The FAYZ Trials Chapter 9
Karim couldn't quite believe what he was doing. He was sitting in the waiting reception of the mental facility where Diana Ladris was a patient. Waiting for a consultation with her doctor, waiting to ask for her to be released for court, waiting on Caine's demands. He felt guilty even being there, after all, her doctor had already deemed her unfit for court once, did that mean he was questioning the authority of a specialist doctor? Caine was such a persuasive kid and from what he knew of Diana she seemed pretty sound of mind – for a FAYZ kid.
"Mr Smith?" the secretary called out "Dr Morgan will see you know," she pointed towards the office door and Karim knocked and entered. Dr Morgan was sitting behind his desk holding a paper copy of the e-mail Karim had sent him.
"Thank you for seeing me Doctor," Karim said shaking the man's hand.
"How can I be of assistance?" Dr Morgan asked once Karim took his seat.
"I need to speak with you about letting Diana Ladris out for the court case tomorrow." Karim said cutting to the chase. Dr Morgan frowned and shook his head,
"Mr Smith, I thought we'd made it clear that this girl is unstable, she cannot possibly give any kind of evidence in court."
"What exactly is wrong with her?" Karim asked, Dr Morgan's eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair
"Mr Smith that is highly confidential," he said
"And I appreciate that," Karim said sincerely "but even if she can't give evidence tomorrow she has her own trials to worry about and as her lawyer I think it's important to know all of the details." Dr Morgan sighed then gave in and went to his filing cabinet.
"I don't think you're going to like what I tell you," he muttered pulling out Diana's file. He placed it down on the desk and opened it. "She's a liar, a compulsive liar, now it's hard to tell whether this is due to her rebelling against us or whether it's a more serious issue, but she can't give evidence."
Karim sighed impatiently
"Dr Morgan I understand your concern but she will be under oath in court and what is said is considered the truth – compulsive liar or not – I know it may not sound ethical but that's out of my control - I need solid reasons for not letting her come, will she putting anyone at risk?"
"The girl is too self involved she cares too much about her own morality than anyone else's she tells me she feels remorse for some of the things she did in the FAYZ and yet when I question her about others actions she scoffs and is so narrow minded about that person that I cannot understand why you would consider anything she says in court to be of worth."
"Look sir, with all due respect, any person giving evidence could be as if not more self involved as Miss Ladris we just don't cross examine them all." Karim said angrily "unless there is a valid reason why she's being kept here I'll have to insist you hand the girl over to me."
"She isn't something to bargain with!" Dr Morgan retorted but Karim could already see by the look on the older man's face that he had given in. "but since you make such a convincing case, I suppose I can release her tomorrow."
"Excellent." Karim sighed.
Quinn was sitting in his hospital bed feeling like an idiot. Who faints in court and needs the paramedics? Now he'd banged his head as a result and doctors worried he'd have concussion. At least Sam got off, that was good. He'd been watching the case unfold on his laptop via the news channels. Astrid had done good, in fact, Quinn reckoned it was Astrid that really saved the day. Freddy looked good to beat Sam until Astrid stepped up. It was Caine's turn today, and he didn't have anybody to defend him, Diana the only person who potentially could help his out was in the mad house. Quinn shivered at the thought – Diana in a mental house...
Caine's guard had arrived late to collect him and by the time they reached the court house Karim had already gone inside the chambers. Great. Caine wanted to talk to him, to find out what would be happening. Would Diana be there or would he have to defend himself alone?
Diana was sitting in an office room in the courthouse. The door was guarded by an armed security guard which was a bit extreme, it's not like she was going to break out or anything – where would she go? Back to the asylum? Yeah, right.
"Where the hell is your client?" Freddy snapped at Karim. Caine Soren was fifteen minutes late and the judge looked set to call the whole thing off. Karim didn't reply because the door opened and Caine Soren was escorted inside by three policemen. Dressed in dark trousers and a simple blue shirt Caine Soren looked as bratty as ever and Freddy relished the challenge. His father's words weren't going to stop him from ripping this kid to pieces, this wasn't some Oscar bait movie with a happy ending it was real life and Freddy was ruthless.
Freddy watched as Caine swore on the Bible and the formalities were carried out, the boy was calm but Freddy could see there was something playing on his mind. He looked uneasy, lost even, like someone who hadn't been told the full story, like a newbie in court. Interesting.
