The Memory of Murder

By E.M. Megs

Chapter 13 - Depression

The courtroom was cold and not just in a sense of the temperature. Kyoya pulled his coat tighter around him. He sat between his sister and his father in the very front row of the spectators. The jury was off to the side in their own rows. Ray Takahashi - the man who'd murdered his mother - sat on one side of the court room at a table with his lawyer sitting next to him. He knew this set up only too well.

His father did not allow any press into the courtroom. They were a private family and the affairs related to his wife's death were not going to be broadcast to the world regardless of the outcome.

Kyoya stared at the back of Takahashi's head like he could put a hole in it just like the man had put a hole in his mother's. They were going through witnesses, examining and cross-examining. He felt like he'd been sitting there for hours listening to the lawyers make claims and counter-claims, debating back and forth the validity of the facts put before the court from either side.

Finally the prosecuting lawyer said clearly, "The prosecution calls Ohtori Kyoya to the stand."

He froze for a single moment and his sister squeezed his hand. His father glanced at him, his face set in a grim line. Yoshio had told him that if he didn't want to he didn't have to let himself be examined as a witness. His sister had even said that she could cover all of it if he didn't want to.

But he wanted to do this. He wanted to be part of the reason that Ray Takahashi went to prison. He wanted to be a part of the justice system.

So he stood, letting his sister's hand drop as he did so and strode to the front of the room, a mask of indifference on his face so he could have a level head when dealing properly with the situation. He was sworn in and took his seat at the witness's stand.

The prosecution, of course, got the first crack at him. "You discovered the body, didn't you, Kyoya-san?" This lawyer was smart enough not to add the -chan suffix to his name. Good.

"Correct," Kyoya said stiffly.

"Can you, for the court, run through everything you experienced that day?"

He nodded and swallowed. How do you put to words finding your mother dead? He chose his words carefully. "I came home from school that day like I always do and went to my room to do my homework. My sister was there but she soon left for the library."

"Where was your mother?"

"In my parents' room. Sleeping." He paused, waiting to see if there would be another question. When there wasn't, he continued. "I'd been working for about an hour when I heard a crack like a gunshot coming from down the hall. I was startled and couldn't move for perhaps a minute at most before I ran into the hall. Nee-san joined me seconds later because she had heard it too. We looked at each other and had a very short conversation where we discerned that it had sounded like a gunshot coming from mother's room.

"My brother, Akito, got home right as we were running into her bedroom. Fuyumi stopped after seeing it first and tried to shield me from it but I pushed her aside. And-" He stopped because he couldn't manage. He'd lost the mask that he'd had on as images of his mother dancing around in his head, taunting him. He couldn't, didn't want, to admit that his mother was actually dead. A year and a half later and he still couldn't come to terms with the empty feeling that encompassed his house when he got home now.

"And, Kyoya-san?"

"She was dead."

The courtroom was silent. Then the lawyer, very gently, as though he knew what was going through his head, asked, "Can you describe the scene for us?"

When he closed his eyes to try and gather his composure again the defense lawyer, taking apparent pity on him called, "He's a 14-year-old boy! For heaven's sake!"

"He can choose not to answer the question," the prosecution shot back, "I'm not going to force it out of him."

"No," Kyoya spoke firmly, "No. I'll answer it, just… Give me a moment." He drew in a deep breath and took a look at his family. His eldest brother and his wife sat at one end of the bench, their hands clasped together tightly and his sister-in-law's stomach bulging with a baby. His father sat stiffly next to Yuiichi, his eyes looking ahead straight at him, not urging him to continue but just simply supporting him. An empty space beside him and then his sister, her eyes filled with tears as she waited for him to describe the scene that they both had seen. And finally, Akito, his head bowed into his hands, elbows on his knees, waiting for the inevitable.

Kyoya looked back at his father for a single moment and then started speaking slowly, "I thought… I thought she was playing a trick. She liked to trick us. She enjoyed the looks on our faces when we'd discovered that she'd pulled the wool over our eyes. But she was too still. The smell was too real. The gun was only a foot or two away from her and I fell to my knees next to her within reaching distance of it. Her blood was soaking into the carpet and there was spatter across the bed." He paused and pursed his lips in distaste at the images assaulting his mind.

"It came from her head. Completely from her head where the bullet had torn through the side of it just above her ear. And I… I… Is that enough detail for you or must I keep going?"

"No. That's fine, Kyoya-san. Thank you."

"Permission to cross-examine."

"Granted."

Kyoya drew in a fairly irritated breath. He knew this would happen, however, he didn't like this lawyer. And not only because she was defending the man who had murdered his mother. She stalked toward the front of the room where he sat. He suddenly felt like a mouse faced with a cat and scowled at the metaphor. An Ohtori was not prey for anyone.

