Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

breath. “She’s something else,” he murmured with appreciative amusement, “but she’s damned convincing. Unless his lawyers really get her rattled, I think she’ll be a fantastic witness.”

“Of course,” Ian added, “his lawyers are currently battling letting her testify at all.

She wasn’t introduced during discovery and they’re claiming we deliberately withheld her.”

“Because, of course, if they’d known about her, Miles Cavendish would’ve tried to disclaim any connection with Paul Warner. Of course, he couldn’t disclaim any connection, but he would’ve come up with something else to cover his hide. Now that he’s admitted that he sent Paul, and she’s going testify that you were kidnapped …. It’s a nail in his coffin.”

“You think they can get her excluded?” Anna asked uneasily.

Simon sighed. “We’ll know by tomorrow, end of day. The judge is considering it.”

“What about the other evidence?” Caleb asked. “You mentioned that Mrs.

Bagley had given you something with potential.”

The sparkle left Simon’s eyes. “We have chain-of-command issues. The Attorney General is concerned about trying to use it at all since Mrs. Bagley picked it up from the crime scene.”

“Did they get anything off of it?”

“Mrs. Bagley’s fingerprints and DNA,” Ian said dryly. “She tried to clean up all the things she’d found and get rid of the ‘smoke smell’ and that included those pieces.

She told us she thought she’d thrown them out when she was sorting because it was clearly broken. And that she must have thrown something ‘good’ in the trash and those pieces in with the ‘good’ by mistake.”

Everyone was disappointed, not just Ian and Simon. “The worst of it is that it might’ve broken the case wide open.”

“You tied it to the bomb at the island?” Joshua asked quickly.

“We did. We also tied one of the pieces to the bomb that blew up the desalinization plant.”

“They can’t throw it out!” Caleb exclaimed angrily. “On a technicality?”

“Whoa!” Ian interjected. “He said it tied the three bombs together. We haven’t managed to tie any of them directly to Miles Cavendish. Even if we could get it in, he could still walk away from it.”

“Well that just fucking sucks!” Anna snapped angrily.

All four men turned to stare at her as if she’d suddenly grown another head. She felt her face heat. “What?”

Caleb burst out laughing. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say ‘fucking’!”

She shrugged. “You guys say it all the time.”

“We’ve corrupted our little magpie!” Ian said mournfully. “Instead of chirping sweet, off-key little melodies, she’s going to be cursing worse than we do.”

Anna couldn’t help but chuckle, but she felt her face turn redder. “Well, it does suck!”

“It does,” Simon said, amusement threading his voice.

* * * *

Anna headed back to court the following day. She was a nervous wreck before they ever left because she knew she would be called upon to testify. The trial had begun the week before, but except for the one appearance when she’d been called to testify that she’d been kidnapped, she hadn’t been required to be there.

It didn’t help that she still wasn’t used to the sub. She thought it might be something she could get used to—over time—but it was still new enough that every creek, every noise she couldn’t readily identify, sent a shaft of fear through her.

She tried meditation, not merely to calm her nerves from the sub trip, but to prepare herself for her court appearance. The whole situation unnerved her, but having to perch on a seat in full view of the entire courtroom, which was packed, was the hardest thing to endure. It made her feel horribly exposed and vulnerable and, unfortunately, her father’s lawyers were like sharks. Despite her best efforts to appear calm and collected during that first bout, it seemed they’d caught the scent of ‘blood’, realized what pure agony it was for an introvert like herself to find herself the center of attention. They’d managed to rattle her enough she’d begun to stammer, almost broke down and cried.

They weren’t going to do it to her again, she decided. She wasn’t going to let them push her until she made another mistake.

She had just enough time to sit in the audience to grow completely relaxed, almost bored, when she was called. Her stomach instantly tied itself into a knot. Her knees felt like rubber as she got up and headed toward the front of the courtroom.

They reminded her that she was still under oath and then the defense came out swinging. It was clear what the name of the game was today—recover the ball they’d dropped.

“You said before that you felt as if Paul was a threat to you and that you were being kidnapped.”

Anna nodded.

“Answer, please.”

“Yes.”

“Why did you feel that way?”

Anna’s mind went perfectly blank. “Because he worked for my father.”

The lawyer frowned, made a great pretense of thinking things over and reading back over her testimony. “Why did you feel threatened by your father? Had he done anything to make you feel threatened? Said anything?”

It was a trap. Everything he said was a trap, she reminded herself. “I’d been informed by the watchmen when they took me in to question me that my father was the leader of a terrorist organization. They believed he was responsible for the bombing in New Atlanta that killed so many ….”

He cut her off. “So, you’re saying it wasn’t anything specific that your father did?”

“He killed a lot of people,” Anna said blankly.

The lawyer gritted his teeth. “Your honor, I’d ask that this witness be classified as hostile and request that she answer with a yes or no.”

The judge looked him over. “Be