Renegades: A New Dawn

by Primal WolfBlood

In Part 3 of The Renegade Chronicles, follow the Renegades as they try and recover from the shocking end to The Renegade Revolution, and continue their lives with more action and suspense than ever before, as they learn who the true enemies are, and finally confront Segolia once and for all, to end their clash with each other.

49. Trial of the Century, Part 1

Chapter IL: Trial of the Century

Part 1

The opening day of the trial had finally arrived. As everyone got dressed smartly, Hannah was being pedantic. 'We want to get there early to meet up with Frances, so we need to be getting going in 7 minutes, and if you don't hurry up we're going to be late!' 'Hannah, it's not even 9am yet.' 'So?' 'The trial is due to begin at half 11.' 'Well we need to get there yet.'

'It's half an hour there, it's a Sunday morning, there probably won't be any traffic. Look, I know you're concerned about this' 'Concerned? You think I'm CONCERNED about this? The guy who ruined our lives, tried to kill us both, did kill me, could be walking free in a matter of days, and your concern is not leaving too early?' 'No, you heard what Frances said - we'll meet her outside the court at 10:30.' 'Yeah, so let's get going.'

'Did you not listen to the bit about us needing half an hour to get there?' Hearing this innocuous question, Hannah exploded with rage against her husband. 'Why do you not even seem to care? We could be about to watch our lives get turned upside down again, our family be under threat, and all you can do is talk about the time? It's fine if this doesn't concern you, you're not the one who was DEAD, but I was, and I don't want to go back there again, so if you think I'm worrying too much that's great because you know that you've still got that get out of jail free card which I already used up!'

Hearing this, he just stopped. Hannah, breathless from her ranting, took a moment, before looking around, only to see everyone else staring at her out of fear and/or concern. Crying, she then started to wheeze, and stumbled over to a chair while holding her chest, as Sakura and Rio were the first to react.

'I… can't breathe. I can't breathe.' 'Just try Hannah.' As she continued to wheeze, Rio took the stethoscope out of Sakura's bag, and listened to Hannah's chest. 'Her heart's beating way fast Sak.' As the doctor took a listen, she concurred with the thought. 'Yeah, that's really high.' Hannah then sat up, even more panicked. 'Am I having a heart attack? Am I going to die again? Please don't let me die'

Shockingly, Sakura responded with a smile. 'No talk of dying missus, you're going nowhere. You're not in Cardiac arrest, you're having the mother of all panic attacks.' Hearing this, Phil went into the kitchen, and reappeared shortly afterwards with a glass of water. 'Hannah, try drinking some of this.' After having a drink of it, she started to calm down slightly, and slowly but surely, her breathing returned to normal.

Meanwhile, Blair walked past and immediately got curious. 'What's that smell?' She took another sniff, and recognised it. 'Is that… tequila?' Phil just looked at her and put his finger to his lip. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' 'It's just a slip, enough to calm her down. Trust me on this one.' As she calmed down somewhat, Phil finished getting his jacket on. 'Right Hannah, if you want to get there early, we'll get there early.'

There was just one issue that Blair could see though. 'Who's driving?' Phil just raised his hand slightly. 'We agreed I'd drive because Hannah's never driven down that area before.' 'And you have?' 'Yeah, I was just near there on business the other week and I've driven past the court a bit before.' He then walked over to his wife. 'You ok now?' She just looked up and nodded. 'Thanks.' 'It's fine. Listen, why don't we just get going, it's doing us no good waiting around here.' With that, they left Maddy in charge of the house, and drove off.

40 minutes later

After travelling through the centre of Manchester, the car quietly pulled up nearby to the court, in a cobbled side-street. As he got out, he took a deep breath. 'It's been a while since I was down here.' 'Hey Dad, you said you were down here the other week?' 'Well nearby, just up St. Peter's Square, I was finalising a distribution deal with one of the nearby hotels and they wanted to meet up in some rented office space. They've just got to get it signed off with their shareholders and then we're in with a three month trial. All being well after that, our farm vegetables will be in a chain of 300 hotels across the country.'

'Must be worth a bit?' 'We're talking six figures, and decent six at that, we'd have to see the exact order but it's probably north of 220k.' An impressed whistle was the response. 'So we're talking big.' 'Yep. If you want to know why I've been on the road virtually every day recently, that's why. We've got the best part of half a million if all these deals come off, just one of them could make the farm self-sufficient. We could even hire some more farmhands so I can concentrate on the shop.'

'That'd be awesome, you think they're gonna come off?' 'I'd say there's a decent chance. But you shouldn't be thinking about that, you should be focusing on yourself.' She smiled, and rolled her eyes. 'Dad, I'm fine.' 'Which is presumably why I had a worried phone call last week about you losing six stone since you were released from hospital?' 'Dad, you're doing the overprotective thing again.'

Before they could continue the conversation, Blair tapped him on the shoulder. 'I think the tequila's wearing off, she's getting antsy.' Maddy then angrily whispered to him. 'You plied her with tequila?' 'Just a little splash. To take the edge off.' 'What were you thinking?' 'It stopped her hyperventilating, didn't it? Anyway, I'm going to get her in there before she breaks something.' 'Good excuse.'

As they approached the courtroom, several members of the press were already around, and rushed them. Before they could say anything though, Phil turned around in his aviators and suit, and issued a statement. 'We are here because we want to see justice be done. We're not interested in a media circus, we are only interested in presenting the facts and letting the jury do their job. Anything else, you can speak to our lawyer.'

The media then tried to speak to Maddy, who had her hood up, but she flashed them an angry look, eyes golden, and pushed them away. It wasn't until well into the court that she took her hood down. 'You don't have to hide from them.' 'Scum the lot of 'em. I can't stand them. F*cking vultures.' As she continued to rant about the press, Frances walked up to them, hair rolled tight and carrying a thick dossier.

'Thanks for getting here so early.' 'So, you've been looking at the case?' 'I've got everything compiled here, the case looks extremely strong. I've also been able to have a look at some of the evidence that was disclosed by the defence, and it looks like the defence they're going with is that this was insurance fraud gone wrong.' This seemed to surprise Hannah, who was concerned.

'Yeah, but they can't prove it though, can they?' 'When was the policy taken out?' 'Err, probably around the time we got married, so mid July.' 'Right, you NEED to bring that up when you're questioned about it - the policy had been enacted for months. The timing makes absolutely no sense, you hadn't had any major argument, you weren't in financial trouble, it just seems too random.'

As she was saying this, a stocky man in a suit walked up to Frances. 'Sorry, am I interrupting anything?' 'Depends who you are.' 'My name is Julius Long QC, I am representing the defence.' Immediately, everyone seemed hostile to him. That is, apart from Frances. 'I appreciate you introducing yourself to us.' 'You're welcome.' 'So, did you want anything else?' 'Yes, I understand that you have some written transcripts of police interviews?'

'I do.' 'Would I just be able to borrow them briefly? I don't appear to have been provided with all the evidence by my secretary.' Without hesitation, Frances located them all and handed them over. 'Bring them back when you're done.' 'Of course, I'll only be five minutes. Thanks again.' As he left, Phil had questions.

'What the hell was that, you're supposed to be on our side.' 'Both sides are entitled to see all the evidence. If I said no, he could have applied for a delay in the case or even for it to be thrown out. Besides, a little respect gets you a long way here. Especially with who we're dealing with.' 'You know him then?' It turned out she did. 'I've never met him before, but I know all about Julius Long. He's got nearly 20 years experience in this business, and he's got a rep for being a very hard questioner.'

Blair then nervously asked 'How hard?' 'He's going to grill everyone. He's fair, but he's tough. First time I've ever seen him in these parts though, he's usually exclusive to the Old Bailey.' 'So he's a bigshot?' 'Something like that. I'm telling you though, he's really got to earn his stripes if James is going to get off this.' 'So this Julius, well known in the lawyerey world?' 'Yeah I'd say so.' As they looked on, concerned, Frances had some good news.

'Now a good time to mention that I'm not exactly a newbie?' Intrigued, Rio pressed. 'Go on.' 'Well I've been qualified in law since I was 19, so that's 10 years, and I've been qualified on the bar for three years today actually.' 'You ever taken an Attempted Murder case?' 'Yes, but not as a prosecutor. I was a Defence lawyer for a couple of cases last year, but I can't really talk about them here.'

Shortly afterwards, Julius returned with the papers. 'Thanks again.' After checking to ensure everything was there, she smiled at him. 'You're welcome.' As he left, Frances continued to be questioned. 'So you're on your own here?' 'No, we've got a team of five, we've been constructing the case together. They won't all be appearing with me in the court though, they've all got their own specialities.' Before any more grilling could take place, a staff member walked up to them. 'Excuse me, the trial is beginning shortly.' 'Thanks.' Frances then took them to the spectator seating.

As they arrived there, James was brought into the courtroom, looking typically bullish and confident. As the jury were sworn in, he briefly looked back at Hannah, who stared straight through him. Once they were all ready, the judge arrived, and collated his own papers. There was a delay while the Defence and Prosecution both arrived, and then everyone was ready.

As the trial started, the judge addressed everyone. 'All rise.' As they did, the judge brought up the subject of the trial. 'The following is the trial of James Alan Birchall, who is indicted on two counts of Attempted Murder; those being against a Mrs. Hannah M. Cummings, and a Ms. Riana E. Kastle. How is it that you plead?' Without hesitation, but without his signature smirk, he entered his plea. 'Not Guilty.'

'Ms. Bishop, please would you provide the Prosecution's opening statements?' Frances nodded, and readied her papers before starting her statement. 'My name is Frances Bishop QC, and I represent Ms. Kastle and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings. Ladies and Gentlemen, this case is not just about the question of whether the man you see before you would be capable of attempted murder. This is a case about a man who was filled with such rage and bitterness over the woman who he apparently had significant desire to be in a relationship with had fallen in love with a man he saw as unworthy, that he decided to resort to taking both their lives, showing no remorse when an innocent bystander with no relevance to him was caught in the crossfire.'

'Therefore, this is not simply the case of the attempted murder of two individuals, this is the case of whether an average man, the kind you would see on the streets everyday and not spare a second glance, could be driven through jealousy, envy, ego, and a misplaced sense of male pride, to the act of attempting to take two lives of innocent people. Therefore, I ask the jury this - do you believe that somebody could stoop this low out of envy?'

She then turned to the jury. 'In this case, we will present evidence from four different witnesses. We will call up Adam Smith, a former associate of Mr. Robinson and Mr. Birchall, Phil Robinson, the husband of Mrs. Cummings, Blair Flannigan, a close friend of Ms. Kastle, and Mr. Rhydian Morris, a former associate of Mr. Birchall. We will also have additional testimonies from the victims, Mrs. Cummings and Ms. Kastle, and we will have Ballistics and Neurological experts coming in.'

'As such, we aim to prove through this trial that Mr. Birchall is a cold, callous individual who wilfully tried to take the lives of two innocent individuals and ruin the potential success and future of a young family, out of little more than jealousy, bitterness, and rage, and then tried to frame one of them for the crime when they survived. After you have heard all the evidence, we ask that you find the defendant guilty on all charges. Thank you, your honour.'

In the balcony, everyone was shocked by the announcement of surprise defendants. 'Blair?' Rio whispered, confused. 'Rhydian?' Maddy sneered with venom and disgust, as if she was spitting his name out. As she heard her name, Blair just sat up straight, her gaze not wavering once, clutching a pendant Wilma had left her in her left pocket.

