Capture Me by Natalia Banks

Author:Natalia Banks [Banks, Natalia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Lorraine had never seen a deposition given before, and she knew she'd have to give her own soon enough. She wasn't eager to see the man they'd be deposing, but she had to hear what he was going to say, how bad his lies were going to be.

Tony Gardner had been shaving his head, the very thin layer of stubble giving him a stark, almost skeletal look, his right arm just a bit out of alignment. He wore a short-sleeve button-down shirt to make sure the arm was visible, palm facing up as it lay idle by his side. Behind him and scattered around the cold blandly decorated room, several oil paintings sat on easels, mostly pastoral work; meadows, mountains, sunset skies, a few fairly well-rendered portraits in pallet knife including Albert Einstein and Ernest Hemingway.

Griffin’s attorney, Hal Rodney was graying and pale but with the etched face of a man who worked hard, maybe too hard. “Mister Gardner, you say you did nothing at all to provoke this attack by Mr. Griffin in that Denver train station?”

“That’s right! I was just walkin’, all the sudden that maniac’s got my hand, arm all bent back. Wham, I’m on my back, y’know? And he just keeps pushing it, pushing it, twisting harder and harder. I tell him to stop, beg him to stop, that he's breaking my arm. He says, ‘No, I’m popping your tendons,’ and then the guy cranks my arm, and I can hear the bones crack, man. He smiles and says, ‘Now I broke your arm.’ That’s fucked up, man! This guy can’t be loose on the streets, he’s a public menace.”

“All right, Mr. Gardner,” Hal said, glancing down at his folder. Lorraine and Griffin watched from the other side of the table, not far from where Tony’s own lawyer was making notes, a recording machine on the table tracking every word of the deposition.

Hal went on, “And you’re saying there was no provocation at all, none whatsoever.”

“That’s right. He said something about me attacking his girlfriend or something, I guess she’s his wife. But I didn’t do that. And when they tried to pin it on me, the police blew it and I walked. Because that’s justice!” he declared.

Lorraine looked at him, forcing herself to stare right at him and not look away. She’d done it before, in the train station when Griffin did all that damage to his arm, and she was ready to do it again, even eager. Lorraine didn’t want that man to think he had any further hold on them, that he could hurt her in any way.

Even though both of them knew that was no longer true.

Hal asked, “Then, why do you suppose Mr. Phoenix attacked you in the first place?”

Tony shrugged, shaking his head from his slumped position in the deposition room chair. “Look, I think she thinks I’m the guy, I don't doubt that. And yeah, I lived in the Denver area at that time, that’s probably the reason for the mix up.

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