Hello, faithful readers! Sorry it has taken me so long to get this next chapter out to you. I was busy all day and then I had issues with uploading so I had to wait until now to give this to you, so I sincerely apologize. I would like to thank all of you wonderful reviewers-hearing back from you essentially every chapter has been awesome and I really can't thank you enough for all of your kind words.
In this chapter you will be meeting Kendall! So get ready for that :)
And just a quick shout out to MiiMyselfandTime, DaniiLuvsBTR, Scarlet Amber, TurnUpTheBassAndTreble, and tank602 who all reviewed last chapter. Thanks for reviewing! And you are all awesome. And MiiMyselfandTime, no I do not watch "Castle," but my friend and her mom watch it and they LOVE it. I may have to check it out this summer :)
Sorry for the long note, and on with the chapter!
Logan and James went to Carlos Garcia's bail hearing the next day. While waiting for the hearing to begin, they discussed the case so far.
"So did Jennifer Moroe's friends tell you anything about a boyfriend?" Logan asked James, who had called the victim's friends earlier that morning.
"They said that Jennifer never said anything about a boyfriend," James responded. "They said that she always told them about the guys she dated and for her to keep one a secret would be weird and completely unlike her."
Logan raised his eyebrows. "So I guess Carlos is lying," he said. James nodded, but neither of them were about to accept that full-on. Sure, Carlos had lied to them before during this case, and what he was saying and his explanations for things were definitely too convenient for both of them to completely accept, but something about this case didn't feel right. For some reason, both James and Logan were having trouble accepting that Carlos was guilty of murdering Jennifer Moroe.
Their thoughts about the case were interrupted when they heard Carlos' name called, indicating that it was his turn to have his hearing.
"Oh hey, look," Logan whispered to James. "Kendall Knight from the District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case against Carlos."
"Kendall Knight?" James whispered back. The name sounded familiar but he had never met him before.
"Yeah," Logan responded quickly. "He's Katie Knight's brother, from the ME's office. He's good to work with, don't worry."
James nodded and listened to the proceedings. Since Carlos didn't have a lawyer, he really didn't have anyone fighting for him during this hearing. When Kendall said that the DA's office thought that Carlos should be held without bail, Carlos didn't even know what to say. Upon hearing that Carlos had run away from police and resisted arrest before, the judge immediately agreed with Kendall and Carlos was returned to his cell without any hope of getting out again until the case was over, and that was only if he was found not guilty.
After the hearing James and Logan left the courtroom and walked towards Kendall.
"Hey, Kendall!" Logan called after the lawyer.
"Hey, Logan," Kendall said, a little distracted.
"Hey, I'm James Diamond. I'm Logan's—" James started to say.
"Partner," Kendall interrupted. "Yeah, nice to meet you. So, what happened to you guys?" Kendall asked, gesturing to Logan's and James' stitches.
"Oh, you know, the dangerous life of a police detective," Logan said, shrugging humorously. "You wouldn't know about that, being a lawyer and all…"
"Yeah, yeah," Kendall said, laughing at his friend's teasing. But he stopped smiling when he saw Carlos being led away to the police car that transferred him from the precinct to the courthouse.
"So," Logan said, frowning at the distracted look on Kendall's face. "How do you think this case is going to go?"
"What case?" Kendall asked, not fully paying attention to reality, but rather getting lost in his own thoughts.
"The case that you're here for…" Logan said slowly, looking at Kendall concerned.
"Kendall?" James asked when Kendall didn't respond.
"What? Oh, yeah, sorry about that…" Kendall said without offering an explanation.
"Logan asked how you felt about the case," James said. "What kind of lawyer spaces out like that?" James thought to himself, not really liking Kendall Knight too much upon first meeting him.
"Sorry," Kendall said. "I wasn't paying attention. But anyway I'm glad you asked because I'm not going to be working this case anymore."
"What?" Logan asked. "District Attorney Rocque doesn't think you can handle it?"
Kendall shook his head. "No, Gustavo assigned me this case himself for once instead of making Kelly do it all. I think I'm going to ask to be dismissed from it though."
"Who's Kelly?" James asked quickly. "And why do you want to be dismissed from this case? Do you not think there's enough evidence against him?" he asked incredulously because, after all, there was a substantial amount of evidence against Carlos Garcia.
"Kelly is the Assistant District Attorney, but she does more work than the District Attorney, Gustavo Rocque, does," Logan answered swiftly. "Now, Kendall, why are you going to ask to be dropped from the case?"
Kendall shrugged. "I don't know. It's not a matter of enough evidence, but…I just…it doesn't feel right."
Upon seeing James' and Logan's confused faces, Kendall continued to explain. "You see, I became a lawyer to put bad people in jail and protect the good people. There is so much evidence against Carlos Garcia proving that he's guilty, but I just don't think he is. I mean he doesn't even have a lawyer! He has no idea what to do and I just…call it a gut instinct or whatever, but I just don't think he's guilty. I can't prosecute a man who I don't think is guilty."
James and Logan were quiet for a moment. Then Logan said, "I know what you mean."
James nodded. "I know I feel the same way about this. I don't necessarily think he's innocent, but I don't think he's guilty yet."
Logan agreed. "It's like I keep wanting to go back to the crime scene or Carlos' apartment and find more evidence against him, but we have plenty of evidence against him. The fact that I want more evidence seems to indicate to me that maybe he's not guilty."
"I know there is enough evidence to convince a jury," Kendall said. "And the fact that he doesn't have a lawyer makes it even easier to charge him. Just something about this feels wrong."
"We may be able to convince a jury that he's guilty, but I know that I have yet to convince myself," James said, surprised that he felt so relieved that Logan and Kendall agreed with him.
"All right," Kendall said taking charge. "It looks like we might need to investigate this a little more. I won't ask to be dropped from the case yet. That way I'll have access to Carlos and the case and things like that. The trial is in a week. That means that we have less than a week to figure out what really happened. There is so much evidence against Carlos Garcia that the only way I see it being possible to clear him is to find out who actually killed Jennifer Moroe."
"So we're working as a team now?" James asked, surprised that he went from not liking Kendall Knight to all of a sudden being on the same team as him to prove innocent the guy that he had arrested twice the day before.
"If that works for you guys," Kendall said hesitantly, realizing that he had kind of just jumped into this and had expected Logan and James to agree and join him right away.
Logan and James looked at each other.
"I'm in," Logan said simply, and then looked at James.
James hesitated. Sure, he was a little unsure about the case, but that didn't mean he thought Carlos was innocent. He just didn't know if Carlos was guilty. But there was so much evidence…
"I just want to find out the truth," James said. "So I'm in."
So a lot of you thought that Kendall would be the ex-boyfriend, but no, I made him a lawyer. How do you all feel about that? I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there will be more to come sometime tomorrow. Have a great day/night/whatever and please review!
