Fatal Attractions

XLVII

"... The People versus Madisyn Sharpe." I heard the bailiff say from the other side of the door, my cue to walk in.

I was taken aback by the amount of people in the courtroom this time. Now, a full jury sat off to the side and spectators packed the rest of the room, luckily none of them were Logan.

He hadn't come to the preliminary trial either, thankfully. Unfortunately, he still hasn't visited. I'm worried that I pissed him off, or worse, he got hurt. I'm hoping it was the former.

As much as I really wanted to see his face in the crowd for support, it was for the case and my own good, a sacrifice I was willing to make.

Craster was the judge again, and looked as bored as she did at the arraignment and preliminary, looking like she could care less what happened to me, or maybe that was always her expression.

"The jury now recognizes the prosecution." The bailiff stated.

Greene, the DA, rose from his seat, adjusting his suit jacket as he perused the jury with hungry interest, like they were a whole ten course meal he could just gobble up in one bite. Unfortunately for me, that meal might come cheap. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. My name is Harrison Greene, and I am representing Comet city. We are here today to decide if the defendant, Madisyn Sharpe, is guilty of being the vigilante commonly known as Voltage and murdering councilwoman Wendy Cole on the day of January twenty eighth. On that night at approximately eleven p.m., Ms. Sharpe was found wearing the clothing that is commonly worn by Voltage m, and standing over Mrs. Cole's corpse with a gun..." His opening statement went on for close to ten minutes and I was zoning in and out during it, evaluating the evidence they had against me so far.

At the preliminary, they hadn't presented much. A cop that apprehended me came to the witness stand and they showed the judge a video of Voltage at the shipping yard the night that the Lachter vaccines were taken. Jason had done a good job of representing me, pointing out that the video showed nothing that could hint that I was Voltage, other than hair color, discrediting that evidence. There wasn't much cross examining to do for the cop, but overall, I wasn't completely screwed yet.

Yet.

Jason seemed to notice the nerves on my face as I listened to Harrison's convincing statement. He leaned into my ear and whispered. "I've got this."

I scoffed quietly. "If I'm not mistaken, it's kind of hard to make a guilty person seem innocent."

Greene finally finished and it was Jason's turn to speak.

"The jury now recognizes the defense."

Jason took a deep breath, taking a small piece of paper from his briefcase and tucking it inside his suit, into a pocket over his heart. I only got a glimpse, but it was unmistakably my senior picture from high school. Jason had always said it was his favorite, but I didn't realize he still had it.

"Good morning, my name is Jason Lange and I am representing Ms. Sharpe during this very important case. The defendant was falsely accused of vigilantism and the murder of Wendy Cole." He crossed his hands and started slowly pacing in front of the jury, hiding his nerves very well. I would probably be vomiting at this point if I was him. "At the conclusion of the case, we will act for the verdict of not guilty. Ladies and gentlemen, this case is about mistaken identity. The prosecution hopes that their witnesses will say that Ms. Sharpe is Voltage, but their testimony will in fact show that she has been framed and a victim in this situation..." The rest of his statement was stunningly believable, especially to someone who knew that I was guilty even though he said I was innocent. It almost made me believe that I had this trial in the bag. Then again, both the defense and prosecution had some pretty convincing points, but it was too early in the trial to tell. There was still a lot of evidence to be presented.