THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 429: The Trial 2: Take Care Of Things

Taking a deep breath, Benita rose and moved to the witness box.

The bailiff stepped forward to administer the oath.

"Do you solemnly affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"I do."

After Benita’s affirmation, Cheryl turned to Benita. "Ms Dawson, you have once been arraigned in this court for a case of attempted murder on Dr Steffan Rosse’s life to which you pleaded not guilty but due to inconclusive evidence you were sentenced. Am I right?"

"Yes, you’re right."

"Do you mind telling us the circumstances surrounding your actions that led to your conviction?"

Benita nodded. "Eleven months ago, I came to Baltimore for some business and ran into a friend who knew of my affection for Steffan and my unrequited love. She informed me about the wedding which of course shocked me to my bone marrow," she choked on a sob,

"I ... I have always believed that... I ... was the one Steffan would eventually... get married to," she stammered and darted a glance in Steffan’s direction and immediately wished she hadn’t as the only emotion she saw on his was pity or more accurately, a pitiful sneer.

Why didn’t she know in the past that Steffan would never love her? She had wasted her love on someone who was never destined to be hers in the first place. Now that she thought about it, even their friendship was forced and mostly nourished by her own desperate efforts. Indeed she was a pitiful mess.

Benita paused to wipe her eyes which had already polled with tears.

"Seeing how devastated I was, she convinced me to stop the wedding, but that I needed to do something serious to stop the man I loved from marrying someone else."

Because of that, I didn’t call in at the Rosse’s residence which I would normally do whenever I am in town. So I called another friend of mine and spent the night in her place.

"That night, a parcel was delivered to me from my friend. When I opened the parcel in my room, I nearly fainted from fright and called her immediately. She convinced me that it was just for intimidation, and would not actually cause any harm. I believed her, after all I was desperate and determined not to let the wedding hold. She also sent me a video on my phone to help me practice how to handle the gun to make it look convincing when at the wedding."

At the juncture, Benita paused again and shook her head forlornly. "However, when I got to the wedding, I didn’t know how the gun suddenly had a bullet when I ..." she trailed off as the events of that day played afresh in her mind.

"I never wanted to harm anyone... least of all Steffan. I’m sorry Steffan for whatever pain I have caused you, but I sincerely don’t know how..." she eventually broke down in tears as she trailed off.

The court room was quiet and some people could even be seen, wiping off tears that had found their way into their eyes.

"That will be all Ms Dawson," Cheryl said and stepped back.

"Does Mr Callaghan have any questions for the witness?"

"Yes, my Lord, but it’s not for the witness but to my learned colleague, Ms Moore."

"You may proceed."

Mr Callaghan stepped forward. "My learned colleague, In presenting your case earlier, you mentioned that Ms Dawson was being manipulated by my client, Dr Thompson. Is there any hard evidence to show that my client had any connections with the said nameless friend which was obviously fabricated out of the blues?"

The courtroom burst into laughter.

"Objection," Cheryl shouted.

"Order," the judge commanded and when everywhere quietened down, the judge stared sternly at Mr Callahan. "Objection sustained. You may wish to rephrase your question, Mr Callaghan."

"I’m sorry my Lord. I’d like Ms Moore to explain to this honorable court what link the advice from Ms Dawson’s friend have with Dr Thompson directly loading the gun."

"To answer that question, I’d like to invite my next witness to the box, if my Lordship permits."

"And who is that?"

"Detective Jim Parker, lead investigator on this case, my Lord, Cheryl said.

After taking a look at the file before him, the judge nodded curtly. "Proceed.

Jim Parker, who had been working with Killian and his team, took the stand. After being sworn in, he began to detail the investigation.

"Detective Parker, you’ve been in this case for a couple of months now, precisely ten months, three weeks and two days, am I right?" Cheryl asked. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"You are right," detective Parker answered after thinking for a while.

"From what you have gathered, can you please explain to this honorable court the connection between Ms Dawson, Ms Rita Gates and Dr Dolly Thompson and how it relates to this case?"

Detective Parker cleared his throat then began. "We recovered text messages and call records between Dr Thomson and Ms Rita Gates, Ms Benita Dawson’s friend whom she had mentioned earlier in her testimony. From those recoveries it was revealed that Dr Thompson encouraged Ms Rita Gates to ’take care of things and ensure that Ms Dawson is convinced to use the stuff.’ While there’s no explicit mention of loading the gun, the implication is clear. Dr Dolly Thompson was manipulating the situation behind the scene."

Mr Callaghan smirked slightly. "The stuff could be anything, Detective Parker. Besides, implications aren’t facts. Wouldn’t you agree?"

Detective Parker raised an eyebrow. "I deal in facts, and the facts point to Dr Thompson who also happened to be in the same house where Ms Dawson had spent the night on the eve of the wedding."

There was a collective gasp in the courtroom at that revelation and this time, Dolly was actually sweating profusely. How did they get all that? She was sure to use an anonymous number when ever she got in touch with Rita, how were they able to trace those numbers to her?

But she had to comport herself. The most important part was that those conversations did not prove that she was the one that loaded the gun even if she was in the house that night. There were other people there too.

And just then, her lawyer reiterated her thoughts.

"If I must remind you, my client was not the only person in the said house on the eve of the wedding," Mr Callaghan pointed out.

Detective Parker nodded in agreement. "You are right, but none of the people had had any contact or interactions with Ms Rita Gates except Dr Thompson, leaving us with the conclusion that she was the only one who knew that Ms Dawson possessed a gun and what her mission at the wedding was," Detective Parker clarified.

"But that is not enough to accuse my client of loading Ms Dawson’s gun."

"I also agree with you on that but through interviews and forensic analysis, we discovered that the firearm had Dr Thompson’s fingerprints on it corroborating the claims of Benita Dawson, who fired the shot, that she never loaded the gun with a bullet."

"That doesn’t still prove that she loaded the gun. So permit me to say here that my client is being unjustly accused on the basis of mere assumptions which is not solid enough to prove that she is guilty."