Carly frowned as she held the phone high against her ear. She was perambulating inside the room allotted to her by the Female barrister.
"Hello?" she frowned.
"Hello..." The voice was feminine. "I'm I speaking with Miss Carly?"
"That's right," she wiped tears of her face. "Who please...?"
"The secretary…" the voice trailed off.
"-okay, you want to tell me something?" She jumped to her feet. "Well, go ahead…"
"-nothing much, but just to remind you that we are to meet this week for the doctor's appointment…" the voice spoke all at once.
Carly chortled, did she say: 'nothing much…?' of course it was much, its only thing that she could rely on besides the will.
Carly arched a brow as she remembered that she was holding the cell phone. She settled on the bed and chortled again.
"-okay dear, thank you very much," she tried to hang up but remembered a thing. "-and dear, where are we to meet…?"
"My house..." The voice spoke almost at once.
"Okay, bye."
"Bye."
The spoke out at once, and chortled nervously at once. Carly shook her head as she hung up.
∆∆∆
"D. P. O!" Gordon barged into the police office looking enraged. "D. P. O! Where's he?"
"Oh, gentleman," The D.P.O said, startled. "Let's talk outside."
Gordon glared at him "-okay, okay…"
The two men left the room and the surprised police officers for good.
"So what's the problem, gentleman?" Rick's voice shook. "Why the sudden visit…?"
"I'm afraid, Rick." Gordon peered at him. "The boss is so angry with you…"
"Why that…?" Rick stammered. "Like why, why…?" he bellowed.
"Well…according to him…" Gordon moved away from the latter so he could focus his gaze at him. "He said you guys aren't doing your job neatly…!" he hollered.
Rick glared on at his visitor; he was having a hard time.
"I don't understand..."
"-you don't understand?" Gordon inquired.
"Yeah, make me..." Rick kept on peering at him.
"-okay, I will…" Gordon sniggered. "The damned file was stolen in the law office…!" he yapped.
Rick maintained his stern look.
"So...? Not my problem…"
Gordon settled his vicious gaze briefly at the man before him.
"-not your problem…?" he retorted, "You were given the job to watch over the law chamber! How am I sure you are not working with them…?" Gordon began to wobble away.
"I'm not with them…" Rick muttered.
"-go tell that to Charlie…!" Gordon hollered at him.
The latter watched him as he entered his car and drove off. Rick wiped worry off his face and reentered the police station.
∆∆∆
Charlie sat in his parlor having a good time, it was a Sunday morning; he had no appointment that morning so he was just alone in his parlor except his wife who was busy in the kitchen.
The doorbell rang.
"-darling, the door…!" a voice echoed within the house.
"I know..." Charlie walked towards the door and opened it.
Standing at the door was a young lady, about at her late thirties. Charlie glared at her demandingly. After greeting the middle aged man, she held out a file to him.
"-from the law office, sir…"
Charlie tightened his gaze at the lady as he took the file from her, without much word, he slammed the door.
He wrinkled his forehead as he glared at the content of the file.
"-a court summons…?" He hurriedly opened the letter and looked through it. "No way...!" He barked, "How come? He owned everything!"
"Honey…?"
He turned at the voice. Judith stood with worry on her face. "What's the matter…?"
"My dear," He quickly made a face full of shame. "Why is Carly paying me with evil…? For all the good I've done?"
"Carly, isn't she dead?" surprised Judith retorted.
"I thought so too, my dear. But I just received a letter from the court stating that I was accused of forged will and attempted murder of one miss Carly Antonio. Can you imagine..." Charlie said and shook his head in self-pity.
"What…!" Judith frowned.
Charlie sat helplessly on his couch thinking on any possible solution to his present problem.
"Honey..." Judith called him out of his thoughts. "What are we going to do now?" Tears welled up in her eyes and she began to sniffle.
"Calm down. I'll get a good lawyer." He placed his hands on her shoulders. "I will be fine okay? We'll be fine…"
She nodded.
"I'll be back. I need to make some arrangements." He told her and walked out of the house.