As this was finished, the judge pointed to Julius, representing the Defence. 'Mr. Long, your reply?' He stood, and delivered his own eloquent statement, all while battling his strong London accent. 'Your honour, members of the jury, my name is Julius Long, and I am representing Mr. Birchall. Now the Honourable Ms. Grainger described my client Mr. Birchall as a "cold, callous individual", and suggested that the crimes he is accused of were an act in cold blood. Yet she also talked about Mr. Birchall having a significant desire to begin a relationship with Ms. Cummings.'

'As far as we stand, we consider Mr. Birchall to be little more than the victim of a plot between two lovers, organised for insurance purposes. Mr. Robinson and Ms. Cummings piloted a scheme designed to make hundreds of thousands of pounds in insurance policy payouts in order to pay themselves back for a house paid for by borrowing money from the bank and from friends and family.'

'But the incident went wrong. And so Mr. Robinson, believing his beloved to truly be dead, decided, whether through grief, denial, or cold-blooded deceit, to frame Mr. Birchall for the murder, a crime which he not only did not commit, but could not possibly have had the means, motive, or opportunity to do so. When Ms. Cummings mysteriously turned up, not only alive, but also unharmed, she was the first person to encourage Mr. Robinson to continue to insist that this was an attempt at both their lives, as a result of a more than decade old feud which she was the only one continuing at the time of the incident.'

'Members of the jury, I will call three witnesses, as well as rely on expert testimony in this case. I will call Martin Garcia, a close acquaintance of Mr. Birchall's, Rachael Eckersall, a former member of the same Professional Card Duelling circuit that the individuals in question have all been involved in for a number of years, Robert Jordan Atkinson, a professional pilot who was wrongly terminated by Mr. Robinson earlier this year and witnessed the aftermath of the crime, and Damien Cummings, the estranged father of Ms. Cummings.'

As this was announced, Hannah just looked stunned. 'He can't be here… please don't let him be here…' Before she could say anything else however, the Prosecution started their testimonies. 'I call my first witness - Blair Flannigan.' Everyone looked around shocked, as Blair had failed to inform anybody that she was a witness in the trial. Dressed in a straight cut black suit and trousers, hair down and straightened, and with a steely look in her eyes. She swiftly walked over to the podium, and in a telling sign, swore not on the bible, but on the Quran instead. 'I swear by almighty Allah to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'

Frances then began the case. 'Ms. Flannigan, for the purposes of the jury, please could you explain what your relation is to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings?' 'Yes, I am the daughter of Phil's Aunt, and therefore his biological cousin. However, I was adopted out of the family before my first birthday and moved to Michigan.' 'And I understand that you grew up watching Mr. Robinson duelling on the television?'

'Yes.' 'In fact, you considered him a personal hero, did you not?' 'Absolutely.' 'And then you got to meet him. Am I right in thinking that the opening day of last year's WDC World Championships event was the first time you had ever met Mr. Robinson?' 'No, I had met him once before when I was 9.' 'But this was only a brief meeting?' 'Yes.' 'Certainly not long enough to, say, form a meaningful opinion of him as an individual?' 'No, it lasted all of three or four minutes.'

'And then you met him properly, along with Hannah. If you could please tell the court what your experience was like meeting him?' 'It was better than I could ever have imagined.' As she spoke, she stared straight at Hannah. 'I can genuinely say that Phil and Hannah are two of the most genuine people I have ever met. They invited me into their lives at a time when I basically had nowhere to go, and became a family to me.'

'Do you remember the day of this incident involving Mr. Birchall happening?' After a brief pause to gather her thoughts, she nodded. 'I do. Clear as anything.' 'Ok then, in your words, please tell the jury what happened on the morning of the 29th October 2016.' Taking a sip of water, she recanted her memories of that day.

'I remember we had got back real late the previous day from an event that we were at in Norway, I think we took a red eye to get back sooner, so we, me and Rio' 'Sorry to interrupt, but for the purposes of the Jury, Rio is the Riana Kaslte in question.' 'Yeah sorry, never allowed to call her Riana normally. Anyway, me and Riana had arranged to meet up with Jade the next lunchtime to go down to Newcastle City Centre.'

'And for the jury, Jade is?' 'Jade is my girlfriend and a childhood friend of Riana, we had only been seeing each other for a couple of weeks at the time, and she was thinking of moving to the UK to be closer to us.' 'And for the purposes of the jury, is Jade here today?' 'No, she's at home with my 9 year old cousin, we're in talks regarding adopting her, but I'd really prefer to not get into that.'

'So you were talking about the morning of the attack?' 'Yeah, we were at Phil and Hannah's house in Rochdale, and Hannah gave us a lift down because we were running late. When we got to where we were meeting her, she wasn't there, and I remember that I was just about to go into our base, when James shouted over to us.' 'So you're saying that James was already there when you arrived?' Blair shrugged at this. 'He must have been - there didn't look to be any tyre tracks or sign of a car, and the nearest bus stop is nearly 20 minutes away.'

'And what happened when Mr. Birchall arrived?' 'He shouted over to us, and then threw some kind of projectile at us, I didn't see what it was, there was a period of about three or four minutes where I couldn't see anything. I felt someone drag me to the ground, I found out later that it was Maddy, and then I heard a gunshot, and then there was a massive thud, it sounded like someone had thrown a sack from the roof or something.'

'And then?' 'I heard him start shouting for "Little Megan", I can only think it's Hannah's sister he was referring to but I don't know why, then I heard some more gunshots, and a load of other noise. I pretty much didn't look up until I heard him run off, and then I saw Riana, and she…' Blair's voice then lowered as she relived the incident. 'I can't describe it, she just looked dead. Just like there was no life in there, she was all pale and cold. Then the ambulances came.' 'Thank you Ms. Flannigan.' The Defence attorney then stepped up to question.

'So Ms. Flannigan, I understand that you did not actively see Mr. Birchall?' 'I did. I'm sorry if I didn't explain it well, I saw him there, I thought I saw that he had a gun.' 'So you were blinded by the projectile, but you saw a gun? By all means help me out here Ms. Flannigan, because your story makes no sense.' 'I couldn't really see anything, but I could make out what looked like the outline of a gun. I could see what looked like a gun barrel, a handle'

'I would like to stop you there Ms. Flannigan.' He then side-looked at the jury, before stating 'As far as I am concerned, your story makes no sense for one simple reason - you're lying. You were there but you conveniently didn't actually see the incident, you just so happened to be blinded, but you still saw a gun despite this, except maybe you saw bits of a gun, quite honestly your story doesn't work.'

'Here is my theory Ms. Flannigan. My theory is that you were there, and you saw Mr. Robinson and Ms. Cummings enact their plan, in fact it is entirely possible that you were complicit in the plan. This plan involved the ambushing and attacking of a completely innocent individual, to try and frame my client for something that he did not do, out of a pure desire to impress someone who you have admitted is a personal hero of yours. It is the defence's case that you wilfully allowed yourself to be manipulated into supporting a criminal act.'

Frances then stepped in. 'Objection your honour, Miss Flannigan is being treated like she is a criminal here.' 'Objection upheld. Mr. Long, please remember that Ms. Flannigan is not the one on trial here. Please keep your theories relevant to the facts of the case.' Before he could continue, Blair signalled to the judge. 'I believe Ms. Flannigan wants to say something independently of questioning.'

Blair then stood up straight, and held her head high. 'I would never do any of the things that I was just accused of. You can't mistake the sound of a gunshot, my best friend was shot in the back of the head. Phil would never have done that, this is the man who gave myself and Rio a home, he is no murderer in the same way that I am no liar. I can only tell the court exactly what I saw.' On that note, Frances got the first piece of evidence ready. 'The prosecution would now like to present Exhibit 3A, a recording of Ms. Flannigan's interview with the police. This interview was conducted on November 3rd, five days after the shooting.'

Interview

'Interview commencing at 14:28, in the room are DC Jordan Oliver and PC Alison James-Headley. Thanks for coming Ms. Flannigan, I understand that you were a witness to the… incident?' 'Yeah, "the incident", that little thing where someone who was like a mother to me got killed and my best friend ended up in critical condition, they're saying she might never wake up.'

'Ms. Flannigan, I understand that this is an incredibly emotional time for you, and we appreciate you coming down here. We just want to gather the facts of the case.' 'The facts are that me and Rio were just about to go shopping with Jade.' 'For the purposes of the tape, Jade is…' 'Jade Goocheneyad, she's my girlfriend, she was a witness.' 'Thank you. So you were at the building' 'The base, yeah.'

'And what happened next?' 'He' 'James Birchall?' 'Yeah. He just came running out of some bushes or something, it looked like he'd been waiting for a while and he just ran out and threw a fireball of some kind at us, I thought I was blind.' 'Did you get any kind of look at this projectile?' After a pause, she responded. 'It kind of looked like flashpaper.' 'How certain are you?' 'Pretty, I got a magic kit for my birthday years ago, and there was flashpaper in there, it looked really similar.'

'Did you see any gunshots?' 'Only the last one, Rio was… She was…' Some muffled crying was then heard, and shouts of 'This should be him! He should be lying there, she did nothing wrong!' before the presiding officer calmly stated 'I think we should take a break. Interview paused at 14:40.' After this, there was nothing on the tape, until some rustling, and some snivelling. In the dock, Rio looked nervously at Blair, who could barely stand to listen.

'Interview resumed at 17:08. For the purposes of the tape, Ms. Kastle is now breathing unassisted. Ms. Flannigan, I understand this is an emotional time for you, so for the purposes of the tape, are you able to continue?' A little bit more snivelling followed, before a much calmer voice responded. 'Yeah, I can. I want to. So you were asking about the day that she was shot, right?'

'Correct.' A deep breath followed, and then she explained. 'So we got there probably sometime before midday, Hannah' 'Hannah Cummings, the deceased.' 'Yeah… can't believe it… sorry, she gave us a lift down because Rio was real slow getting dressed that day. So Hannah drops us off, we're waiting for Jade when James appears from nearby.' 'From some bushes?' 'I wouldn't say "bushes", sort of thin woodland, like there was branches and some greenery nearby.'

'So he was obscured?' 'Obscured and he was real quick, like he was determined to do this. He started swearing at us and came running up. I saw something silver in his jacket pocket but I never got chance to see what it was. He just threw something at me, I think it was flashpaper, all I know is it burned like fire and I couldn't see. I heard some gunshots, maybe four or five, and then when I could see, Hannah was bleeding on the ground, Rio was bleeding from the mouth and was then shot in the back of the head. It just looked like an execution.'

'Did you have any issues with James before?' 'I didn't, but Phil and Hannah did. They've known each other for years, Phil referenced some gang shit a couple of times, and James kept comparing him to Ian Brady, I don't know who that is though, I've only been living in the country a few months.' 'If you don't mind me asking, where are you from?' 'Michigan, just north of Detroit. I moved here for a fresh start.'

'You were just talking about Mr. Birchall's history with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings? Could you elaborate?' 'Not really, I don't know that much about it. It's not something they really talked about, all I know is they've known each other a long time, I think Phil used to be his heavy or something, but I don't know much of anything aside from that. Is there anything else I can help with?'

'Yes, just a quick one this. This group you're a part of, the Renegades isn't it?' 'Uh yeah, what's up?' 'How would you describe the group?' 'As in?' 'What is the group about, what do you do?' Shockingly, the reply was almost immediate. 'I suppose it's kinda like a youth club in a way, it's difficult to describe but it's sort of a youth club for professional duellists. Like, most of us come from broken homes in one way or another, so I suppose we just bond through that.'

