Chapter 1: In Court

It was about 3:30, late in the afternoon on the last Thursday in November. The weather outside was unseasonably cold.

I was sitting at our table in the courtroom waiting to see what Willard Sanders, the attorney for the plaintiff, Lilly Rossi, was going to do next.

My name is Marty Gordon. I'm forty-eight years old; weigh in at two-hundred pounds even, I am five feet nine inches tall. I have a 'stocky' build that is, except for my legs, not very muscular. Both my hair and goatee are brown, which I keep cut short and neatly trimmed at all times. Most of the time, I have brown eyes. I say most of the time because when I put in long hours at work, they are usually bloodshot. In my opinion, I'm not very handsome, but to be honest, I'm also not ugly either. What I'm trying to say is that I think I'm just plain average.

That particular day I was dressed in a navy blue classic, two-button business suit and a white shirt. My tie was dark blue with white stripes. On my feet I wore black socks and black, monk strap shoes.

There were four of us at our table. To my immediate right sat my partner, Rachael Wolf.

Rachel is the other paralegal on the team. She's forty-two and, since I've never been good at guessing women's weight, I won't even try. However, considering she has a figure that would make a playboy bunny envious, it really doesn't matter anyway. Her hair, which is black and wavy, flows down past her shoulders. She has pale, almost alabaster white skin, and brown eyes. If I had to compare her to anyone, I'd have to say that she reminds me of a full figured version of Monica Bellucci. She also is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen.

Next to Rachael was our boss, Samantha Roberts, the firm's head and only attorney. I'm not quite sure of our boss's age but I think she's about thirty-six. She's a little skinny for my taste. Hell, I'll bet she doesn't weight an ounce over a hundred pounds.

Finally, at the far end of the table sat Vincent Rossi. "Vince", as he liked to be called, was the defendant in the case and our client. Suffice it to say that he was obviously male and with a name like Rossi, you can bet he looked Italian.

Moving along, at the table to our left was Lilly Rossi and her legal team. Her team was comprised of Lilly Rossi, her lawyer and a paralegal.

Lilly, by the way, is herself, a successful (if not ethical) divorce attorney. Next to her at their table was her mouthpiece, Willard Sanders. And, next to Sanders was his paralegal, a quiet little man whose name I can't remember.

Sequestered in the Witness room was Gloria Lemons, the self confessed adulteress of the affair and potentially the most damning witness they had.

Before this mess started, Samantha, Lilly, Rachael, Gloria, Vince and I used to be good friends. Now, as sometimes happens, we've divided into two camps. On one side was Samantha, Rachael, Vince and myself. On the other, the unlikely team of Lilly and Gloria.

It was the first day of trial and Lilly was about to take the stand.

Her attorney said to the judge, "I call to the stand the plaintiff, Mrs. Lilly Rossi, your honor." I was somewhat surprised, I had just assumed that he'd present the video, it would be shown, and we'd all go home. Then I could start enjoying my long holiday weekend, Rachael could do whatever it is she does when not working herself to death, Samantha could sulk, and poor Mr. Rossi could cry himself to sleep while he tried to figure out how to pay our bill. Although something told me he wasn't going to be able to pay it. Lilly had been smart enough to get him to sign a prenuptial agreement giving her everything in the event he committed adultery.

I expected this to be the first and last day of what had promised to be one of the shortest divorce trials in history. The evidence in the case was so strong it was sure to be a slam dunk win ... for Lilly and her attorney!

But then she did have what, in my mind, was indisputable video evidence of the husband's infidelity with his mistress, Gloria Lemons.

You might be interested to know that Gloria also just happened to be Lilly's best friend ... that is until Lilly caught them in bed together!

Unsurprisingly, things started exactly as I expected they would. Sanders went straight for the jugular!

"Mrs. Rossi", he began, "In your complaint you said, and I quote, 'I was sure that Vince was having an affair'; is that correct?"

There was an appearance of anger on Lilly Rossi's face when she replied, "Yes."

"Were your suspicions correct?" Sanders continued. His voice had changed from professional to soft and conciliatory.

Meekly, she replied, "Yes."

"How do you know they were correct?"

With an almost triumph look expression on her face, Lilly Rossi answered, "I have proof!"

"What kind of proof do you have?" Sanders asked. His tone showed no change of emotion.

She answered, "I recorded them together."

"What do you mean you recorded them together? Was it an audio recording? Were you there when the alleged act of infidelity occurred?" Judge Judith Hastings asked, interrupting.

Sanders frowned. For, while it wasn't common knowledge to the public, it was well known to those of us working in the court system that the judge had recently developed a dislike for his client.

I looked over at Samantha and then at Rachael, both were smiling. We all knew that Judge Hastings was hoping Lilly would admit to being present during the act. If that happened, then Samantha could claim that Lilly had, at the very least, given consent to the act and possibly even been a willing participant. Either way, the allegation of adultery would be effectively nullified. Unless, of course, Lilly said she was hiding at the time.

There was a faint smile on her face that couldn't conceal the scorn hidden behind it as Lilly replied, "No; I mean, before I left the house I hid two cameras in our bedroom. They recorded the whole thing."

Still looking at the judge, Lilly said, "I brought the cameras here with me today."

"Why did you use two cameras?" inquired the judge curiously.

To which Lilly responded, "For a couple of reasons. First, one might fail. And second, I didn't know exactly where in the room they might be. If I had used one camera, it might not have captured the bitch's face"

"You know better than that Mrs. Rossi." The judge interrupted. "You will restrict your testimony to the facts and not embellish it in any way." The judge warned sternly.

Sanders approached the bench. In his hand he held four evidence bags. Two about a foot in diameter and two were just large enough to hold a single compact disk each.