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He stayed like that in the Automat until 1030. “Time to do my job.”
Matt headed upstairs towards the courtroom where the initial hearing for Callatano v. New York was taking place. Rita was standing outside, looking she needed a smoke. “I hope you don’t drag this crap out through lunch, Duquesne, I need a nicotine fix.”
“This ‘crap’ is our justice system.”
“Whatever.” Rita walked into the courtroom, Matt looked up to see Eddie in a good suit and with a calm look about him.
“Eddie, you look good.”
“Gotta look good, Mr. Duquesne. I’ve got a jury to impress.”

Matt crossed his eyes and sighed. “We’re gonna lose,” he muttered as he followed Rita in and led Eddie behind him.

Both lawyers had their briefcases open on tables and papers spread out with their notes for opening and closing statements. Matt made a proper show of looking interested while Rita stood up to give her opening.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are all well aware of why we’re here. The killing of one Diamond City lowlife by another.”

“Objection, Your Honor. Characterizing my client as a ‘lowlife’ in opening remarks is prejudicial.”

“Oh for pete’s sake, Duquesne. You’re defending the Arfiglio  family’s trigger-puller.”

“Objection, statement without corroborating evidence.”

The judge gave both of them a hard look. “Sustained and sustained, refrain from making any sweeping opinions about the accused, if you would, Ms. Hayes.”

Rita gritted her teeth while trying to hide the fumes coming out of her ears from the jury. At least she’d rung the bell. “Yes, Your Honor. We are to look at the facts of a situation that no one but Eddie Callatano knows what really happened in. I only ask that the jury will take what they know of this city,” she glanced at Matt for another objection, “And come to a verdict that fits the known facts. Thank you.”

Matt stood up as Rita was sitting down. “Esteemed members of the jury, we are faced with a thorny problem. Self-defense where no one but the man defending himself comes out the other side. Had one other person been present, this would be a non-issue. As our sorry situation stands, we have only Eddie’s lone word that Vercetti drew on him first and forced him to shoot to defend his own life, as any person in Diamond City would. The defense will show reasonable circumstances, since we all know we can never be sure what really happened, and I ask that you put yourselves in Eddie’s shoes and give him the same benefit of the doubt you would wish for yourself. Thank you.” Matt sat down and wiped his hands on his pants legs.

Rita was steaming as she stood up to call witness. “The prosecution calls Detective First Grade Arthur Firelli to the stand.”

Firelli got out of the audience and moved slowly to the front. The veteran homicide cop didn’t like testifying and had wanted Callatano to plea bargain. Unfortunately, that Mob lawyer dipshit Duquesne had the case.

Rita approached him with a friendly smile. After swearing Firelli in, she started her questioning. ”If you would please, Detective, state your name and occupation for the record.”

“Arthur Lucas Firelli, homicide detective with the Diamond City Police Department, 15 years.”

“And what did you find when you were first called to the crime scene, Detective?”

“Well, Vercetti had a hole in his chest and Callatano was sitting on his, he was sitting down on the curb holding his gun in his lap. He said Vercetti had drawn his gun first, and after the Medical Examiner arrived and cleared the body, we started looking for Vercetti’s Hello Kitty pistol.”

“Did you find it, Detective?”

“Not at the time, no.”

“So it was possible the gun wasn’t there immediately after the shooting?”

“Objection, counsel is asking witness to speculate.” Matt looked bored, his eyes half-closed.

“Sustained. One more misstep from you, Ms. Hayes, and  I will throw this case out of my courtroom.”

Rita had steam officially coming out of her ears. Whose pocket was the damn judge in this week? She bulled on. “When was the gun found?”

“The gun was found two days later, while a local cleaning company was cleansing the site for the city. They found the pistol, identified it as Chucky  Vercetti’s and called homicide. We collected the weapon into evidence.”

Rita walked back to her desk and retrieved the bagged and tagged gun. “To ensure clarity, Detective, this is the weapon identified as Charles Vercetti’s?”

“Yes, nobody else in this city is queer enough to have ‘Hello Kitty’ stickers on their pistol grip. And the weapon is legally registered by serial number to Charles Vercetti.”

“Strange, don’t you think? A known Mob legman-”

“Objection, statement without corroborating evidence.”

“Overruled, Vercetti’s convictions are a matter of public record, Counsel.”

Rita had a quick grin that she smothered. “A known Mob leg man, just happens to have the only weapon he owns that is both distinctive to him and legally registered to him with him the very time he is shot in an alleged act of self-defense by Mr. Callatano, wouldn’t you say, Detective?”

“Objection, witness’ opinion. What could possibly be strange about carrying a weapon you legally own in this city?”

Rita spoke up. “Your Honor, the prosecution is asking Detective Firelli based on his decade and a half experience in law enforcement. That’s hardly mere opinion.”

“Overruled. Answer the question, Detective.”

Firelli scratched his shorn chin. “What was the question again?’

Rita looked up to heaven before she spoke. “Does it  seem strange that a known  Mob leg man is carrying a  weapon distinctive to and registered legally to him when he is shot in an alleged self-defense?”

