【03】Overwhelming Guilt

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Since the defense wasn't taking the plea deal they had been offered, the preliminary hearing had to proceed in its usual fashion.

The purpose of this was for the prosecution to display to the judge they had enough evidence pointing toward Lex being the cybercriminal known as Nammota. This hearing wasn't to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that it was him, but to demonstrate it might be.

This meant we would finally know what arguments they had against him. They would have to explain how they tied him to the hacker, and we'd know how strong or flimsy their case was.

The woman in charge of leading the prosecution, Judith Martin, was clearly seasoned and great at her job. Middle-aged, wavy blonde hair, khaki pantsuit, and needle-sharp stilettos, she worked the room with an ease that clearly displayed her experience. After she'd done her introductions, she turned to the judge, ready to plead her case.

She explained how the investigators on this case had proceeded with the utmost discretion, given the elusiveness of the man they were after. She explained how everything was kept offline, and how no one too close to the defendant had been brought in, precisely to avoid Lex to flee.

Lex's distress in one of the videos he'd recorded for me made sense now. Regardless of how hard he'd tried to find information over the investigation, nothing came up. Obviously, their efforts had paid off. None of us would have been here otherwise, sitting in this gloomy courtroom.

"As I understand, you have an expert witness who was essential in this investigation here today, ready to testify with his expertise as a cyber criminologist?" the judge asked.

"We do, your honor. But first, I would like to call on an insider witness who isn't on the list. While it isn't necessary, we believe their insight into the defendant's personal life will help the court understand the process of the investigation that led to Mr. Coleman's arrest."

As the judge considered her request, my mind ran wild. There weren't that many possibilities as to whom she was referencing to. In this room, very few people had insight into Lex's personal life. Three, to be exact. Kevin, Michelle, and me. While there was no way for the prosecution to know the depth of the couple's knowledge about Lex's life, it was rather expected of a girlfriend to know such details.

After a brief moment of reflection, the judge took his decision. "Very well, Mrs. Martin. Who do you wish to call at the stand?"

"Andrea Walker, the defendant's girlfriend, who is in the audience."

Although I'd seen it coming, hearing my name made my heart drop to my stomach. I refused to be used against Lex. Refused to be forced to admit things that might put him into more trouble than he already was.

Lex and his council turned towards me, and Shelly's hand grabbed mine, gently squeezing it with compassion.

"I haven't seen anything from Ms. Walker in this case. Has she not given a deposition yet?"

"No, your Honor. This would be her first involvement with the investigation."

"Can Ms. Walker stand, please," the judge demanded. Trembling with anguish, I complied, nervously straightening my shirt. "Since you haven't been notified beforehand nor subpoenaed to testify, you are free to refuse to come to the stand if you wish to."

My mind raced with questions and theories. I could refuse to say anything, but what would it look like? Certainly not like the girlfriend of a wrongly accused man who had nothing to hide. If I refused to go up there and answer whatever Mrs. Martin had to ask, it would make me look incredibly suspicious, accidentally showing that I knew more than I let out. On the other hand, spontaneously accepting to sit up there next to the judge's bench would show how I had nothing to fear.

But at the same time, I had no idea what exactly she would ask me. I wasn't prepared for any of it. I wasn't an idiot, though, and I had enough judgment to know what to say or not. The prosecutor had mentioned I wasn't even essential. This was merely a formality.

Uncertain what I should do, I turned to Lex, hoping he would have the answer I was so desperate for. He seemed as conflicted as I was, his brows knitted together, drawing that familiar crease between them.

The question was simple: did I refuse and risked looking suspicious, or did I accept and risked answering things I shouldn't?

As I was about to refuse, just in case, Lex gave me the smallest of nods, encouraging me to go for it.

With a ball of stress nested in my pit, I looked at the judge who was still waiting for my answer. "I'm willing to come to the stand, your honor."

Offering Kev and Shelly a conflicted glance, I moved to the center aisle and walked up to the bar. A security guard opened the wooden gate, and a clerk came to escort me to the witness stand. Holding a bible in front of me, he swore me in as I docilely repeated the words he dictated, my right hand on the holy book.

As I sat by the judge, I realized how packed the room was. From this venture point, I could see the entirety of the audience, and the impressive crowd sent me into further distress. What the fuck was I doing up here?

I met Lex's gaze before my eyes were drawn to his hands, oddly held mid-air. "Don't lie," he signed, so discreet I was certainly the only one who'd caught it. Well, I would lie if I needed to, and there was nothing he could do to stop me.

Forever the efficient prosecutor, Mrs. Martin asked me a few basic questions about myself, my name, my address. Then came the questions about the nature of my relationship with Lex, which I answered candidly. They probably had ways to know anyhow, especially since they had his phone. Our illicit-ish love affair wasn't the reason why we were on trial, so there was no need to be secretive about it. She asked about specific dates, from when we started seeing each other, then the breakup, then when we reunited...

