Guilty Till Proven Innocent Read online

  Guilty Till Proven Innocent

  Dorothy Devine

  Copyright 2016byDorothy Devine

  All Right Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval Systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  …Synopsis…

  The chase had finally come to an end. Jacob had run all the way into a cul-de-sac and there was nowhere to run so he stood up and faced agent Mary Kennedy with his hoodie still over his head. Agent Mary Kennedy was still looking at him without saying a word, just pointing at him with her gun and flashlight, trying to catch her break.

  There was still some fresh blood all over his sleeve and the knife was still in hand. He was looking confused and was shaking all over the place, looking nothing like the cold blooded murderer that she could have been.

  “Drop the knife and put your hands up! It’s over!”

  Table of Content

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Guilty Till Proven Innocent

  Chapter 1

  -The arrest-

  It was about three in the morning and everything was dead quiet, save for the silhouette figure of a hooded, slender man running as fast as he could along the pavement. He was trying to run as fast as possible so that he couldn’t get caught but from the look of things, it was appearing as though he couldn’t lose the other figure which was hot in pursuit, closely behind.

  The second figure was carrying a gun and a flashlight and punting heavily as it tried to catch up with the first figure.

  And judging from the way that they were both breathing heavily, it seemed as though they had been running for a while now and that said, they were both tired and almost giving up. But even that wasn’t going to make them slow down even for a second. Something was for sure though, one was eager to catch up while the other was more than willing to run as fast as possible and get to the finish line as fast as possible, without being caught.

  The first figure got to the point where it just couldn’t run no matter how fast he was running and so he decided to get off the main road and branch out, hoping that by doing so, he was going to lose the other party who was starting to close up.

  But as soon as he got to that other lane, he stopped, realizing that he had trapped himself in the cul-de-sac and had no other chance no matter how hard he would have tried. Things weren’t just going to go his way and that said, he realized that the best thing for him to do would have been to stay put, clenching on the bloody knife that he was carrying.

  Finally, the figure that was hot in pursuit stopped as well, making sure that she was keeping a decent distance between then because the first person who was fleeing had already proved to be very dangerous. And yes, he still didn’t know what to do in order to escape. And from the look of things, he could just about do anything in order to stay free and without having to worry about a damn thing.

  “In as much as I would like to shoot you, I cant. So here is what we are going to do. I will need you to put your knife down, and then put your hands in the air. I am the one with the gun and so it would be very nice for you to not try and test me right now. I am not in a very good mood and so if you choose to try me, I will put three holes in your head and there is nothing you will do about it.”

  Agent Mary Kennedy always liked to talk too much especially when she was anxious. And that was the point where she saw the unexpected. From the look of things, it appeared as though the person that she was pursuing for close to fifteen minutes wasn’t as tough as he appeared to be as he was shaking and then a minute later, he was down on his knees begging for mercy.

  That was strange indeed. But then again, agent Mary was too darn smart to know that these killers could do just about any damn thing to get off the hook or make you to drop your guard right before they take you out. And so she didn’t budge. Even after the knife was dropped and the man was screaming for forgiveness, agent Mary Kennedy just looked at him, still pointing her pistol at him.

  And the only time that she moved was when it was time for her to kick off the knife that the culprit had dropped to a safe distance and it was right at that moment that she took the cuffs from her side and made sure that she had locked him up before pulling him up.

  “It’s not me; I swear it’s not me.” The man continued to plead for his dear life.

  “If it wasn’t you, then why you were very busy fleeing from the murder scene?”

  “I fled because you are the police.”

  Agent Kennedy wasn’t the kind of law enforcer who liked saying much and so she chose to ignore his pleas and got to read their Miranda rights. And that was the kind of kick ass police officer that she was and for that matter, always did her job as superbly as possible and got incredible results at the end of the day.

  The only other thing that was now remaining was to put him at the back of the police car and to drive him all the way to the station as soon as she had called in.

  The forensics people were already gathered at the crime scene and were working too hard to process the crime scene and get the body out of the city right before people started going to work and getting sites of the grim murder which had occurred.

  The police were also working too darn hard to make sure that the police weren’t on their backs since, as it was common knowledge, the police weren’t good especially when it did come to their relations with the media and so the faster they got things out of their way, the better.

  At the end of it all, the only other thing that would have made sense was playing the music as loud as possible as she drove the culprit in because he was starting to get to her nerves with all of the shouting and begging to the point that she just couldn’t take it any longer.

