companion ghost

Trial Chamber No. 5

"Joanna, can you tell the jury about your relationship with the victim Peggy?" Gary, still wearing his tight suit, said to Joanna who was sitting on the witness stand with a smile on his face.

Joanna is wearing a branded little black dress today, her hair is coiled up, and her makeup looks even more beautiful and temperamental.She nodded and said, "Peggy and I met after college. Although she came from a small town, she is very sunny and generous. We get along very well, and we became good friends."

"Yeah," Gary rubbed his chin, "what about Luke?"

Joanna sighed: "I know that Peggy and Luke are together, and I also know that Luke is actually playing with her. The family needs me to get engaged to Luke, and I know it will hurt Peggy, so I didn't dare tell her at all, hoping she'd find out for herself that Luke wasn't serious about her, but..."

Gary nodded: "Then do you know that Peggy is pregnant?"

Joanna shook her head: "I don't know. If I knew, I would have told her about the engagement a long time ago, so that her child can still be aborted."

"Okay, this is an important question." Gary leaned closer to the witness stand. "Did you see Paige the night she was killed?"

"Absolutely not," Joanna said firmly, "I don't know why she was found in our villa."

"You're the student body president at Hudson University, right?" Gary began the 'perfect defendant' route.

Before Joanna could answer, Shen Lie lazily said: "I object, it has nothing to do with it."

Gary said: "Your Honor, this is related to the character of the witness."

"The character of your witness has nothing to do with the case," Shen Lie retorted, "If the dog is in a hurry, he will jump over the wall."

"Okay," Judge Donovan felt, without interrupting, that they could both have a point on the subject. "The objection is invalid, and the witness answers the question."

Shen Lie was noncommittal, anyway, he knew from the very beginning that it would definitely be invalid, so he just wanted to use his words to make things difficult for Gary.

Joanna said with some pride: "Yes."

Gary then asked, "Then you must have excelled in school?"

Joanna didn't answer, just smiled.

But the meaning is already obvious.

"One last question," Gary said, his eyes almost gone with a smile, "did you kill Peggy?"

"No," came the answer from Joanna's expensively lipsticked lips, looking at Peggy's parents in the jury. "She's my friend, and I would never do that."

Peggy's mother glanced away, not meeting Joanna's.

"Thank you," Gary patted the witness table, "There is no other question." He walked back to the defense table and said to Shen Lie, "It's your turn, prosecutor."

Shen Lie didn't even look at him, he stood up and asked directly, "Where were you the night Peggy was killed?"

Seeing his question, Joanna raised her eyebrows with interest: "In the villa where we held the party."

"That is to say, you admit that at the time when Peggy was killed, you and her were both in the villa—"

"Objection!" Gary stood up, "This is completely unfounded speculation!"

"Let me put it another way," Shen Lie said calmly, "Where were you on the Sunday afternoon to night when Peggy was killed?"

Joanna looked at him: "I have already answered this question."

Judge Donovan frowned: "Please answer the prosecutor's question!"

"...at the villa where we had our party."

Shen Lie nodded and pointed a finger at the jury: "The place where the victim was killed."

He asked again: "Except for the time when you and Luke went to Chezhen, were you in that villa all the time?"

Joanna pursed her lips: "...Yes."

Shen Lie turned to the jury again and raised his second finger: "The time period when the victim was killed."

Joanna's throat slipped.

Only then did Shen Lie leave his seat, and slowly walked to the witness stand: "Next question, why didn't you tell Peggy that you and Luke were engaged?"

Joanna said: "I said it, I'm afraid she will be sad."

"Are you afraid that she'll be sad?" Shen Lie sneered, "Why aren't you afraid of her being sad when you and her boyfriend are making a mess in the car?"

"opposite--"

"I withdraw," Shen Lie said calmly. He saw the fire in Joanna's eyes, but he didn't take it seriously at all. "The next question, do you think your own personality is flawed?"

"Objection!" Gary stood up immediately after sitting down, his tone changed, "What kind of problem is this?"

Shen Lie spoke quickly but clearly: "This is related to the character of the witness, Your Honor." He pointed to Gary, "He started it first."

Judge Donovan rubbed his temples: "The objection is invalid, the witnesses answer the questions quickly!"

It's so annoying!

Joanna's smile was not as big as before: "Of course not."

Shen Lie grunted: "Really?" He took out the documents and handed them to the jury and Judge Donovan: "Then can you tell me why your parents sent you to a foster care institution for a month when you were 11 years old? ?”

Joanna's smile disappeared completely: "What did you say?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember, if my parents didn't plan to have me when I was 11 years old, I would definitely remember it forever," Shen Lie mocked, "What about you?"

Joanna said coldly: "I don't know what you are talking about."

"But I know why." Shen Lie smiled provocatively, "Tell me, why did you raise three dogs and two cats at home when you were young?"

Joanna frowned: "Isn't it okay that our family likes small animals? Is this against the law?"

"Are you sure you guys like small animals?" Shen Lie smiled coldly, "Then why, according to what the owner of a pet shop in your family said, kittens and puppies that were abused to death would appear every now and then. How many of them are exactly the same?"

"No!" Gary said, "Hearsay evidence!"

"Your Excellency, this is not hearsay." Shen Lie handed Judge Donovan a piece of paper. "This is the record made by the owner of the pet shop back then, and it has been sworn."

Judge Donovan took a closer look and nodded: "The objection is invalid, and the witnesses answer the questions."

Joanna pursed her lips, and said after a while, "I don't know."

"It seems that you don't know anything," Shen Lie said coolly, "Do you still think that your character has no flaws?"

Joanna looked at Shen Lie coldly: "What flaw do I have?"

Shen Lie's complexion changed, and he spoke quickly and forcefully: "What flaws do you have? Can you feel love? Can you feel that Peggy treats you sincerely? Can you feel Luke holding his heart to you again?" ?Do you have any remorse? Lying and sexually abusing animals since childhood caused your parents to have the idea of ​​abandoning you. Didn’t you ever think about the reason? When you killed Peggy, you dug out her child, cut off her face, cut off her chest and cut it off Don't you feel sick to yourself?"

"Objection!" Gary stood up, his face changed from smiling, "Did the prosecutor go too far?"

"I withdraw," Shen Lie said coldly, "The next question, you said you didn't see Peggy that day, so why did she send a text message to Christine saying that she has seen you?"

After Shen Lie's questioning just now, Joanna's face turned pale: "I don't know."

"Why are you jolting with Luke in the car in front of Peggy's house?"

"I didn't know it was her door."

"Why did Peggy appear in that villa?"

"I do not know."

"Why did your ring appear on Peggy's body?"

"I have no idea!"

"It seems that you don't know anything." Shen Lie no longer looked at her, but at the jury, "I thought we were all fools."

Before Gary could speak, he said to himself: "There is no other question." After speaking, he walked back to his seat without even looking at her again.