AN: The following chapter is basically set during a trial and, while trials of the age were not conducted in the described manner in the Spanish territories, I decided to stick with the canon, as set by the TV Show (which I would approach as American-style with a few quirks).
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Judge De la Paz arrived in Los Angeles the morning of the trial, just an hour before it was set to commence. Stretching a little after the long night's ride, he asked Victoria for a room and a hot meal, as well as a double coffee, and enjoyed them in his room.
"Ah! Your Honor! How good of you to come!" De Soto uttered as soon as he saw the man descend the stairs, ten minutes before the proceedings were due to start, hoping to gain some favor with him.
"Alcalde De Soto! This, Señor, is a most unusual trial. I've had to travel all night because the trial in Santa Paula only ended yesterday afternoon." He stated with some annoyance. "I hope you'll be able to present some hard evidence, so we can get it over with soon. I am needed in Monterey a week from tomorrow!"
"I assure you, Your Honor! This is nothing more than a… formality. The man is quite certain to confess or I'll make sure he does! I only decided to hold the trial because one of the caballeros insisted on it. But, rest assured, the case… it's iron clad." The Alcalde told the man.
"Really? And who is this caballero, if I may ask?"
"Good morning, Your Honor!" Diego uttered as he came in wearing his dark-blue suit, a white shirt and a black tie. Don Alejandro and Felipe followed him shortly.
"Diego!" The Judge said with some enthusiasm as he went to shake hands with him, then with Don Alejandro and Felipe, to the Alcalde's dismay. "Carlos is in Mexico City for his studies, but if you have any message you want me to send him, please make sure to give it to me by tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I can't stay any longer." The Judge told Felipe.
The young man nodded and produced an already-sealed envelope with Carlos de la Paz's name on it.
The older man chuckled, took it and put it in his jacket. "You have a smart young man here, Diego!" He said as he did so.
The tall caballero nodded, then headed towards the defendant's table to leave there the documents he had with him.
"Don't tell me you're the defendant!" The judge inquired. "If that is so, I will just pronounce you 'not guilty' and be on my way, since I doubt you could ever even consider committing a crime!"
"No, Your Honor, although I appreciate the thought. I'll be acting as the defendant's lawyer." He answered.
"You? Well… In that case, I think you'll have quite a fight on your hands, Alcalde!" De la Paz uttered.
"No… Wait… I spoke with Señor Estradas yesterday afternoon, and he informed me he has decided to renounce your council, Don Diego, and defend himself instead!" De Soto stated.
"And I was informed that he's meanwhile reconsidered that decision." Diego answered as Señorita Marcela made her way down from her room. Her eyes reddish, and she was wiping out some new tears with a lace handkerchief, but stopped at looking at Diego questioningly before she found a seat.
The Judge looked at her, then towards the caballero.
"The defendant's fiancée." He replied to his unspoken question.
With a nod, the Judge headed towards the table set out for him as the prisoner was brought in. Tonino avoided looking towards Marcela, but smiled at seeing Diego waiting for him to arrive.
"Thank you for still agreeing to do this, Don Diego." He whispered as he sat down.
As everyone took his or her place, and the room became silent, the Judge took a paper the Alcalde had prepared for him.
"This court is now in session. Honorable Judge Bernardo de la Paz presiding. Now…" he said, glancing at the paper, "we are here in the case the Prosecution brings against Toño Estradas, accused of murdering and disposing of the body of Señor Imanol Palomitas, a crime perpetrated two days ago. How does the defendant plea?"
"Not guilty, Your Honor!" Diego answered.
"In that case, we'll now proceed with hearing the case made by the Prosecution. Don Ignacio, the floor is yours."
De Soto stood up and arranged his suit, making sure he looked his best, then started.
"Your Honor, members of the jury, during this trial, I will prove, without the shadow of a doubt, that a murder was committed. I will also prove that the defendant is the one to have committed it, then hid away the corpse in a bid to escape justice, but was caught by my lancers, quite literally with blood on his hands, before disposing of all the evidence. Finally, I will prove that there is a clear motive for which the crime was committed, and that motive was jealousy. For the crime, as the law demands, the Prosecution requests the death penalty." The Alcalde stated.
"Thank you, Alcalde! The Defense has the floor." The judge uttered.
"Thank you, Your Honor!" Diego replied, standing up. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to start by pointing out that this case starts from a conclusion which the Alcalde cannot in fact, prove: that Señor Palomitas was murdered. He affirms this, despite the fact that no body of the so-called deceased was found. Since there is a very good chance that Señor Palomitas might even turn out to be alive and well, I move that the charges be dropped."