  It was a good thing that they were taught all about keeping it cool and maintaining their composure if at all they wanted to stay in the force and that said, she just smiled and didn’t even get to utter a word for the entire drive back to the station.

  Chapter 2

  -The court case-

  “All rise!”

  And everyone sat down as soon as the stern judge brooks assumed his seat and opened the huge book that was neatly laid right in front of him and adjusted his thick rimmed glasses that were a little bit askew and then cleared his throat.

  The murder case was already taking its second week and from the look of things, it seemed as though everything wasn’t going on according to plans since the defendant, Jacob, was pleading innocent even though everything as far as the evidence was concerned was simply pointing towards him being the culprit and at the end of the day, the only other thing that would have made some sense at that time would be for the judge to come up with the final verdict.

  Agent Mary Kennedy was the hero cop who caught the defendant only hours after checking out the footage that caught him doing the murdering. But that said she was now starting to think that maybe it was all a mistake.

  And if there was one thing that she always followed with all of her heart was the fact that her guts never misled her at any given moment. And just like that, all that she wanted to do was to make sure that everything was going on according to plans and that would only make some sense if at all she managed to get the real culprit caught and interrogated without wasting any more time.

  There were plenty of cases waiting and for that matter, the judge didn’t intend of dwelling on this case for a very long time. And at that moment, the only thing that agent Kennedy could do was to study the defendant who was at the brink of breaking down.

 
; What was really difficult to understand was why someone who was being painted as a cold blooded killer could cow down in front of a judge. That was one thing that not so many could find a little bit intriguing. And the only thing that would have happened to make Jacob be shaken was if he was innocent or maybe was under the influence of some drugs.

  But that said, it was still a little bit strange since even if people were high on any substance, they wouldn’t be able to kill or harm anyone unless they had the intention to do so or they did it by accident, or were provoked.

  As soon as the hearing was done, the judge postponed the case to the following day, citing that they needed to come up with more evidence and also get to test the defendant for insanity as he didn’t look for good.

  And at that point, agent Kennedy decided that maybe it was going to be a good idea for her to get to do some research since all of this was starting to weigh in on her conscience. Ever since she was responsible for the arrest, it appeared as though she had arrested the wrong person. But now, after following the trial for a little while, she was starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, she might have been led to arrest the wrong person.

  But how on earth was she able to do that? It just didn’t make any damn sense. But thankfully, that was the main reason as to why she was a police officer. She was supposed to do all in her power to ensure that she was able to get to the bottom of things and once that would have been done, then she could rest easy.

  “Hey, you got the bastard and you already took to the stand and made your testimony. I don’t understand why you are still concerned with the bastard. We already nailed him. I think the best thing for us to do at this moment is just to wait and see how things were going to go from here.”

  “I know. But my instinct is telling me something else. And you know that I don’t really ignore my instincts.”

  “Yes, I know. And I must say, that’s what makes you the kickass cop that you are. But I have to tell you that if you keep up with this, you are most definitely going to end up depressed. These people are very much schooled in the art of duping people. He is probably doing this so that he can get away with an insanity plea.”

  “Ok, maybe you are right. I will try and let it go.”

  “Good.”

  And as her partner left for the tea break, agent Kennedy knew that she had tricked him. The thing was that the moment she got her head stuck up on something, it was just too darn difficult for her to let go and that was the reason why she became a cop, to get the right people behind bars and not the wrong ones.

  After a couple of minutes of looking for Jacob Thomas’s file, she was surprised to find no other records that would indicate that the culprit had any criminal past and just like that, the only other thing that would have made some sense would be to pull out all of his records, including medical and financial since she knew it would go a very long way to tell her so much more about that one man that they were literally trying too darn hard to implicate but they seemingly didn’t have anything on him no.

  At that point, agent Kennedy decided that maybe the best thing for her to do would have been to stay on top of her game and proceed to ask the forensics people to look into pulling his files. So she picked up her phone and gave agent stone a call and gave him all of the details that she needed before hanging up the phone.

  It was getting to a point where she just wasn’t going to do a damn thing until she was in a position to accept the fact that Jacob was guilty and so let it go once and for all.

  Chapter 3

  -The unsettling thoughts-

  One thing about agent Kennedy was that she was always following her instinct. And even though the apparent culprit was already arrested with enough evidence to put him away for a couple of lifetimes already handed to the judge, she was still having sleepless nights getting to think about the real killer out there going Scott free.

