Chapter 14: Court Hearing
/...- Morton Rainey's own thoughts.
(...)- Shooter inside Mort's head.
'...'- Jenibelle's thoughts.
...- Dreams.
[...] - Story Sequence.
Don't own anything associated with Secret Window, or Morton Rainey or anything like that. (I sure do wish that I owned Johnny Depp though...)
Living alone in the middle of the wilderness isn't exactly some people's ideas of luxury. But for Jenibelle Weston, it felt just right. People always thought of it to be a discomfited way to live. All of the people who populated the town in Tashmore Lake County had families and neighbors and friends. Not Jenibelle. Jeni loved living alone on the west side of Tashmore Lake, with acception of her dog, Leena.
Jennibelle just moved to Tashmore Lake County and was not familiar with the lake and it's history. Well, the history of Tashmore Lake is more about Morton Rainey, and the murders. The first time Jeni heard about the murders, she felt intrigued. Jenibelle greatly respected Mr. Rainey and always loved his published works. She never gave it a second thought, until now.
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Jenibelle walked out of the police station with renewed strength but a lot less dignity. She got a police escort to drive her over to County Jail to tell Mort the good news.
"Mort! Mort!" Jeni gasped as she fell into his arms, she stifled a tear and backed away. "I told the police what really happened, they think that Shooter isn't dead!"
Mort looked horrorstruck. "Oh jesus," he said, sinking into his chair.
"What?" Jeni asked, confused.
"He's dead Jeni, you killed him, how could he be alive? There is just no way," Mort put his head in his hands and just now Jenibelle realized how much this was taking a toll on him.
"Mort, they're going to stop him, it's okay. There is no way that Shooter can hurt anyone else," Jeni decided to keep the thing with the dead girl off of her mind until it was more important.
"Jenibelle, you can't stop him, he is unstopable. Is there anything unusual going on?" Mort asked.
"Um, I had a really awkward dream where I couldn't see Shooter but I heard his voice. He told me he lives forever in that house, he said so," Mort looked at Jeni.
"You need to get out of that house."
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Two weeks later the court date was nearing. Jeni was in a new apartment until Mort could get out of jail. She was hurrying to put on some thing nice for the court.
"Where are my stockings?" Jeni said frantically, searching around.
Since she moved out of the house, she had no other problems with Shooter. No reports of deaths with slit throats and scewdrivers came up.
Jenibelle hurried out the door. She got into her car and drove to the Courthouse. She arrived a little bit late an interrupted the part where the judge was being introduced.
"All rise," the bailiff said. Jeni found her seat up behind Mort. "Judge Benjamin Walkins."
A man in his mid-50s came from a door in the back and sat down in his chair. "You may be seated," he said in a raspy voice.
"The people are here to look for sentencing of Morton Rainey, accused of Murder in the second degree," the jsutice said, looking over at Mr. Jackson.
"Will the defense attorney please approach the bench?" Mr. Jackson did as he was told. The judge whispered something in his ear and told him to be seated, he did the same thing for the plaintiff's attorney.
"Will the first witness come to the stand and be sworn in?" The judge asked, sitting back in his chair as Mrs. Garvey made her way to the stand.
She was sworn in soon and she sat down with her purse clutched closely to her lap. The accusing attorney got up and started asking her all kinds of questions.
"How long have you known Mr. Rainey over here?"
"About 5 1/2 years," Mr.s Garvey answered proudy.
"Has he ever showed strange behvior in front of you?"
"Some-"
"Only yes or no questions," the judge interupted, Mrs. Garvey sat up with a determined look on her face.
"Yes," she said, making the plaintiff sigh loudly.
"Was he ever out of his element?"
"No."
"Did he ever show any violence?"
"No."
"How was his realtionship with his wife?"
"Bad."
"How bad, Mrs. Garvey, explain it to us."
"Well, he cought her cheating after they moved in and they went through this god awful divorce."
"Did he ever show any violence towards her?"
"No, not at all."
"No further questions," the attorney sat down, looking disappointed.
"Mrs. Garvey," Mr. Jackson began. "Mr. Rainey here has acted strange before?"
"Yes."
"Would he ever talk to himself or argue with himself?"
"I've caught him various times," Mrs. Garvey said quickly, not wanting to get interupted again. She looked up at the judge with a rebellious gleam in her eye.
"I see. And what happened when Mr. Rainey met John Shooter?"
