Page 101 of Defend Me

“In all your years of friendship with Mr. Patterson, did you ever witness him behaving in a manner that was inappropriate toward Marion Everton?”

“No,” Isla says. “She really was like a mom to him.”

“Never saw anything in his behavior that would lead you to believe he was stalking her?”

“Of course not,” Isla says.

“You saw Mr. Patterson on the morning of the murder, correct?”

“Yes,” Isla says. “He called me around seven, looking for Caden. He told us something had happened at the estate, and he was going to come pick Caden up from my apartment.”

“And what time did he arrive?”

“Around seven fifteen.”

“Was he acting suspiciously in any way?”

“No,” Isla says. “He told us the sheriff had called everyone in—even the trainees, like himself. But he didn’t know what was going on. Caden even pressed him and he said all he knew was that an ambulance had been called to the house.”

“Do you consider Mr. Patterson to be a truthful person?”

“Yes, of course.”

“And in all the years you’ve known him, have you ever seen him behave in any way that would violate the law?”

“Absolutely not,” Isla says. “I mean, the law is his life—he’s wanted to be a police officer since he was a kid.”

I square my shoulders. “Ms. Davenport, do you have any reason to believe Noah Patterson killed Marion Everton?”

“No,” Isla says vehemently. “He would never have hurt Marion. Never.”

“Thank you,” I say, taking my seat. Isla is shivering like a leaf as she leaves the witness stand. I’ll reassure her later that she did a great job.

I assume Wilbur is going to call the sheriff next—so I’m surprised when he stands and says, “The prosecution calls Michael Cochran to the stand.”

I glance at Noah, who looks dumbfounded. Mike the dickhead?

Grayson writes???on his legal pad. I give a slight shake of my head. Of all the people in town I interviewed, Mike seemed to have zero information on this case. But he was also the only one who really stonewalled me. I feel a pinch of worry—does Mike know something we missed?

Mike swaggers to the witness stand and takes the oath smugly. There’s a kind of crude arrogance to him, reminiscent of a little boy who feels the world owes him something.

“Mr. Cochran, how long have you known the defendant?” Wilbur asks.

“Since elementary school,” Mike says. So Wilbur is going the same route I went with Isla.

“And have you known him to be an obsessive type of person?”

Thanks, Dad, I think grimly. I leap to my feet. “Objection, your honor. Is the witness a psychologist? What qualifications does he have to diagnose the defendant as obsessive?”

“I’ll rephrase,” Wilbur says. “Mr. Cochran, how would you describe the relationship between Mr. Patterson and the Everton family?”

“He wasobsessedwith them,” Mike says triumphantly. “He wanted to be one of them. He thought he was. Acted like it made him better than the rest of us in town, you know?”

I see a few jurors’ brows furrow. Some sharp glances at Noah. No one likes someone who looks down on their own community. I have to force myself to keep still in my chair, not to try and burn this asshole down with my glare. Noah was never condescendingto the people of Magnolia Bay. Even when I disliked him, I knew that. If anything, he wastoonice. Always giving others grace. I hate that he’s being defamed like this.

“I see,” Wilbur says. “And did this obsession with the Evertons have any specific purpose?”

“Objection,” I say again. Wilbur knows as well as I do that witnesses can’t present opinions unless they have been qualified as an expert. “The witness is testifying to his own opinion, not facts.”

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