The Werewolf Upstairs

by Ashlyn Chase

  “Please point to your twin.”

  Nick gave a half-hearted nod in Konrad’s direction.

  “It’s hard to interpret a head nod. Did you just indicate that the defendant is your twin?”

  Nick almost growled the word “Yes,” making Konrad even more nervous.

  “And you’re identical twins, isn’t that true?”

  Nick bit his top lip and let out a deep breath. “As far as we know.”

  “And were you asked for a sample of your DNA at some point?”

  “Yes. They took a cheek swab.”

  “And isn’t a cheek swab as much a match for a hair sample as any other human cell?”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Of course. You’re not an expert. But I’m willing to bet the expert in this case would verify that.”

  Roz stood and called out, “Objection. Speculation.”

  The DA almost bowed to her and said, “Quite right, but I’m willing to put the FBI’s expert on the stand again if need be.” He stared at the jury as he said, “However, since Konrad Wolfensen and Nicholas Wolfensen are identical twins, and Nicholas’s cheek swab was a ninety-nine point nine percent DNA match to the hair found at the crime scene, it’s fair to assume—”

  Roz was on her feet and objecting before the DA finished his sentence.

  He withdrew the question and smiled at the jury. “No more questions, your honor.” He didn’t even look at Roz when he said, “Your witness” and breezed back to his seat with his nose in the air.

  Roz had met Nick only briefly. He said he hadn’t known of an alibi or anything else to help the defense then, and he probably wouldn’t now. Konrad couldn’t imagine what she intended to ask Nick as she stood in front of him. At least she was blocking the view.

  “Nicholas, how long have you been a Boston police officer?”

  “Eight years.”

  She tipped her head. “Oh! Only eight years? You weren’t a Boston cop twenty years ago?”

  He chuckled. “I wasn’t a cop anywhere then. I came out of the academy in 2002.”

  “Why did you want to become a cop?”

  “Nine-eleven. I saw heroes running into the World Trade Center, and I knew I could do that. I’m very strong and probably could have carried several adults out of the rubble before getting tired. I wanted to help. Wanted to keep our community safe.”

  “That’s very admirable. Have you had to do anything like that in your eight years on the force?”

  “No. I’ve been thinking about volunteering for the bomb squad, but I haven’t done that yet.”

  “Wow, so you’re willing to put yourself in harm’s way—”

  The DA stood. “Objection. This isn’t a coffee klatch, and I don’t see what this little chat has to do with the case.”

  Roz spoke to the judge. “Just establishing what kind of witness we have here. It also speaks to the kind of family my client comes from.”

  The judge overruled the objection, but warned her to stay on track.

  “Okay, so in your years as a police officer, have you ever run into cases where evidence had been falsified or planted?”

  “Yeah, plenty of times.”

  “Really? It happens a lot?”

  “Well, not on a daily basis or anything, but it’s not uncommon. Someone who’s holding a grudge might plant evidence to put away a rival, or a guilty suspect might try to throw us off his trail and onto someone else’s.”

  “I see. So it’s perfectly plausible that someone who had a grudge against my client, or someone who wanted suspicion diverted to someone else, could have gotten hold of and planted some of my client’s hair, then called in an anonymous tip?”

  The DA leaned toward the other attorneys at his table and whispered furiously.

  Ha, that rattled them. Good.

  “Yeah, I’d like to see them explain their anonymous tipster was a ghost.”

  Roz said she had no more questions, and Nick was allowed to leave the witness stand. He didn’t leave the courtroom, however. He sat behind Konrad and put a hand on his shoulder. Konrad clapped his own big hand over his brother’s and held onto him for a moment of support.

  All we need is reasonable doubt, right, Roz?

  “I’d like a solidly doubtful jury before they go to deliberate. When I get to call our witnesses, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Are they here?

  “One of them is. I’d hoped both would be here by now.”

  Can you stall until they’re both here?

  “I can try.”

