Conflict of Interest

by Jae

Finally, sixty long minutes were over, and the bailiff called them back into the courtroom.

  "On the evening in question, did you leave the club with Ms. Kinsley?" the defense attorney began, taking position right in front of the witness stand.

  "No," Del had to admit. "I left an hour or two before she did."

  "Oh?" D'Aquino looked at her in fake surprise. "Then it is possible that Ms. Kinsley talked to my client and you just hadn't seen it because you'd already left the club?"

  "Objection! Speculation! The witness has no personal knowledge and can't testify to what might or might not have happened during her absence," Kade said before D'Aquino could force Del to admit that Dawn could have spoken to Ballard.

  "Sustained."

  D'Aquino gave up that line of questioning. He had already shown that Del hadn't been a witness to the whole evening. "You said that you've known Ms. Kinsley for twenty years?"

  "Yes."

  "And in this time, have you ever known Ms. Kinsley to sleep with a man?" D'Aquino fired the question at Del.

  Aiden clenched her hands to fists, and from the tensing in her shoulders it wasn't hard to guess that, hidden by the witness-box, Del was doing the same.

  "Objection, Your Honor!" Kade leaned across the prosecutor's table to fix D'Aquino with an indignant stare. "Dr. Kinsley's sexual history is inadmissible."

  "Your Honor, Ms. Matheson opened the door to the question by asking about Ms. Kinsley's plans to pick up men on the night in question," D'Aquino countered.

  Linehan nodded almost regretfully. "The objection is overruled. The witness will answer the question."

  Del took a moment before answering. Probably to unclench her teeth, Aiden thought grimly. "She was married, but –"

  "A simple yes or no, please," D'Aquino demanded.

  Del's strong shoulders slumped. "Yes."

  The defense attorney smiled. "No further questions."

  Kade stood for the redirect before D'Aquino had reached his own table. "Lieutenant Vasquez, to your knowledge, does Dr. Kinsley regularly frequent nightclubs?"

  Del shook her head. "Not regularly. Work kept her busy a lot, but she would find the time now and then."

  "And how often did you accompany Dr. Kinsley on these evenings out?"

  "A fair number of times."

  "On those occasions, did you see Dr. Kinsley flirt with any men?" Kade asked.

  Aiden relaxed her tense muscles. There was no way that Kade was going to let D'Aquino get away with manipulating all her witnesses. Aiden knew that it was imperative that Kade got the jury to see Dawn in a good light since her testimony came next.

  "No," Del answered, her conviction clear in her voice and her expression.

  "Lieutenant Vasquez, is it safe to assume that you know Dr. Kinsley well?"

  "Like my own daughter, yes." Del looked toward the gallery for a moment.

  "So it would also be safe to assume that she confides in you?" Kade asked.

  "Yes, she does."

  "Did she ever confide in you that she brought a man home for the night?" Now that D'Aquino had poked into Dawn's love life, Kade had no choice but to do the same.

  The corner of Del's mouth twitched in amused disbelief as if she didn't know whether she should become angry or laugh at the mere suggestion of Dawn having one-night stands. "No, as far as I know, Dawn has never had a one-night stand with anyone, male or female. It's just not her thing."

  Aiden looked away for a moment. Wish I could say that for myself. If I ever have a relationship with Dawn, I hope she doesn't hold it against me.

  "Then can you tell us about her romantic interests in the last few years?" Kade continued to inquire into Dawn's love life.

  Aiden turned her head and looked at Grace, who was sitting two seats down the row. She looked pale, her lips pressed together.

  Del looked at Grace for a moment, too, before she answered. "She hasn't been in a relationship with a man or shown any interest in a man for the last five years."

  Aiden noted with relief that Del had only told them the most important details for the case and protected Dawn's privacy otherwise. Still, she was glad that Dawn didn't have to witness this dissection of her private life.

  "Nothing further." Kade sat back down.

  Linehan raised her gavel. "We'll break for lunch now and reconvene in two hours. Court is adjourned."

  CHAPTER 20

  AIDEN LENGTHENED her stride when she saw the now familiar figure of Grace Kinsley standing in the courthouse hallway. "Where's Dawn?" she asked, looking around for the younger Kinsley woman. For the last two hours, nervousness had hummed through her every vein, and she wasn't sure if she was nervous because Dawn had to testify soon or because this would be the first time in a week she'd see her.

  "In there." Grace directed a concerned glance at the door of the ladies' room.

  "Is she okay?"

  Grace sighed. "She has hardly eaten or slept in two days. I hope it'll all be over soon."

  Aiden nodded. She couldn't agree more. "I'll go and see how she's doing," she offered.

  When she entered the bathroom, it was empty except for one person. Dawn stood hunched over one of the sinks, leaning heavily on it with both hands. Her head hung down, and when she finally lifted it, Aiden could see the water Dawn had just splashed into her pale face. At least she hoped they were drops of tap water and not tears rolling down her cheeks.

  Dawn's eyes searched out Aiden's in the mirror.

