Naive by Charles Royce (world best books to read .txt) 📕

Astrid says, then turns back to Josh. “Mr. Harrison, when the defendant said, ‘I’ll stab you both in your sleep,’ what makes you think that he was serious and might follow through?”

“It seemed real. Different from the way he normally speaks, which has always seemed fake to me. How can I explain this?” He takes a moment. “Okay, Lennox told me Micah was an actor.”

“Objection, hearsay,” Shawn interjects. He’s just messing with the prosecution.

“Your Honor, we have proof that the defendant was, in fact, an actor, if you’ll allow the witness to proceed.” Astrid is annoyed.

“Objection overruled,” says Judge Wilson.

“You were saying, Mr. Harrison?”

“Lennox told me Micah was an actor. I saw that, many times, in our interactions. Micah would just seem like he was saying stuff. You know, like he was rehearsing lines or something.”

“I don’t follow,” Astrid prompts.

“I don’t either,” Shawn whispers to Micah out of the side of his mouth.

“I remember this one day,” Josh begins, “a few friends of mine were at the beach on Fire Island, pretty recently actually, and I was sitting fairly close to Micah. Didn’t even realize it. Buncha hot guys watching other hot guys playing volleyball. Just didn’t see him. Anyway, I guess he caught me checking Lenny out. So, Micah looks over at me and says pretty loudly, so all my friends could hear, ‘I know you can’t just turn it off, and I know it probably still hurts, but I appreciate the effort.’ Now I know that doesn’t sound weird, but it rang familiar to me, so I went home that night and looked at my DVR and there it was.”

“There was what?”

“Gossip Girl.”

The courtroom erupts in laughter. The judge pounds his gavel to quiet the crowd.

“I know, I know,” Josh continues, enjoying the attention. “Judge me all you like, but I like reruns of Gossip Girl. And this particular episode just happens to have been on the night before we were at the beach. So, I pushed play and sure enough, it didn’t take me long to find it. Serena and Dan, they’re these on-again-off-again ex-lovers on Gossip Girl. Anyway, Serena and Dan were at a bar. She is with someone new, and says to Dan, her ex-boyfriend, ‘I know you can’t just turn it off, and I know it probably still hurts, but I appreciate the effort.’ Same words. The same exact ones!”

“Thank you, Mr. Harrison. The prosecution would like to play a series of recordings now to shed light on this testimony.”

“I’ll allow it,” says the judge.

“What’s happening?” Micah asks Shawn.

“I allowed these,” Shawn says. “It’s a show, grab your popcorn.” Shawn leans back and smiles.

“Now this first recording is from an off-Broadway play in which the defendant played a supporting role,” Astrid says, introducing the audio. She presses play on her iPad.

((“I’m not sure what happened. (pause). Blood. There’s so much blood! (pause) I think she’s dead!”))

“And, as a reminder, this is the 9-1-1 call from the night of his husband’s murder.”

((“Yes! I got home, and he was just lying there. (pause). Blood. (pause) Oh my God, I think he’s dead!”))

Astrid turns off the recording. She holds up an 8x10 glossy of the defendant, with the words MICAH BREUER emblazoned in Helvetica Bold. She turns around and shows it to the courtroom, then the jury, and hands it to the jury foreman.

“We have nothing further for this witness,” she says to the judge.

Shawn stays seated, pauses. Then, he begins clapping.

The judge bangs his gavel. “Mr. Connelly, there will be no clapping in my courtroom.”

“No, sir.” Shawn swats the air as if there’s a fly around him. He stands up, continuing to clap the imaginary bug away from him, and walks toward Josh. “Quite the performance, Mr. Harrison. You’re a fellow actor, are you not?”

Josh laughs. “You, too, Mr. Connelly, with the swatting. And the answer is ‘No sir,’ not for like a decade now.”

Mimicking Astrid, Shawn unearths an 8x10 of Josh and presents it to the courtroom, then the jury, then hands it to the jury foreman. “Mr. Harrison, would it surprise you to know that Micah has not acted professionally in over eight years?”

“No, sir, not really.”

“Is it true that you have a lot of actor friends, Mr. Harrison?”

“Some,” Josh replies.

“By telling us about this alleged threat, what did you hope to gain?” Shawn asks, seeming to jump to another line of inquiry.

Perplexed at the question, Josh looks at Shawn and tilts his head. “I’m sorry?”

“What did you hope to gain by telling us that? Simple question.”

Josh looks at the prosecution. Astrid gives him the equivalent of a shrug, using only her face.

“Uh, to show your client’s state of mind to commit murder,” he says, discouraged by his own grammar.

“Move to strike the answer as unresponsive,” Shawn says to the judge with a soft, sing-song lilt to his voice, along with a dissenting nod. He never takes his eyes off of Josh.

“Granted. The witness will refrain from characterizing.”

“I wanted to show I took a threat of murder very seriously,” Josh says slowly, “and became fearful for my life because of it.”

“Ah, yes, fearful for your life.” Shawn walks back to the defense table and grabs another folder. He pulls out a photo and hands it to Josh. “Can you describe what you’re looking at, Mr. Harrison?”

“Looks like a picture of Lennox, Micah, and me at the beach.”

“Are any of you laughing?”

“I don’t know. Smiling, sure. Laughing, maybe.”

Astrid begins to fumble through her folders, looking for the photo he is showing.

“And in your opinion, is there a fourth person taking the picture?”

“No, sir, it looks like we’re taking a selfie.”

“And who might that be taking the selfie? In other words, whose arm is holding the camera?”

“I am.”

“And who are you right next to?”

“Micah.”

“So, you, Micah, his husband Lennox are arm-in-arm, smiling or laughing, taking a selfie at the beach?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Lastly, there is a date right above it, can you read what it says, please?”

“Objection,” Astrid gives up trying to find the photo. “This photo was