  The judge asked the DA if he had another witness, and he said, “None at this time.”

  “Does the defense have any witnesses to call?”

  Good. You’re up, Roz!

  She rose and said, “Yes, your honor. But one of my witnesses hasn’t arrived yet. May we recess until all are here?”

  The judge fidgeted in his chair and asked, “Does it make any difference if they’re all here at the same time?”

  “I think so, your honor.”

  “Fine. Ten-minute recess.” The judge banged his gavel, and Konrad let out a deep breath of relief. All the lawyers reached for their cell phones.

  ***

  Roz looked behind herself for the first time since the trial had begun. Sure enough, jerk-face was there, and he was moving toward her through the crowd as people were filing out for their cigarette breaks.

  “Aw, crap,” she mumbled.

  “What’s wrong?” Konrad asked.

  “Stan’s here.”

  “Your stepfather?”

  “The one and only. Listen, when he gets here, please don’t say a word. Not even to defend me.”

  “You mean I can’t punch him out?”

  No.

  “Are you sure?”

  I’m sure.

  “C’mon, just one little punch in the face.”

  Not in the middle of a courtroom. Maybe later. I’ll let you know.

  Stan finally came within speaking distance. “Roz, how do you think you’re doing?”

  “Just fine, thank you.”

  Stan straightened and put his hands in his pants pockets. “Frankly, I think you could use a little advice.”

  “Nope, I’ve got all the help I need,” she said.

  A couple of the other lawyers noticed the interaction and were watching despite being on their phones.

  His brows knitted and his lips thinned. She recognized his brewing anger and figured she had two choices. She could placate him, which wasn’t going to happen, or she could ignore him and hope he went away. He wouldn’t like the second option, but as far as Roz was concerned, he could raise his voice all he wanted, and he’d only embarrass himself.

  She shuffled the papers in front of her and leaned forward to speak to Madison, the only lawyer who wasn’t talking to someone else. “Can you take a quick look around and see if our witness got lost?” He nodded and was about to leave when the head partner, Jordan, ended his phone call and spoke up.

  “He’s in the building. I just called downstairs, and they’re letting him through security now.”

  “Thank goodness.” Roz said.

  “Who’s up next?” Stan asked Jordan.

  Roz didn’t know whether to be insulted or relieved. As the two of them chatted, she picked up her pencil and drew a couple of stick figures with frowns on their faces in the margin of her legal pad. She added a rifle to one’s hand, pointing at the other.

  She glanced at Konrad, who looked amused at her drawing. He picked up the pencil lying next to her and added hair to the figure with the gun. It was a little longer in the front than the back. He added bullets coming out of the gun, flying toward, and hitting the other figure. When he erased the eyes and replaced them with x’s, she chuckled telepathically.

  She added a few drops of blood, and their masterpiece was complete. Before anyone could see it, she flipped the paper over. Apparently she hadn’t been quick enough, because when she looked up, Stan was glaring at her.<
br />
  People began drifting back into the courtroom, and thankfully Stan retreated to a bench far behind them.

  The bailiff walked down the center aisle and over to Roz. “There’s a whole bunch of people who say they’re witnesses for the defense,” he whispered.

  Everyone was still talking and moving around, so Judge Vader banged his gavel. “Let’s get this show on the road. Are your witnesses here, Miss Wells?”

  She turned to see about a dozen people filing in and standing at the back of the courtroom, including Wendell, Lois, Barrett, and a few other wolves who weren’t with them the day she visited the private school. She smiled broadly and glanced over at Konrad. He looked like he was in shock.

  She stood. “Yes, you’re honor. They’re here.”

  “Well then, get on with it. Call your first witness.”

  Roz called the first guard. She noticed the other guard had sat beside him, which was good, but she was more curious about what the pack had in mind. An alibi, maybe? At that point, Roz didn’t even care if the prettiest one said she was with Konrad all night. She just wanted to win this case. First of all to keep her lover out of jail, and second to tell Stan to shove it up his ass.