"Caine Soren," the judge announced "you are being trialled for the deliberate attack on Perdido Beach and the accusation that you are responsible for the deaths of several young children, how do you plead?"
"Not guilty." Caine replied. The judge nodded at Freddy and he stood up ready to fight.
"So Caine – can I call you Caine? Or would Fearless Leader be more apt?" Caine shrugged
"Call me what you like,"
"Did you plan an attack on Perdido Beach?"
"No." Freddy paused and in mock shock asked
"So you really are innocent? The truth please Caine, you are under oath."
"I didn't plan an attack on Perdido Beach" the boy insisted
"Ok then, did you attack Perdido Beach regardless of any prior planning?"
"No."
"So what are you saying Caine my boy?" Freddy asked "are you telling me that you have no idea why you're even in court today? C'mon Caine give me something!"
"The only thing I planned to attack was Sam Temple,"
"Oh yeah? And why's that Caine?" Freddy asked "a bit of the ol' sibling rivalry? Or were you perhaps sick of being the un-favourite? Jealous even?" That hit a nerve, Caine's jaw tightened and his gaze hardened
"Why would I be jealous of Sam?"
"Ah, ah, ah, I'm the one asking the questions here Caine not you," Freddy said waving his pen at the boy "so come on, why did you want to attack Sam? Was it because you wanted to have complete control of Perdido Beach?"
"How can anyone have complete control of a whole town?"
"ANSWER THE QUESTION!" Freddy's shout silenced the whole room. Even Karim looked slightly startled
"Ok then, yes, that's why I picked a fight with Sam." Caine said with a slight smirk – the kid was enjoying this!
"And you brought along a pack of man eating , mutant coyotes for decoration huh?" Freddy asked running his hand through his hair angrily. Caine sighed now and looked weary
"Look I brought them along as a threat, so that Sam would take me seriously – in fact I thought that by bringing them along it would have the opposite effect."
"Explain." Freddy probed
"Well I figured Sam would see the threat and would give himself up quickly to make sure that nobody would get hurt."
"But you let Drake and the coyotes do their own thing regardless in the end right?"
"No, I trusted Drake to control them but-" Freddy interrupted with a cruel laugh
"You trusted Drake Merwin!? The most feared boy in the FAYZ?"
"Back then he was not the threat – I was." Caine replied smugly
"You wish." Freddy scoffed
"Mr Wishman please remain professional," the judge said.
"Excuse me your Honour," Freddy apologised "so Caine you're basically saying that this was all Drake's fault am I right? He wasn't as trustworthy as you thought right?"
"Perhaps," Caine said confidently "or maybe Sam wasn't as nice a guy as I thought."
Diana was listening to Caine's speech, he sounded as arrogant and self important as ever and she began to worry whether her contribution would make any difference to the case. She took a drink of water and adjusted the collar of her shirt. She felt stupid all dressed up in a suit she really didn't understand why people had insisted she dress smartly, criminals weren't supposed to look good right?
She was nervous. She knew what she had to do and say: make out like Caine had only intended to attack Sam and nothing else, pretend that he'd told her his intentions before hand – essentially she had to lie. Which shouldn't really be too big a deal – she was a pro at lying. But it was what Dr Morgan had said that was putting her off. He'd told Karim that he classified her as a compulsive liar, someone not to be trusted. Really she should be going out there to prove that balding idiot wrong, she should say how Caine didn't care about the safety of others at all, how he was determined to cause chaos to earn respect and how he knew how dangerous it would be to leave Drake in charge of the coyotes.
She ought to tell the truth in court, she'd be swearing an oath! But Diana Ladris was just too good a liar.
Once he had finished cross examining Caine, the judge called recess and Freddy left the courtroom for a coffee. When he reached the desk in the foyer the line for coffee was snaking out onto the road outside and there were groups of reporters swarming the place so he decided to sneak out the back and go to the coffee house across the street.
He felt pretty good about himself, the Caine interview had been fine, nothing had gone horribly wrong but at the same time it wasn't a glowing performance. Diana Ladris the Caine equivalent to Astrid was giving evidence yet – how Karim had managed to get her released from the mad house he didn't know but he guessed it was unethical. He was unsure as to how to approach the Diana questioning: would she be difficult? Would she speak in riddles? He'd had no time whatsoever to research her and he was tempted to complain to the judge.
