Chapter 10: The two-faced lawyer Dani Ru

Vikaya stared into the horizon letting out a long-suffering sigh, the land where the sun sets and the night rises and everything over again but still the day never passes. It feels like the same day over and over again. A nightmare you can't wake up from

"This time I have something tricky for you" said Zar delighted by his own ideas

Vikaya was silent, turned towards the horizon trying to find something moving but there was nothing. Even her imagination betrayed her

"Are you fed up already?" asked Zar

"I don't really know what I am feeling" said Vikaya "Don't you feel lonely…or stuck?" asked Vikaya

Zar hovered over to her

"Do you miss the company of other people?" asked Zar "You look like a loner"

"I am. I enjoy being with myself so much, being with other people seems like a betrayal to my peace and alignment sometimes" began Vikaya

"But that does not mean I live in a world that is uninhabited. I do not live in a world that is stuck in all ways" said Vikaya and turned to Zar

"Must be very hard" she said feeling sorry

Zar was silent. He slowly moved away towards his tree without a single word. Vikaya wanted to know more but hesitated

"Shall we begin Mr. Raconteur?" she said in a high voice and stood in front of the grave waving her arms

Zar gave a slight smile and hovered over to his new found company

"Now you shall enter the world of the two-faced lawyer Dani Ru. Let me warn you, the situation will test you Pekassador" began Hhital

And woosh…Vikaya was gone again. To places she has never seen, to times she doesn't know, to people she doesn't recognize

"Come on! Go! It's our turn!" said a man sitting beside Vikaya

Vikaya was dazed and lost. She looked around and felt it to be familiar place

"Is this a.." she asked

"Dani Ru! The judge is calling upon us!" instructed the man strictly and pushed her to stand up

Vikaya, now Dani Ru huddled over in front of the judge. Confused and looking around she cleared her throat to distract from the apparent fact that she was completely clueless why the heck she was here and who she was

"Read the notes!" whispered her colleague

Dani noticed the notebook in her hand and turned her hand

'Oh' she said in her mind seeing the points

"As you can see Your Honor, there seems to be no evidence that proves that my client has attacked or raped Ms. Benson in any way" Vikaya, who was Dani's words suddenly went off the rail reading the last words

"What?" she yelled and turned behind to glare at her colleague and saw the defendant smirking

Who only signaled her to go ahead and not to cause a scene

The judge stared at both parties

"There isn't enough evidence to support the claims of the defendant nor the victim. Both parties should prepare more. The court is adjourned till the next date" the judge ordered

Everyone got up and the judge left

Dani groaned loudly in anger and stared at her colleague

"HOW could..?" she began but he immediately pressed her hand

"Not now!" he whispered and signaled from his eyes that the opposite party was watching them

They left the court and arrived at the office

"HOW could you? How could you take such a heinous culprit?" she yelled at her colleague

"What has gotten into you suddenly? We have always done that. In fact I think you are the only woman in our country who defends such gutter critters" said her colleague

"Listen…" she began but went completely blank

"Kaster. Wow you even forgot my name, you must be really stressed" he snickered

"Listen Castor Oil. Is he or is he not the culprit in this case?" asked Dani

"Well, he did not tell us directly but seeing his attitude he most probably is" said Kaster

This was enough for Dani to grab her jacket and run away like she was flying

"Did you or did you not attack Ms. Benson?" asked Dani slapping her hands on the table

The culprit just smirked seeing this behavior

"What has gotten into you Lawyer Ru? You are questioning me as if you are on their side" said the culprit suspicious of her actions

Ru cleared her throat and calmed herself

"What I mean is, to what extent must I prove their claims wrong" she asked

"To your best extent. Prove me innocent" his cold eyes stared into Dani's eyes without a slightest hint of remorse or a soul

"Alright" said Dani

"Tell me if there is someone who could leak out the truth, someone who the victim's lawyers could have missed" said Dani

"Why?" asked the culprit, squinting his eyes

"So we can remove them from the way Mr. Williams" Dani sat back and smirked

"You see, for me the client's best interests are my best interests" said Dani, relaxed and crossing over her legs

"It didn't seem like it a few moments ago" inquired Mr. Williams, the culprit

Dani chuckled

"Alright Mr. Williams, I will see you next time" Dani got up and turned to leave

"Be prepared Ms. Ru. Make sure that they set me free" threatened Williams

Dani didn't react and just left

Dani headed straight to her office

"Ugh!" she kicked the table and sat down frustrated. She must do something, he is definitely the culprit who will be set free just because of lack of evidence. Dani took a deep breath in and began shuffling and searching all the drawers and cupboards and found a blank card with just a handwritten number on it. Of course she was going to call

Dani dialed with bated breath, wanting to cut the call at the last moment, but someone picked up!

"Hello?" said Dani

"Dani!" said a man's voice on the other end "I found some really important things that would help this case"

Dani paused and recollected herself before answering

"Oh great. This is about which case?" said Dani

"You have only given me one case for now Dani, Mr. Williams the douchebag" said the man

"Ahh right" said Dani

"Meet me today at our usual place" said the man

"The usual place?" asked Dani

"What has happened to you? Is everything ok?" he asked

"Yeah yeah, everything is fine" said Dani

"Meet me at Pop's drive thru" said the man "and don't bring your car" and hung up

Dani sighed, now even more confused than before. Who is this guy?