  And it wasn’t as though this was the only thing that haunted her alone. There was no cop on the force who wasn’t afraid of convicting the wrong person at any given moment. And that said, the only other thing that would have made some sense at that time would have been to do all in her power to make her conscience rest easy. And the only way for that to happen would be to make sure that she was in a position to make a follow up.

  Thankfully, the evidence was already filed in her office and so as soon as the court case was over and done with, agent Mary Kennedy made a point of rushing back to her office which wasn’t far off from the court chamber and pulled out her pieces of evidence and went over it as carefully as possible, trying as much as possible not to miss out any damn thing that was happening.

  She even made sure that she had locked up the door after instructing her secretary to not allow anyone to get in. This way, agent Kennedy was definitely going to get to the bottom of every single thing that was going on. That was the only way she knew best to remain as focused as possible and in the end, getting the culprit which is a good thing.

  Then at that moment, her door was knocked and she shelved her thoughts for a moment, pretending to be checking something in the files that had been put on her desk for reviewing. As soon as the forensics guy, as they used to call him, go through the door, he went straight to business and put all of the files on top of the desk with a smile on his face.

  “I gather that as soon as you do anything with a smile on your face, you always know that you are able to crack something up.”

  “I think you know me too darn well. Ok, so I pulled a couple of files about our guy and you won’t believe what I stumbled upon. I just found out that we do have a very big problem at the end of the day. He lost his job a while back and it just seems as though he went underground.”

  “What kind of work was he doing?”

  “You won’t believe it, he was a doctor. But he went down because of malpractice and he never got the chance at society.”

  “What kind of malpractice?”

  “I think a patient he was looking after died and the family sued.”

  “Well, that’s really unfortunate. But I doubt that a person can go from being a doctor to being a murderer.”

  “I think people can be pushed to do some things that we can’t even get ourselves to comprehend. Check out the file. It has got virtually every single thing that you need. I am sure that once you are done, you will be convinced that this is the guy that we have been looking for and that you have nothing to worry about. Besides, you should be thankful that we are actually making some serious progress about what is really going on in his life.”

  And with that, agent Kennedy thanked the poor guy and left since she knew the forensics people were overworked in the department. And yes, she knew that it was very unfair. But then again, if they weren’t complaining, who was she to complain on their behalf?

  Once the forensics guy had left, the next thing for her to do was to kick back, relax and start thinking as a critical officer that she was. There were plenty of things that were going on at that time and that said, the only thing that would have made some sense would have been to go through the file as carefully as possible, trying to pick up something that would go a long way in solving the case, and if not, then give her the satisfaction that she finally caught the right person.

  It took her a couple of minutes to go through the files and agent Kennedy took a break and kicked back on her comfortable chair, trying as much as possible to make everything make sense for a little bit. From the look of things, it was starting to look as though maybe she had caught someone who was responsible. The files didn’t show anything that would have implicated that Mr. Thompson was innocent.

  And just like that, the only other thing that would have made sense would have been to go through it one more time. And this time round, the only other thing that would have made some sense would be to take her time and scrutinize all of the details until she was more than sure that she was on top of her game.

  This time round, she took almost an hour having to go through all o
f the details but still, it was still a very difficult thing for her to stay on top of her game no matter how hard she tried.

  And just like that, it was now starting to feel as though she was most definitely going to have to work too darn hard and make sure that she had all that she was looking for. And for that to happen, agent Kennedy knew that she was going to have to pay Mr. Jacob Thomas a visit.

  But first, she took the footage and checked it out one time, hoping that she was going to find something that will get her all sorted out that indeed, her instinct was right.

  Chapter 4

  -The interrogation-

  Agent Kennedy knew jolly too well that things could get ugly as soon as she had stepped into the interrogation room and so as soon as she had gotten into the room, she demanded that the cameras were switched off and the officers who were watching from the other side of the mirrored window to take five.

  They knew the drill and so they didn’t ask any questions because even though they knew that all agent Kennedy was going to find would be that one thing that they would have been knowing from the beginning, that the man was as guilty as charged and that there was no way that he was going to get off the hook.

  Agent Kennedy had no other choice but to wait until all of her police officers had left the other room before she personally switched off the cameras and stepped into the other room with a stern look on her face. Yes, it was going to be one difficult pill to swallow and that said, she knew that she had to get her game face on since she was going to have to be something very stern and probably get to hit the killer a couple of times if at all she wanted to get the truth out of him.

  As soon as Jacob saw her coming in, his eyes widened and he tried standing up but the chains that were supposed to keep him tethered to the seat did their job rather perfectly, pulling him right back to the seat.