Author's Notes: Lindsay's testimony is given in this chapter so it goes back into the dark side. I hope the courtroom scene doesn't come across as too dry. Reviews are always appreciated.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Chapter 44
"We call Lindsay Messer to the stand." The federal prosecutor announced as soon as court resumed after lunch.
The bailiff opened the door and directed Lindsay to enter. Knowing her legs were working stiffly with the pent up nervousness, Danny walked up the aisle with her, keeping one arm around her waist. Once he reached the front row, where Mac and Flack were once more saving him a seat, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear. "Remember, just keep your eyes on me and it'll all be over soon."
Danny took his seat and Lindsay continued on to the witness stand. After she swore to tell the truth she sat down. Immediately she could feel Atwood's eyes boring into her. She didn't look his way but she could picture the predatory look that would be on his face and felt him mentally undressing her with his eyes. Her hands tugged at the hem of her sweater, both to give her hands something to do and to reassure herself that her dream from the night before wasn't coming true. Despite Danny's reminder, Lindsay couldn't help but steal a look over at the jury members. Eight men and four women running the gambit of ages stared back at her. Whether it was actually there or not, she could almost feel the judgment in their gazes and her heart began to hammer in her chest. A buzzing filled her ears making it impossible to hear anything. Just when she was sure she was going to stand and flee the courtroom she could feel Danny's safe and comforting presence drawing her gaze back to him. Her eyes shifted to where he was sitting and he gave her a reassuring wink once he was sure her attention was fully on him. The buzzing diminished.
"Mrs. Messer?"
Lindsay realized he must have already asked her a question but she had no idea what it was. "I'm.." Her voice cracked and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She knew from experience that testifying as a cop was completely different from testifying as a victim. This was proving to be no different. "I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?"
"Certainly. I asked if you would state your full name and occupation for the record."
"Lindsay Monroe Messer, I'm a crime scene investigator with the New York Crime Lab."
The questions started off pretty benign as the prosecutor established for the record how Lindsay had become a hostage. Despite Danny's dislike for the man, the prosecutor seemed to recognize that Lindsay was being grounded by maintaining eye contact with her husband. So that he didn't get in the way of that, he stood slightly to the side, effectively blocking Atwood's view of his former victim.
"Will you please describe for the court what happened once you and the other hostages were taken into the warehouse?"
Lindsay took a deep breath though she knew there were parts of her captivity that were fuzzy and would probably always remain so because of the drugs she'd been forced to drink, those first moments in the warehouse came back with crystal clarity as if it had just happened. She began to recount the memory.
"One week ago today, these five individuals were standing right where you are standing." The same man who had announced at the bank they were being taken hostage was now speaking from his place besides the other set of hostages. He appeared to be the leader. "Some, like yourself, already a little battered and bruised; some only witnesses to a glimpse of what we were capable of. They have provided us with great entertainment in the last week. Some, more than others."
Leaning down, he pulled the conscious female to her feet and kissed her brutally. Again, Lindsay realized it was mild compared to the other sexual offenses the woman had endured. The woman's body trembled but she didn't fight back; apparently she had no fight left. He broke off the kiss and pointed his gun at her head. Lindsay stiffened, anticipating what was about to happen. The leader grinned at their horrified expressions. "They have, however, outlived their usefulness."
Without another word, he pulled the trigger.
Tears filled her eyes but didn't fall when she finished the memory. "I worked the crime scenes for the other hostages…"
The defense attorney jumped to his feet. "Objection, Your Honor, the witness is not testifying in an official capacity. Why are we hearing about crime scenes?"
"Sustained." The judge, an older woman with a no-nonsense attitude, answered.
Not wanting the interruption to throw Lindsay, the prosecutor continued on. He knew her story and where she'd been about to go with her statement. "You've seen dead bodies before, did that prepare you for seeing those five hostages murdered right in front of you?"
"Nothing can prepare you for seeing five people who had already obviously suffered horrendous atrocities gun down in cold blood by monsters…"
"Objection, your honor. Unfairly prejudicial."
Lindsay didn't wait for the judge to offer a ruling on the objection. "Sorry, your honor. I'll rephrase. Nothing can prepare you for seeing beaten and battered people shot without reason before your very eyes."
"What happened next?"
"We were left alone with the bodies. I knew that would be the five of us in a week's time unless I did something." She went on to explain how she had put the evidence from under her fingernails on one of the bodies. She'd barely finished when the defense attorney jumped to his feet again.