'Is there ever any… issues, between you all?' 'Course there is, all families argue.' 'Does that include Mr. and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings?' 'Yeah, they argue plenty.' 'Have any of these arguments ever become… violent?' The response was in a confused tone. 'No… he's way overprotective if anything.' 'Overprotective how?' 'Well he gets a little paranoid if she's particularly late home, and he doesn't like her driving long distances, but it's only because she's pregnant, and… well she had some spinal issues from a car accident when she was younger.'

The tone then lowered slightly. 'Was he… did he ever strike her, or act violent towards her?' 'Absolutely not!' she exclaimed, horrified. 'He wanted to look after her, I spent plenty of time with them and he never laid a finger on her in anger. He told me a few times that he didn't know what he had done to deserve her. If you go and see him right now, you're not seeing someone who was violent to his wife, you're seeing someone who saw his soulmate be murdered in cold blood.'

'We appreciate that these questions are by no means comfortable for you Ms. Flannigan, however from evidence we have, there is a significant concern that he may have had motive. Can you tell me what they were like financially?' 'Pretty good.' 'Did he have any outstanding loans or any money he'd borrowed?' 'I mean some of us at the base gave him money towards his and Hannah's house, he kept insisting he'd pay us back but none of us really wanted paying back. We wanted to repay him for the things he's done for us.'

'I understand he was a new business owner?' 'Yeah.' 'Did he have anything outstanding from that?' 'I mean he had a loan from the bank to help set it up, but he's got a payment plan with them, and I saw the bills a few weeks ago, he's been making regular payments every two weeks.' 'And he's not expressed any financial concerns to you?' 'No, he's never suggested he's struggling. I know free cash was a little short after they got the house, but it was never desperate.

'Did you know anything about a life insurance policy?' 'Yeah they've both got Life insurance, they got it out just after they got legally married.' 'And this was whose idea?' 'I think it was a joint decision, you know they did all this stuff together, but I don't get what you're trying to suggest, you think… you think he murdered her just because they had a life insurance policy? That's fucking disgusting.'

'Ms. Flannigan, I am required to warn you about your language.' 'And I'm required to warn you that you're barking up the wrong tree. There's so many witnesses, and you're still always trying to just twist it. He would never have harmed a hair on her head, I don't understand what everybody's issue with him being happy is. He's just this genuine, lovely guy, and everyone's out to get him and I don't get it.' Sensing the tension rising, the female officer simply said 'Interview terminated at 17:41.'

In the courtroom

As Blair stood with her face in her hands, believing that she had messed up, Frances continued. 'What does that recording tell the people of the jury? Does it highlight someone who has something to hide, maybe it showcases somebody who knows about a stealthy crime? Or, does it show us humanity? I ask you, would this woman you see before you, someone with her whole life before her and who is by all accounts a very reliable and caring individual, stick her neck on the line and risk her entire reputation, if she was not 100% convinced of what she saw that day?'

Birchall's defence then hit back. 'Ms. Flannigan, I do have to question, how would you know about the Life Insurance policy in question, and know around the time it was taken out, yet you don't appear to know anything else regarding the policy. How is that so?' There was a very surprising response. 'I never said I didn't know how much it was worth. I know it was worth £500,000, because I quite often helped Hannah with her paperwork.'

This cracked open a whole new hornet's nest, as Phil looked over at his wife, unsure of why he had never learned about this development before, and Julius looked up towards the judge. 'Your honour, would I have permission to cross examine Ms. Flannigan on this matter?' 'Very well, just keep it as related to the case as possible, remember that Ms. Flannigan is not on trial.' As Blair continued to stand straight with a calm expression on her face, the questions continued.

'So Ms. Flannigan, when you say that you "helped" Mrs. Robinson-Cummings with the paperwork, how exactly do you mean?' 'Hannah was having some issues with her sight, we're talking about September time, she was having a few problems reading, it turned out she needed a fresh prescription for her glasses. But they couldn't sort it for a few weeks, so I offered to help her sift through some of her paperwork, just read things out to her, confirm dates, things like that.'

'And you saw this policy?' 'Yeah, I saw it but I didn't think anything of it because I knew they had a policy, they'd both talked about it a few times.' 'Did you not think it might be an idea to mention this during your interview? Or were you afraid that acknowledging their openness regarding this policy might jeopardise Mr. Robinson's claim? Ms. Flannigan, were you deliberately withholding information from the Police?' 'No, I wasn't. I had just seen my best friend and someone I considered a mother figure shot.'

'I thought you hadn't seen the shooting?' 'Listen, I've been in the Armed Forces back in America, I know what the sound of bullet piercing skin sounds like.' 'Have you ever shot anyone yourself Ms. Flannigan? Is that how you know what it sounds like?' Before Blair could give an answer, Frances interrupted. 'Objection!' 'Objection upheld. Mr. Long, I would like you to stand down from this line of questioning. Ms. Flannigan's experience in the military is, I'm sure, very interesting, but it is completely superfluous to this case.'

'Your honour, I understand your concerns, however I am trying to establish the fact that my client was not involved in this shooting. And to do so, it would be incredibly helpful to investigate who did commit the shooting?' 'Mr. Long, your job is to prove your client's innocence. It is NOT to speculate who may have committed the crime, THAT is the job of the Police. Now if you do not have anything else related directly to the case to ask, I suggest that you end your questioning.'

He had another question already lined up, however. 'Ms. Flannigan, tell me - do you like Mr. Birchall?' 'As a person, no, I do not like him.' 'Would you say that you "despise" Mr. Birchall?' 'Yes, for what he did to us, yes. I despise him with all my heart.' 'Would you say that you would like to see harm come to Mr. Birchall? Be that physical or otherwise?' 'No. There is a fine line between justice and revenge. I only want justice to be done. I don't care if he lives to 100 if we never encounter him again, but I believe people should be held accountable for their crimes.'

'So, in a hypothetical situation, say you were facing Mr. Birchall 1-1, and you had the opportunity to shoot him, like you say he did to the alleged victims in this case. Would you do so?' The reply was certain and confident. 'No. I had the opportunity before he was arrested. But I don't believe in mindless violence. If I had shot him, he wouldn't be here to face justice. That's all I care about.'

Mr. Long then nodded over to Frances. 'I don't believe the Defence has any more questions for Ms. Flannigan.' The judge then asked Frances. 'Ms. Bishop?' 'No more questions Your Honour.' 'Ok, Ms. Flannigan, you are free to leave the witness stand.' As she did, she took a deep breath, and the judge confirmed the next course of action. 'We will now have a short recess for thirty minutes. We will then reconvene for the Defence's first witness. Court adjourned.'

Outside the room, Maddy and Rio found Blair slumped just outside, leaning against a window. Slowly they approached. 'I fucked it up, I'm so sorry.' Immediately, Maddy picked her up. 'You didn't fuck up, ok? You were awesome there, I didn't think you had it in you to handle all that.' 'I don't know how I did it.' 'Doesn't matter. The fact is, you stood up for yourself, you took all the questions.'

Rio had other questions though. 'Did you really learn to shoot a gun?' 'Yeah, only lil M9 pistols, military standard, but yeah.' 'You ever shoot anyone?' 'Loads of times, but only with blanks. Never actually shot anybody for real.' 'Back there, when we caught James, could you have shot him?' There was a stark reply. 'Yes. When you're protecting people you love, this weird thing happens, you seem to lose all inhibitions. You're willing to do anything and you don't even think about the consequences, you're just cold.'

'I bet that's how you got through your testimony.' 'There's always going to be that small piece of me that's this stone cold soldier, as soon as I went up there it was just a complete blur. It honestly felt like I was up there for about 20 minutes.' 'It was over three hours.' 'Didn't feel like it, honestly, time just seems to race by. I can't quite explain it.' Frances then approached the three of them, and smiled at Blair.

'That was really well delivered there. I honestly have admiration for someone who can get up there for three hours, and take some honestly pretty nasty questions.' 'I mean what gives them the right to question me on all that sh*t, even accusing me of being an accessory to Fraud.' 'Unfortunately, it's his job. He knows that none of you are going to back down, so he's going to antagonise you as much as possible until you crack and say the wrong thing. James knows you all enough to know that you all have skeletons in your closets.'

Rio looked confused, but Maddy just nodded to her. 'The word "Renegades" is a skeleton, that word in relation to us has a reputation. We've done a lotta shit to a lotta people.' 'So what, we just let him say what he wants?' 'Yes. I will step in if the questioning is getting too much, the judge will step in if the questioning is irrelevant to the case. I will help you all however I can, but you need to be helping yourselves. Don't be afraid to look like humans.'

'Meaning?' 'You don't need to convince me, you don't need to convince Julius, you don't need to convince the judge, you need to convince the jury. And juries respond better to real people, not people who pretend to be emotionless husks.' 'What if we're not pretending though?' Everyone then glared at her. 'Sorry.' Wanting to get away from Maddy's depressive attitude, Rio made an excuse. 'Hey B, why don't we go and get a coffee? Courtrooms do have coffee machines, don't they?' 'Not machines, no, but you might be able to get something at the cafe. Just remember that you're not allowed to bring the drink into the courtroom.'

As they left, Maddy started talking quietly to Frances. 'Listen, I'm the key witness for Rhydian in a few days, and I… I'm gonna do something really terrible. But I know that I need to do it.' 'Go on.' 'Well, I sorta made this pact with him.' 'When was this?' 'He phoned me from prison after he was arrested. We made a deal that he'd testify against James, but only if I agreed to testify in his defence in return.'

'And are you planning on doing it?' 'Dunno, I just need to know - if I don't, are there any repercussions?' 'Legally, none whatsoever. Whatever little trust pact you've got between you, there's no legal basis for it. Legally it means absolutely nothing. If anything it makes him look more guilty. I do have to warn you though - if you go ahead with that, you are going to be absolutely hounded by the defence.' 'I'm aware, but I need to do whatever I need to do.'

As Maddy turned to leave, Frances stopped her. 'Listen, I know it's probably not a good time, but has there been any progress on our talks?' 'If you get James convicted, then you have my word for Yes.' 'Thank you.' 'Just focus on the trial, we'll talk about all this afterwards.' 'Ok.' 'So who's up next?' 'I think it's Martin Garcia.' 'And who's up next for us after him?' 'It was due to be Adam Smith, but Rio's just texted me asking if she can testify tomorrow, so we're probably going to rejig things slightly.'

Elsewhere in the court

It has been a day full of surprises, but they weren't ready to end. As Rio and Blair came back from the coffee machines, a voice emanated from behind them. 'Rio Kastle? Didn't think I'd see you again so soon.' As Rio turned around, she couldn't help but grin. The face seemed different, but was so recognisable to her. 'Calley?' The girl in front of them, standing just below six foot, with short, curly blonde hair, wearing a purple and green varsity jacket, just smiled and saluted a delighted Rio and a confused Blair, before walking up to them.

'Well hasn't it been a long time?' 'Uh… yeah? Like FOUR YEARS?' 'That long? Gee, time flies doesn't it?' 'You can say that again. So… uh… what brings you to Newcastle?' 'Simple you see - I found out about the trial.' Blair then suddenly connected the dots. 'So it was YOU that Jade was on the phone to the other week? She said it was her aunt.' Rio then looked around surprised. 'B, Jade doesn't have an aunt.' 'How do you know?' 'Because I knew her parents before they moved. Her mom is an only child, and her dad is one of 9 brothers.'