"Your Honor! Don Diego is trying to help the man get away with murder!" De Soto stated, standing up.
"However, he is right. In the absence of a body, how can I condemn a man of murder?"
"But the blood! There was enough blood on the floor at the hacienda to determine that a man couldn't have survived the blood loss!" De Soto answered. "Don Diego himself agreed to that conclusion!"
"I also mentioned it was almost impossible for a man to have left that stain, Your Honor, and my later findings concluded it was animal blood to have been found. That conclusion I have shared with the Alcalde." Diego uttered.
"Blood is blood! You can't know its source, and you can't prove it!" De Soto contradicted him.
"By the same logic, you can't prove it's human!" The caballero told him.
"Order in my court!" Judge de la Paz requested using his gavel to silence the people who had started talking to each other during that exchange between Diego and the Alcalde. "You are both right, but I think you just made Don Diego's case, Alcalde, which is why I am forced to…"
"I saw him do it!" Marcela Pecora stood up. "I'm sorry but I can't stay silent while that man's ghost is haunting my dreams." She apologized to her fiancé.
"Ah… Yes, the Prosecution would like to call the first witness to the stand: Señorita Marcela Pecora. Her testimony will clarify everything, Your Honor!" De Soto uttered, glad that the young, beautiful heiress was finally determined to do the right thing, even if she had informed him she wouldn't testify a day earlier.
The Judge hesitated. "Very well!" He then agreed.
The young woman headed for the place meant for witnesses to take the oath and give their testimony. After swearing to tell the truth, she sat down and De Soto headed towards her.
"Señorita Pecora, please, tell us, in your own words, all you remember about the events of the morning of June 6th, 1821, which you have witnessed. And I remind you that you are under oath, thus you must tell the truth about everything you remember about the events in question." The Alcalde started.
"It's hard for me to talk about this." She answered, still wiping away tears. "Imanol… Señor Palomitas came to the hacienda that morning. I invited him inside, as before… We knew each other, you see. We'd made the trip from Acapulco together, but he remained in San Diego while I came to Los Angeles to live with my grandfather. So… He entered and, as I was leading him to the sala, he grabbed my hand, spun me around and kissed me. I didn't even realized what was happening until I opened my eyes during our kiss and noticed Tonino coming towards us with a knife in his hands. I'm so sorry, my love… Had I been more careful with that man all this would have never happened."
"Yes…" De Soto agreed, unable to hide a smile, certain he had just won the case. "So you saw the defendant coming with a knife and stabbing Señor Palomitas in the back. Is that correct?"
"Ah… I… Yes. Yes, of course. He came from Imanol's back… That was how I could see him…" She agreed hesitantly.
"And what happened next?"
"I got frightened when I saw him plunging the knife in him. He kept stabbing and stabbing… There was so much blood! Then, I just ran away." She continued as murmurs were heard from the tavern and Tonino looked sadly towards Diego and nodded. "I ran until I stumbled upon Sergeant Mendoza, and then I fainted."
"There you have it, Señores! The undeniable facts: enraged to see the woman he had convinced to marry him - no doubt so that he could live off her fortune - in the arms of a different man, the Defendant felt threatened and he acted the only way he knew how: by killing his rival. Then, as the señorita ran away, he hid the body, but was not in time to hide the pool of blood that massacre had left on the floor. Even only going by this, I am sure you have no other option but to convict him of the murder!" De Soto stated triumphantly. "Thank you, Señorita! I have no more questions, Your Honor." He then uttered as he sat down.
"Don Diego, the witness is yours." The Judge informed the caballero.
"Thank you, Your Honor!" He said as he stood up. "Firstly, I would like to point out that the Prosecution's case now rests on one witness, whose perspective of the events in question was denied by my client and who, as I will demonstrate, has every reason to lie in order to ensure her fiancé's conviction."
"How dare you? You think I want this? I would give my life for Tonino! Why are you being so cruel, Don Diego?" Marcela cried, burying her face in her hands, as several people, including Victoria, gave the tall caballero scolding looks.
He didn't mind them much as he continued. "Tell me, Señorita, did you love your grandfather?"
"Objection! How is this relevant, Your Honor?" De Soto questioned.
"I will get to that in a minute. I promise it will make sense!" Diego assured them, and the judge allowed him to continue. "Your answer, Señorita!"
"Of course I did!" She replied.
"Although you only met him a few days before his death?" He continued.
"Yes, I may have not met him before, but I knew him all my life thanks to his letters!"