  "Hey. What are you doing here?" Dawn asked, straightening up.

  Aiden shrugged. "I took the day off to watch the trial and offer a little support."

  A small smile formed on Dawn's lips. "That's really nice of you. Thank you."

  "I built up so much overtime that my lieutenant was breathing down my neck to take some time off anyway," Aiden said. She didn't want Dawn to think she was behaving unprofessionally and giving her special treatment even though she was.

  "Still, I'm not too proud to admit I need all the support I can get." Dawn exhaled shakily.

  Aiden stepped closer and gently touched the small back. "You okay?"

  "I'd be in there," Dawn pointed to one of the stalls, "chucking up my lunch if I'd eaten anything." She didn't try to play the unaffected hero, a refreshing change from all the macho cops Aiden knew. "I just hope I don't have a flashback right there on the stand or freeze up and –"

  "It'll be all right," Aiden said, her hand moving in small, soothing circles over Dawn's stiff back. "If you need a break, just ask for one. Linehan will grant it."

  Dawn took a deep breath and turned to her, away from the mirror. "Okay." Her gray-green eyes searched Aiden's face. "Can I have a good-luck hug?"

  Without hesitation, Aiden opened her arms. Dawn needed the reassurance, and she didn't care who might walk in on them. She wrapped her arms around the trembling body and inhaled deeply. "I'll be right there, sitting in the first row, okay?" she whispered into the blond hair.

  Dawn said nothing; she just rested against Aiden for a few seconds before she stepped back and squared her shoulders. "Let's go," she said with a sigh.

  "Dawn?" Aiden said when they stepped out into the hallway and joined Dawn's mother. "Did you ever ride in a police cruiser?"

  Now a small smile formed on Dawn's lips. "Isn't it a little late to find out if I've ever been arrested?"

  Aiden returned the smile. "That's not why I'm asking."

  "Ah, then is it an offer to spring me out of here with lights and sirens?"

  Aiden chuckled. "Sorry, no, it's not. Just something a curious cop like me would like to know."

  "Once around the parking lot of patrol district eight-nineteen – without lights and sirens, though," Dawn admitted, smiling fondly at the memory.

  "Did she get into trouble over it?" Aiden wanted to know.

  Dawn looked back at her. "She?"

  "Your driver."

  "What makes you think it was a she?" Dawn asked innocently.

  Aiden shrugged and grinned a
t her. "Let's just call it detective's intuition."

  All joking and conversation ceased when they reached the dark oak doors that separated them from the courtroom. "Want me to wait with you in the witness room?" Aiden offered even though that would mean that she wouldn't be able to hear Dawn's testimony.

  "No, you two go on in." Dawn gestured for her mother and Aiden to enter the courtroom. "I'll see you in a few minutes." A quick hug from Grace and a nod from Aiden and Dawn walked down the hallway.

  They followed her with their gazes for a few seconds, and then Aiden held open the double doors for Grace, entering behind her.

  * * *

  A court clerk opened the doors for her, and Dawn took her first steps into the courtroom. Her gaze immediately fell onto Garret Ballard, who had turned in his seat and was looking at her with a smirk.

  Dawn looked away and took another step. She faltered when her vision blurred and a wave of dizziness overcame her. She pressed a hand against her heaving chest. For a moment, she was afraid that she would faint.

  Then her vision cleared a little, and she looked at the gallery, where her friends and family were looking at her in concern. Forcing a small smile, she nodded at them and resumed her way toward the witness stand.

  Dawn felt the smooth, cool leather of the Bible under her palm as she was sworn in. Somehow, it had a calming effect, perhaps because it reminded her of Aiden's favorite jacket.

  "Would you please state your full name and spell it?"

  "Dawn Amanda Kinsley. D-A-W-N, A-M-A-N-D-A, K-I-N-S-L-E-Y," Dawn said, glad to be distracted by the mundane task of spelling her name for a few seconds.

  "Doctor Kinsley." Kade Matheson stopped next to the witness-box and set down a glass of water in front of Dawn, receiving a nod for the thoughtful gesture, "can you tell us what happened on the night of October 6th?"

  Dawn's mouth went dry, and she took a sip of water. "I had been out to a club called 'Rainbows' that evening with three friends. I had come home alone. Around three o'clock, a loud noise woke me up. At first I thought it had been my cat jumping in through the window I always leave open for her, but when I went to investigate, there was a man standing in my living room." She remembered that moment of terror and fright clearly. She had stood there, frozen, for a second not sure if she was really awake or still dreaming.

  "Go on," Kade Matheson encouraged her.

  "He had a gun. He pressed me against the wall with his forearm across my throat and pointed the gun at my temple while he told me that he would kill me if I tried to escape or call for help." Dawn looked straight at Kade, avoiding even a fleeting glance at Garret Ballard, afraid that she would lose her composure. "He ripped the phone cord from the wall and threw my cell phone out of the window. Then he dragged me back into the bedroom."

  Kade nodded grimly. "What happened in there?"