  The guard was sworn in, and Roz had only one real question, but she might stretch it into two or three, just for fun. “We’ve heard the descriptions you gave to the police several years ago. Do you stand by those descriptions, or is there anything you’d like to change?”

  “No, nothing I’d change,” he said.

  “Did you get a good look at the men who bound you the night of the theft? I mean a really good look?”

  “Yes. As you said earlier, I was standing toe to toe with them. As soon as I realized they weren’t who we thought they were, I began making mental notes about their size, build, and coloring. I looked for any visible marks or tattoos that might be helpful in identifying them, but didn’t see any.”

  “Very good. So even though it’s been twenty years, you’d recognize—”

  The DA jumped up and said, “Objection. Leading the witness.”

  The judge nodded and said to Roz, “Can you rephrase?”

  “Absolutely,” Roz said. She turned back to the guard. “Would you recognize the thieves if you saw them again?”

  “I’m pretty sure I would. I mean, they’re older and everything, but if they didn’t have plastic surgery, I’d remember their faces.”

  “Good. Do you see either of them in this courtroom?”

  The guard took a good look around. “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, let me be specific.” She turned to Konrad. “I’d like the defendant to stand, please.”

  Konrad rose up to his full six-foot-four height, and held his head high.

  “Could the defendant be one of the men you saw?”

  The guard chuckled. “No way. He’s too tall, light skinned, and light haired, and I can’t see his eye color from here, but I don’t think they’re dark brown.”

  “Thank you.” Roz looked over at the DA. “Your witness.”

  The DA rose, a serious expression on his face. Before he even arrived in front of the witness stand, he began asking questions. “Did you happen to see the getaway driver?”

  The guard shook his head. “I don’t know if they had one, but if they did, then no.”

  “Did you have cameras outside the museum?”

  The guard stroked his chin and looked as if he were mentally traveling back in time. He shook his head slowly. “No.”

  “So this guy could have been outside the museum, and you wouldn’t have seen him. Isn’t that right?”

  The guard nodded. “Yes, I guess so.”

  “Thank you; that’s all.”

  ***

  Konrad’s nerve endings tingled when Roz leaned toward one of the other lawyers, said something, and excused herself.

  Where the hell are you going?

  “Relax, I’m just following up on a hunch.”

  She hurried to the back of the courtroom while the attorney she spoke to rose and called the other guard as the next witness.

  Konrad craned his neck, trying to see where Roz had gone. He was hoping she had just run to the bathroom, but deep down he knew the answer.

  She was whispering to the pack. One of pack members opened a book and showed her something. Some of them were nodding, and some were looking over at Konrad with sad expressions. Damn. That could be good or bad.

  He tried to hear what was going on in two places at once, but even werewolves weren’t that gifted. Roz’s conversation was short, but she looked pleased when she made her way back to her seat.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, anxiously.

  “Just wait.”

  Wait? I’m dyin’ over here!

  “I think your pack just saved the day.”

  Really? He turned around and took another good look at them. He saw no animosity in any of their faces. A few smiles grew and were aimed in his direction. Well, I’ll be damned.

  “No, you won’t. Not today.”

  Konrad couldn’t wait for the witness to vacate the stand, to find out what the pack was up to.

  Roz sat contentedly with a satisfied smile on her face. Whatever it was, it must be good.

  At last the witness was excused and it was Roz’s turn again. She approached the bench and whispered to the judge. Because of his superior hearing, Konrad heard everything as if he were standing next to her.

  “Your honor, I have a couple of last-minute witnesses.”

  The judge waved the DA over and waited for him before speaking to Roz.

  “We have some new witnesses,” he said to the DA. He turned to Roz. “Why aren’t they on the list?”

  “I didn’t know they were coming, but they have pertinent information the jury needs to hear.”

