Tomorrow's Shining Dream by Naomi Rawlings

Author:Naomi Rawlings [Rawlings, Naomi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cedar Lake Press
Published: 2020-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

14

“Let me try to understand.” Judge Murdock leaned forward from his place at the bench at the front of the courtroom and glowered at Rutherford and Adams. “The sheriff found a man in some type of prison room in your client’s trading post, and you’re complaining that he shouldn’t have searched the property?”

Chuckles broke out from the crowd, and Daniel shifted in the hard wooden chair where he sat across the aisle from Rutherford and his lawyer so that he could catch a few glimpses of the people seated behind him. The room was packed. Yesterday afternoon, the paper that was printed every Wednesday ran the story about Rutherford’s charges being dropped and Daniel going to court. This situation between him and Rutherford had been kept quiet for weeks but was now the most talked about thing in the county. Even Cain sat in the back, his hard eyes taking in everything about the proceeding.

Indeed, it seemed like the entire town had shown up—except for Thomas Mattherson, Agamemnon Westin, and Charlotte.

“That’s right.” Mr. Adams had pushed his hefty girth up from the table opposite the one where Daniel sat. “The sheriff had no right to search Mr. Rutherford’s property without his permission.”

“Sit down,” the judge ordered.

Daniel couldn’t help the small smile that tilted the corner of his mouth. For as much as he’d worried about court, especially after Judge Murdock had only set Rutherford’s bail at twenty dollars, the traveling judge seemed to have little tolerance for shenanigans.

“Your Honor, the situation was a bit more complicated than that.” Rutherford stood, casting a sideways glare at Daniel before speaking. “You see, when Sheriff Harding arrived at my—”

“Did you or did you not have a man imprisoned against his will somewhere on your property?”

Rutherford shifted. “That question is a bit complicated.”

“Your Honor,” Rutherford’s lawyer interjected. “We feel imprisoned is too strong a word to use for the situation.”

“Really.” The judge shuffled through some of the papers at his bench, then held one up. “Because according to the report submitted by the sheriff here, it seems that imprisoned isn’t a strong enough word. Why am I not presiding over a kidnapping and attempted murder trial?”

The judge’s dark brown eyes skewered Daniel. This man was nothing like the laidback, aging Judge Grenville who had seen to the county’s legal disputes for the past two decades. Judge Murdock didn’t have a single gray hair on his head, and his sharp eyes took in every last detail about the day’s proceedings.

Daniel pushed himself up from the table where he sat by himself. The commissioners had offered to let Mr. Boreman represent him, but he’d refused. “Mr. Rutherford made a plea agreement for those charges yesterday afternoon.”

The judge raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have any information about such an agreement.”

He didn’t? Daniel clenched his teeth together. Though really, he shouldn’t be surprised. A quick glance at where Rutherford sat with a sly gleam in his eye told Daniel the man had probably paid the clerk an exorbitant sum to make that particular document disappear.

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