Chapter 13

"Jury's back," the bailiff announced the following morning when the jury had been previously dismissed to begin deliberations.

Brian looked at the clock. "Already? They've only been out twenty minutes." He turned and smiled at Ryan. "This could be a good thing."

The courtroom had been packed more than usual on this day and TruTV had been covering every step.

As much as he tried to duck the cameras and avoid as much exposure as possible, somehow Brian still ended up on the front page of the cable network's website. His life as he had known it prior to defending Ryan was all but over.

The jurors filed back in, a few smiling in Ryan's direction, before being seated.

"Have you reached a verdict?" Judge Durkin asked.

The foreman rose. "We have, Your Honor."

"Could you hand the verdict to the bailiff please?"

The foreman done as requested; the courtroom went into a total hush of anticipation as Judge Durkin read the slip before prompting the foreman once again. "How do you find the defendant?"

"We the jury, in the case of State vs. Buckingham, on the charge of Murder in the Second Degree, find the defendant, Ryan Buckingham, not guilty."

The gallery broke out in loud applause and cries. In any other circumstance, Judge Durkin would have required order, but today was different. Everyone had gone through enough; let their emotions out on this day.

"The defendant is excused. Good luck to you, Mr. Buckingham," the judge said, pounding his gavel.

The trial was finally over

Ryan was elated. He had turned to Brian and his staff. "Thank you. Thank all of you for hard work," he said with a broad smile.

"Just another day at the office," Brian grinned back at him.

Arthur came up and hugged Ryan. "I knew I was right all along," the agent nodded.

"Thank you for believing in me, Arthur," Ryan replied.

"I had no reason not to," Arthur said. "And if Lily was here right now, she would be in agreement with me."

"Ryan," Brian interjected, "today is the first day of your new life. It's time you left this courthouse and started enjoying it as a free man."

"Absolutely," Arthur responded, "and I would like to be part of that by taking all of you to dinner to celebrate your victory."

"Give me a few minutes," Brian said. "Then I will be more than honored to take you up on your offer, Mr. Anders."

"Young man," the agent scolded, "as the person that helped clear Ryan's name, the other thing you can at least do is call me Arthur."

The others laughed as Brian nodded. "Certainly….Arthur."

A short time later:

As everyone was gathering up their things to leave, Helen Krenn came over to where Brian still remained.

"Looks like another win on your resume," she said. "Your acquittal record is getting quite strong."

"It's all in finding the missing pieces, Helen," Brian answered.

"Yes, and I guess our Chief Medical Examiner isn't as scatter brained as I'd thought."

"Considering you and your stuffed shirt of a boss have been on the mayor's ass for how long to get Doc fired or at least demoted, I'm sure he'd be happy to hear that one. You know, if you two spent some time down there instead of behind a desk, you'd be amazed how thorough Paul really is."

"I will keep that in mind. Are you free for coffee?"

"I'll take a rain check," Brian said, "I've already made dinner plans."

"Brian!" Lori called in. "There's some lady from TruTV that wants to put you on the air about the verdict."

He gave an annoyed sigh and looked at Helen. "What happened to the days when trials were covered the day after the verdict came in?"

"Welcome to modern day trial coverage," Helen said. "Once again, congratulations."

"Yeah," Brian smiled at her. "Better luck next time, huh?"

"With you at the defense table? I think from herein, I'm going to need more than luck." Helen chuckled, and then gave a wink. "Until the next trial."

Brian winked back. "It's a date."