"Your Honor, in light of this testimony, I would like to make a motion to suppress the DNA evidence the prosecution plans to use due to a fatal flaw of chain of custody."
The prosecutor turned to look at him. "Your honor, as the defense counsel has already stated in an earlier objection, the witness is not testifying in an official capacity, how then could her testimony show a flaw of chain of custody?"
The judge didn't looked impressed with the defense counsels continual objections. "Motion denied. The prosecutor is correct, you can't have it both ways, Counselor."
The questioning continued in this vein for the next twenty minutes. It seemed like with every question Lindsay tried to answer, the defense counsel had some sort of objections. It was obvious to everyone involved that he was doing it more to keep Lindsay off kilter than to really voice legitimate concerns. It seemed to be working. Her voice was getting shakier and shakier. Danny knew she needed a break but neither she nor the prosecutor was asking for one. He drew his finger across his neck trying to signal her to cut off her testimony by asking for a recess.
This brought a new objection from the defense counsel. "Your Honor, it appears that the witness is being coached by someone in the galley. I ask that the bailiff remove him from the courtroom."
Panic flew into Lindsay's eyes at the thought that Danny might have to leave. She broke her eye contact with him to looked frantically to the judge. "Please, your honor, he's not coaching me. He's my husband and he's just worried about me getting too upset. Please don't make him leave."
The judge looked from Lindsay to Danny and then from the prosecutor to the defense attorney. "Objection overruled."
The defense attorney started to reiterate his objection but the judge stopped him. "Overruled. I saw what you saw and I do not believe there was anything even remotely nefarious about it. Although I will caution you Mr. Messer that I might not be similarly inclined to overlook any further communication attempts. Mrs. Messer, do you need a short recess?"
Lindsay shook her head, her eyes pleading with Danny to understand. What she needed was for this to be over with and all the continuous interruptions were just delaying the end of her testimony. "No, your honor. I'm okay to continue."
The trial continued and Lindsay worked hard to hide how unsettled she continued to feel at the questions from the prosecutor and the objections from the defense. It was harder when the questions turned to the more painful and intimate moments Atwood had put her through. She had practiced talking about the rape with Michelle and even Jo so that she could do so without becoming too overly emotional. But it was one thing talking one on one with a sympathetic ear and something totally different with a roomful of strangers. Even focusing only on Danny didn't make her forget that the others, including her rapist, were listening to her every word.
At long last the prosecutor ended his questions but asked for a ten minute recess before the cross examination. The judge agreed and the jury was dismissed. As soon as the door to the jury room closed, Danny was on his feet and at Lindsay's side. She didn't rise, not sure she could trust her legs to support her if she did.
"You okay, Babe?"
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. The prosecutor brought her a bottle of orange juice. "You are doing a great job, Lindsay. I don't know what he thought he was pulling with all those objections. He certainly didn't make any friends with the jury with them. If anything he made you an even more sympathetic witness than you already are and that's extremely sympathetic."
The cold juice in her hands and leaning into Danny's embrace, she tried to put her earlier testimony behind her so that she could focus instead on what would happen next. She looked at the prosecutor. "What could be left for him to ask me? It seemed like I told everything that happened already."
The prosecutor shook his head. "I don't know. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out where a defense attorney is going with his game plan but I'm clueless when it comes to him. Just be prepared for anything. I'm not going to promise that I'm not going to object because if he gets out of line I will but I'm not going to jump in every two seconds like he did."
Danny was rubbing her back tenderly, hoping to offer her some sort of comfort. If there was any way he could trade places with her he would.
The prosecutor continued. "I told her last week to make sure you made eye contact with the jury…" Seeing that Danny was about to jump down his throat, he continued quickly. "Forget what I said about that. It's obvious that you focusing on Danny is helping you. I'm going to make sure when I sit down, I'm not blocking you. Just promise me, Danny, if you want to tell her something you will go through me and not get caught communicating with her again. I don't think the judge will be as forgiving next time."
Danny nodded. He hated not being in control of this situation. He wanted to be able to protect Lindsay from the pain she was enduring during her testimony. The prosecutor warned them that the recess was about to end and then walked away to give them a few minutes of privacy. Danny looked into Lindsay's eyes. "I'm so proud of you, Baby. Just a little bit more and this will be over. As soon as this trial is over, you, me and Lucy are going aware somewhere for a few days. Mac's already agreed to approve the time off. All we have to do is decide where we are going. Sound good?"
