The Blue Orchid Years

Chapter 35: Pre-Litigation Conversations

5 days before court proceedings

"Johan, if you don't mind telling us, what did Kenta say that evening outside of Keith's house?"

My siblings and friends had gathered in Neesa's bakery after closing hours. The gathering, which was Moira's idea, had become our routine to check in with each other and ensure everyone would be on the same page about what to tell the judges and juries when the day finally arrived.

Johan played with the metal straw in his cup of iced mint tea before glancing back and forth between Nardhia and me. This went on for who knew how many seconds until my sister put her hand on his, frowning and threatening to take his drink away if he wouldn't finish it anyway.

"That's not nice!" he protested but didn't try to grab the cup back. "Okay, I'll answer our brother's question, happy?" he glared at her and she scowled. "My husband told me that he understands very well how it felt to turn someone down because once upon a time he had to do so himself. It wasn't the best feeling but it was the right action to take and he was glad about it."

"And that someone is me, isn't it?" Neesa chimed in from behind the counter, grinning.

"Who else?" Kenta laughed. "But that's beside the point. What I said to Johan was that we can't control somebody else's reaction to being turned down. Additionally, we don't really know if Johan's rejection was what drove Sherlyn to suicide. Honestly, it could even be an accident instead of a suicide. We can't rule out those possibilities. I believe in Johan's innocence."

"You were lucky Neesa had the maturity and open-mindedness not to take your rejection too personally," Johan sighed and his partner just shrugged. "Speaking of being open-minded, part of the reason I wrote a letter to Sherlyn instead of arranging for a face-to-face conversation was because I wasn't entirely sure she would have an open mind to accept my sexual orientation."

"How much did you know about Sherlyn?" Neesa asked, taking a seat beside him. "You were bandmates, right? Did she ever do anything that made you suspect she might be closed-minded?"

"Not blatantly, but she came across as shallow and judgmental of others, which surprised me given her past of being judged by others herself for the way she dressed," he replied while tapping a finger on the table. "Perhaps..." his voice grew quitter, "perhaps she thought judging everybody first before they could do so to her would give her some sort of immunity. Perhaps she was tired of being criticized so she became a critic and when I turned her down it felt like a criticism on her character. I think dating me was her way of convincing herself that she could win at life and when I revealed I no longer wanted to date her she felt utterly undesirable."

"Do you think you could use Keith's device to dig around your memories for signs that Sherlyn probably already had some baggage before meeting you?" Nardhia spoke up. "What if she was already passively suicidal long before your doomed relationship? The judges might take that into account and consequently declare that your handwritten letter had nothing to do with her death."

"That's a sound idea, but I'm not sure mere projection of old memories would count as concrete and undeniable evidence." I cut in. "We need something more tangible and irrefutable."

"Nardho is being practical here." Moira gave me an approving smile before her face hardened into a worried expression. "Linda can easily convince the judges that those memories aren't accurate at representing who Sherlyn was because at its core a human's memory isn't faultless. At best, a memory is a reconstruction or a re-enactment of how we perceived an event. At worst, it is a diluted version of our fantasies. Heck, she could go as far as accusing us of exploiting Keith and coercing him to alter Johan's memories to suit our needs. We are at a disadvantage here because Linda can also argue, rightly so, that Johan is not an unbiased party."

"Neither is she!" Neesa interrupted, her fist shaking. "All the parties here can be expected to have their own bias. Our best shot at winning this case is to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that Linda is intent on killing Johan but Nardho took the bullet in his place, making it so that Linda can now be charged not only for one attempted assassination but two. Double offenses! "

"Proving that Nardho almost died is the easy part," Moira gestured at where my wounds were and I grimaced. "Proving Linda's original intention is going to be harder because we do not know what means she has acquired to assassinate Johan. We know that she scoured Nardho's private information in her attempt to locate Johan, but we have no clue how far along she was with her plan before she fled the scene of the shooting, effectively thwarting her own operation."

"My fear is that Linda could insist she had not planned on harming Nardho." Kenta interjected. "She could say that she only pulled the trigger as an intimidation technique but she miscalculated her aim and accidentally hit him. She could even lie and say she forgot the gun was loaded."

"If she makes that claim, we can turn it on her head by asking why she felt she had to intimidate him!" Neesa's eyes glimmered with hope. "Someone would only go on intimidating someone else if they want something the other person wouldn't willingly give up. It already was highly suspicious that she, a civilian, carried a gun in an area like downtown Orchidsboro, which historically has very low rate of criminal activities. She has no reason to believe she needs to carry around a gun for self-defense. If it was for protection, a pepper spray would do the job."

"That would be a good argument to use, but hopefully the judges would catch Linda if she's lying. I'd assume she's an excellent liar, though, so I don't know what our chance at emerging victorious from the upcoming court hearing is," Johan rested his chin on one palm and chewed on his pinky, earning a look of concern from Kenta. He noticed the look and hastily put his hand on his side before continuing to talk. "Unless if the hidden camera Keith planted reveals more things that can aid us. Neesa, do you think you guys can see what the camera captured? Maybe we can put the pieces together based on where Linda had traveled recently."

"I'll be on it!" Neesa promised. "Looking into her travel history should be interesting. On the flip side, the judges might not approve of what essentially is an invasion of privacy."

"Invading her privacy is nothing compared to the irreparable damage Linda has caused to Johan's mental health!" Kenta gnashed his teeth. "Invasion of privacy is a misdemeanor but an attempted assassination is a felony. My guess is Keith might get fined but nothing too serious."

"I think Keith planted the camera with a full knowledge of the repercussion," Nardhia remarked and Moira nodded. "He seems to be a risk taker. I bet he knows that the satisfaction of bringing Linda down outweighs whatever punishment awaits him. Neesa, your boyfriend is a gem."

"I agree with Nardhia's glowing praises." I gave her a first bump. "Keith has been tremendously helpful to us. Neesa being with him is an added bonus. He can be our ticket to victory in court."