Disclaimer:
They are not mine. I don't make profit from this.
*
Part 6 "To the warehouse and back"
Present year, still one week ago.
When Ezra Standish arrived at the warehouse, he instinctively took notice of everything; his photographic memory noticing every detail.
"Well, Mr. Chris, I need to get an impression of the place. You can wait here…"
"Forget it, Standish," interrupted the detective.
"Come on," replied the fake psychic. "We'll synchronize our watches and…"
"Standish! I said forget it! I'm going with you." Larabee was trying to stay calm; he knew that if there were something the cops missed the psychic would find it.
Chris just hoped Ezra would do it fast and without the usual theatrics.
"You don't even have a watch," he stated.
Ezra shrugged. "You're right, but it's not my fault that the fruity cereals give only rings and not watches in their boxes." He smiled.
"Ok, we can go back to the Court House now."
Larabee was stunned. "What? You're not going to flap your arms, have a seizure or something?"
Ezra's poker face would have made Maude proud as he said primly, "Please, Mr. Chris, I thought that by now you had the basics in reading spiritual clues. It makes me sad to discover that you still are a non believer." He sighed dramatically and turned toward the exit.
//Next time I'll let Jackson babysit him// thought Chris, without acknowledging the fact that as Ezra's 30 day probation period so close to an end, maybe there wouldn't be a next time.
In the ride back, Larabee was worried, but this time Ezra had unnerved the detective without trying to.
Standish was quiet, a hand over his closed eyes and hadn't uttered a word; he was focusing on what he saw at the warehouse.
Ezra was so focused that Larabee startled him when he announced that they were back at the court house parking lot.
Getting out of the car, Ezra's quick look around had interesting results as he noticed Judge Leland a few rows ahead, getting out of his car with some difficulty.
The fake psychic found it strange because the judge wasn't too old but then the judge put his hand on his back as in pain.
Letting Larabee go ahead a little as they went toward the entrance of the building, Ezra walked slower than usual, thinking, before picking up his pace and reaching the entrance door at the same time as Larabee, managing to dart inside before the detective.
*
The group with Tanner, which included Dunne and the three guards, went back to the courtroom.
Ezra grabbed Nathan just outside of the room and gestured toward where the judge was standing. "He's grouchy ´cause he has a back ache," he said.
Nathan saw the judge rubbing the back of his waist and shook his head. "No, a kidney stone is more like it."
Ezra arched his eyebrow at his friend. "Ouch" he said, and followed Nathan to their seats.
Standish had started writing notes over JD´s notes, when he saw Nathan tense.
At the same moment the judge called the court to order to begin the proceedings.
"What's wrong Nathe?" Ezra murmured, still writing.
Nathan mumbled something that sounded a lot like, "Your father is here."
Knowing that was impossible as Nathan had never met the elder Standish, Ezra asked, confused, "What did you say?"
Around them the trial continued; the witness was called to the stand and the DA started the questioning.
Nathan swallowed audibly. "Mr. Sanchez is here," he hissed and turned to look at his best friend.
"Do you think he found out about the trial and came to see you?" he asked.
"How could he? We've been here for less than a day!" Ezra was confused but his best friend just shrugged.
Standish glanced back, and Josiah waved at him.
*
As the witness's story progressed the case became more shadowy.
Mr. Yates revealed that he had seen the dead man arguing with Tanner earlier that day in a bar and that later he saw Tanner leaving the warehouse with blood on his clothes and hands.
"Are you sure it was Tanner?" JD asked the witness. "I mean you were at a bar, there was smoke and noise, and you had a few drinks in you."
"I had just one beer and I saw Tanner clearly in the bar, he was facing me while he argued," said Yates.
JD took a deep breath. "If you were facing Tanner, then how can you be sure the man you saw arguing with him was the now dead man?"
Yates wasn't fazed in the least. "Because I knew Jess Kincaid, he was a regular at the bar like me."
"But you didn't see his face," pressed JD.
"He was wearing his usual jacket and baseball cap," said Yates.
J.D swallowed. "But you didn't see his face," he insisted.
"No," Yates admitted.
"No more questions," said JD.
Ezra stood up. "We do have more questions!" he exclaimed.
"Who are you?" asked the judge, annoyed at the interruption.
"My name is Ezra P. Standish, at your service. I'm a psychic consultant for Mr. Tanner's lawyer."
The DA turned to Dunne "Oh, please!" he said sarcastically. "Your firm used to have standards."
The comment caused some giggles and chuckles from the crowd.
Judge Leland called order before ordering the lawyers to approach him. "What's the meaning of this?" he asked JD.
Ezra quickly went to JD's side. "I have worked with the FCPD. You can call the chief and he would vouch for me," he said hurriedly.
The judge looked over the people in the room; he knew there was a detective on the witness list. He found the blond detective; the head detective was well known around the town and the judge had had him on the stand a few times before. "Detective Larabee, do you know this man?"