'How am I supposed to know that? I don't even know the name of her parents.' 'Are you surprised she doesn't wanna talk about them? They're a pair of zealots.' Calley then coughed to gain their attention. 'I take it you're Jade's girlfriend then?' 'Blair Flannigan at your service.' 'She mentioned that you were pretty tall, and I can see what she means.' 'You're not exactly bad yourself.' 'So how do you two know each other? You and Rio that is.'

Rio immediately hugged Blair. 'Besties.' 'I stole money from her in an airport. Long story.' 'Must admit I didn't have you down as the roguish type.' Rio couldn't help but laugh. 'Roguish? The only way Blair's ever getting in trouble with the police is for speeding. Well, that or smacking someone across the face too hard when they call her the L word.' 'Don't go there.' 'So you were saying you heard about the trial?' 'Yeah, I saw that interview you did a few weeks back.' 'How?' 'You've become a minor celebrity in Idaho. I swear the news around Twin Falls must have been playing it on a loop.'

'So you know about… well you know' 'Jade explained everything when I got in contact with her. I totally wanted to get back in touch earlier but I could never find any contact details for you, and your old phone number doesn't work.' 'I changed my number months ago to get away from Reginald.' 'Like that is it?' 'Yep.' By now, Blair was starting to feel left out. 'I don't want to sound rude'

'Oh I've not introduced myself properly, sorry! I'm Calley Donnington, well actually my name's Catherine, but me and she agreed to shorten our names, Rio and Calley sound way cooler than Riana and Catherine, not that it helped us pick up boys, well it didn't help me anyway I'm not sure about Ri Ri, I think she could have had pretty much whoever she liked but she just wasn't interested in anything like that, she was too interested in duelling and studying, duelling and studying, studying and duelling, oh and there was that four months she spent in hospital.'

As Calley continued to go on about Rio's love life, Blair looked over at the Idahoan. 'Does she… do this often?' 'Yep, nobody can talk quite like Calley, I'm pretty sure her lung capacity is the only thing ever shutting her up.' Blair then had a very interesting question. 'How'd you get in here anyway?' Calley then produced a lanyard. 'Press pass - I'm covering the trial for the Twin Falls Times-News, I'm hoping to be upgraded to have a full column after covering this.'

Before a response could be mustered, Frances came up to them. 'The trial's resuming in five minutes. Oh, and Rio, you're going to be on tomorrow afternoon.' 'Thanks Frances.' 'Just make sure that you're absolutely ready to do it, I can't guarantee another opportunity if things go wrong.' 'They won't do. I just want to have my say as soon as possible. After seeing Blair go through all that, she kind of inspired me.'

Back in the courtroom

As Hannah arrived back in after a tense discussion with her husband, the judge nodded to Julius. 'The Defence calls its first witness - Martin Garcia.' When it was announced, the Argentine swaggered into the courtroom, now sporting a thick black beard and a scar just above his right eye. Walking in, he locked eyes with Hannah, before walking straight to the witness stand, where he placed his hand on a bible. 'I swear on almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'

'Mr. Garcia, could you please explain to the jury who you are?' 'Yes, my name is Martin Garcia, I have been a professional duellist for thirteen years.' 'How long have you known Mr. Birchall?' 'Me and James have been acquainted for, maybe 9 years, but I have been close friends with him for about 4 years.' 'How did you both meet?' 'He was attending a duelling event, and we got talking, I didn't think much of it at the time. A few years later he turns professional, and he actively hunted me down, tells me that I inspired him to turn professional. We then got talking a little bit more, realised we have a lot in common, and went from there.'

'So you have known Mr. Birchall a significant amount of time. Would you say that he is a "good" person?' 'Yes, James is a fantastic person. I can't speak highly enough of him, throughout the time we have known each other we've argued maybe twice you know, that's just the kind of person he is. And he doesn't deserve all this bullsh*t that he's being put through by these two, they have been trying to tear his life apart man, they need to be on trial, not him.'

At this point, the judge intervened. 'Mr. Garcia, may I remind you that swearing is not permitted in the courtroom. Please will you refrain from such coarse language.' 'Sorry your honour.' 'So Mr. Garcia, you would describe the accused as a "good" man?' 'Not just a good man, he's my hombre, he's an absolute top guy. It's all just so natural that we get on, he's got a wicked sense of humour.'

'And you have never seen him get angry?' 'Yeah, I've seen him get angry about sh*t.' 'Angry enough to shoot somebody?' 'No, no way. He'd never do anything like that. The worst I've ever seen him do is throw a television controller across the room you know. What he's been accused of is absolutely wrong on so many levels.' 'And he has never shown violence against another person?' 'Well he gets into fights sometimes, but he lives in a rough area, everyone around there gets into fights. It's nothing special, it's just something that happens.'

'On the day of the 12th October 2016, where were you?' 'I was in London, me and James had been rooming together for a few weeks.' 'And James was with you the entire day?' 'No, he left, probably late morning, he was spending some time with a friend, think he said his name was George?' 'For the purposes of the jury, this "George" is George Drake, we attempted to contact him for a statement but he no longer lives in the country and we could not find any contact details. Please continue.'

'

'So yeah, he came back late at night, said he'd had some issues with George, and we had some beers.' 'At any point did you have any indication that he might have shot anybody?' 'None at all.' 'Are you aware of Mr. Birchall owning a firearm?' 'Yes, he owns a gun for self defence, as I say it's a rough place he lives. He's got a permit though, he keeps it with the gun.' 'Did the gun move at any point while you were with him?'

'I wouldn't be able to say, I saw the gun and permit maybe the second day I was there, but never again. He keeps it in a locked drawer.' 'So you haven't seen him remove it from the drawer?' 'No.' As this was said Frances and her firearms expert were taking notes. 'I understand you have had issues with one of the victims, Ms. Cummings in the past?' 'I mean we don't get on, but I don't think anyone should be attempted to be murdered, if that makes sense.'

Despite the clumsy wording, everyone understood what he was saying. With no more questions from the Defence, Frances stood up to begin her line of questioning. 'Mr. Garcia, may I thank you for your answers.' 'You're welcome.' 'I just want to clarify a couple of things. Firstly, you said that you "don't get on" with my client, Ms. Cummings?' 'That is correct.' 'Would you like to tell the jury how "not well" you get on?' 'Yeah, we had some issues a few years back.'

'For the purposes of the jury, I would like to show everybody Exhibit 3a. This is the official report of a World Duelling Corporation investigation into a match-fixing ring in 2013. Do you know anything about this Mr. Garcia?' 'No' he replied bluntly. 'Well you should do. Because you're named in this report. In fact, this report states that you were "wilfully complicit" in said match fixing ring. And what else is interesting is that it lists Ms. Cummings as the whistleblower.'

'Now I needed to know more about this, so I spoke to a number of current and former officials in the company. The transcripts are Exhibit 3b through 3g. I would like to just pull out a few statements from these transcripts as well. We have "Martin blamed Hannah for being suspended", "Hannah reported on multiple occasions that she and Phillip had received threats from Martin regarding the match fixing scandal", "Martin was the most corrupt individual we have ever had in the WDC", "The situation was very ugly very quickly".'

'Now let me ask the jury: what you have heard about the case and about Mr. Garcia, do you think this makes him a credible reliable witness? Would you stake the safety of yourselves and your friends and family on the testimony of a man who has such… questionable moral character? A man who himself was willing to stoop low for personal gain, a man who by a number of accounts, had sent a number of threats to one of the victims himself, and a man who claims to know nothing of a gun, yet he has seen the gun and permit.'

'A gun, which, I might add, is supposedly for self defence. A weapon that you pick up at a moment's notice in the most stressful and dangerous of situations. So why would you keep such a weapon locked up, in a one bedroom flat for which there is no record of any minors visiting? It is my affirmation that the defence's case makes no sense, because the truth is, Mr. Garcia is being fundamentally dishonest.'

This caused an uproar from the balcony, causing the judge to intervene. 'Order. Order. I would like to remind the Honourable Ms. Bishop that Mr. Garcia is not the one on trial here. Therefore I would appreciate it if she would keep the case to the facts.' 'With respect Your Honour, I am simply questioning how Mr. Garcia's evidence makes factual sense outside of his head.' 'Very well, but please keep it to the facts and away from directly accusing Mr. Garcia of dishonesty. If you have a concern regarding his evidence, you may present the concern separately to the trial.'

'Of course Your Honour. We should not let the questionable character of Mr. Garcia distract from the issue at hand, that being that his testimony doesn't make sense. Mr. Garcia, I do have to ask - why did you not freely admit that you had previously had issues with Ms. Cummings? Were you trying to hide the truth from us because you know that the accused is actually guilty?' 'No, he didn't do it, he couldn't have got from where he lives all the way up there.'

'It's funny you should say that. Presenting Exhibit 4ab, a route planning app's guidance from where Mr. Birchall lives in Watford to where the shooting took place. Based on an estimated time of incident at 11:44am, Mr. Birchall could have made the journey in around four and a half hours. Mr. Garcia, I understand from your police interview that you slept in that day until half 11.' 'Yeah.' 'So you wouldn't have had a good sense of the time if Mr. Birchall left earlier than you suggested.'

'I mean I suppose.' 'So you accept, do you not, that it is theoretically possible that Mr. Birchall could have left early enough to drive up there and set a trap.' 'Look, he didn't do it.' 'Mr. Garcia, I am not asking you for your opinion on whether your friend is guilty. I am asking if it is theoretically possible that he may have left earlier than you thought he had.' 'I mean I guess it's possible.'

'I thank you for admitting it, because we can prove that he was in the area. Is there anything else you would like to disclose? May I remind you before you do so that you are still under oath.' Fried by the intensity of the questions, Martin buckled. 'I have nothing else to say, he didn't do it. He wouldn't have done it, he couldn't have done it.' Knowing she had worked her magic, Frances stood down again. 'No more questions.' James' legal team looked over, and discussed something briefly, before concurring. 'No more questions Your Honour.'

As Martin walked away, Frances had some more evidence. 'Your Honour, I would like to introduce Exhibit 7f at this point, as it relates to the evidence we just received.' Looking through the list of evidence, the judge appeared to concur. 'Any objections Mr. Long?' 'None Your Honour.' 'Ok, you can go ahead Ms. Bishop.'

'I would like to introduce to the jury Exhibit 7f, Speed Camera footage of Mr. Birchall's car. We can see that he enters the M1 at 6:12am at St. Albans, and then we next see him at Junction 20 of the M1, Misterton Interchange in Leicestershire at 8:41am. Then we can follow him all the way up to Junction 49, where he turns off, just North of York, at 10:23am. We can see from there that he continues onto the A168 and A19, and the last time we see him is going onto the A187 in Wallsend at 10:49am.'

'To test this, I myself drove up there last week during rush hour, and managed to get from his last known location to the crime scene, a journey of around three miles in around 25 minutes. So if we take the time of the crime to be around 11:45 am, that would have given him around 55 minutes to complete a journey of three miles, which is more than enough to not only reach the crime scene, but as our witness earlier stated, dump his car in a nearby supermarket car park, and reach the crime scene by foot.'