Lindsay looked him in the eye and smiled. He was glad to see that it wasn't forced but genuine. "Sounds wonderful actually. I can't wait."
Danny took his seat again as the judge came back to the bench. Atwood was brought back in and then jury came in and court was resumed. The defense attorney stood. "Mrs. Messer, I think we can all empathize with what you went through. I don't think anyone can dispute how painful your experience was. You are obviously a strong person who had your power taken away from you."
Danny could tell the prosecutor was dying to object but was holding on to his promise not to have all the constant interruptions. He was shocked and proud then when Lindsay made the protest for the prosecutor.
"I'm sorry, if there was a question in there, I missed it."
The judge had to hide a laugh that threatened to burst forth. She covered it with a cough. "She's right, Counselor, if you don't have questions for this witness, please release her."
"Sorry, your honor. Mrs. Messer, you testified to the treatment you received at the hands of my client. Do you know why he chose to try to hurt you with a night stick?" He moved away from his table, standing directly in her eye line with Danny effectively blocking her view. It also opened up Atwood's ability to smirk at her, though she stubbornly refused to look his way.
Unable to look at Danny, she turned her focus instead to her wedding band, trusting that his love and support was still there even if her view of him was blocked. "He said it was revenge for treatment he received at the hands of a guard when he first arrived at Rikers to serve a sentence for armed robbery."
"What treatment was that?"
"Objection, your honor, hearsay. Mrs. Messer was not present at Rikers when this alleged act took place." The prosecutor interrupted, apparently feeling it was important enough to speak up.
"I'll rephrase, your honor. Did Mr. Atwood give you a detailed account of what that treatment consisted of?"
"Yes." Lindsay had testified enough to know how to use the question to evade giving more information than she needed to give. Although she had to admit, she felt like she was channeling Danny at that moment. Flack delighted in telling everyone the story of when Danny testified at Mac's hearing about the Clay Dobson murder, reminding everyone every chance he got of how when Danny was asked to read something he did so but silently until the person questioning him added the out loud part.
It seemed to have the same effect on the defense attorney as now he was the one who appeared to be losing control. "What did he tell you?"
"That a guard sodomized him with his night stick so that he would know what it would feel like before he was raped by other inmates."
"Sounds brutal for any one to have to go through. Did you feel sorry for him knowing what he had experienced?"
Lindsay looked up from her ring to see that Danny had changed seats so she could once more see him. She locked on to his gaze, tears filling her eyes once more. "It's a little hard to feel sympathy for someone when he's seconds away from ramming a foreign object up your ass. He was so sexually aroused by what he was about to do to me that he was ejaculating. He was practically bragging about the pain he knew he was about to cause me so no, I didn't and don't feel sorry for him in the least."
She wrapped her arms around herself suddenly cold and trembling. Tears were streaming down Danny's face. She heard someone from the jury box sniffle but she didn't look that way. She looked back down at her wedding band, hating that she was having to put Danny through the pain of hearing what had happened to her once again but grateful for his comforting presence.
"Do you hate my client?"
"Yes." Her one word answer barely a whisper, just loud enough that the court reporter was able to pick it up for the transcript.
The defense attorney smiled. "And yet in a bathroom in this very building you had the chance to end his life, but you chose not to. Why?"
"Because he wanted me to kill him and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. I refused to be his weapon." She admitted. She wished he would finish his line of questioning so she could leave. She was ready to be home, curled up in Danny's protective embrace where Atwood had no power over her.
The defense attorney smiled at her. "Just a few more questions, Mrs. Messer. If you could describe his actions in one word, what would that word be?"
"Sadistic." Lindsay answered without hesitation.
With a nod, he went back to his desk and picked up a large book. He flipped through some pages and then carried it to Lindsay. "Funny you should use that particular word. This is a medical dictionary. Will you please read for the jury the definition of sadistic."
Lindsay cleared her throat and read it silently quietly before reading it out loud. "a sexual perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or mental pain on others."
"Sounds exactly like what you described going through." He commented, taking the medical dictionary back. He looked back at her. "Mrs. Messer, are you aware that sexual sadism is considered to be a mental disorder? Nothing further for this witness."
Despite her intention not to look anywhere in Atwood's direction, Lindsay found herself looking that way in time to see Atwood's smirk turn strangely victorious.
