Chapter Four: Truth and Betrayal
"What are you doing here?" Duncan asks in the interview room the next day. "You were going to see me in an hour anyway."
"I need you to describe Mike on the night of the poker match," Courtney demands, getting straight to the point.
"I don't know, it's Mike!" Duncan replies. "He was stupid and boring." Courtney rolls her eyes.
"That's not what I meant," she sighs. "Is there any possibility he wasn't actually Mike? Maybe he was one of his other personalities?"
"Didn't Zoey already tell you that he got rid of those?" Duncan reminds her.
"Yes but his medical records suggest otherwise," Courtney says. "What was he wearing? Do you remember?"
"What he usually wears I guess, I don't know I don't pay attention to clothes," Duncan replies. Courtney looks him straight in the eyes and doesn't blink.
"It's extremely important that you remember the little details," she tells him firmly. "Did he have a shirt on?" Duncan thinks back before nodding slowly. Courtney frowns and looks down at her notes. "What about a hat? In particular a fedora." Duncan squints his eyes, trying to remember.
"Yeah, and he was putting on a dumb accent," he tells her.
"Really? Was it an Australian accent?" Courtney asks.
"It might have been trying to be but I don't think it really was," Duncan says. Courtney laughs and Duncan smiles, pleased he was able to get that kind of response from her.
"Okay, well it looks like you were gambling with Manitoba, not Mike," Courtney informs him. He nods and Courtney stands to leave.
"Courtney," Duncan says softly. Courtney turns to look at him. "You don't really think I did it, do you? It wasn't even that much money, I wouldn't kill for that." Courtney shrugs.
"I don't know, Duncan," she tells him honestly. "The two biggest motives for murder are money and adultery, and at the moment you're the only one who has that kind of motive. But regardless of whether you did it or not, I'm still going to try and get you out, I promise." Duncan nods again and Courtney smiles at him sadly before leaving to prepare for the trial.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. Everyone knows that fifty per cent of the time, the husband or wife is the murderer," Courtney overhears Harold say as she walks into the courtroom an hour later. She'd noticed many of the past Total Drama contestants had been attending the trial over the few days it had been going. "The other fifty per cent of the time it's the guy with the mohawk." Harold glares at Duncan as Leshawna, who Harold's been talking to, rolls her eyes.
"Your honour, ladies and gentlemen of the jury," Courtney addresses the court when the court has been put into session. "My client swears that he attended a poker match with the deceased Mike Posey, but Miss Zoey Cordwell assures us that her fiancé was never a gambler. Miss Cordwell also swears that Mr Posey's dissociative identity disorder had disappeared. I'd like to invite Mike's doctor, Dr Knightly, to the stand." The judge nods in approval.
"Dr Henry Knightly please take to the stand," the bailiff says. Mike's doctor does as he's told and nervously looks around the courtroom as he sits down. He swears to the oath and Courtney clears her throat before beginning.
"Dr Knightly, how long had Mike Posey been a patient of yours?" she asks.
"He first started coming to me when he was fourteen, so he'd been my patient for a bit over eight years," Dr Knightly replies.
"And when he told you he wanted to audition for Total Drama, you informed him it would be a bad idea, but he did it anyway. Is this correct?"
"Yes, that's right."
"After he returned from Total Drama All-Stars, did it appear that his alternate personalities had disappeared, as he claimed?" Courtney wonders.
"Yes, it did appear that way for a short period of time," Dr Knightly admits. "But almost a week later he came to me saying he'd become incredibly frustrated and Chester had appeared. He was concerned that if his other personalities weren't gone, then Mal wouldn't be either, so he asked me to help him handle them better."
"Which you were able to do, so Zoey wouldn't have known if his personalities were back?" Courtney queries. The doctor nods.
"He did start getting better at controlling them, but he was still seeing me once a week up until his death," he replies.
"Did any of Mike's personalities have gambling tendencies?"
"Yes, Manitoba was known for placing a few bets and was often up for a game of poker," Dr Knightly informs her. Courtney smiles sweetly at him.
"Thank you, doctor. No further questions."
"Mr Jones, do you have any questions for Dr Knightly?" the judge asks. Jones shakes his head.
"No, your honour," he says.
"Call the next witness," the judge demands.
"Ann Maria Waters please take to the stand," the bailiff says. Ann Maria struts up to the stand as if it were a throne and smiles at the people in the courtroom like a queen. Courtney stands up again.
"Miss Waters, could you please tell us what you were doing on the night of Mike Posey's murder?" she requests. Ann Maria nods.
"Certainly," she says. "Me and my boyfriend Danny had gone out for drinks with some of our friends from high school, and we went to that bar where I saw Zoey and Mike."
