My dad nods in support
"I know Carol was hard working. A good warrior. Same with Victoria. She is a good girl. But then I thought the same about Owen. He was dedicated to his duties as my Beta. I trusted him and thought he was loyal until he decided to kill me and frame my son for his crimes. I'm not sorry for not rushing to their aid."
"I wasn't expecting you to rush to their aid, Pops. I'm not blaming you for anything, okay? I won't even raise a brow if you decide not to involve yourself in this. Owen betrayed your trust. It doesn't matter if he turned a traitor because he was being threatened, he should have trusted and come to you so that you both can figure out the solution to his problem but he chose not to."
"Yeah, he chose not to..." He says and nods again. "I hope it's not too late to save their lives?"
"I hope so too. Do you know the judge personally? We noticed you addressed him by his first name."
"Yeah, I know Ricky... We worked one or two cases together back then when Drew and I were working with the Council."
"Oh! Was he always this dishonest? Eric asks. "We all saw how partial he was during the trial. I wonder what he meant when he told Owen he won't allow them to use him as a pawn again, though."
"I actually thought about that too. I wondered who he was referring to?" Alpha Nate says
"Back then, Ricky and his partner worked some cases together with Drew and me. We also consulted with each other regularly whenever we had difficulties in solving any case. That was all there was to it between us. We were not close like friends. And from the little I know about him, I knew him to be a straight arrow. That was why I was surprised by the professional misconduct he exhibited in his courtroom."
"Well, people change. If you want to see him and ask for his help then let's get on with it. I hope he won't reject us." Alpha Nate says.
While Eric goes off to call his prison warder friend about Carol and Victoria, my dad, Alpha Nate and I go to the judge's office, and like we'd thought, he's about to leave but gladly agrees to speak with us because of my dad who I allow to do the talking.
"Even though it's been years since we had any form of communication between us, it's still painful when I heard the news of your death, you know." Judge Ricky says to my dad
"As a former detective I was baffled when I heard the accused was even your son. I requested to be the judge in the case because I wanted to understand what could make a son murder his father in cold blood. Then your wife came to me...
"She's not my wife!" My dad vehem ently protests.
The judge looks surprised.
"Oh–okay... I'm sorry I didn't realize that. She came to me and introduced herself as your wife and mate. I mean we all know her as the Silver Moon pack's Luna. I never thought..."
"It's alright, Ricky, don't worry about that, just continue with what you were saying ..." My dad interrupts him
"Okay... I know you're a good man, Knox. As I said before, I asked for the case because I wanted to understand why a son would want to kill your kind of person. I also wanted to make him pay for his crimes if he was found guilty.
A few days before the trial, the Luna somehow found out I would preside over the case and came to me with what I now realize was a sob story. I don't want to go into details but she successfully convinced and changed my views about your son and his attorney whom she said was helping Thor take away the position of the pack Alpha from her son.
My behavior in the courtroom was unprofessional, I know. I behaved like that because I wanted to deliberately frustrate his attorney's efforts." He says, directing his gaze to Alpha Nate
"I'm sorry, Alpha. I was told you were devious. I thought I was helping my old colleague's wife get justice for the death of her husband. I never knew I was just a pawn in her game."
"I understand. Don't stress about it" Alpha Nate replies, smiling with understanding.
Judge Ricky nods and looks at me
"Thor– uhmm, I'm sorry, may I call you Thor?" He asks
"Of course..."
He nods again
"The evidence the prosecutor presented against you was overwhelming. And even though I wanted to see you pay for the crimes I was led to believe you committed, I want you to know that I wouldn't have gone that far with messing with your case if I had gotten just a single piece of evidence that convinced me of your innocence.
Thinking of it now, the lack of evidence from your attorney led me to believe that you both knew Knox was alive, yes?..." He asks, looking from me to Alpha Nate for an answer but Alpha Nate only smiles.
Judge Ricky also smile
"I should have known! Even though you've never been in my courtroom I've heard about your brilliance in the courtroom and the cases you've won. Now I'm one hundred percent sure you were deliberately sloppy with Thor's case.
Wasn't that why you easily agreed to the guilty plea in the first place without proper documentation? You set an ambush for the prosecutor and played me like a fiddle." He says the last part jokingly and we all laugh
"Thank you, Ricky. You thought you were helping my family get justice and I'm really grateful for that...
Right now, I need your help with something else and I'll owe you one if you're able to help out"
He smiles
"Anything for you, Knox. You don't have to owe me, I will be glad to help out. What is it about?"
I sigh in relief when I hear what he says. My dad nods for me to talk then and I tell him all I have to say about Carol and Victoria. As I talked, I noticed his face had lost the amusement it displayed some minutes before I started talking. He now looks serious as he listened to me talk
"I didn't make the law, Thor..." He says when I'm done talking
Doesn't that statement mean 'No, there's nothing I can do about it?' I think and look toward my dad. I don't have the time for long talks and I want to tell him right then that I don't give a shit about the stupid law. There's no way I'm going to watch innocent women die for a crime they didn't commit.
It's as if my dad suspects what I want to say and immediately talks before I open my mouth.
"Are you saying there's nothing we can do about this, Ricky?" He asks
"Of course there is..." Judge Ricky replies. He went ahead to tell us what we would do to avoid the death sentence and how we'd go about it.
We're still talking when my phone starts to ring. I check the caller ID and see it's Eric calling me.
"Excuse me, I need to get this..." I say to the men and walk towards the window to answer the call. I know Eric won't consider disturbing my meeting if it isn't important.
"What's up?" I ask when I answer the call
"Neal, the warden I told you about called me just now to tell me Owen killed himself."