  Dawn took a few careful breaths, trying not to hyperventilate. This time, she avoided looking at the gallery. She hadn't told her mother any details about the rape, and she didn't want to see the expression on her mother's face when she heard them for the first time. "He pushed me down onto the bed and ripped my clothes. He forced my legs apart with one hand while the other kept pressing the gun against my head." Dawn knew that she had to paint as detailed a picture for the jury as she could even if it was hard for her. "Then he raped me."

  "Did he say anything?" Kade asked.

  Dawn's fingers tightened around her water glass. "He told me to look at him – and he hit me anytime I tried to turn my head away. He broke my finger when I laid a hand across my eyes. He wanted me to see who was doing this to me."

  "Did he say anything else?"

  "H-he..." Dawn shook her head to clear it when her vision began to blur. "He ordered me not to 'lie there like a dead fish' and to 'stop acting as if I didn't enjoy being fucked by a real man,'" Dawn spat the words out and then emptied her glass as if they had left a bad taste in her mouth.

  Kade waited for a few seconds. "What happened next?"

  "When he finally... ejaculated, he backhanded me one last time and then started to throw things from my bookcase around and trample them," Dawn finished.

  "Can you tell us what things specifically?" Kade asked.

  Right after she had been raped, Dawn hadn't noticed on which of her belongings her attacker went berserk. She had lain there, trying to remove her mind from the present and not notice anything he did. But she had looked at photos of her bedroom a few weeks later. "Some books with lesbian characters, a few lesbian movies, the photographs of my ex-girlfriend, and a few other things that were in the way."

  "Doctor Kinsley, had you ever seen the man who raped you before that night?"

  "Well..." Dawn cleared her throat. "I thought I hadn't, but it turned out I just hadn't paid him any attention. He was the doorman of the club I went to that evening."

  "Did you ever talk to that man before?" Kade asked.

  Dawn shook her head emphatically. "No, never."

  "Is the man who raped you here in this courtroom today?" Kade stepped to the side so Dawn could get a clear view of the courtroom.

  For the first time, Dawn was forced to look directly at the defense table and Garett Ballard. She wondered how he could return her gaze so coolly. "Yes."

  "Would you point that man out for the jury, please?"

  Slowly, Dawn raised her hand and pointed an accusing finger at Ballard.

  "Your Honor, may the record reflect that the witness identified the defendant, Mr. Ballard, as the man who raped her," Kade said in the direction of the bench.

  The judge nodded. "Let the record so indicate."

  "Dr. Kinsley, you said the man threatened you with a gun... could you describe it?"

  The matter-of-fact question was easy to answer for Dawn. "It was a Glock 17, a nine-millimeter semiautomatic pistol."

  Kade held up a transparent evidence bag with a red seal. "Have you ever seen this weapon, indexed as People's exhibit seven, before?"

  Dawn looked down at the black gun. "It's the Glock he held against my temple."

  "Objection, Your Honor!" D'Aquino's voice boomed through the courtroom, making Dawn jump. "Move to strike. The witness is a psychologist, not a weapons expert. She can't identify individual weapons."

  Linehan looked from him to Dawn. "Overruled. You can impeach her ability to identify the weapon in your cross-examination, Counselor."

  "Doctor, you were able to help the police with their investigation; how so?" Kade began her next line of questioning.

  "I work as a rape counselor, and I noticed the similarities of a patient's case to my own. After the patient agreed to waive patient-doctor confidentiality, I alerted Detective Carlisle to the fact that the rapes might have a homophobic motive," Dawn told her, feeling more confident now that her testimony resembled that of an expert witness, not that of a victim.

  "And after they arrested Mr. Ballard, did the police ask for your help again?"

  Dawn looked over to the gallery, catching the intense gaze of Aiden's amber eyes for a second. "They asked me to come to the station for a lineup."

  "What were the results?" Kade asked.

  "I was able to identify Mr. Ballard as the man who had raped me."

  Kade nodded, looking back over her shoulder at Ballard. "How sure of that identification were you?"

  "One hundred percent," Dawn said without hesitation.

  "Thank you. No further questions for now, Your Honor."

  Dawn pressed her lips together as she watched Kade sit down and the defense attorney approach.

  "Ms. Kinsley, do you own a gun?"

  Dawn studied him suspiciously. Where is he going with this? "No, I don't." After much consideration, she had decided not to buy a gun after all.

  "So, you're not a weapons expert?"

  Now Dawn knew what he was trying to achieve with the question. He wanted to poke holes into her identification of the gun Ballard had used. "Not in the strictest sense of the word, no."

  "Did you
know that Smith & Wesson is being sued by Glock because Smith & Wesson's Sigma series is very similar to the Glock?" D'Aquino asked her.

  Dawn had to suppress her annoyance. She had to answer truthfully even if the question had nothing to do with her ability to identify Ballard's weapon. "No, I didn't know that."

  The defense attorney held up another evidence bag with a gun in it. It had the same black polymer plastic grip the Glock had. "I submit Defense's exhibit one, a pistol produced by Smith & Wesson, into evidence."