PROTECT

twenty three part two

"Your honor, may I present more evidence?" Rickell stands up proudly. Her shoulders back, chin up and her voice thundering this time like when she talks to me.

"Please proceed"

"To the stand, I bring Keisha Johns"

What?

The court room erupts again in "oohhhs" and "what?"

Keisha comes from behind me and I can only see her back as she pasts me.

As she approaches the stand, i pay attention to her. She has a burn mark on her face yes, and she looks to be malnourished. Scared even.

Her eyes apologize to me as she gets comfortable in her seat.

"Keisha Johns. How are you first and foremost?"

"I'm well" she answers shakily.

"I'm happy to hear that" Rickell states.

I watch her intensely, watching her every move. How her body jerks from her legs bouncing under the table to how she peels the burgundy red nail polish off of her nails nervously.

She got some damn nerve being nervous. If she wasn't already supposed to be dead, i could kill her all over again.

I'm happy she's alive yes, it's helping my case but my whole life is blowing up in my face.

"So now Keisha, why are you not.. how should i put this? Dead!?" Rickell asks eyeing Anna.

Anna's mouth is set wide. Jaw in the table beneath her.

"I'm not dead because i never died. I was in the hospital yes, but i made it out healthy" she states so quietly that everyone in the court room has to stop breathing to hear her.

"Interesting" Rickell says to allow Keisha to keep going.

"Noni died in the fire. Not I and not Miko" Keisha says a little louder and confident.

The court room erupts again.

"Shortly after the fire and i got out of the hospital, i was kidnapped and brought to a facility not too far from Arizona. I'd never saw their face until a month ago but Miko had it set up. They ran the whole operation. Miko failed to kill Autumn so she spun the story onto Autumn."

Scrunching my face in confusion, my heart begins to speed.

"Explain more"

"Miko had a thing for Autumn. Like a real thing. They had a wooden chest with pictures of them, real and photoshopped, handwritten love letters to Autumn and they made some letter look like they were from Autumn with her handwriting" my mouth drops appalled in my chair. 

"When Miko found out Autumn had been messing with someone on the low, they'd lost it. They'd had a plan to end her. On some and i quote 'if I can't have her, no one can' type. Miko set up the fire and it was supposed to blow up Autumns car but Miko didn't install it correctly. The time was set for a certain time but Miko had yet to put it in her car. That's why Miko wanted to walk her out. We were all drunk and Miko forgot and that resulted to this" Keisha says pointing around the courtroom.

"So.. Miko Hayes set a bomb?"

"Yes"

The courtroom erupts again.

"So Autumn Jones did not set the fire?"

"No"

"No more questions" Rickell suggests and walks towards the bench area and sits down.