Trial and Terror (13 page)

Frank nodded, but he wasn't sure. If Nick was to go free, the jury needed some real proof. Guesswork wasn't enough, he noted sadly, even though it was obvious that Daggett was the one who attacked Karen Lee.

Finished with Lee, Myers returned to his seat. Frank kept his eyes on Daggett as she cross-examined Lee from her table. Frank had to hand it to the woman. Except for a little bit of ring twirling, she was still as cool as an ice cube.

Then Frank's eyes focused like a laser on the ring. One of the petals was missing. The missing part was just a tiny piece of painted enamel, but right now it was the biggest thing in the world to Frank.

Frank realized the missing petal was the piece of pink enamel he had seen in the evidence room. The shape was exactly the same as the other petals.

That's it, Frank thought—the petal is the proof!

Frank scrawled out a note and quickly passed it to Myers. “This better be good,” Myers wrote back.

When the cross-examination was done, a very confused Myers asked the judge for a one-hour break in the trial, and the judge agreed.

During the break, Frank explained what he had discovered, and Myers arranged to have the piece of pink enamel brought over from the evidence room. Daggett did not try to block this move, and Frank realized she did not yet understand what the all-important piece of pink enamel was.

When the trial resumed, Myers called Frank to the witness stand. “Mr. Hardy,” Myers said, hands casually in his pockets, “yesterday, did you examine the physical evidence connected to this case?”

“Yes, I did,” Frank answered.

Myers picked up the plastic packet containing the piece of pink enamel and showed it to the members of the jury. Then he showed it to Frank and asked, “Was this one of the things you saw there?”

“Yes, it was,” Frank said.

“What is it?” Myers asked.

“It's a piece of painted enamel that was found at the crime scene,” Frank explained. “Since Karen Lee had swept her floor shortly before the attack and since the police retrieved this item shortly after the attack, it is believed to have fallen to the ground sometime around the time of the murder attempt. No one at the crime lab knew what it was, but a short while ago I figured it out.”

“And what is this little item?” Myers asked.

“It's a flower petal from a ring,” Frank said.

“I'm confused,” Myers said, removing his glasses. “This is just a tiny piece of pink enamel. How can you be certain it's a petal from a ring?”

“Because,” Frank said, his eyes drifting toward the prosecutor, “this exact petal is missing from the ring that Patricia Daggett is now wearing on the index finger of her right hand.”

Gasps of amazement were heard throughout the room. The judge pounded his gavel.

“That's all,” Myers said, taking a seat.

Frank knew Myers could not get him to say Daggett was the culprit because Frank had not
actually witnessed the attack. But maybe some of the jury members were putting everything together and seeing how the petal proved Daggett's guilt. And maybe Frank could somehow drive the point a little more on the cross-examination.

Daggett stood, her eyes glinting like daggers.

“Mr. Hardy,” Daggett said evenly, “you are a very observant boy. Indeed, I am wearing a flower ring with painted enamel petals. And, yes, one of those petals is missing. But what on earth makes you think the petal found at the crime scene came from my ring?”

Daggett was staring straight at Frank, daring him to accuse her, a respected and powerful lawyer, of the crime in question. Frank was in a dangerous position, and Daggett was obviously hoping he would back down. But Frank was not in the mood for backing down today.

“I know it came from your ring,” Frank said, acting every bit as cool as Daggett, “because you were the person who tried to murder Karen Lee.”

The courtroom went dead silent.

Then came the clicking of Daggett's high heels as she slowly approached the witness stand. Again she reminded Frank of a spider spinning a web. “May I ask your age?” Daggett said to Frank.

“Objection!” Myers cried out.

“Overruled,” the judge declared.

“I am eighteen years old,” Frank replied.

“Let me offer another theory,” Daggett said, giving Frank the sweetest of smiles. “Perhaps you and your brother are a pair of teenagers pretending to be detectives, and you are terribly determined to prove to all of us adults just how clever you are. Even though you don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Who knows? Perhaps your parents don't pay enough attention to you.”

Frank knew what Daggett was doing. Her scare tactics had failed, so now she was trying to make Frank seem immature to the jury.

