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Not Guilty (1/1)
"Not guilty."
The words reverberated in Steve's head as he made his way through the crowded courthouse parking structure. He went over and over the details of the case, desperately trying to figure out what the jury members had seen.
Or maybe more to the point not seen.
The case was complicated. No question. And with so many other cases going on he'd been unable to pay close attention to the entire trial, still from what he saw the prosecuting attorney had presented a compelling case.
He thought back to the day six months earlier when the case had dropped in their lap in an unusual way. The team had been called out in the early morning hours to a scene with multiple dead bodies in the middle of downtown park.
One of the victims had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the face. The other had a single wound to his right temple. The presumed murder weapon was still in his hand.
Max determined almost immediately that it was a case of murder suicide. Gunshot residue testing, along with the fact that the weapon in question was registered to the man with the single gunshot wound, closed the case.
As it turned out the two men had been involved in a business deal that had gone bad.
Very bad.
The first victim, a man named Emin Terasovich, had been operating an investment firm called Starsigns Ltd. LLC on the island for over twenty years. Unfortunately, it had recently been exposed as a Ponzi scheme. Thousands of hard working Hawaiians had lost their life savings.
One of those people had chosen to take the law into their own hands and exact retribution.
Two days later the PA's office had asked 5-0 to investigate several other people who worked at the firm to see if they had any criminal liability. They wanted to pursue every possible chance of recovering some of the money, but they also didn't want anyone else to wind up dead.
The team spent weeks chasing down leads and talking to victims. Chin worked tirelessly to try and untangle the purposely complicated financial records.
There were a number of people who had come to work for the firm over the years, stayed a few weeks or a few months, and then left abruptly with little or no explanation. They simply disappeared from the records.
When the team tracked them down they all told very similar stories.
That they didn't know exactly what was going on at Starsigns Ltd., but they knew there was something not right about the company.
So they left.
But there was one man, Pascal Blanchard, who had been there from the beginning. His signature was on the original incorporation documents right beside Terasovich's. Both the team members and the people from the prosecuting attorney's office were sure he was involved. But he'd been very careful when it came to paperwork.
There was nothing that could tie him directly to any of the fraudulent accounts or transactions. Even though there was no question he was the public face of the company. And he handled just enough legitimate accounts and transactions to create a veneer of respectability.
He was the one who had lured most, if not all, of the victims into the scheme. And yet somehow, he had managed to avoid any direct ties to illegal activities. In interview after interview he insisted he hadn't known there was anything illegal going on.
Neither the team nor the prosecutors believed him. When they felt they'd gathered as much circumstantial evidence as they could, they filed theft and fraud charges.
Blanchard hired the best lawyers in the state and the two sides argued it out in court. Then the jury, who had listened attentively to every word of testimony, including from each member of the team, found the man not guilty.
Steve rolled it over and over in his mind. What should they have done differently? What could have turned the verdict in their direction.
But there was nothing.
Everyone involved had done their very best.
He reached the truck and made a decision.
He texted Danny news of the verdict, then said that he was heading home and getting an early start on the weekend and that the rest of the team should do the same. He knew he'd see them all at a planned get together on Sunday. For now, he needed to go home and lick his wounds in the place, and with the people, that brought him the most joy.
Both DJ and Angie were surprised when it was Steve picking them up from school. They'd been expecting Elizabeth.
"I just decided to take off work a little early today," he explained as they headed for home.
"Did you get a verdict today in the trial you testified at last week?" DJ asked. "I heard Mom say she thought today might be the day."
Steve looked in the rearview mirror and smiled at his son. DJ was very perceptive but also a reminder to Steve that the kids were always listening, even to the most mundane conversations, and it was important to keep that in mind.
"We did," Steve said evenly. "The jury found him not guilty."
"What?" Angie said, clearly outraged on her father's behalf. "They let the bad guy go?"
"They found him not guilty," Steve reiterated. "They didn't necessarily think he was innocent; there just wasn't enough of the right kind of evidence to send him to jail."
"But what if he hurts more people now?" Angie asked, fear creeping ever so slightly into her tone.
"Hopefully everyone knows who he is now so he won't get another chance to hurt anyone," Steve said.
He stopped at a red light and met Angie's worried eyes in the rearview mirror.
"And just to be clear, he didn't hurt anyone physically. He stole their money. Which is just as bad and can be just as painful," Steve said. "But he's not the kind of bad guy who beats people up."
He saw Angie's face take on her 'deep in thought' look as the light changed and he pressed on the gas.
A little further down the road DJ spoke again.
"Are you disappointed, Dad?"
Steve nodded. "Yeah. I am. Very disappointed. But that's okay. Things don't always go the way we want them to in life and we need to learn to deal with disappointment. The people on the jury heard all the evidence and then made their decision. Fair and square. Even if we don't agree with it we have to respect it."
They drove in silence for another mile.
"Maybe we can make a picnic and eat on the beach tonight," DJ suggested.
"And Cammie can come and we can put Pumpkin and Luna on their leashes so they can come too," Angie said excitedly. "And then after dinner we can get shave ice!"
Steve smiled.
He thought often about how important it was to teach the kids the right kind of lessons but was constantly amazed by the lessons he learned from them as well.
"That sounds like a great idea," he said. "The perfect way to deal with disappointment."
As he turned down the road towards the beach house he heard Angie say softly, "Don't worry, Daddy. You'll get 'em next time."
THE END
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