  The DA looked put out. “Is this some kind of trick? Is there some reason you didn’t want me to know about them?”

  “No, not at all.”

  “It’s somewhat irregular, but I’ll allow it,” Judge Vader said.

  The DA looked disgruntled, but returned to his seat.

  She called her first pack-member witness. “Wendell Wolfe.”

  Wendell rose and carried a book with him to the stand. Konrad had thought of him as a father figure. Even though he hadn’t seen the man in years, he still looked spry, not a day over two hundred.

  As soon as he was sworn in and sitting on the witness seat, Roz asked him to state his name and occupation.

  “Wendell Wolfe. I teach mathematics at the Newton Preparatory School for Boys.”

  “And how do you know the defendant?”

  “Konrad was our dean at the school.”

  “The dean?” Roz looked impressed and aimed her expression toward the jury. “Well, then, there must be pictures of him there.”

  “Oh, yes. I brought an old yearbook.”

  “May I have it please?”

  Wendell handed it to her, and she held it up, walking it down the line of jurors. Right on the cover it said, “Newton Preparatory School for Boys, 1990.”

  “Now, let’s see that picture,” she said. Opening the book, she flipped a few pages. Konrad knew she’d find a nice full-page black-and-white photograph of him. He didn’t look much different, except his hair was very short, not more than an inch long.

  “Ah, here it is.” She opened the book wide and walked the picture down the line of jurors again. “As you can see, Mr. Wolfensen’s hair is quite short in this picture.” She turned back to Wendell. “And when was this taken?”

  “In February of 1990. Here, I have the original with the date stamped on it.” He fished a four-by-six photograph out of his inner jacket pocket.

  Roz walked over to the evidence table and picked up the bag with the two long, blond hairs in it. “Interesting. Here we have evidence of Mr. Wolfensen’s DNA, taken from the crime scene, but these hairs are two feet long, as previously stated by a Boston police detective. If he committed this crime on March 18
, 1990, his hair would have had to grow an astounding twenty-three inches in one month.”

  The courtroom laughed, and murmurs broke out everywhere.

  “I’m sure I know what my opponent will ask, so I’ll just ask it now. How do we know this photograph hasn’t been altered?” Roz asked.

  “We have a number of ways to prove it. There are the negatives, still catalogued by the photographer, along with the dates. We also had a portrait commissioned the year before, with the date plainly written under the artist’s signature.”

  “I see. You didn’t happen to bring that with you, did you?”

  “No, but we could go and get it, if you like.”

  “Or perhaps you could have someone back at the school take a photograph of it and fax it here?”

  “Certainly.” He looked over at Konrad and smiled. “The picture still hangs in its place of honor, reminding us all how much we miss him.”

  Roz smiled at Konrad. “Did you hear that? I told you they weren’t holding any grudges.”

  I heard. A lump formed in his throat. He didn’t realize how much he’d missed them either, until they had all filed into the courtroom ready to help him out, like in the old days, before Petroski. The next words he heard astounded him so much, he wasn’t sure he’d heard right.

  “So if I’d called you as a character witness, it sounds as if you’d have given him a good review.”

  “Absolutely. We’d really like to have him back.”

  What the—What about Petroski?

  “I guess there’s no better compliment than that. Is his position open?” Roz asked.

  “It is now. The board of directors decided that his replacement wasn’t the kind of man the school needed. Mr. Wolfensen is.”

  Roz let out telepathic sigh. All the courtroom saw, though, was a confident attorney saying, “Your witness.” Only Konrad heard her silently add the word sucker.

  Chapter 21

  Sounds of people murmuring and milling about the restaurant couldn’t drown out the pack’s conversation, at least not when it came to the Lycans hearing each other. Roz had to lean in to make out some of the softer voices across the large round table.

  The pack that surrounded Konrad and Roz seemed festive, almost as happy as he and she were, and Roz didn’t think anyone on the planet could be as happy as she and Konrad were at that moment.