Julius then stood and responded. 'With respect to Ms. Bishop, I hardly see how your little road trip relates to this case.' 'I was using the trip to illustrate the point that your client had the means and the opportunity to commit this crime. Would you dispute that he had the opportunity?' 'I would dispute that you have no proof that Mr. Birchall was actively involved.' 'The car number plate in question is registered to Mr. Birchall, at his current address. So unless his car was stolen and then miraculously turned up again afterward…'

'You have no proof that my client was there. He was in the North East of England, that doesn't prove that he was at the crime scene.' 'Well what else was he doing there? With respect, nobody knows why else he might have been there, because you have taken the decision to not have your client speak. Ms. Kastle will be testifying later on, despite having badly affected speech and a terminal brain condition due to being shot by YOUR CLIENT. Why isn't Mr. Birchall testifying? Are you afraid that he's going to harm his own case by speaking? What do you have to be afraid of? Or is it because when it comes down to it, your client is fundamentally unlikeable because he is a murderer?'

Roaring came from the spectator seating again, and the judge crashed his hammer down. 'Order! Ms. Bishop, I would request once more that you restrain yourself from personal attacks, and keep the case to the facts.' 'Of course, I would just like to know what it is that the Defence are so scared of when it comes to Mr. Birchall testifying? If a young woman with a major brain condition and a woman who is over seven months pregnant can both testify, why does Mr. Birchall have to hide behind a legal team? What is there to hide?'

'Quite frankly, we don't believe that Mr. Birchall's testimony would add anything. We have a strong case to prove that your clients were involved in a deep, deliberate, well-thought-out insurance fraud plot, and decided to pin the blame when it went wrong.' 'For which you have absolutely no evidence, aside from them having an insurance policy, which I might add, they haven't even claimed on.'

As the confrontation started heating up and getting nasty, the judge intervened. 'I think we've had enough for one day. We will reconvene at 9am sharp tomorrow morning. The court is now in recess.' As everyone started to leave, Rio looked back for a moment and saw James. He didn't look cocky or confident now though; rather, he was looking sheepish, nervous and pensive, a far cry from the man who started the day.

Near the entrance to the courtroom, Hannah and Frances reconvened in private. 'So how do you think the first day went?' 'There's a saying - better than I thought, worse than I hoped. I'm really aiming to get James annoyed enough to stop listening to his legal team.' 'Because you don't think we can win otherwise?' 'Because I don't want to leave anything to chance. And also because I want this case over and done with before you have to testify.'

'Listen, as much as the idea is making me want to vomit, I'm going to have to.' 'If you can't, we can take a statement.' 'I have to, I have some… things… that he needs to hear, and I suppose… that Phil needs to hear. Some things that… I'm never going to get off my chest otherwise.' While Hannah was talking, Frances couldn't help but notice her fiddling with a wooden charm in her pocket.

'What's that you've got there?' 'Oh, this? It's nothing.' 'No seriously, I'm interested.' She then withdrew it from her pocket - a simple circular piece of wood, no more than 3cm in diameter, with a pentagram crudely scratched into it. 'Didn't have you down as an occultist.' 'I'm not, it's a little Pagan charm that I just carry around with me. Ever since Mum died, religion sort of hasn't done anything for me, but I made this in art class about six weeks after it happened, it was my first week back after being released from hospital. Every time I see it, it just takes me back to that place.'

'This place that's just full of anger, resentment, hatred, but also confusion, I'm still learning to deal with it now. Nobody knows this, but I was conscious when she died, I heard her neck snap in that crash.' 'I thought she died in the fire.' 'I mean she did, she probably could have survived with surgery, but I heard that, it was the last thing I ever heard from her. By keeping this with me, I feel like I'm keeping the memory of her alive. Of that day alive.' 'Well you know he's going to be spending the rest of his life in prison when he's tried.' 'When's that?' 'Probably a few months yet, but he's going to be detained in a maximum security prison until he's tried anyway.' Without hesitation, Hannah stated 'I hope he rots in there.'

As they exited, Blair had something important to ask. 'Hey, I don't know if you're aware of this, but we're two rooms short on the hotel booking.' 'Yeah, me and Phil are staying at his parents' house, it's only about 20 minutes from here.' 'Is there any chance of me meeting them? I mean his Dad is sort of my Uncle.' 'No sort of about it, biologically he is.' 'Does he even know I exist?' 'Oh yeah, absolutely. He knew that Sue had gotten pregnant from a one night stand, and that she'd given the baby up for adoption, but he never heard anything else on it. He's eager to meet you in fact. Tell you what, me and Phil are planning on inviting them over for a meal at our place in a couple of weeks, so you and Maddy can join us, just for a nice family thing.'

'Sounds epic.' 'There's just one rule, don't spend all your time talking to his Dad about football.' 'I know. What's his Mum like?' 'Very funny, slightly questionable language, but you'll get on great with her. Just don't mention the French.' 'Why?' 'She doesn't like them, don't know why.' 'Fair enough.' With that, the day ended, and after dropping everyone off at the hotel, Phil and Hannah drove off to his parents' house.

Day 2

The next morning, Phil and Hannah arrived at the hotel nice and early, but there was one absentee from the party, which Hannah immediately picked up on. 'Where's Maddy?' 'She's gone back home, she was advised not to attend today due to Rhydian giving evidence, and then Astrid's got her operation tomorrow, and she said for Maddy to not worry about her, but you know what telling Maddy not to worry achieves.'

'And when was she planning on telling us?' 'No idea, she spent the night, and then left first thing this morning.' While this was being explained, Phil got on the phone. 'Hi Maddy, when were you planning on telling us about not attending the rest of the trial?' 'I sent your Mam a text last night.' 'And she didn't get it because her phone was out of charge. Why didn't you just contact one of us?' 'I thought your phones would be off. Anyway I'm fine, I'm attending another regionals today.'

'Are you planning on scaring Blair's remaining students half to death there?' 'I already told her, I'm sorry, I got a little carried away. Besides, if I win the regionals, I get into Nationals, and if I win that, I get into World Championship qualifying.' 'Maddy, you're the World Number 7, I don't think that's going to be an issue.' 'No harm in making certain. Well I should go, I need to be in Gretna in an hour.'

'Gretna?' 'Yeah, I told you me and Blair had talked, and we agreed that I'd enter the Borders Regionals instead of the North East. You know, just in case I get carried away again. Dunno what to say - having power's fun. See ya.' As the call ended, Phil shook his head. 'That girl isn't right in the head. Anyway, we can't be focused on that now, we'll be late to court if we don't get going soon.'

In the court, they met up with Frances again. 'So what's the plan for today?' As Phil asked, a greying man, no more than 5ft 3, wearing a navy blue jacket passed by, catching Frances' attention. 'Ah, Antonio, just the man I wanted to see.' He turned around, and smiled, his thick moustache raising along with him. 'Antonio, these are our clients, we've got Hannah here, and Rio right at the back. Everyone, this is Dr. Antonio P. Strom, he is a world renowned Neurologist and Neurological Surgeon. He's going to be providing some testimony for us.'

After pleasantries were exchanged, he walked up to Rio. 'Riana Kastle, I believe?' 'Yeah, that's me.' He then looked over at everyone. 'Would me and Ms. Kastle be able to have a few minutes, I just want to make some notes on her physiological issues related to the shooting. Just so I can get a better understanding of exactly what happened.' 'Of course.' Blair then turned around to her. 'You sure you're going to be ok?' The good doctor then smiled at her. 'You can come with us if you like, I have no issue with that.' The girls both smiled, and went with him.

While they were gone, Hannah noticed a sudden commotion from the cameras outside. 'That's weird, they weren't that obsessed with us today, I thought they'd been told to calm down or something.' 'They're the paparazzi, they don't do "calming down".' The reason that they were going wild then became obvious, as Rhydian walked in, wearing sunglasses and a black dress shirt with jeans.

As he sauntered past Phil and Hannah, his eyes followed the group, until he noticed the lack of Maddy. Immediately he turned around, and Hannah squared up to him. 'You want something?' 'Where is she?' 'Who?' 'Don't play dumb, where's Maddy, she's supposed to be here.' 'She's not here.' 'I know that, I can see that. What I asked you was where was she?' he demanded, getting right in Hannah's face. She responded by butting back. 'Not here. That's all you're getting. Now run along.'

Getting nothing from Hannah, he turned to her husband. 'You heard her - run along.' Eventually it was Frances who intervened in the situation. 'Mr. Morris, you're not supposed to be here.' 'Where's Maddy?' 'I don't know, and I'm not strictly allowed to tell you anyway. You were told to have no contact with her before your trial, if you want to have Witness Intimidation added onto your charges by all means, but I can't advise it.'

Reluctantly, Rhydian walked off, but not before threatening Hannah. 'You want James convicted? You gotta play by my rules.' After he walked off, there was a serious question from her to Frances. 'The way you were talking to him there, are you… defending him?' 'Listen, I'm on the prosecution team for his trial. I'm not Maddy's lawyer for it, but I am on the team. I'll level with you, our case is very shaky. We need Rhydian to play ball with us in order to get him convicted. If he changes his plea, we have issues.'

'I thought the case was strong?' 'It is… as long as he keeps to his story. Without him, all we can prove is that he was seen giving her cannabis once, and he introduced her to a known drug dealer. We can't prove that he was complicit in supplying. So how about you play nice with him. Where is Maddy anyway?' 'She said that you told her not to attend?' This confused the lawyer significantly. 'Never, I told her not to speak to him, but I never said anything about not coming.' Just as this was said, Rio and Blair returned.

'Everything ok with him?' 'Yeah, he got a lot out of what I said I think. He's gone straight to the courtroom.' 'He's good isn't he?' 'You're telling me? He really knows his stuff.' 'He does, doesn't he? I met him for the first time a couple of weeks ago, he's very impressive.' 'How did you get in contact anyway?' 'I contacted him through the clinic he works in, just on the off chance that he could give me some medical facts about what happened, he read your case and within about an hour, he gave me a call and offered to come down and provide testimony.'

'So who's up after him?' 'We've got Rachael Eckersall, she's apparently James' girlfriend' Phil quickly laughed this off. 'Girlfriend? He kidnapped her!' Hannah then raised her eyes and looked over. 'Worked for you didn't it?' 'I didn't kidnap you, you came of your own accord.' 'Yeah, only after you kidnapped my sister and put some kind of curse on me.' 'I literally wasn't even there when that happened.' 'Yeah, because they did it completely off their own backs didn't they?' Before their argument could continue, they were all invited into the courtroom.

In the court, order was called, and then Frances got the chance to call on the Neurologist. 'I call on my first expert testimony - world-renowned Neurologist and Chief Neurosurgeon at University Hospital Berlin, Dr. Antonio Strom.' The good doctor walked up to the stand, and in a thick German accent, spoke. 'I pledge on holy God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'

'So Dr. Strom, how long have you been working in Neurology for?' 'I have been studying Neurology in one form or another for more than 40 years, and I have been a qualified Neurosurgeon for 29 years.' 'And I trust that you have had the opportunity to review Ms. Kastle?' 'Yes, I have received the notes regarding Ms. Kastle's condition from her doctors, as well as the hospital where she was initially treated. I also had a meeting with her this morning, so that I could conduct my own assessment of her condition.'