"So you loved him, although he made you abandon your country and come live with him in California!"
"Yes, I like it here! Los Angeles is beautiful!"
"You mean to say you loved him, although he left his entire fortune to his illegal son?"
"Of course, I've never cared about the money…" At this point she raised her eyes from her handkerchief to look at the grinning face of Diego.
"Your Honor, I present Exhibit A, Don Antonio's testament, signed a day before his death and of which the Señorita was perfectly aware, as she's just admitted." Diego said as he handed the Judge the document.
"Where did you find that?" She asked before De Soto did the same.
"It was left on the hacienda's doorstep last night." Diego answered.
"Marked with a Z, no doubt!" De Soto uttered spitefully. "I should have you arrested for colluding with that outlaw!"
"Are you threatening the Defense in my court, De Soto? Take care, or you'll accompany me to Monterey in irons!" The Judge warned as he opened the envelope containing the will. The Alcalde frowned and glared at Diego. "According to this document, Señor Estradas is, in fact, Don Antonio Pecora's illegitimate son and only heir." The judge said.
"For which reason, the Prosecution's claim that he was marrying the señorita for her fortune cannot stand, especially since, clearly, it was the other way around!" Diego concluded.
"Bu… But he didn't know that! The will has only been in my possession! He believed I was an heiress!" Marcela said from the stand.
"Yes, thank you for that clarification, Señorita!" The tall caballero muttered with some amusement.
"Wait! You were marrying him knowing fully well that he was your uncle?" The Judge asked.
She opened her mouth to answer, but didn't know what to say.
"No, Your Honor." Diego answered instead of her. "She wasn't, since they are not, in fact, related, considering she is not truly Señorita Marcela Pecora. The real señorita died on her way to California."
"What?" De Soto asked as the woman's face drained of blood.
"This is Exhibit B. The log of the Port of San Pedro, mentioning the arrival, departures and – a quirk of old Señor Marineo, who is in the clerk there - the significant events which had taken place onboard each ship passing through during their last voyage, as per their Captains' logs."
"Señorita Marcela Pecora – lost at sea during a storm, the day after the ship "Rey Carlos" left San Diego." The Judge read.
"As Señor Marineo was not in charge of customs, a job normally performed by the lancers stationed there, nobody actually remarked that Señorita Marcela Pecora went through the customs, despite being dead while…I'll assume, her maid…"
"Companion! I am no maid!" The young woman corrected from the stand.
"Her… companion suddenly disappeared after putting foot on land. With no other passenger disembarking in San Pedro, she believed that, even if someone would eventually catch her, she might still have enough time to get her hands on Don Antonio's fortune before that happened. Isn't that right, Señorita?" Diego continued.
"Wa… Wait! Your Honor! The Señorita might have lied about who she is, but this is not her trial and the fact remains that she has witnessed a crime!" De Soto intervened, quite nervous.
"I, again, point out that it's her word against my client's, and, as I believe to have just proved to the Court, she had a much better motive to commit it than Señor Estradas." Diego argued. "As she, herself, admitted, she had met Señor Palomitas onboard the same ship which had brought her here, and did so under her true name. A name he certainly remembered, since the man had a perfect memory with names and faces, as he used to tell people." Diego explained, after which he started addressing the young woman again. "Thus, his mere presence here was a threat to you. You tried to buy his silence, but he wanted more, and you realized he'd never have enough, didn't you, Señorita? So you killed him!"
"You can't prove I did! There's no dead body, as you, yourself pointed out!" She replied, her tears completely gone.
Just then a lancer appeared and whispered something into the Judge's ear.
"Don Diego, Alcalde, you'd better accompany me! This trial is suspended for fifteen minutes. Lancers, make sure the witness doesn't leave the stand!" De la Paz said as the three men followed the lancer outside, and to the cuartel.
"Mendoza? Where have you been?" De Soto inquired as soon as he entered the gates and found his man there.
"I'm sorry, Alcalde. I received a note… from Zorro… he told us where to find the body... But we left very early, and weren't sure if it was where the note said it was, so I didn't want to wake you should the information prove false."
"You found the body, Mendoza? Excellent, Sergeant!" De Soto uttered, convinced that the body would prove him right.
"Indeed?" Diego questioned incredulously. "And are you sure it's Señor Palomitas?"
"Si, Don Diego. You can see for yourself!" Mendoza stated as he took off the sheet covering the body.
"I knew it!" De Soto stated with a grin which disappeared as soon as his gaze rested on the knife in the man's chest.