The coffee house was more of a deli bar with tall stools in the window and lots of bright white lights. He ordered an espresso and went to sit in the window next to a guy in a fedora. When he sat down the guy gasped and made to get up,
"Oh sorry pal," Freddy said "did my stool hit you?" he turned to look into the eyes of Quinn Gaither who looked like a rabbit in the headlines "well, well, well!" Freddy exclaimed on recognising him "so you're out of hospital, feeling better Quinn?" Quinn gulped and nodded "don't go fainting on me now!" Freddy joked, the kid looked terrified and he rolled his eyes "look Quinn, you're not on trial now, I'm not going to interrogate you here, we've got plenty of time for that next week." He winked and Quinn seemed to both relax and tense up at the same time. What a loser, Freddy thought. If he was the one giving evidence to support Caine it would be a walk in the park, he could squeeze any information out of this kid. That's when Freddy got his idea:
"So Quinn," he said casually playing with his spoon "Diana Ladris is out of the loony bin, does that surprise you?" Quinn looked momentarily surprised then shrugged
"I guess she was probably too much work for the shrinks." He said, Freddy wasn't sure if it was a joke or not.
"Difficult is she?" he asked trying to keep his tone casual rather than interrogative.
"Well yeah, I mean she stuck with Caine no matter what, you do know she got pregnant right?"
"Of course I know she got pregnant." Freddy said irritated – he'd done some research. He paused wondering if he should ask any more questions, Quinn looked set to leave any second and this would be his only chance. "I suppose she and Caine had a very loving relationship then, even in the FAYZ."
"Are you kidding me?" Quinn laughed pushing his fedora to the back of his head "they acted like they hated each other! She would constantly put him down, over and over, again and again – it was like he could never please her! And he was no better, he'd side with Drake over her in the early days and if she tried to talk him outta doing something or get in the way he would just toss her aside, whoomph." Quinn made a gesture with his hand like he was swatting a fly.
"Really?" Freddy asked, intrigued. "would he actually use his powers on her?"
"Sure," Quinn said leaning back in his chair seemingly relaxed now, "like that night when the coyotes attacked, she tried to stop Caine from wrecking the church and beating on Sam and he just picked her up off the ground and threw her out of his way – whoomph." He made the same hand gesture and Freddy felt a thrill of excitement. This was wonderful information that he could use in court, there'd be no way Diana could worm her way out of this one – he'd be on fire! He downed his espresso and stood up,
"Thanks Quinn, you've been a great help," he said his eyes fixed on the courthouse opposite.
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked his face puzzled. Freddy smiled down at the wimpy kid in a fedora and held back a chuckle
"No matter Quinn," and he headed to the door "oh and see you in court!" he added cheerily.
"She's here? She's actually here?" Caine couldn't believe what Karim was telling him Diana was here! He felt like a child at Christmas! The Thanksgiving Massacre was always going to be his toughest case but now it felt like the easiest! Diana was here and she would cover for him and all would be good! He felt like dancing, or singing show tunes.
"Remember Caine, I had to pull a few strings here and not all of them were entirely professional," Karim was saying "I bent a few rules." But Caine wasn't listening, Diana was here!
"Oh what a beautiful morning! Oh what a beautiful day!"
"Caine I'm serious!" Karim said in disbelief as Caine twirled around his office "just because Diana is here it doesn't guarantee you'll get off!"
"...everything's going my way! What?!" Caine stopped dead. "What's that supposed to mean? With Diana here it should be certain that I get off if you do your job properly!" there was more than threat in his voice and Karim seriously wondered how sane the kid was.
"Caine, it's not over until the fat lady sings okay? There's no certainties here, Freddy is a good lawyer and you're going to need to be on your toes." Caine glowered at Karim his ecstasy completely forgotten.
"You think I'm taking it lightly?" he asked in a low voice "you think I don't take this seriously?"
"Well pirouetting around my office singing Oklahoma tunes doesn't scream out serious to me!" Karim said losing his cool "at least show some humility out there Caine, you're not making things any better for yourself with your arrogance."
Caine took a step forward and looked Karim square in the eye
"I'll do my job," he said icily "and you do yours."