Guilty Acts by James Robin

Author:James, Robin [James, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Crime, thriller
Amazon: B094DYVHD9
Goodreads: 58025543
Publisher: Robin James Books
Published: 2021-12-22T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

T.J. Humphrey was a giant, lumbering man with hands the size of dinner plates and dark-brown eyes.

His testimony mirrored Lisa Snow’s on the main facts. He lived across the street from the Clays and knew them socially. He and Nathan had been friendly, borrowing each other’s power tools when the need arose, though most of the time, T.J. would have to go over and repair whatever Nathan had tried to initially fix on his own. It was a running joke between them. Just like Lisa Snow had said, Nathan Clay was not handy around the house.

“Mr. Humphrey,” Charlotte said. “What was your relationship with Juliet Clay?”

It was then T.J. withdrew into himself. I looked at Juliet. She’d gone stiff as a board again, her eyes misting with tears.

My spine started to tingle. Something was wrong. We were about to get hit. Hard.

“We had an affair, okay?” T.J. said. “I’m not proud of it, but I slept with her.”

“Objection,” Tori shouted, rising to her feet.

Judge Castor looked puzzled for a moment, assuming T.J. was my witness to cross. Because he was.

“Counsel?” Castor said.

“This is irrelevant,” Tori said, realizing she’d waded into deep waters without a life jacket.

“The witness’s relationship with the defendant is relevant,” Charlotte said.

“Overruled,” Judge Castor agreed.

Tori sank back into her seat. Her face had gone white. I kept mine neutral. I couldn’t let the jury deduce this was the first time I was hearing this fact right along with them.

“We had a brief affair,” T.J. explained. “And I mean brief. Like over one weekend last year.”

“Who initiated that affair?” Charlotte asked.

“It was mutual,” T.J. said,

“But you were friends with Nathan Clay,” Charlotte said.

“Yeah,” T.J. said, dropping his head. “Juliet told me Nathan was okay with it. She said their marriage was open. I’m ashamed to admit it, okay. But she was young and pretty, and I was attracted to her. But immediately afterward, I felt awful.”

“Why?”

“Because if her marriage with Nate was open like she said, mine wasn’t. Anyway, it was just over one weekend when Kim, my wife, was gone. So was Nate. But then it was over. I didn’t talk to Nate or Juliet for a long time after that. Not until …”

“Until when?”

“Last Christmas. Juliet and Nathan hosted a party and they invited us. I thought it was going to be for the neighborhood. It wasn’t. It was just a bunch of people from Nate’s work. Kim was furious. She didn’t want to be there. At the time, she didn’t know about Juliet and me. I wouldn’t have gone but Nate asked me. Actually, he begged me. It was awkward as hell and ended with Kim calling the cops.”

“What happened at the party, Mr. Humphrey?”

“Juliet and Nathan got into a big fight. I don’t know what started it. But she was accusing him of ruining everything for her. I heard her say that over and over. She said you never support me. You want to keep me down. You don’t want me to ever have anything that’s just mine.

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