She picked up the case files and went over all the details of the case

"10:13pm, nothing caught on the CCTV cameras…hmm" Dani noted

It was time to grab the jacket again and the leave the office flying

"So you are telling me no one came to tell you that they are a witness of a crime?" said Dani looking down at the police office

"No mam" he brushed her off

"Alright. I hope you are telling the truth" she scoffed and marched off

Something was not adding up. It was fishier than the sea itself and Dan had to unravel it

"What is all this?" asked Kaster

"CCTV footages" she replied and ignored him riding the trail of her own thoughts

Noting every tiny detail and time stamps diving into the footages she made a list of "danis"

Danis, according to Dani Ru are unobvious trial of clues which unravel the mystery of an occurrence

"Oh shit I have to go meet that man" she remembered and glanced at her watch

Grab the jacket and fly Dani Ru!

The court date finally arrived, 2 days after Dani's extensive research

"Your Honor, we have key evidence to prove the defendant's innocence, an alibi" began Dani and Mr. Williams sat back satisfied

"Your Honor, I am sorry to interrupt but before the alibi and I would like to present some evidences and a key witness" butted in the victim's lawyer

"Alright, you may proceed. Ms. Ru you may present your alibi after him" said the judge

On the witness stand came up a woman, glancing around nervously and began to tell her story

It was roughly 10:10pm and Ms. Sharma, the witness and her friends got out of a bar. As they walked ahead on the street Ms. Sharma stopped at a place where the light complemented her face

"Hey girls come here! Let's shoot some pictures!" she called but her friends ignored and walked on

Ms. Sharma decided to take some selfies

"I didn't notice at first but when I checked the photos and the video I saw a guy forcefully taking a girl in a dark alley" said Ms. Sharma in court

"I tried to follow him but I was concerned for my own safety but he had disappeared. I went to the police the next day but they dismissed everything saying I was drunk and there was no proof that the guy was forceful. And they also…" Ms. Sharma fell silent

"Please continue" said the lawyer politely

"And they discriminated against immigrants such as myself" she uttered with difficulty

The judge listened to everything in a non-reactionary state. The opposing lawyer also had another key evidence, a list

"What is this?" asked the judge

"The list of Mr. Williams assaults and questionable behaviors since his college days. He has tried to assault women, fought with fellow classmates and made women feel very comfortable with his behavior in countless situations. He has a history Your Honor" he concluded

The judge noted the details and his own thoughts for the final judgement

Dani presented the alibi but it was quickly shut down as insignificant, lacking credibility and solid proof

The court took a break to conclude the final judgement

"Looking at all the key evidences presented and the history of the defendant Mr. Tan Williams is hearby sentenced to 10 years in prison" declared the judge

Tears rolled down victim's eyes, she thanked the lawyer joining hands and bending her head in gratitude

"It was you wasn't it" Mr. Williams head was bent down but her lift up his eyes and stared at Dani creepily

"You did this!" he said he got up wanting to attack Dani but was immediately pulled away by the cops who dragged him away

"Wow, it is always surprising to me that evil people have intuition" said Kaster trying to shrug off the eerie feeling he got from Williams' murderous stares

"Everyone had intuition Jean" remarked Dani and walked away but was stopped by someone unusual

"Wait" said a voice and touched her arm

The victim's lawyer reached out his arm "Thank you"

"For what?" asked Dani shaking his hand

"For being two-faced" he said and smiled

"I don't know what you're talking about Mr. Turner" Dani smirked and walked away putting on her sunglasses

She sighed and got inside the car and sighed and suddenly jumped hearing phone ring

"Hello?" she said on the phone

"Congratulations! We all did it" said the man on the phone, the number on the mystery card

"Thank you" said Dani smiling proudly

This concluded Dani Ru's story and Vikaya was pulled back into her own world, well temporarily her own world

"Hello again" said Zar, sounding extra delightful

Vikaya stared at him

"What?" he asked feeling weird from her glare

"I am tired and shoot your question man and just fly away" she said

"Alright" said Zar "What is the appropriate punishment for the two-faced lawyer Dani Ru?" asked the Hhital walking around like an examiner

"Huh?" blurted Vik

"You saw her, in fact you were her for a brief moment of time. She actually dug the evidence to frame her client. Doesn't that call for a punishment? Isn't that a crime?" said Zar

Vikaya suddenly fell silent, she sat down on the coffin, ignoring Zar's spiteful glances

"No punishment" said Vik and Zar looked at her for explanation

"Well, for betraying the trust of the client there could be a little punishment, according to me which can be community service or something but if she had actually sided with her client who had committed a greater sin, a heinous act, a disgrace to humanity and.." Vik was about to explode and rant about the world but Zar's hand gestured her to calm down

"She would have gotten an even greater punishment" concluded Vikaya

Zar clapped and flew back to his usual hangout. Even the tree gets tired of him sometimes

Vikaya smiled, utterly delighted and skipped her way back