"Zoey," Courtney starts, but she quickly corrects herself. "Miss Cordwell, said that she waved to you but you didn't respond. Why is that?"
"Because she stole my boyfriend!" Ann Maria replies angrily, as if it were obvious. "I was with Vito before she was ever with Mike, but he seemed to like her better! Wouldn't you be mad if some homewrecker stole your man?" Courtney wanted to tell Ann Maria that she was mad, that she could relate. She wanted to say that it was incredibly heart-breaking, but she knew she had to remain professional.
"You were with someone new though, and it had been six years since then. Couldn't you at least be civil towards her?" Courtney asks.
"Objection! How is this relevant?" Mr Jones wonders.
"Sustained. Miss Holland-Free, please return to the matter at hand," the judge tells her. Courtney nods.
"Yes your honour, sorry."
"Look, that little red-head never even apologised, so I was kind of mad at her," Ann Maria answers, even though she isn't required to.
"Did you have any other interactions with the victim or his fiancé that night?" Courtney wonders.
"You bet I did!" Ann Maria says confidently.
"Would you care to recount the events of that night?"
"Like I said, I was out with my boyfriend and some friends from high school…"
Ann Maria and her friends are sitting by the bar and are all laughing at a story Danny just recounted. Danny draws attention from the bartender.
"Another round!" he shouts over the noise of the other patrons. The bartender nods and begins making the drinks. Ann Maria looks away from the group for a moment and catches the eye of Zoey, someone she hasn't seen in almost six years. Zoey waves but Ann Maria refuses to return the courtesy. She notices that Zoey is walking with Mike to one of the booths but they disappear behind a pillar and Ann Maria loses them. She turns back to her group who have received their drinks.
"Yo Ann Maria," Danny says with a grin. "Shauna was just saying how you two did a fashion shoot for the school newsletter when you was in school. That true?" Ann Maria smiles back at him.
"Yeah baby, we were the two hottest girls in school, isn't that right Shauna?" she tells him with a wink. She turns back around to see if she can see Zoey and Mike, and she watches as Mike leaves the bar with a man she's never seen before.
"Did the man look like my client?" Courtney asks, gesturing to Duncan. Ann Maria studies him for a moment.
"Yeah, that's the guy," Ann Maria assures her. "So Mike and that guy go outside, and I decide to follow them."
Ann Maria follows Mike and Duncan outside and hides behind the wall to watch them. She sees Duncan push Mike up against the wall but she can't quite hear what they're saying. Ann Maria thinks she sees Mike glance her way and she pulls herself back against the wall so that she can't see him and Duncan. When she thinks it's safe, she peers around the wall again and Mike has his shirt off. Duncan seems to have finished with Mike and he walks off back in the direction of the bar. Ann Maria pulls herself against the wall again and Duncan passes her without a glance in her direction. She decides she needs a cigarette and heads over to Mike to see if he wants one.
"Hey, do you want one?" she offers, holding the open pack to him. He looks up at her.
"Ann Maria?" he asks in his Vito voice.
"Vito? I haven't seen you in ages!" Ann Maria exclaims.
"Come here baby," Vito says seductively. Ann Maria giggles and takes a step towards him. He pulls her in and kisses her. She knows with her boyfriend just inside she should pull away, but he's just so irresistible that she starts to kiss him back, throwing her arms around his neck with her cigarettes still in hand. Vito dips her and kisses her even more passionately. He brings her upright again and she reluctantly pulls away.
"I need to go to the bathroom," Ann Maria informs him. "Wait here for me?"
"Of course baby," Vito agrees with a wink. Ann Maria giggles and heads inside to use the bathroom. She does her business and spends a couple of minutes checking herself in the mirror before going back outside. She stops dead when she sees Duncan holding the knife over Mike's dead body. It takes her a moment to realise what she sees seeing but when she does she lets out a scream. Duncan turns to her slowly, a look of terror in his eyes.
"So I called the cops and that was that," Ann Maria concludes.
"But Mike was definitely still alive after my client had threatened him?" Courtney questions.
"Yeah," Ann Maria answers.
"When he walked past you was he holding an envelope that might have contained money?"
"I don't know, I didn't take any notice. What does it matter? I saw that guy with the knife in his hands."
"Is it possible that in the time it took you to go to the bathroom and fix your hair and make-up, someone could have taken Duncan's knife from his pocket and used it to murder Mr Posey, left it in the body and run away? Then when Duncan was leaving the bar he saw the pocket knife that he knew belonged to him and took it without thinking?" Courtney asks. Ann Maria shrugs.
"Yeah, I guess so," she says as if she doesn't really care, which she probably doesn't. Courtney smiles in accomplishment, as if this has opened up something for her.
"Thank you Miss Waters, no further questions."
