Off the Deep End

A Mistake

The collar was stiff and itchy, and Dick had decided he would burn it when he got home.

He'd burn down this whole courthouse if he could, but according to Black Canary he had to keep his goals realistic. So the shirt it was. And maybe the pants. They were pretty annoying.

The jury quieted, the courtroom settled and Dick eyed the microphone on the witness stand with forced worry. This would be easy. He just had to recount the night, the events, without breaking down. His testimony had to be enough to prove things right. It would be, how could it not be?

"first, please state your name and age for the record." Tony Zucco's lawyer said, and Dick wished he could add him to the list of things on the bonfire.

"Richard John Grayson," he said into the mic, gripped his hands together in his lap under the bench, his nails dug into the skin, "15 years." 16 in like two weeks but whatever.

"where were you the night of the incident?"

He had to be joking. Dick's face immediately fell into an annoyed façade and a camera snapped a picture before he could cover it back up.

"I was in the back of the circus tent, looking in on the performance. I saw it happen."

"could you recount the event for the court?" the lawyer asked, and he shared a glance with Zucco, Dick caught the tiniest glimpse of a smirk.

"where would you like me to start?" Dick asked, trying to force the innocent kid image that the media needed to believe.

"the performance, when you started watching."

"I peeked in before the lights came up, I was focusing on my parents up on the platform. I was only eight so I couldn't perform, but I knew everything about the act and how it should go down. When they started the performance I noticed there was something wrong with the equipment, I noticed some of the wires had been sabotaged."

"how did you know this?"

"would you like me to explain the intricacies of a trapeze and how it should be maintained?" Dick said, with a smile that allowed him to hide the angered clench of his jaw.

The lawyer's face dropped only long enough for Dick to notice, but he soon replaced the annoyance with a smile and said "no, continue."

"I didn't know what to do so I continued watching hoping the tampering wasn't that bad, eventually I noticed that it was that bad and I ran out to tell them. I climbed the ladder and my dad told me to go back, he swung out but I managed to tell him the wires were damaged before he was too far to hear. He caught my mother and was about to swing her to the platform I stood on when the wires snapped and the two fell."

His voice started to peter out, he cleared his throat as inconspicuously as possible once he was done talking. He'd recounted it before, plenty of times. He became less attached to the words with every telling.

"thank you, Mr. Grayson, for telling the court this." The lawyer turned to face the juror, "I must ask, however, how such an event incriminates my client to such a degree that there is no doubt he was at fault? My client was not even present for the performance. And he certainly has no knowledge of a trapeze and its workings."

Dick's hands fisted as he fought not to glare at the lawyer.

"Mr. Grayson, I understand you were young when my client was put away, but I must ask if you even knew him before the event." The lawyer said, "as you were too young to testify at the time of his persecution."

"I did not know him," Richard said, "but-"

"exactly. My client was never affiliated with the Grayson family, he has no motive. Why would he harm an innocent family of performers?"