'In a Layman's terms, how would you sum up Ms. Kastle's injuries?' 'Ms. Kastle has what we could call a Penetrating brain injury, that is, it is an injury caused by some form of sharp object piercing through the skull.' He then nodded to Frances, who picked up a large picture of the brain. 'In this scenario, the bullet would have started by penetrating the top left of the Occipital Lobe, then it diverts slightly, at maybe a 25 degree angle, and pierces through the top of her left Parietal Lobe, and enters the Frontal Lobe here, around two thirds of the way up, before coming to a rest here, just at the start of what we would call the Broca's Area.'

'So in your professional opinion, what would be the consequences of such an injury?' 'Well we start in the Occipital Lobe. She has suffered significant damage here, in the top to centre left of the lobe, this will lead to problems regarding sight and being able to process language.' Frances then produced a piece of evidence. 'I direct the jury to Exhibit 17a, a full optician report on Ms. Kastle's sight.'

'This states that my client has suffered around a 30% reduction in total visual field from her right eye, and upwards of 65% in her left eye.' The doctor then provided more evidence. 'I also spoke to Ms. Kastle extensively before I took to the stand, and she tells me that she often suffers from a number of what we would refer to as refractive errors, in this case blurred or double vision.' He then took the unusual step of lifting up an old cardboard book, the type designed for young babies.

'This book, how long would it take you to read it do you think? Two, maybe three minutes? Ms. Kastle tried to read this while suffering with her refractive error earlier this very day, and took twenty seven minutes. This shows the extent to which this blurred vision occurs, making everyday tasks close to impossible. She also suffers from some difficulty in understanding and processing reasonable vocabulary you would anticipate a woman of Ms. Kastle's considerable intelligence to be able to comprehend easily.'

'Then we see the object, in this case a bullet, moving through the tissue of the Occipital Lobe, and it goes into the edge of the Parietal Lobe, in a manner you might call "chipping" it. This would likely result in minor issues in language processing, or Aphasia, and also she appears to suffer from Alexia, reading difficulties, although I have been as of yet unable to determine how severe this might be, as a result of the short time I have known her.'

'After this, we see the bullet continue on its travels, as we move past the Parietal Lobe, and enter the Frontal Lobe. Here, the bullet loses momentum, likely caused by the chipping of the Parietal Lobe, and as such it comes to rest here, within what we would call the Broca's Area, approximately 35-40% of the way into the left dominant hemisphere. This is where we see the most obvious damage from our discussion.'

'The Broca's Area can be seen as the hub for Speech production - it controls the muscles' movements that are used to produce speech. Therefore, any minor damage to the Broca's, like we see here, result in a difficulty with speech production. And from our conversations,and the evidence that Ms. Bishop QC has presented me, it appears that Ms. Kastle has significant speech production issues.'

'Specifically, the formation of entire words is an issue, as she frequently stumbles and stops in words, another form of Aphasia. It may appear that she has a severe stutter of some form, but from our conversations, Ms. Kastle is remarkably well spoken. Instead, it appears that she suffers minor Broca's damage, not significant enough to deny her the ability to speak, but instead, to produce words consistently and hold significant conversations.'

Frances then had a question. 'Dr. Strom, people close to my client have stated on record that Ms. Kastle's speech issues are worse when she is "emotional". Is this possible?' 'Indeed, in cases where the individual has any form of speech impediment like Ms. Kastle does, high levels of emotion have been found to significantly increase the issue. I would ask the jury here present to put themselves in a situation where they have been having some form of emotional conversation. This may be angry, or upset, or elation, any strong emotion you may have in a conversation.'

'Now imagine this same conversation, but you are also acutely aware that you have an injury to your brain which could affect your speech, this is almost in the back of one's mind while having this conversation. Can you imagine having to deal with that as well? Because for Ms. Kastle, this is an everyday issue. The total damage to Ms. Kastle's brain is significant, and she understands it will lead to many challenges down the road.'

'So Dr. Strom, would you say in your professional opinion that Ms. Kastle's injuries were bad luck to be so severe?' The answer was somewhat shocking. 'On the contrary, Ms. Kastle was extraordinarily lucky.' Frances then picked up another large picture, and placed it on a stand. 'Exhibit 14b; an in-depth diagram of the frontal lobe, around the area where the bullet sits in Ms. Kastle. Go ahead doctor.'

'We see the bullet here, around this very small area, as I say maybe 35-40% of the way into the left hemisphere, approaching the outer edge.' He then pointed to a thin, blood-red line next to the bullet. 'And here we have what we would call the Middle Cerebral Artery. As you may be able to see, the bullet appears attached to the Artery. In reality, we come closer, and we see that it is distending the wall of the Artery, pushing it inwards to approximately 90% of its normal capacity.'

'The crucial thing here though, is that there is no bleed. I believe that the bullet would have cut the artery, but due to the exact landing position, it is sealing the Artery shut, and keeping blood flow moving. It's like you have a very large pipe, and you pump your water through it. And then, you cut the pipe, just slightly. The water will come out, because liquids move around, some will continue on but inevitably much will leak out.'

'Now you put an object, say a bullet, into that gap, and you would see that the water would move freely through the pipe again. You would inevitably get some leakage, but this amount is reduced. In the case of Ms. Kaslte's brain, the leakage is so reduced that any blood flowing out of the artery is so indiscernible that it causes no issue.' 'Could it cause Ms. Kastle a problem in later life?'

'Theoretically, yes. However, seeing her medical reports I am aware of her bi-weekly Cranial scans, her MRI scans if you will. These would surely pick up on such an issue as long as the bullet does not move.' 'What, would you say, would have been the result if the bullet had not blocked off the slice, or if the cut had been, say, an inch to the left or right?' The answer was absolutely horrific, and a stark reality.

'If the bullet had been virtually anywhere else, or it had not plugged a bleed, Ms. Kastle would not be here right now. A millimetre to the left or to the right, and he would have bled to death before she ever hit the ground. It is clear to me that the person who did this used some force with their weapon of choice judging from where the bullet landed.' As the jury recoiled from the revelation, the subject turned to Rio's other brain condition.

'Now we understand that Ms. Kastle has since been diagnosed with a terminal brain condition.' 'Indeed, I have seen that her diagnosis is of Corticobasal Degeneration. This, in a Layman's terms, is a condition where over an extended period of time, brain cells start to degenerate, or rot away, and eventually die off completely. At first the patient will find little to no symptoms, but eventually, this will lead to increasing difficulty with speech, memory, or even involuntary actions such as swallowing.'

'Would you describe this as a condition that could eventually claim the life of Ms. Kastle?' 'Yes, this is a condition which eventually will cause Ms. Kastle to pass away if nothing else was to intervene, shall we say.' 'And would you say that this condition could have been caused by a gunshot wound?' 'Yes, the condition could be caused by anything which damages a significant amount of brain cells in a specified region. In this case, the bullet would have caused significant damage in the Frontal and Occipital Lobes, which in turn could lead to the degeneration of the cells in those affected areas.'

'It cannot be stated beyond any reasonable doubt that the bullet directly caused the degeneration; however, we can transmute from the areas affected and her symptoms that she presented with that the chances of the two being related in some form are exceedingly likely.' 'Thank you Dr. Strom, I have no more questions.' Mr. Long then stood up, but simply stated 'The defence have no questions, but we would like to thank Dr. Strom for his testimony today.' The judge then nodded. 'I echo those sentiments, thank you for coming down here. We will now have a short recess, and come back in around 15 minutes. Court adjourned.'

As they left the room, Frances went over to Dr. Strom, and shook his hand. 'Thank you for coming down here.' 'It was my pleasure, Ms. Kastle was an absolute joy to meet, as was her friend.' 'Thank you anyway, it was unbelievably helpful.' 'I am happy to be of assistance, my job is my passion after all.' Having said this, he walked out to the paparazzi, and to his car, but not before telling them 'I came not to determine guilt, only to share information on Ms. Kastle's condition.' He then got into his car, and drove away.

As everyone was waiting to go back in, Blair came running up, having not been seen since the start of the recess. 'What's up Blair?' 'You're going to have to go back in without us - Rio's puking real bad. I think she might have food poisoning. Said she's been feeling terrible all day.' Phil just calmly exhaled. 'We'll go in, if you need anything I'll keep my phone on vibrate.' 'I'll go back and check on her.'

As she did, Phil hollered Frances over. 'You ok?' 'Rio might not be able to take the stand later, she's apparently vomiting really heavily.' 'Right, well if she can't do it, I do have a statement mocked up for her instead, just in case something happened health-wise with her.' 'Good idea, looks like we might need it.' Just then, they were invited back in. 'Just keep me updated will you?' 'I'll let you know when I know anything.'

In the court, Julius stood to attention. 'I call my next witness - Rachael Eckersall.' Rachael walked in, an expression of stone, and walked straight to the stand. 'I pledge on holy god to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.' 'Ms. Eckersall, can you start by explaining your relationship to the accused?' 'Yes, I am James' girlfriend, we have been together for just short of five months.'

'Would you like to talk about how you met?' 'Well we were both in the WDC, and then a few months ago I left the WDC and professional duelling behind, which was a really difficult time for me. And through it all, James was there, he'd call to check if I needed anything, and I knew throughout everything that James could be there for me. I could rely on him as being a friend.' 'So I am under the impression that you're close to Mr. Birchall, and you would indeed describe him as a man of good character.'

'Yes. He's a fantastic friend, and a wonderful person to be around. I don't understand it when people slag him off - he's just a decent guy. He donates to charity, he helps old ladies across the road with his shopping, he smiles at babies. He's not the monster that people seem to think.' 'A model citizen you might say.' 'Yes, absolutely. He's someone who you would love to spend time with, someone you'd love to have living near you.'

'It seems like Mr. Birchall has a lot of supporters.' 'I wouldn't say he has a lot, because a lot of people just don't know what kind of person he is. It breaks my heart to hear people talking negatively about him, he just doesn't deserve it. All he deserves is for everyone to be nice to him, and to treat him like the lovely person that he is.' 'It sounds like he's a true gentleman.' 'Oh absolutely, like you wouldn't believe.'

At this moment, Frances butted in. 'Objection Your Honour.' 'On what grounds?' 'I was under the impression that this case was to find whether Mr. Birchall had committed the crime, not to listen to some nonsense about him helping old ladies with their shopping.' 'Objection overruled Ms. Bishop, we are entitled to hear about Mr. Birchall's character as well as your clients.' With an arrogant look still, Frances sat back down. This single interruption was enough for Julius to change the subject though.

'Ms. Eckersall, are you aware of any conflict between Mr. Birchall and Mr. or Mrs. Robinson-Cummings?' She just gave them an evil look. 'Yeah, they've tried to ruin his life.' 'Please could you elaborate?' 'Yeah, this isn't the first time he's been accused of anything. Three years ago they almost got him fired from the WDC after accusing him of being involved in the match fixing, they tried to get him sent to prison once for gangland activities that they were involved in, and they even turned his ex girlfriend against him.'

It was the last point that Julius picked up on. 'You say his ex was "turned against him", how would you say they did that?' 'I don't know, but they just poisoned her mind against him. They kidnapped her off the street one day, they'd been stalking him for months and then they just kidnapped her randomly, he spent every day looking for her because they'd been together for a few years, he must have spent over two hours every single day trawling social media, out on the streets looking, going door to door.'

'So what happened then?' 'She just randomly turned up again one day, it must have been about three or four weeks later, but she was completely different. She was much thinner, almost gaunt, and she didn't smile anymore. She just told him that she didn't want to see his face anymore, it almost tore his poor heart in two.' 'And you blame Phil and Hannah for this?' 'Yeah, they're the ones who did it. The Renegades aren't some charitable organisation, this is what they do - they go around kidnapping young girls off the street and then using them as lab rats. I don't know how they do it, but nobody ever comes out of there the same way they walked in, it's almost like… almost like they're missing something.'

