Page 49 of Under His Skin

“You work for Captain Tracht? You mean he’s your former bondowner,” the prosecutor corrected him. “Can you tell us how you first came to be indebted?”

Were they going to make Alex go through his entire life’s story? Tracht focused more on Alex’s expression rather than the words, although he noted that there were quite a few… omissions in the story. Not really lying, because although Alex had improved somewhat he still had never quite developed the knack for it.

“I owed the Nilsens money. I didn’t have money. So I ended up having to get a contract if I wanted to get them off my back.”

Some of the jurors looked shocked by the mention of the Nilsens. They were infamous enough on the station, running so much of its underbelly that you had to be fairly ignorant not to have heard of them. Anybody who got involved with the Nilsens was unlikely to be an upstanding sort.

“Your contract with Captain Tracht included full bodily control, with no body modifications. Is that correct?”

Alex shrugged. “Yeah. I’ve seen what body mods people do. I’m not that stupid.”

“And yet, you clearly have a tongue piercing now, one which you did not have at the start of your contract.”

At this point, Anna’s lawyer shouted, “Objection! Relevance? The case is about my client, not her brother.”

The judge nodded. “Sustained. Please get to the heart of the matter.”

The heart of the matter, Tracht thought, had nothing to do with Anna. Franziska and Galanis were both sitting on the other side of the courtroom, whispering to each other. Tracht was fairly certain they would use this simply as a springboard for their pet causes. Or maybe to try to start an inquiry into his own life.

The prosecutor continued, “Understood. I was trying to establish a baseline here. I wonder, Mr. Stone, if your contract included bodyguard services for Anna Tracht’s son? We’ve pulled medical records that show you were admitted with severe injuries, only two years into your service, at the same time as Johan Lysander.”

That was a strange track, Tracht thought, and he could see Anna frowning as well. Johan’s kidnapping wasn’t a secret, although it hadn’t spread in the news either. The authorities would have heard about it; the general public would not.

Alex looked surprised by the line of questioning too. “Uh, I guess not? But was I supposed to just sit there and let them do it?”

Yes, Tracht thought. That would have been the preferable option. He still had the video footage from that time, which he sometimes watched when he was alone. Or, used to watch: he’d wiped that video along with all the other footage on the Sigrun. Maybe deletion was for the best, since watching it angered him more than aroused him.

“No. It was a good thing for you to do. Commendable, even. But I wonder if you know what happened to those people who kidnapped you and Johan?”

Alex scowled at the prosecutor, bringing his hands up to the railing in front of him. Tracht could see the tension in the lines of Alex’s body, and he was sure it was visible to everybody in the jury too.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know? I was kind of out of it after they ripped my fucking tooth out.”

Language, Tracht thought, just as the judge brought down his gavel and said, “Mind your language, Mr. Stone.”

Alex cast a nasty glare at the judge, but he didn’t say anything else.

The prosecutor looked only a little ruffled as she went on, “So, you don’t know what happened to them. In the reports, Ms. Tracht and her husband also claimed not to know. Very convenient… This was right when Ms. Tracht was making her bid for the position of judge.”

If they weren’t in public, Tracht wondered what Anna’s reaction would be. She was keeping a very straight face, but he couldn’t imagine that she was happy about any of this. For his own part, Tracht couldn’t help but be amused that his own actions were now being attributed to Anna.

“Does it matter?” Alex asked testily, apparently oblivious to the fact that the prosecutor’s musing hadn’t been aimed at him. “Her kid got saved, with barely a scratch. While I ended up with my tooth ripped out and a new cut on my face.”

“Actually, let’s talk about that. Did you know that Anna Tracht transferred money into your account right after that incident?”

“Yeah. She said. She went from being a b… being a hard-ass to wanting to thank me for saving her kid.”

“Interesting. And she has transferred more money into your account over the years. Both she and Mr. Lysander have been treating you quite generously.”

Alex sought out Tracht’s gaze again, and Tracht couldn’t do anything but keep his expression blank. There was a slight hesitation from Alex before he turned back to the prosecutor and answered, “Yeah, I know. So what?”

“I would like the jury to please look at Exhibit 24-A, which is a record of all the bank transfers made into Alex Stone’s account. And then, please look at Exhibit 24-B, which is the withdrawals and current bank balance on that same account.”

The jury, along with Alex, looked at the inset screen in front of them. Several of the jurors murmured to themselves while they looked.

Alex shrugged and sat back further into his chair. “Okay. I got a bunch of money now.”

“Did you notice, Mr. Stone, that the final bank balance does not equal up to the sum total of money that Ms. Tracht and Mr. Lysander transferred into your account?”

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