Outside, he brought his phone out of his pocket as it kept on ringing.
"Hello…?"
"Charlie," Dexter called. "There's fire on the mountain. We are soon to be doomed."
"...you are, what's the problem...?" Charlie feigned ignorance.
"Charlie, the original will have been aired. As I'm talking to you, a court summon is directed to you..."
"What…!" Charlie exclaimed. "Okay, calm down. I'll get you out of this mess, when is the trial?"
"Next week."
"Okay, stay calm. You'll be fine…"
He hung up and walked towards his car. He had pretended as if the court summons had not gotten to him, he used Dexter very well. Still tensed, he entered his car and drove off.
∆∆∆
Charlie now at his office, fiddled with his smoking pipe as he pondered over what he just heard from Dexter.
"So he allowed the will to be exposed…" He smiled. "And yet had the guts to tell me that a court summon was directed to me…?"
He took a sip from a glass that sat on the table in front of him. "I'll help you, Dexter, but I'll deal with you later." He smiled warmly and flipped his pipe over his mouth.
∆∆∆
The second hearing, May 20, 2014
The court was filled to its brim, since it was a case of the rich. The two parties listened to the prosecutor as he made a brief opening speech. Charlie was to be represented by Barrister Franklin Dexter, and Carly sat with her lawyer, Barrister Christophine Drake. Leonard and Eddy were not present; they had stayed back for security reasons.
"Mr. Charlie Benedict who happened to be the defendant is charged for the attempted murder of Miss Carly Antonio and also a forged will." The prosecutor spoke loud and clear. "The victim supported her accusations by saying that the accused being her father's friend had been a threat from the first week after her father's murder."
The judge cleared his throat. "Defendant, what do you have to say about this…?"
"Well, your honor..." Dexter sprang up with pride. "With all due respect, I'll like to say that my client is not guilty of all these crimes. Mr. Benedict has been a man of his word, his wife, friends and family members can testify to that. Being the president of the famous Pa-Ben business group, I interviewed his workers and every single one of them gave good reports about him." He turned to Carly and bellowed. "-so miss, why accuse this innocent man falsely…?"
"Objection my lord-" Barrister Christophine stamped her hands on the table.
"I'm not done talking…" Dexter interjected.
"-objection Overruled…" the judge's voice came to life.
Barrister Christophine sat back on her seat and waited for the talking man to conclude.
"I believe we all know what it means to kill somebody. My client here," he pointed at Charlie. "Was at home with his beloved wife at the time the murder attempt was made. So what stance do you have that he was the one…?" He bowed to the judge and walked to his seat.
"Greetings, your lordship," Barrister Drake commenced. "To start with, my opponent was focused on the murder attempt and forgot that we filed his client for forged will. My client, Miss Carly," she turned and smiled at Carly. "…was given a will by her father's lawyer two months ago. In that will, her father denied her as a daughter and handed all his property to his friend…" she peered at Charlie and he looked the other way. "…making her live those two months without being sure of whom her birth parents were. However, a week ago, she found another will, written by her father and stating that all he has belonged to her. What will you say about that? Piracy…the second will was real, and the other was pirated-"
Seeing that the judge was nodding, Dexter bounced up. "-objection my lord…"
"Sustained…"
"I'll like to ask a question." He faced the latter. "Fine…! Two wills directed to the same person. It was the lawyer who gave the will to my client's friend's daughter, not him. So why should he be accused of forging a will that he himself did not give to the lady? Also, how sure are we that the will Carly brought last wasn't forged by her?"
"What…!" Carly felt her temper. "Don't twist the matter mister..."
"Silence…!" The judge ordered, "Or your words will later be used against you."
Carly feeling so irritated stood up and left the court room for good. Her lawyer followed her calling out on her, but she ignored and walked faster.
"There will be another hearing next week as there's a tie between the two parties." The judge said. "The party with the most evidence, triumphs. My verdict, court dismiss…!" At that, everyone left the courtroom. Charlie wobbled along with Dexter smiling at his intelligence, but within his heart, he knew his doom was at hand.