'When you say "out of there", where exactly do you mean?' 'They have this massive complex, it's in North Shields, there's always something going on there. James has been past it a few times, and it's always shady, when the girls come out of there, it's almost like they're in trances. Take Maddy' 'Sorry to interrupt, but for the purposes of the jury, you are referring to Maddy Robinson-Cummings, Phil and Hannah's adopted daughter.'

'Yeah, "adopted". They didn't just kidnap her off the street from college one day, it's not like she has a loving family to go to that she was ripped away from. This is what they do, they take and they change them, manipulate them, and it's absolutely terrifying to know that poor, defenceless, innocent girls are being taken there and experimented on like medical experiments. That's what they would have done to Allyx. It almost broke him.'

Again at this point, Frances objected. 'Ms. Bishop.' 'With respect to the Defence's character witness, I don't believe that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings are the ones on trial here. Please could she keep her testimony to focusing on the facts of the crime?' 'The facts of the crime? How about the offensive letters they sent to James? Are they the "facts" of the crime?' It was then the turn of the defence to introduce evidence.

'We now present Exhibit 13a through 13q: A series of letters that Ms. Eckersall claims were sent to she and James by Mr. and Mrs. Robinson-Cummings. So these were sent to you when exactly?' 'Between the 14th September and the 29th February.' The letters in question made many accusations, declaring James "a rapist", "a paedophile", and accusing him of "grooming underage girls". They also included countless obscenities being thrown at him throughout all the letters, which escalated the language used between entries. Frances didn't look impressed at them though.

'Now I understand this is not an exhaustive list of the letters you received?' 'No, we received upwards of 30 of them, but James threw a lot of the early ones away because he was hoping it would go away, and I wasn't able to locate all of the other ones.' 'It's understandable that it isn't something you would necessarily want. Why did you not go to the police with these?' 'We did, upwards of 15 times, but they refused to do anything about it, it wasn't important enough for them.'

'So, am I right in thinking that you don't believe James would have done this?' 'Never mind would, I know that he couldn't. No way could he bring himself to take a human life. Get in a fight, maybe, he stands up for what he believes in. But he wouldn't do anything approaching this. He's a great person.' With this, Julius discussed with his defence team briefly, before sitting down again, and leaving Frances to interrogate Rachael.

'Thank you for your… beautifully constructed testimony Ms. Eckersall. Now I have had chance to look through these letters before today, and I must say, having read through them a number of times, I still can't work out how we're supposed to believe that these all came from the same person. Take Letter 4, which you have dated as the 1st October. Much of this appears to have been written in what you might call "Queen's English", it is very formal, and the threats appear to have been much exaggerated from your claims. But then we look at Letter 6 just 9 days later, and it's remarkable how different it is.'

'How do you mean?' 'Well for starters it's in very broken English, as if it was written by someone with only a basic to intermediate knowledge and understanding of the language. Secondly, the threats made are incredibly strong, to the point of appearing quite frankly psychotic. I mean I know they don't like Mr. Birchall, but "I want to see you and all of your descendants burn to death in a horrific house fire" is somewhat excessive even by those standards, don't you think?'

'And while we're at it, why does the handwriting completely change after letter Number 16? And when we look at this a little bit deeper, it turns out that Letter 16 was apparently sent on the 22nd February. Interestingly enough, this was the very same day that Mr. Birchall got arrested.' 'What are you saying?' 'This is just a proposal, but hear me out. Because at no point has any evidence been presented which suggests in any reasonable way that Mr. or Mrs. Robinson-Cummings would have had any way of knowing Mr. Birchall's address. And after letter 16, the writing style and handwriting change every single time a new letter is sent.'

'So my suggestion is as follows: these letters have nothing to do with Mr. or Mrs. Robinson-Cummings, nor are they in any way anything to do with their group. Instead, my suggestion is that these were written by Mr. Birchall to fabricate a one-way grudge that could hint at them implicating him for a murder he did not commit. And when Mr. Birchall was sent to prison, you continued to send the letters, under the pretence of them continuing to bombard him with abuse. Despite the fact that they were completely aware that Mr. Birchall was remanded in custody, because they were informed by me.'

By this point any sign of Rachael fighting back appeared to have disappeared. 'So in fact, the discussion we have to have is not the validity of these letters, because we have clearly established that, to be less formal for a moment, it's complete and utter nonsense. What I'm wondering is how you love James so much that you would actually commit perjury for him.' 'What?' 'For the record Rachael, Perjury is when you deliberately mislead the jury under oath, a bit like you have here.'

'I haven't, he's done nothing.' 'Regardless, you have presented a series of letters which you claimed to be from my clients, when in fact they very blatantly are not, and I would like to know what else you've lied about during your testimony?' Rachael then bit back. 'You're only doing this because they've paid you!' 'Me and Mr. Long want the same thing, we want justice to work in this country. Innocent people to be set free, guilty people to be punished appropriately in accordance with the law. That's all we want. And if you've broken the law, which you have here, then I want to get to the bottom of why you did it. Were you aware of it being illegal to lie under oath?'

'No, and I'm not lying.' Smelling blood, Frances went right in for the kill. 'Quite honestly, you've wasted our time here. If Mr. Birchall is innocent, you've just potentially condemned him to prison, and if he is guilty, you were trying to let a guilty man, who you probably knew was guilty all along, go free. And for what - loyalty? Love? And the bit where you talked about Allyx being "corrupted" by them is cute. Did you ever intend on mentioning to the jury that Mrs. Robinson-Cummings is Allyx's older sister? Quite frankly, I'm annoyed that you wasted our time with your false testimony. How can any of the defence's witnesses be trusted after your performance here?'

At this point, the judge called an end to the interrogation. 'Ms. Bishop, that is enough. Ms. Eckersall, please will you leave the stand immediately?' As she did, she looked over at James, who turned his head away. She was then guided out by two police officers, and Frances stood up. 'Your honour, I wish to call another recess. Ms. Kastle is our next witness, however she was unwell earlier, and I need to speak with her to see if she can testify.' 'Mr. Long?'

He just nodded his head. 'No objection Your Honour, I believe it would be enlightening to hear from Ms. Kastle. And if she is unable to testify now, I would personally be fine with her testifying on a later date of the case.' The judge then stood up. 'We will have a 10 minute recess. If Ms. Kastle is unable to testify by then, we will have to move on. Court adjourned.'

As they left the courtroom for a break in proceedings, they were once again confronted by Rhydian. 'Right, I'm done playing nicely with you all. I want to know where Maddy is, and you're going to tell me.' 'No, we're not.' Rhydian had an ace up his sleeve though. 'You seem to be forgetting that I have something which you really need. So I'll rephrase it, because you're not exactly the wisest guys around here. If you don't tell me where Maddy is in the next five minutes, I'm going to tell that judge and all the jury that James didn't shoot you, but Phil did.'

Realising immediately that he was serious, the threats required some significant consideration. They never got chance to however, as Frances immediately got her phone out and rang her up. 'Hello?' 'Maddy, it's Frances. Listen I know I told you not to talk to Rhydian, but he's here and threatening to pull the plug on his testimony if we don't tell him where you are.' 'Let him, we don't need him. We've never needed him.' Frances didn't seem so sure though. 'I think we should just do what he wants this once. I don't want more people corroborating the Defence's statement, and if one of our witnesses turns tail, it looks super bad on us.'

Hearing this, Maddy broke into a wicked smile on the other end of the phone, before stating 'Just pass him on.' The phone was passed, and Rhydian grabbed it like never before. 'Maddy, that you?' 'No, it's f**king Santa Claus, what do you want?' 'To know why you're not here.' 'It's jack shit to do with you, but if it will keep you testifying, I'm at Newcastle Hospital. Or to be exact, just outside the hospital.'

'What's happened?' 'I'm fine, Astrid's having a minor operation on her neck and I wanted to provide moral support. You see, that's what friends do - provide support, not ply each other with drugs and then threaten to let a murderer get away with what he did because we're a spoiled bitch. I'll even send Frances a selfie for you if you like.' 'I'm coming down there, we need to talk.' 'I've got nothing to say to you. Other than that the day after your trial, I've got a restraining order going into action against you. I asked for it to start the day after so I could complete my side of the bargain. Now you complete yours.'

With the abrupt hang up, the question was asked. 'So, you satisfied now?' 'I can't believe you turned her against me so much.' 'She had to choose between you and us, and she chose us. That's all there is to it, no charades, smoke and mirrors, she hated where she was headed so she took the path less travelled. As for whether she ever starts being nice to you again, that's also up to her. So, are you satisfied?' He just walked off without replying.

A few minutes later, the recess was ending. As they were going back in though, Phil's phone started buzzing. 'I'll just be a minute.' Frances stayed with him out of curiosity as he answered. 'Hi, whoever this is, now isn't a good time.' 'Big Phil.' 'Niall? Where did you get my new number?' 'Sean gave it to me. But we ain't got time for that. To help you out with your trial, I hired a computer hacker to see if James had admitted anything in emails.'

'And?' 'Didn't find that but we found another gold mine. A dirty, stinking gold mine.' 'What are you on about?' 'He's got loads of shit on his laptop, some of it's really disturbing, kind of shows what kind of person he is. It includes photos of Hannah, and… I'll be honest, you don't want to see them, they'd send you over the edge.' Hearing this, he looked over at Frances. 'Frances, my mate's got some very incriminating evidence. Sounds pretty big.'

'Have him email it all over and I'll sift through it tonight.' 'You catch that Niall?' 'Yep, loud and clear. It'll be over in a few minutes.' 'What exactly is all this evidence?' 'Trust me, you don't want to know. All I'm going to say is that I couldn't even finish looking at them, and I've got a strong stomach.' 'Niall, you cry at Bambi. And that's before his mother gets killed. Anyway, you get that sent over, and I'll speak to you later.'

Everyone then entered the court, but as they did, Frances was stopped by a shoulder. She turned around, and Rio was stood there, pale but otherwise looking determined. 'I didn't think you'd be here, Blair said you were throwing up.' 'Yeah, I'm ok now, I think some of the details earlier just got to me.' 'Sure you're ok though?' 'I'm fine.' 'Ready to testify?' She just smiled at Frances. 'Never. Got to do it though.'

In the courtroom, Phil walked back in just as the case was resuming. 'I would like to call one of the victims to the stand - Riana Kastle.' As Rio came down, Frances signalled to Phil, who came down with her. 'Your Honour, this is Mr. Phillip J. Robinson, he is here to support Riana if she needs it due to her physical condition, as we discussed previously.' 'Mr. Long, any objections?' 'None Your Honour, I trust that Ms. Kastle's opinions will be her own?'

Unusually, it was Phil himself who replied. 'Your Honour, Mr. Long, members of the jury, I am here purely for the support of Ms. Kastle. I do not intend on influencing her testimony, as this is not my story to tell.' She then looked at him, and signalled for him to leave. The compromise was him sitting at the front of the dock, close enough to observe while being far enough away to give Rio space.

With that sorted, Frances nodded to Rio, who placed a hand on a bible, closed her eyes for a moment, and then spoke. 'I pledge on holy God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The testimony you hear will be truthful and my own.' Clearly all was not right though, as her hand was immediately shuddering insanely, which the judge noticed. 'Ms. Kastle, are you ok to continue?' 'Yes Your Honour, one of the consequences of the shooting was that I have really bad hand tremors.' 'Ok, continue.'

