The Sentence
"I turned. Mr Hallaron walked over. He'd put his hat on and was pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket."
"Say it again."
"I turned. Mr. Hallaron walked over. He'd put his hat on and pulled out some cigarette..."
Charles corrected her. "He 'was pulling' it very important."
Diana rolled her eyes. "What's the difference if I say pulled? It's not like the judge will actually listen to me."
"Diana listen. You want my legal advice?" Charles's closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath.
"It's not like I can afford anything else." Diana exclaimed. She sat back in her fixed metal stool, deflating.
Charles looked around to see if any of the guards had heard. He winced and motioned her to keep her voice down.
"What? Like I care what these mother fuckers think." She said with a great deal of weight in her voice.
Charles looked back at one of the guards that she singled out and tried politely smiling over the issue. He turned back to Diana in a whisper. "Look! It's very important, very important that you repeat the words exactly, to the letter. That's my legal advice to you, as your lawyer, y'know, the guy that comes in here whenever you call? Now, I need to you say the words for me again. Please."
Diana stared at him and through clenched teeth she said, "I turned. Mr Hallaron walked over. He'd put his hat on and was pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket."
"Great! And then?" Charles opened his eyes wide as if it would help her answer.
The Interference
"The doors slid open soundlessly, revealing the complete and utter chaos that I had been sent to fix."
Diana was sitting in her orange jumper, now on the witness stand. She looked more made up than before. Her black curls had some product in them. She was shining. She looked over at Charles sitting at the defenses desk. His same wide eyes open to her, trying to give her the answers.
Mr. Gassen, a weaselly lawyer with thick glasses paced right in their line of sight. He continued his cross referencing.
"Complete and utter chaos, is that right Miss Rodriguez?"
"That's correct." Diana spoke into the Price Is Right microphone stationed in front of her.
"And you were sent here to fix this complete and utter chaos?"
"Yes."
"And this was an order given to you by your superiors. To clean up the bodies of the deceased?" Mr. Gassen blinked too much.
Diana looked over at Charles again. She answered, "I didn't know that was case at the time. I am the janitor. I clean up messes in the office."
"So, if you could, Miss Rodriguez, can you describe where you were at the time?" Mr. Gassen poked her with his eyes.
"I was sitting in janitor's office. Eating my lunch and..."
Dramatic Twist
"the phone began to ring, which isn't really normal."
"And what did you do then, Miss Rodriguez?"
"Naturally, I picked it up. It was Mr. Hallaron. He told me he had some important job to discuss with me in person and he was checking if I was in the office."
Mr. Gassen dipped his head up and down, taking in the information, processing it and sifting through it for holes. "Then what happened after that?"
"He came down to the office. I didn't even hear him come in. I just heard his voice. I turned and Mr Hallaron walked over. He'd put his hat on and was pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Like he was about to smoke in the office. He told me that there's a mess up in accounting. Someone spilled something. He said. Then he lit up a cigarette right in front of me and waited until I left. I was very scared."
"And tell me, Miss Rodriguez, why were you scared?"
"I sensed something was off with Mr. Hallaron. He seemed like something was off. I quickly got out of his way."
"Then what?"
"Well then I went up to accounting like Mr. Hallaron said and I found the deceased, lying on the floor."
"Miss Rodriguez, were you involved with the deceased, Kurt Hammel?"
"Objection your honor, relevance." Charles stood up and exclaimed.
"Overruled." The judge said from behind his mighty bench. "Answer the question, Miss Rodriguez."
"I was." Diana said.