The blond stood. "Yes, sir," answered the detective.
"Has he worked for the police department as consultant?"
"Yes sir," repeated Larabee.
"Can you vouch for him?" inquired the judge.
Recalling Chris's reluctance to work with him, Ezra interjected nervously. "You should really call Chief Travis…"
The judge ignored Ezra. "Detective Larabee, has this man helped the PD at all?"
"Yes, sir, he has." Larabee´s mouth twisted slightly in what could pass as a little smile.
He wouldn't vouch for the conman as a psychic since he was pretty sure the kid was a fake, but the judge had changed the question and the second one he could answer honestly.
//Apartfrom all the cases the kid has interfered in, I know that he helped Buck plan the PD´s Halloween party so technically Standish had helped the PD//
Ezra turned wide eyes from the judge to JD. "Did he say what I heard him saying?" he scanned the crowd to recover from the shock.
"Hope somebody is recording this, I just have to have that on tape. I could swear Mr. Larabee even smiled for a second!"
The DA was fuming. "Your honor, you can't allow this farce in your court room!" he exclaimed.
The judge glared angrily at the DA. "It's not for you to decide who I let in my court room, Mr. Richmond." He pointed to JD. "I can't stop you from having legal or psychic consultants, but I will not let them interrupt the procedures, is that clear?" asked the judge.
The fake psychic hurried to answer. "I understand, your honor, and… ouch!" Ezra trailed off and seeing that he had the attention of the three men he gripped the judge's desk hard. "The pain is strong!"
The judge was the first to ask. "What did you say?"
Ezra blinked at the older man. "It's a kidney stone, isn't it?"
The older man stared at the psychic in awe.
"I would be grumpy, too," said Ezra sympathetically.
Judge Leland was astonished. "But… but I haven't told anyone!"
Ezra smiled sweetly. "It wasn't necessary; I can feel your pain as clear as I can feel that Mr. Yates is not telling all the truth."
"You do?" asked JD and the DA at the same time.
Ezra nodded and gave Dunne a piece of paper with some questions written on it. "I think we should continue if we want to find out what really happened."
The judge, not completely recovered from the shock of what he thought was a psychic reading, nodded at Tanner's lawyer.
The three men left the judge's bench.
JD scanned the paper and cleared his throat. "Mr. Yates, you saw Mr. Tanner at the bar arguing with a man?"
"Yes."
"Later you saw Mr. Tanner leaving a warehouse with blood on his clothes?"
"Yes."
"The same warehouse where the body of Jess Kincaid was found by the police that night?"
"Yes."
"And you came to the police that same night and identified Tanner as the killer of Jess Kincaid?"
The DA was becoming annoyed. "Your honor, Mr. Yates already answered those questions."
The judge wasn't fazed. "Mr. Dunne?"
JD smiled and looked at the jury. "Of course Mr. Yates has already answered those four questions, but the fifth question is: how could Mr. Yates know that the blood he said he saw on Vin Tanner and that the body in the warehouse was Jess Kincaid when the police needed a DNA test to ID the body?"
All the members of the jury looked with interest toward the witness stand waiting for Yates's answer, but JD hadn't finished yet.
"Isn't it suspicious that Mr. Yates was the one paying attention to two strangers ARGUING in a bar, when NO ONE ELSE noticed them, and later he was the only one around the warehouse to notice Tanner and his SUPPOSEDLY bloody clothes?"
"No, I wasn't the only one!" shouted Yates. "My friend Eli Joe saw them too in the bar but he left early and I was waiting for him outside the warehouse."
"Are you sure?" asked JD "There was no mention of a friend in your previous testimony."
Sitting next to Tanner, Ezra saw Vin flinch and his attempt to stand, when Yates mentioned his friend Eli Joe, the conman called Nathan urgently; only Ezra's quick reflexes and Nathan's bulk stopped the longhaired man.
"The bastard set me up!" growled Tanner, almost to himself, then he murmured to the psychic "Eli Joe's wanted in Texas for murder, I followed his trail here, to that bar and asked the locals if they had seen him."
Blue eyes locked onto green ones. "This man, a worker, he said he had seen Eli Joe near the warehouses two blocks from there."
Ezra closed his eyes and focused on what he had seen in the court house, Larabee´s reports, and the warehouse. "This Eli Joe, he's about your height, has long hair and is a heavy smoker?"
Tanner blinked surprised "Yes, but he's rather skinny."
Ezra grinned. "Skinny?" Vin nodded and Ezra stood, "Your honor, the truth will be found in a tape."
The entire court room focused on the psychic.
"What?"
*
(to be continued)
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A/N: Thanks to mystdogs, LdyGossamer, becalynv, sfulton229, taosbriar & jd4peace.
Feedback is welcome (be kind; English is not my first language.)