"Of course," he said. I watched our client with some nervousness. We had already discovered that he was a soft spoken man. I only worried that his natural nervousness would be perceived as having something to hide. "I was at home watching television."

"Can you explain to the courtroom how you came to be at your wife's home standing over her dead body?"

"Objection!" Aiden said.

"Sustained," the judge muttered. "Rephrase the question please."

"Very well." The lawyer adjusted his pacing to make a pass by our table, giving Aiden a plaintive glance. "Mr. Shaw, can you explain to the court under what manner you arrived at her home."

Darius Shaw glanced towards us before answering, his eyes wide and trembling. I nodded and smiled in encouragement. We had tried to keep him in the loop, but naturally had only given him the information that he needed. For the case to move forward in the correct fashion we needed him to speak as much from memory as possible.

He began, "Well I was watching T.V. when Rita called me. I almost didn't answer when I saw it was her."

"Please," the judge interjected. "Just try to stick to the events as they happened."

"Yes sir,” he said, glancing over at him. "I answered the phone, and she said she needed me to come over."

"Did she give a reason for calling? For wanting you to come over?" The lawyer asked.

"Yes, sir. She did."

"And what was that reason?"

"Well..." I could tell that Darius was reluctant to say. The lawyer gestured for him to continue.

"I understand that it may be sensitive information," the judge interjected. "But for the purposes of the case, you do need to answer the questions."

"We had been separated for a while, and she wanted me to come over to see her. She told me she was lonely, that it didn't change anything but that she was lonely."

"So," the lawyer said. "Are you insinuating that she wanted to have sexual relations? Is that correct?"

"That is correct,” Darius said.

"What happened when you arrived at her home?"

"I found her there. I let myself in through the front door as I still had a key, and there she was.” Darius voice trembled as he spoke of finding her body.

The lawyer turned to the jury and raised his eyebrow as if expressing doubt, and inviting them to do so as well. Aiden and I exchanged a glance, but as he hadn’t made a definitive statement we had nothing to verbally object.

"How much time had passed between your phone call and you finding her dead in her home?"

"I think about fifteen minutes,” Darius said.

"Thank you. No further questions." The lawyer sat down.

“We have no questions at this time,” Mr. Mahoney said.

"You may step down,” the judge instructed Darius, who then returned back to our table. Both of the senior partners looked in my direction. I stood and picked up the documents I had prepared.

"I'd like to call to the stand Detective Roger Ingram."

He had been the lead investigator to the crime scene and had been largely responsible for the evidence gathered at the scene. While working with the evidence as we had built our case, I had seen his name on various documents and on the identifying labels on the photographs.

The man I called, entered from the audience area. He wore a white shirt and black sports jacket and came across as quite professional. I would have my work cut out for me with what I was about to do. As the detective was being sworn in, I glanced over at Ms. Klein who gave me a confident nod. At last the detective sat down at the stand ready for my questions.

"Detective Ingram,” I began with a smile as I moved around to the other side of the table into the center of the courtroom. "How are you today?"

"I'm just fine thanks,” he answered with some bewilderment. "How are you?"

"Very good. Thanks for asking,” I said keeping the smile upon my face. "Would you care to share with the jury your role in the investigation?"

"I was the lead investigator,” he said.

"So you were in charge of finding Mrs. Shaw's killer,” I clarified.

"I believe we have successfully done that." Hhe smirked while glancing towards our client.

"That is yet to be determined,” I said, concentrating on the coolness of my tone. "Everyone deserves their day in court."

"Please, just answer the question,” the judge said with a glare.

"That's correct,” Detective Ingram said, still unsure where I might be going with my questions.

"Can you explain to the jury why you suppressed evidence that might exonerate my client?" I stood in the center of the court room, no more than three or four feet from the detective.

"I didn’t such a thing!" he said, as a sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead. His lawyer stood about to object.

"Get to the point, Ms. Michaels,” the judge ordered in a stern tone.

"If the court will bear with me just a few moments longer,” I said. "Detective, during your casing of the crime scene did you collect any evidence from Mrs. Shaw's body directly?"

"Yes, we did,” he stammered.

"From underneath her nails, I presume?" I said.

"Yes," he said with a shamed face.

"And was it determined who's DNA that was?"

"No we didn’t,” he said.

"And why not?" I asked. "Isn't it routine to check that information? To have it tested?"

"The DNA was filed,” he mumbled.

"But as of today, it hasn’t been tested against that of my client. Is that correct?"

"That is correct."

"Your honor," I said turning to the judge. "I would like to ask that the court order the DNA be tested. Our client has already agreed to submit to compliance to give a comparative sample. Until the time that the test results are submitted into evidence, I have no further questions."

"Test is so ordered,” The judge said. "You may step down, Detective Ingram."

The man returned to the audience area giving me a pointed glare as he passed by our table. I didn’t know the consequences he might face for not processing all of the information correctly, but finding that loophole had been a huge break in our case.

Aiden turned and gave me a wink.

I averted my eyes as I still felt a little bit hurt by out exchange from the other night, but once more I felt the strange rush of my involvement with the courtroom.

The looks from the senior partners indicated nothing but being impressed. The remainder of the day consisted of finding more and more holes in the prosecution's arguments. By the end of the day I felt more than confident that we would win. Still in the back of my mind I knew we relied wholly on the jury for that decision. The day came to a close, and Aiden and I gathered our things to go.

"You did great today, as always,” he said as he sauntered up next to me. We both spoke softly as to not gather the attention of the senior partners.

"Thanks," I said. "You were no slouch either."

I had remained distant with him all day. I still wasn’t sure what response I would get from him.

"Hey, I wondered if we could go somewhere and talk... about what happened the other night."

“I don't know. I think you have said everything that needs to be said." I picked up my bag and brushed past him, headed towards the door to the outside.

"Blair wait,” he called after me. I didn’t slow my pace until I stepped outside into the evening sunlight. "Blair, please."