“I would say so, or at least convenient.”

It was Matt’s turn to fume. Whose pocket was the judge in this week? Rita smiled and stepped to her desk. “Defense, your witness.”

Firelli sat up a little straighter as Matt got out of his seat. “Detective Firelli, was the crime scene secured the entire time between the commission of the shooting and the arrival of the crime scene cleaning company?”

“Yes, the entire time, that’s procedure.” Firelli nodded to that.

“So, if what the prosecution suggests, ney, implies, is true, one of your own people would have to put the gun there. Is that what you’re saying?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. The police department had the scene under watch the entire time.”

“So if you had the scene under watch the entire time, and your own people are completely above Mob influence, the gun had to have been there the whole time.”

“Was there a question in that?’ Firelli scratched his head and looked at Rita desperately.

“Objection, defense isn’t asking a question, he’s making a statement without evidence.”

“Sustained, re-phrase as a question, Mr. Duquesne.”

“Based on the guard for the entire time for the police department and none of your people tampering with evidence, was the gun there the entire time since the shooting?”

“Objection, leading the witness.”

Matt gave up, he’d made his point. “No further questions, Your Honor.”

Rita called the forensics tech who had examined Vercetti’s gun next, confirming that the pistol had not been fired.

Feeling she’d made her point, “The prosecution rests, Your Honor.”

Matt stood up to call his own witness. “The defense calls Edward Callatano to the stand.”

Rita was wiping the jaw-drop off her  face, the judge looked less than pleased. But Eddie walked up to the witness stand, playing down his heft as he moved and giving the jury a couple of innocent looks before reaching the stand and sitting down. Eddie was subdued as he was sworn as a witness.

“Please state your name and occupation for the record.”

“Edward ‘Eddie’ Callatano, gas station cashier at the 7/11 on Broadshire Street, night shift.”

“Thank you, Mr. Callatano. If I may, I’d like to have you recount in your own words what happened the night of July 16, this year. Start from the beginning of your work shift, if you would.”

“I clocked in at 8 o’clock like I always do and double-checked the register before I ledgered for the money in it. It was a quiet night, not much happening. Chucky came in,”

“Mr. Callatano, if you would confirm for the record that ‘Chucky’ is Charles Vercetti?”

“Yeah, that’s Charles Vercetti’s nickname. Nobody but his mama calls him Charles in the neighborhood. Anyway, Chucky came in and said he wanted to talk to me about some things during my first break. Of course, I got a  cold sweat going, trying to figure why Chucky’s bosses want to talk to me. During my first break, I bought myself some Twix bars and a  big coffee and went out back to drink and eat ‘em. I finished my snack and was about to go back inside when Chucky appeared from behind  the dumpster. He said Don Arfiglio wanted me iced for not taking a dive at the boxing last week and pulled his pistol.”

Matt gestured  to the bagged gun. “By ‘his pistol,’ you are referring  to  the gun in evidence?”

“Yeah, the Glock with the Hello Kitty stickers, everybody knows that’s Chucky’s gun. He pulled his gun and told me to lay down on my mug and take it like a man and he’d make it quick, no pain or nothing. I reached under my coat and pulled out my gun, the one for anybody who tries to rob the store, you know, and shot him before he could think about me rejecting his offer and shoot me standing. After Chucky fell down, I tossed my gun down and ran inside to call an am-bu-lance, and they brought the cops, and they arrested me.”

“That will be enough, Mr. Callatano. Prosecution, your witness.”

Rita had not expected Duquesne to put his own client up on the stand and had to fumble for questions, damning his name all the way. “Mr. Callatano, your version of events makes a nice story of your helpless innocence, defending yourself against the vicious Mafia hitman. Strange that, however, you know him well enough to immediately call him Chucky in your testimony. How long have you known Charles Vercetti?”

“Ever since, ever since we were kids, you know. Everybody down in Little Italy grew up together, I didn’t want to shoot him, but he gave me no choice.”

Rita gritted her teeth. “I’m sure, living  down in Little Italy, you’ve had enough friends waving guns around all your life to not immediately assume one drawn means death automatically.”

“Objection, asked and answered, subjective perception. Mr. Callatano was told he was about to be killed, would you have waited for the first bullet to be fired, Ms. Hayes?”

“Sustained, please refrain from badgering during an objection, Mr. Duquesne.”

Rita ground her teeth and knew what the jury was going to do. “No further questions, Your Honor.”

The judge to give instruction. “If both counsel waive closing arguments,” he waited for the two nods, “The jury is dismissed to deliberate. Court will re-convene in one hour to ascertain the jury’s standing on a verdict. Court is adjourned until 1:30 pm.” The gavel came down and the audience started to thin, this was the boring part.

Matt leaned back as Eddie sat back down next to him. “That was beautiful, Eddie, you’ll be a free man in an hour.”

Rita threw a balled-up printer paper at them. “Jackass, you damn well know Vercetti never even drew that gun. You’re both disgraces to the term ‘human.’” She left the courtroom to get her smoke.

To be Continued