'Ms. Kastle, I can only thank you for bringing yourself to testify here, one can only imagine how difficult this must be for you. Please, in your words, explain what happened on the morning of the 29th October 2016.' 'We, me and Blair, were getting ready to go out with Jade, Jade was a childhood friend of mine but we lost touch, but then she started dating Blair, which I thought was amazing, so we were meeting up with her, but we were running a bit late, maybe half an hour, because I couldn't find anything I wanted to wear.'

'So when you were outside the compound, what happened?' 'We got there, and I think I'd just nipped in to use the bathroom, when I heard a commotion. I went out there, and I saw James, and he had a gun.' 'You actually saw Mr. Birchall with a gun in his hand?' She nodded. 'Then I see Blair, she looked like she almost had spots in her eyes, and she said something about a fireball. While I was checking on her, there was this bang, and when I looked up, Hannah was lying there, bleeding out, she'd been shot in, I think the stomach, it's all a massive haze after that. I remember Phil was having the gun pointed at him, then I heard a gunshot, and the next thing I remember is after I woke up in hospital, being told that I tried to commit suicide, which I have absolutely zero memory of.'

'So I'm right in understanding that you have no memory of right before you were shot?' 'No, the last thing I remember was Phil on the ground cradling Hannah like a baby, and James raising a gun to him.' 'So you have no memory of jumping in front of the shot to save Phil?' This shocked Rio. 'No, what do you mean?' 'Showing Ms. Kastle Exhibit 19d: Footage from the compound's one working CCTV camera. We have no other CCTV footage because the system was under repair at the time. A quick warning for the jury: this footage does contain Ms. Kastle being shot.'

The judge then intervened. 'If any member of the jury is uncomfortable with seeing the following footage, you are advised to leave the court temporarily, and you will be called back in when it finishes.' As two jurors opted to leave the room, the judge gave the signal for it to be played.

As the CCTV played, it showed an arm, covered by a long black sleeve and a glove lifting a silver pistol towards Phil's head. In the corner of shot, Rio looked up, seemingly said something to herself, and then ran over, before leaping over Phil. She was shot twice in the top of the leg and the hip respectively, but knocked the gun out of the shooter's hand in the process.

The individual in question then scrambled to pick the gun up, inadvertently revealing a corner of their face in the process, and a short body not exceeding 5ft 10in. The shooter grabbed Rio (who had been knocked unconscious by the shock) by the hair, and dragged her up to her knees, before shouting abuse, and putting the gun to the back of her head. As the trigger was pulled, she immediately slumped to the ground.

Seeing this left Rio completely in shock. 'I've never… seen that footage.' This footage was also too much for Phil to bear, as he temporarily had to leave the courtroom afterwards, while everyone else looked on in amazement. 'I think this footage proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not a well-crafted insurance scam, but in fact a ruthless and callous shooting, an attempt of murder you might say.'

Rio shed a few tears, but quickly wiped them away. 'I'm fine, sorry. Where were we?' 'We were just about to more on to your history with Mr. Birchall.' 'Honestly, not much. I never met him until after I had linked up with Phil and Hannah. Not aside from seeing him in passing a few times. Oh, and there was that time that he pushed Phil down the stairs.' 'Sorry, what time is this?' 'You're better asking Hannah when she testifies, because my memory's pretty bad, but I remember he pushed Phil down the stairs one time.'

Instead of asking a clearly amnesiac Rio to provide more details on it, Frances wanted to focus on the lady herself. 'Now I know the next part may be very stressful for you, but if you can do it, it would be incredibly helpful. Please could you provide us with some information regarding your injuries, and the effect that it has on your everyday life?' Rio took a large gulp of water, and then tried to organise her thoughts.

'It's… difficult really, because I almost don't remember what life was like before. But when you've got a condition like I have, everything's a challenge. I have to live with the fact that I don't get to have a normal life like most people. Like, I go into a room, and then don't remember entering it, or I'll have days where I can barely read anything because my vision's all over the place. I'll have massive muscle weakness and be like a 3 year old with lifting things. I couldn't walk for weeks afterwards, just because of the amount of muscle wasting.'

'But the worst thing about everything is knowing that I'm going to wake up one day, and I'm going to lose all my independence. I'm going to wake up one day, and instead of playing cards with my best friend or taking selfies, I'm going to be spoon fed by her, picked up and placed into a special wheelchair by her, because I just can't do anything for myself. A prisoner in my own body, and that's the thought that is terrifying. That one day, I'm not going to be me anymore. And she's going to lose one of the most important people in her life, and lose her independence, because I need round the clock care.'

As Rio stumbled through her words, tears came to the eyes of almost everyone in the court. 'But the thing that I don't understand is… I can't hate him. Despite what he did to me, I can't hate him. Even though he's sitting here claiming that it's one of the most important people in my development as a human who did it out of some kind of greed that he doesn't even have, despite that, I don't hate him. Because I pity him.'

'I almost wish that everyone could walk a mile in my shoes, just be in the situation I am, just for one day. Because then they'd realise how precious and short life is, that every day needs to be something. When you struggle to get dressed by yourself in the morning, when you can't remember your own parents who died in a car accident when you were young, when you even struggle to recall the day your best friend from childhood came back into your life, when you wake up every morning thinking that today's the day because you lost some feeling in your legs again.'

'From the first time I met him, I knew that James was bad at being a person, but it's only how I am now that I can see just how much that's true. He has never respected life, he did what he did not out of "passion", but out of jealousy, because somebody had something he didn't. Nothing will ever change the fact that he tried to take the life of a pregnant woman and her baby, and he had no remorse for that. As for me, he wanted me dead so badly he had to make sure to shoot me in the back of the head.' After the rant, Rio needed a moment to catch her breath again, before Frances simply stated 'No more questions.'

Julius then stood up to talk. 'Ms. Kastle, I appreciate that what you are doing is very brave. However I do question why it is that my esteemed counterpart would have chosen someone of your… delicate state, to be a witness. Forgive me if this sounds patronising, I aim for it not to, but I have to question whether you are a credible witness; as you say, you have severe memory issues. Is it not possible that Mr. Robinson is the one responsible, and simply were rendered "unable" to recall?'

James smirked hearing this, but Rio stood tall and firm. 'No. Your. Honour. I did not "misremember" anything.' Frances then briefly interrupted. 'For the purposes of Mr. Long, I would like to confirm that Ms. Kastle has given, barring the odd word here and there, the exact same statement on five occasions.' 'Does that not prove that Ms. Kastle is lying? If she gave almost the exact statement several times, does it not confirm that there is something more suspicious going on?'

'If I gave you the exact account of what I had for breakfast this morning, would that be suspicious? Or would it just be the thing that happened? I respect that you're having to perform mental gymnastics to try and keep your client out of jail here Mr. Long, however I struggle to believe that you could even believe what you're saying. And while we're on the subject of inconsistencies, would you like me to point out that we got a very good look at the shooter in the CCTV, and it does not match the build of either Mr. Robinson nor any of his known associates.' 'Ms. Bishop, "known associates'' is a rather vague idea, as you know it is very easy to find a "non associate" to do something of this ilk.'

The judge then intervened. 'Order in court! Ms. Bishop, Mr. Long, you were brought here to ascertain the facts and present them to the jury, not to argue like children. Mr. Long, please could you get to your point?' 'I have, my point is that we cannot treat Ms. Kastle's testimony like we do everybody else's. She has a condition which, for better or for worse, inherently makes her a shaky witness. I do not wish for the good people of the jury to be influenced in their decision by an individual who by her own admission suffers from severe deficiencies when it comes to memory.'

'But if that is not sufficient evidence to deem her an unsafe witness, I would point the jury to one simple fact: Ms. Kastle and Mr. Robinson have spent the past few months covering up the fact that they have had an extra-marital affair.' Hannah was furious hearing this, muttering 'It's not even a secret' under her breath repeatedly, until Blair put her hand on her back. 'Rio's got this, it's fine.'

On the stand, Rio was resolute in defending herself. 'It was not an affair, and it isn't a secret.' 'Would you mind explaining what happened then?' 'Happily. It was in a hotel room while we were duelling in… I think Australia, and we both got properly drunk on vodka one night, and then I kissed him, and he was so drunk that I don't think he knew what he was doing. It wasn't a secret though, Hannah found out within two days of it, and I took full responsibility then.'

'My question though, is why?' 'Why… what?' 'Why Mr. Robinson in particular?' Rio shrugged in response. 'Right place, right time. Or should I say, wrong place, wrong time.' 'Ms. Kastle, I am going to ask you a simple question, and I would like a simple answer: do you have romantic feelings for Mr. Robinson?' Phil walked back into the room just in time to hear this question, as Hannah looked over at him nervously.

'No. My feelings regarding him are purely admiration in a professional respect. The time we kissed was a mistake, which we have both acknowledged.' 'And you have no romantic feelings for him whatsoever?' She stared deep into him, stating 'None.' Julius then changed tac slightly. 'Ms. Kastle, you don't have to protect Mr. Robinson, whatever he's said, we can deal with it.' 'I'm not protecting him, he's done nothing wrong.'

'Ms. Kastle, I have it on record that when contacted by police, you refused to come in for an interview. Why was this?' 'Because I had been out of hospital two days, I really wasn't up to going to a police station and being interrogated. In fact I wasn't really up to going outdoors. I provided them with a full written statement… well Astrid actually wrote it because I was having issues writing, but they had a full written statement within days.' 'Do you have this statement?' Rio then signalled to Blair, who handed her a large piece of lined paper.

She went to speak, but then, nothing came out. She tried, time and again, but she just couldn't start to read the statement, as her hands shook like mad. So Phil walked over, and put his arm around her. 'It's ok, you're doing brilliantly Rio.' She smiled, and handed the paper over to him. 'C… could you?' 'Of course.' Phil took the statement, and took the stand to read it out for her.

"I don't remember a huge amount about what happened. All I remember is we were going out, me and B (Blair), and when we got to the base, James ambushed us. He looked like he wanted to kill all of us, he killed Hannah for no reason, and I had to do something. He threatened us for months, he wanted to turn Hannah into some kind of sex slave, and keeps referring to Phil as "Brady", he's said he wants Phil dead multiple times. He ran Phil off the road a few weeks ago."

"On that day, he was waiting and had a gun, he blinded Blair and Jodi, he shot Hannah, he was going to shoot Phil, I couldn't let him kill both of them, I already couldn't help her. He was only interested in killing, he was wearing a grey overcoat. I remember being shot twice, I think he picked me up to shoot me, I was just in shock."

As the statement was read out, Rio finally found her voice, having beendoing voice exercises to restore it. 'He tried to kill us all, he publically promised as much. I don't know what else I'm supposed to say.' Satisfied that she had amassed enough evidence, Frances stepped back. 'No more questions.' Julius then concurred. 'No more questions from the defence. I thank Ms. Kastle sincerely for her time.'

Rio smiled at them, and then went to stand down from the stand. As she did though, she slowly came to a stop, and grasped at the side of the seating area. Seeing something was wrong, Phil jumped over the side of the seating. Rio took several sharp breaths, before slumping down, being caught by Phil as she did. Within seconds, a team of medics had arrived to look after her. Shortly after, she was in an ambulance being rushed to hospital.

TO BE CONTINUED