AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He presses his hands on the wood in front of her. “How are you doing, Martina?” he asks.
She brushes hair from her heavily wrinkled eyes. I guess her to be a haggard fifty, a hard living under her belt. “I’m not good. Mr. Warren is dead. How can I be good?”
“I know,” he says. “But we need to get him justice. We need to tell your story, okay?”
“Yes. I told you I will tell my story.”
“Tell us about finding Mr. Warren.”
“I’d gone to get groceries and returned to cook dinner. His favorite stew. He’d requested it for that night. He was locked in his study and when it was ready I knocked, but he didn’t answer. An hour passed and then two and I became worried. I returned and knocked again. Still no answer. I decided to risk him yelling at me and I opened the door. That’s when I found him sprawled on his desk—” She sobs and presses a fist to her lips. “He—his head was blown—hole—there was a hole and blood. A pool of thick blood. It looked thick. Like a horror movie.” She drops her hand. “I’m sorry. I just—I have nightmares.”
“Of course you do. The man you saw every day, your boss, was murdered brutally.”
“Objection,” Reese says. “Commentary leading the witness.”
“Sustained,” the judge, a stout man in his late forties, says, before eyeing the prosecutor. “Move on, counselor.”
“Apologies, judge,” he says and refocuses on Martina. “How long did you work for Mr. Warren?”
“Twenty years.”
“How well did you know him?”
“As well as anyone,” she replies.
That’s a loaded reply I’m certain Reese will jump all over. The prosecutor doesn’t. He moves on. “How well do you know Dana Warren?”
“I watched her grow up since she was five years old. I know her very well. She was good to me.”
Another comment Reese can use.
“And to her father?” Wicker asks.
“He was a difficult man,” Martina replies. “Mean. He was mean.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She gave what she got. She had to survive that man.”
“Did you give what you got?” the prosecutor asks.
“Well no, but—”
“That was a yes or no question,” the prosecutor says, cutting her off. “Did you survive?”
“Well yes, but—”
“That was again a yes or no question,” he says. “You survived and you didn’t have to give what you got. Did you ever consider killing Mr. Warren?”
“No, but—”
“Yes or no.”
“No,” she says tartly.
“How did Dana and her father get along?”
“Fine.”