"Kyoya-chan-" His frown deepened. He was not a child. Very few people had the privilege to call him by that suffix. Needless to say, she kept going heedless of his anger. "-you only heard a gunshot? You didn't see anything?"

He stiffened. "I think it can be readily implied that I did not need to see the actual shooting to know the outcome and how it was reached," he stated coldly, eyes becoming daggers.

"But you didn't see anyone? No one leaving the room or anything?"

He licked his lips because he knew exactly what she was doing. "No. B-"

"Then you didn't see Ray Takahashi at the scene at all despite how soon you arrived?"

"No."

"Did it occur to you that your mother may simply have killed herself?"

"Objection!"

His hand curled into a fist out of public eye as the judge scrambled to regain control as the prosecution went into a frenzy. Kyoya just stared at Chiyoko Takahashi with cold eyes until things quieted enough for him to be heard. "My mother did not have depression, suicidal thoughts, or any other mental illness that would have led to suicide. Even if she did she would at least have the decency to commit suicide when her family wasn't home and the dignity to do so without something as crude and messy as a handgun - which, I will remind you, is the same make and model as my father's but is not his. Check your facts before asking 14-year-old boys their opinion on their mother's death, Miss Takahashi."

She gaped at him for a moment until she pulled herself together enough to smirk. "Why was your mother sleeping in the middle of the day, Kyoya-chan?"

His lip curled slightly at the use of the suffix again. "She hadn't been sleeping well."

"Do you know why that might be?"

"Insomnia. My mother had it frequently as do I."

"Did you know that insomnia is a side-affect of antidepressants?"

"She wasn't taking antidepressants."

"Are you so sure of that, Kyoya-chan?" And then she pulled out a small bag, presenting the bottle of the very medicine that his mother had taken daily. "This bottle contains medicine with antidepressant qualities. Mayumi Ohtori was taking it in daily doses."

Where had she gotten that? "Be that as it may, my mother was not taking it for depression."

"It still implies that there's the possibility. Not to mention the note is in her handwriting."

Now he really hated this lawyer. He resisted the urge to shout at her how illogical this entire argument was because Mayumi wasn't depressed and she wouldn't have thought that killing herself would result in anything good for anyone. As it was he bit his tongue and let himself be excused from the stand to watch the rest of the trial.

Chiyoko Takahashi had gotten her way in though. It did not matter that Ray had had access to the house because of his job as the gardener. It didn't matter that somehow a second gun exactly like his father's had shown up in the house like magic. Enough doubt had been cast that Kyoya knew before the end of the trial what the verdict was going to be. So when the jury left to deliberate, he took a limo to Tamaki's house instead of waiting to hear the 'not guilty' verdict.

"Not guilty," he told Tamaki coldly, yanking off his tie as the blonde opened the door of his mansion.

"What?!" the blonde exclaimed, outraged. "They can't have reached a verdict like that! Not so soon!"

"They haven't. I just happen to know that they are going to without a doubt call it not guilty. There's too much doubt that he's the murderer. Despite Takahashi having a job as a gardener, and therefore access to the house; despite the gun appearing out of nowhere; despite the fact that my mother was not depressed no matter what properties the medicine she was taking had; despite the fact that someone could have climbed out the window. Despite all this fucking evidence against the idea of a suicide, it's trumped by a medicine she was taking, insomnia, her handwriting on a note, and the goddamn fact that no one actually saw Takahashi. The man has no alibi, mind you, but apparently he doesn't need one."

He sat down angrily and ran his hands through his hair, tugging at it. He felt helpless and the slightest bit of guilt gnawed at his stomach like somehow his testimony had been what had set Ray Takahashi free. His hands dropped. "God, I hate that lawyer," he muttered, rethinking every word that had been said. "She purposely called me Kyoya-chan to make me seem like a boy who didn't know what he was really dealing with. And then she took the details that I couldn't place and turned them against- I really hate that lawyer."

Tamaki just stood by and watched him with a frown, listening to his friend rant because he knew that was what he needed. He needed someone to listen to him.

"If my father would just allow for those damn threats to be part of the evidence, they'd know it wasn't a suicide. Though… I supposed even that wouldn't condemn Takahashi. Goddamn him and his stupid lawyer."

Finally, he just lapsed into silence, his mind still whirling but his mouth done talking. Tamaki sat next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder while the boy stared into space in disbelief.

They were going to do something about this. If not for Kyoya himself then for some other family.

~o~

A/N: Heeeeeey. I promised didn't I? Enjoy, but keep in mind that this is probably not even going to be updated until my next three day weekend or later. (I don't even know when that is. So uhh… You can see what my problem is.)

Kudos to: xXSimplyMagicalXx, AnimeApprentice, and StrawberryGlazed. Thank you for the lovely reviews~