“We
are
detectives,” Frank said in his most professional tone. “And our parents give us plenty of attention.”

Daggett twirled her ring and then stopped herself. Frank could see she was thinking up a new line of questioning.

“Let me ask you this,” Daggett said. “If I was the one who attacked Karen Lee that night, then would I not have been wearing gloves at the time?”

“You
were
wearing gloves,” Frank said.

“Then how could the petal from the ring have found its way to the floor?” Daggett asked.

Frank realized Daggett was now trying to trip him up on details. But Frank had already considered this particular detail.

“As Miss Lee stated in her testimony;” Frank said, “she grabbed the attacker's right hand. The hand with the knife and also the ring. Karen Lee said she held the hand tightly, struggling with it. Under those conditions, the petal could easily have broken off and slipped through the glove.”

Daggett turned to the jury, chuckling and shaking her head in disbelief. “Well, Mr. Hardy,” she remarked, “it seems you're quite the crime scene expert, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if you have your own junior detective kit in your toy chest at home!”

Frank knew it was time for the kill.

“The jury shouldn't have to take my word for this,” Frank said, loud and clear. “Perhaps you would allow a reenactment of the struggle to be staged with a similar ring. I believe this will prove my theory to be correct. Then perhaps the jury will finally have ‘the whole truth and nothing but the truth' about who it was who really tried to murder Karen Lee on the night of August fourteenth!”

The crowd went wild with excitement, and it took the judge a full minute to get everyone quiet.

“All right,” the judge announced when order had been finally restored. “In view of the most unusual accusations being made, I am ending this trial for the day. I would like to see both lawyers
in my private chamber at once. Court is dismissed!”

The judge banged his gavel.

•  •  •

At ten the following morning, Frank and Joe were standing on the steps of the criminal court building. After meeting with the lawyers the day before, the judge had spent the rest of the day and much of the night examining the case in light of the new revelations. The trial was still on hold, and the judge was now meeting with both lawyers again.

It was cold out, but the sky was a brilliant blue. “Well,” Joe said, a breath of fog coming from his mouth, “either we're going to be in big demand as private investigators for criminal trials, or we're going to spend this Christmas in jail.”

A few minutes later, three people walked out of the court building—Myers, Nellie, and Nick.

“Nick,” Frank said, surprised. “You're out!”

“After considering everything,” Nick said with a smile, “the judge dismissed the case against me.”

“And he had Patricia Daggett arrested for the attempted murder of Karen Lee and about fifty other charges,” Nellie explained.

“She's plenty mad at you guys,” Myers added.

“I'll bet she is,” Joe said.

“Frank, Joe,” Nick said, placing a hand on
each of the brothers, “I can't even begin to thank you.”

“Because of you two,” Nellie said with a look of deep appreciation, “justice has been done.”

Then someone else was standing nearby—Karen Lee. She approached the group and gently touched the arm of Nick's coat. “I'm sorry,” she said in a soft voice. “I should have known you would never try to kill me. But there was so much evidence against you, and Miss Daggett was so persuasive that I . . . ”

“As long as you believe me now,” Nick said.

“As soon as we pick up Nick's things at the jail,” Myers told the Hardys, “we're having a celebration, and we insist you guys come.”

“And you, too, Karen,” Nick said.

“I'd be honored,” Karen told Nick.

“Count us in,” Joe said happily.

Myers, Lee, Nellie, and Nick headed for the House of Detention, promising to come back for the Hardys when they were done there. Frank looked back at the grimy court building and noticed the engraved words: Justice Denied No One.

“Man, oh man,” Joe told Frank. “You've got quite a report to make to your civics class.”

“And you know something?” Frank said. “I think we may have some more business here.”

“Why is that?” Joe asked.

“It sounds as if Patricia Daggett is in some
pretty hot water,” Frank explained. “I was thinking she might need a good team of teenage PIs. After all, everyone is entitled to a fair trial.”

“True,” Joe said with a gleam in his eye. “But do you think we might be able to raise our rates this time?”

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Aladdin

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