"He was afraid. Mr. Shooter insisted that Mort stole his story. But I watched Mort write Secret Window, he never copied anything."
"No further questions."
The judge excused Mrs. Garvey from the stand. Mr. Jackson rose. "I would like to call Jenibelle Weston to the stand, your honor."
Jeni was completley prepared for this and she got up and sworn to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
The other attorney first questioned her. "You haven't known Mr. Rainey for very long, have you?"
"No."
"So you quickly caught on that he had something wrong with him."
"Not at first."
"Explain."
"Mr. Rainey showed up at my door, which used to be his house, and asked to come in to simply look around. I showed him around and he seemed pleased. He told me he had a hotel room but I insisted that he stayed so that he could get the feel of his old home before he left. I caught him the next morning talking with someone else, and it quickly turned into arguing. And after that he would slip into a southern drawl. I then found out that there was indeed something wrong with him."
"And you knew this from what you obseved. You knew he had MPD?"
"Not until he told me."
"He told you?"
"Yes."
"Were you shocked?"
"No. I had already known."
"Did Mr. Rainey ever hurt you in any way?"
"No."
"Then who were you assaulted by?"
"Shooter."
"I thought he was a part of Mr. Rainey?"
"I don't understand how he assaulted me, he just did."
"Oh, so you're not sure if it was Mr. Rainey or not."
"It wasn't Mort, he wouldn't hurt me!" Jeni stood. The prosecuter looked smug.
"No further questions your honor."
Mr. Jackson got up and calmed Jeni down before beginning. "Miss Weston, did you ever see Shooter?"
"Yes."
"What did he look like?"
"He had on a black preacher's hat, he was almost balding. In his late forties."
"He looked nothing like Mort."
"No, not at all."
"So, you told me that you though you killed Mr. Shooter."
"I thought I did."
"How did this happen?"
"Mort and I were together and he just showed up. Mort wasn't Mort, it was Shooter. Shooter asked me why I droped the asault charges against Mort. I told him that he was the one who did it. He got mad and backed me into a corner. I pulled out a gun and shot him. He fell on the floor and within a few moments, the wound disapeared and it was Mort. Mort was slightly shooken up but we were happy because Shooter was gone."
"But Shooter turned up again?"
"And again."
"Did he threaten you more?"
"He did, but I didn't see him. He was a voice. He told me that I would never be able to kill him. He lived forever in Mort's house."
"Is that why you moved?"
"Exactly."
"No further questions."
Jeni got down from the stand, and she was scared. She sat back down, rubbing Mort's tense shoulder.
"I would like to call Morton Rainey to the stand."
Mort got up and sworn in. He sat down and took it. The attorney stood. "So, Mr. Rainey, you admitted yourdelf into a Psych Ward in PA after you were found innocent for your wife's murder?"
"I was never found anything. They couldn't find any evidence."
"The question was, did you put yourself--"
"Yes."
"Why."
"Shooter was unbearable."
Mort sat up and cleared his throat. "So, Mr. Rainey, what did they do at the ward?"
"Prescriced me some anit-psycho pills."
"Ahh, anti-psycho pills? Interesting. Did these pills work?"
"Obviously not, otherwise we wouldn't be here right now."
"After this you went back to see what your house looked like. Why?"
"Unfinished business."
"What was that?"
"I wanted to find the story that Shooter accused me of stealing."
"Did you find it?"
"No."
"No further questions."
Mr. Jackson stood up. He straightened his coat. "Mr. Rainey, have you got any idea what your split is capable of?"
"He seems to be able to get in and out of my body easily."
"How do you know this?"
"Sometimes I can feel this weird weight lifting of of my shoulders."
"Does this weight come back?"
"Yes."
"No further questions."
The judge beckoned Mort back to his seat. "Court will be ajorned until tomorrow after nood. June 22nd, at 2:30 p.m. By then the jury will have the verdict."
He banged his gavel and Jeni stood quickly to hug Mort. "I found the papers," She said.
Mort nodded as if he knew it wouldn't help now. "It's okay, things are going to be fine."
Jeni started crying as the cops pulled Mort away from her. She cried all the way home. She sure did hope everything was going to be allright.
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A.N.- Wowie, already, almost done. I can't wait until the last chapter. I think about the 15th or the 16th. I don't know. Well, hopefully everyone reviews. I'm not updating anymore! Next weekend ya'll!