"I think you've just won this trial, Don Diego." The Judge answered. "And brought the true murderer to justice."
"We also found this." Mendoza mentioned as he handed Diego a small jar which even Zorro had missed at searching the young woman's quarters.
"What is it?" De Soto asked after Diego took a look at it.
"Arsenic." He answered. "I think this woman might have murdered more than one man."
ZZZ
"You're lucky! I would have poisoned you before allowing you to touch me! Had you agreed to a quicker wedding, you'd be dead already!" The beautiful young woman who was not Marcela Pecora, but her employee, Blanca Duenas, told Tonino as the lancers dragged her towards the jail.
There was no separate trial for her, since she ended up confessing to having caused the death of the old don as soon as he realized she wasn't his real granddaughter and wrote a new will leaving his entire fortune to his bastard son. Since she didn't know where the will was hidden, and fearing it would come to light at some point or another, she decided to marry Tonino, thus ensuring the estate would become hers one way or another. Yet, the young man, still in mourning for the man who had raised him, even without knowing he had been his true father, could not be persuaded to celebrate a wedding until a proper amount of time had passed.
When Palomitas showed up, aware of her deceit, she had first offered him money to keep silent about what he knew.
A couple of days later, she found the old man's testament in a book Tonino had urged her to keep the very day his father died, never aware of what was hidden inside it. At that point, she considered destroying it and breaking the engagement. But, then, Palomitas returned for more money, and she realized it was safer to go through with the wedding.
The third time Palomitas returned, though, he had the audacity to forcefully kiss her, informing her that he now owned her, so she plunged a knife in his heart in what she claimed to have been self-defense.
Then, considering what she needed to do, she realized that it was an opportunity to speed things along by framing Toño for the murder. The one problem was that the body was too heavy for her to drag from her bedroom, where the crime had taken place, so she needed to find an alternative course of action. She, thus, hid it in the secret passage the old don had shown her the very day she arrived, and came up with an alternative as she remembered Diego having mentioned that people could not survive after losing half of their blood.
As the caballero had thought, it had been the blood of a cow she used, spilling it in the hallway. When the crime scene was set, she screamed and Tonino came running, so she hit him on the head as he rounded the corner to where the blood stain was. The young man fell into the pool of blood and the rest went mainly according to her plan. The Alcalde acted as she believed he would act, the lancers found Tonino at the worst possible moment for the young man, and everyone reached the wrong conclusion. Except Diego.
When she heard him tell Victoria that he had discovered that the blood wasn't human – something she had no idea it was possible to know – she asked Tonino to admit to the crime, convincing him that, otherwise, she might also be accused of complicity and they'd both end up on the gallows. As the young man loved her and didn't know better, he agreed and renounced Diego's offer to help.
"She is not the woman you thought she was." The tall caballero told the grieving young man at seeing his lost gaze. "The woman you love doesn't exist, Tonino. She killed your father and Palomitas, then tried to have you convicted of her crime. She might have even killed the true Marcela, but that I doubt we'll ever know for certain. And all of it, just to make sure she'd keep the fortune which is, in fact, yours!"
"I would have died for her. She convinced me to confess to a murder I did not commit in order to save her life! What kind of woman would do that? How could I have fallen in love with such a person?" The young man asked heartbroken.
"The heart can, sometimes, choose wrong." Diego answered. "But don't let this spoil your chances for happiness! You are very young, my friend. Rich, healthy, a caballero. Somewhere, out there, there is a good woman for you, one who will make you happy, and be as true to you as you will always be to her."
Tonino smiled at him and nodded, then headed inside to find the servants the fake Marcela had fired and give them their jobs back.
ZZZ
"You have much to learn from Don Diego, Alcalde! If I were you, I'd start doing that as soon as possible!" Judge De la Paz told Ignacio the following day as the coach for Monterey was just about to leave. "Until the next time, my friends!" He then greeted the De la Vegas as the horses started moving.
De Soto just frowned and headed towards his office followed by Mendoza.
"He really should start listening to you!" Victoria agreed with the Judge, watching the official heading towards his office. "He'd have a much easier life here if he did that!"
Diego and Felipe both looked at each other and smiled knowingly.
"Indeed, he would." The caballero answered as they all turned to head inside.
"So, Diego, with just a few days left until the new doctor is due to arrive, have you considered what you'll do with your free time?" Don Alejandro asked as he put a hand on his son's shoulder.
"I have a few ideas." The younger man replied, glancing discreetly at the figure of Victoria disappearing behind the kitchen's curtains.