way to meet a sick friend. That was what the spaghetti Bolognese was for, you mentioned.”

A pause.

Delilah says, “Her name is Susan.”

Karen goes to her desk and rifles through some papers. She picks up a sheaf.

“This is the owner and tenant list of Mr. Morton’s apartment block. Susan, you say. Susan . . . Susan.” She pretends to thumb through the names. “I don’t see a Susan here, Ms. Faulkner.”

“Objection. May I remind the defense counsel that Mr. Faulkner is not on trial here?”

“I am merely trying to establish several inconsistencies in Ms. Faulkner’s statements to both the police and the court. A fact the police should have investigated more thoroughly.”

“Overruled. Continue, Ms. Sandler.” The judge is definitely interested.

“Please answer the question, Ms. Faulkner. Remember, you are under oath,” Karen insists.

Delilah appears stunned. Sam bunches her fists upon her lap. Caught out in her own game! The jury is leaning forward, clearly excited about this new turn of events.

Delilah finally answers, “I may have gotten my facts jumbled up in the . . . the terrible confusion. I was passing through the lobby on my way to another building. I don’t . . . fully remember, because everything was so traumatic.”

Karen says, “And yet you parked at that very building. Your car and its registration plates were captured by the surveillance camera. You drove in at 8.03 p.m. The incident at the lobby where Mr. Morton spilled sauce all over your dress was at 9.15 p.m. What were you doing for a whole hour there, Ms. Faulkner?”

The audience in the courtroom awaits with bated breath. Sam thinks of the incident in the opera house when Brian’s phone started beeping because his alarm went off in his apartment. It had always struck her as a little off-key. Had Delilah done something to the alarm to get him to come back?

Delilah says, “I don’t remember.”

She was obviously schooled in the ‘I don’t remember’ clause. When caught out in a lie, plead post-traumatic stress amnesia.

“Are you sure you don’t remember?”

“Objection. Counsel is badgering the witness.”

“Withdrawn.”

Karen goes to the desk, exchanges a look with Brian, and then proceeds to pick up the large cardboard stacks on the side. “May I seek help in mounting these, Your Honor?”

Pretty soon, Sam’s incriminating photos of Delilah’s secret ‘obsession’ room – which have been carefully pasted onto several cardboard pieces and mounted on tripods – are laid out in front of the court. Karen makes a show of distributing these cardboard stacks to the judge and members of the jury.

Karen announces, “Allow me to explain the nature of this exhibit.”

“Objection!” Norma is on her feet again. “These photos were obtained through unlawful and illegal means!”

“Explain,” says the judge.

Norma launches into a mini-version of Sam’s misdemeanors at Delilah’s apartment and her subsequent arrest, punctuating her rhetoric with plenty of finger-pointing. Sam feels like sinking lower and lower into the ground as people stare at her.

“I move to appeal that this ‘evidence’ should be struck off as it was obtained by fraudulent means, Your Honor,” Norma thunders.

Karen says, “I call to reference the case of Ableman vs Salidas in Sept 2010. In the case of The People vs Brian Morton, there is a need to ensure a just resolution to what could be an innocent man’s fate. This evidence may have been obtained through less than credible means, but it was the only means in which it could be obtained. Had the police raided Ms. Faulkner’s apartment, they would have found the exact same thing.”