Young Royals Season 3 (Version 3)

Chapter 89

Ludvig slipped his phone into his jacket pocket, glanced around the room and headed down the corridor to the dining room.  He knew that Kristina would be working with Farima or Minou and maybe even Jan Olof that morning.

They'd been working on their plan for August's future as they received updates from the trial. There were also two employees in the courtroom to report back to the Queen and the Royal Court as the trial progressed. They'd been there every day and they'd kept an eye on Wilhelm and Simon as well.

Since the trial had begun, Ludvig and Kristina had hardly spoken to each other, and they avoided the subject of Wilhelm altogether.

The Royal Court were betting everything on August being acquitted, although they'd demonstrated some misgivings about alienating the Crown Prince.  In any case they preferred to deal with someone who would follow orders and fulfill his role as expected and they'd apparently given up on trying to get Wilhelm to do as he was told.

Ludvig knew they were naive to expect August not to cause any more problems considering all of the trouble he'd already caused them, but Ludvig planned to just sit back and watch as their plan crumbled or imploded once August did the next illegal thing he felt he could get away with without facing any consequences.

Ludvig would never accept August as the Crown Prince in any case. He was loyal to his son, although he wasn't allowed to show it outwardly for fear of losing him.

He worried about Wilhelm, and what the real world would be like for him if he were pushed out of the Royal Family.  But he also wondered if Wilhelm wouldn't be happier far from them anyway. He felt sad for his son, but he needed to find out what was happening now.  

Before he reached the dining room, he heard the hurried footsteps behind him.  He turned to see Jan Olof rushing toward him down the corridor, obviously also on his way to find Kristina. He greeted Ludvig and kept moving.  

Ludvig watched him move past and turn the corner then heard him open the heavy dining room doors, making them creak loudly as he pushed them forward.  He didn't close them immediately and Ludvig did his best to creep forward and listen in.

"Your Majesty...we have news."  Jan Olof seemed to reconsider quickly and closed the doors behind him then. 

Ludvig cringed to himself as he thought about the text message he'd just received: I think they can prove August filmed the video.

Ludvig had replied to Wilhelm but hadn't heard back and that's when he decided to see what the Royal Court knew. He wanted to know what they planned to do about it if it was true, but it looked like he'd gotten there too late.

________________

Wilhelm put his phone away and turned to Simon squeezing his hand tighter. Simon glanced sideways at Wilhelm, his eyes wide. Wilhelm took a deep breath and they both went back to watching Detective Larsson and Rickard with intense concentration. Rickard seemed flustered for a moment but then quickly picked up where he'd left off.  

"Triangulation of cell phone signals isn't a precise way to locate someone. August could have been upstairs in his room when he sent that message. There's no proof he was outside the windows of Forest Ridge." Rickard argued.

"Shit." Wilhelm whispered to himself, worried they were about to discredit another piece of evidence. Simon shot him a glance then went back to focussing intensely on the Detective.

"Well, we have more than just the text message." She responded calmly.

Simon smirked and saw Wilhelm furrow his brow out of the corner of his eye. Simon wanted to laugh at the bizarre rollercoaster the trial had become but he was enthralled.

Rickard sounded taken aback when he finally replied. "More? Um, please go on then." He tried to sound flippant but it wasn't convincing.

"Hillerska keeps a detailed registry of all the students' devices to monitor their online activity and location when they're connected to the WiFi around campus." She explained.

Rickard glanced back at August who refused to meet his gaze.  It looked accusatory to Simon and he loved that Rickard seemed to be taken by surprise again.  Rickard turned back to listen to Larsson, noticeably less sure of himself.

 "We've mapped out the path August took across campus that morning based on the routers his phone connected to on his way back from the party.   We took measurments, and at the end of Forest Ridge, where Alexander and the Crown Prince's rooms are located, the signal is already detectable several meters out from the building.  August's phone connected to the WiFi before he even reached the edge of the building that morning, at 6:41 am and 52 seconds to be exact.  He sent the text message to Alexander a moment later, at 6:42 am and five seconds, and then he moved down to the next window when he didn't receive a response from Alexander."

As he listened, Wilhelm suddenly remembered a conversation he'd had with August about not watching porn while connected to the school's WiFi, and the realisation washed over him.  August had apparently been so drunk and high that morning that he'd forgotten about the monitored WiFi himself.  

"August was trying to get back inside Forest Ridge and when he didn't hear back from Alexander, he moved over to the Crown Prince's window to see if he could get in that way.  The curtains were open and he looked inside. When he realised what was going on, rather than leaving or knocking on the window to warn the boys that people could see them, he decided to film them instead."

Several attendees looked around at each other and shook their heads disdainfully or covered their mouths with their hands, looking at everyone else and checking their reactions as they began to understand the extent of August's betrayal.

Rickard suddenly interrupted, "That is a lot of wild speculation with very specious evidence." Rickard was finally realising how much evidence they actually had on August and how much August had been keeping to himself.  He actually wondered if August had been trying to sabotage his own defense. 

Larsson turned to Rickard, looking up and down at him disdainfully and answered, "If you don't believe this evidence, I would like to remind you that the Defense has yet to provide the police with the defendant's phone records or geolocation data.  We've requested them more than once in order to investigate this case, but our requests have been delayed or denied. I'd like to formally request those again if you'd like to try and disprove our findings...but I guess that depends if the Queen will allow you to."

Rickard's eyes got wide and he immediately requested a recess rather than objecting to Larsson's comment.  He returned to speak to his colleague and confront August.  Larsson left the stand for the recess and Simon and Wilhelm could see her speaking quietly with the other detective.  She seemed apologetic and they imagined it was probably because she wasn't supposed to allude to the Defense conspiring with the Royal Family even if it was obviously true.

Wilhelm scoffed to himself and Simon turned to look at him. Wilhelm leaned in to whisper, "August was the one who told me not to connect to the WiFi because they monitor it."

Simon shook his head slowly as he and Wilhelm watched Rickard getting more heated and August hardly reacting to his anger.  They wondered how Rickard planned to explain to the Judge why they'd been withholding evidence.

Simon watched August and saw his shoulders rise and fall slightly, as if he were heaving a long sigh while still hanging his head. Simon wondered if maybe August finally felt relieved as well. 

Simon closed his eyes, inhaled deeply then exhaled.  He was suddenly shocked to feel a tear roll down his cheek and touch the corner of his mouth and then right away he felt Wilhelm's arms around him.  Simon smiled to himself but then felt the sob catch in his throat.  He leaned into Wilhelm waiting for the feeling to pass, comforted by the warm embrace and then the sound of Wilhelm's voice in his ear. "Det är slut. Jag älskar dig, Simon." (It's over)

Simon felt the rest of the tears he'd been holding in begin to run down his cheeks and he pressed his face into Wilhelm's neck to hide them from the rest of the room.  He hugged Wilhelm harder, breathing slowly and finally beginning to feel he could breathe and be safe again.