Once the details of our romance were fully known, she was ready to move on to the interrogation. Instead of turning to me, though, she faced the judge.

"In an interview from six years ago, one of the very few interviews the defendant has given in his life, Mr. Coleman compares himself to Lex Luthor, Superman's arch-nemesis. After the interviewer asked the defendant which superhero he identified to the most, Mr. Coleman answered: 'I never saw myself as a superhero, if I'm being honest. The way I am and how I think fits the profile of a villain more. I've always thought myself to be a realistic version of Lex Luthor, in a world where superpowers don't exist.' Another similar statement can be found in a different journalistic piece about the company Mr. Coleman co-owns."

The argument was so random, I frowned at the prosecutor, wondering where she was trying to go with this. Turning to me, she quirked an inquisitive eyebrow at me. "Is it true that Mr. Coleman mostly goes by the nickname 'Lex,' despite it being rare for a person named Alexander?"

"Yes, but I don't see how—"

"Has Mr. Coleman ever mentioned his affinities to the comics villain, Miss Walker?"

"Yes, but once more, I fail to see how—"

"I would like to draw the court's attention on this revealing evidence," she cut me, turning to walk to a whiteboard that had been placed there moments ago by her colleague. "You see, the name Nammota," she explained as she wrote it on the board, "when written backward, will give you the words 'atom man.'"

She wrote the letters the other way around, proving her point, and my jaw dropped. Holy fuck. What the hell? How had I never seen that before?!

"As it so happens, Atom Man is one of the few aliases Lex Luthor's character goes by. The fact is that when Mr. Coleman chose his own alias, he based it on a character he identified to and admired."

"Objection, your honor," one of Lex's lawyers intervened. "This is pure speculation."

"I am only pointing out the correlation between what the witness is telling me and facts," the prosecutor defended herself.

"I'll allow it, but try to be less speculative in your future argumentation, Mrs. Martin."

As they tried to figure out if it was admissible, my head spun at the realization of what I'd done.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The information I'd given hadn't seemed incriminating, but me confirming Lex's affinities with the villain certainly wouldn't help. She'd tricked me by asking me a stream of innocent questions and then moving to one that was much more relevant to the case.

Ashamed to have been cornered in giving such a damning piece of information, I forced myself to look at Lex, eaten up by guilt. His eyes when I met them weren't accusatory or blaming. He'd probably seen it coming, and although I should have too, he didn't blame me for my mishap.

Get your head in the fucking game, Andy, I scolded myself internally.

Not the type to allow me a moment to recover from her earlier blow, the prosecutor moved on to her next question. "Miss Walker, is the name Stefano Miceli familiar to you?"

The mention of Kate's prick ex-boyfriend chilled me to the bones. Why the hell was he a part of this? How was this relevant with any of what was going on?

"He is my closest friend's ex," I explained, knowing there was no point in denying it.

"You mean Katherine Knox, right? Mr. Miceli and her dated for a few months until they broke up sometime next year. I understand it wasn't an easy separation?"

"Objection! Relevance?" Mr. Goldbloom tried.

"The relevance will become clear further down into my argumentation, your honor."

"Mrs. Martin shall proceed."

She repeated the question, and I answered it, trying my best to hide my hatred for Stefano and how anxious this line of questioning was making me. "Not exactly, no. He tried to get her back by any means necessary."

"Like, for instance, when he threatened to post intimate videos of her online?" Mrs. Martin pointed out, fainting candor.

Shit, how the fuck did she even know about this? An awful presentiment made its way into my head, but I refused to acknowledge it. "Yes, Stefano tried that too. He ended up changing his mind, though," I explained, unsure what she knew about what had happened exactly.

"Can you tell me when that was?"

"The last weekend of September, I believe."

"So, shortly before you and the defendant broke up. And did you, back then, share your concerns with the defendant, about Mr. Miceli's threats?"

"I'm not sure," I lied. I had the right to have forgotten, and an uncertain answer wasn't incriminating to me or to Lex. It simply wasn't confirming her theories.

She insisted a few more times, trying to get me to admit that I'd told Lex, but I held strong, arguing so much had happened back then and since, I couldn't give her an answer I was confident about. Eventually, she gave up, and went over the timeline with me again, making sure the dates were well-established.

Once we were done, she faced the judge, quite proud of herself. "I'm done with Miss Walker, your honor."

"Does the defense wish to cross-examine the witness?" the old man asked.

After a few seconds of hushed conversation with their client, Lex's council refused the offer. Someone escorted me back to the other side of the bar, and I couldn't help but feel used and cheated. Everything she's asked me could have been proven via other ways, but she'd confirmed those facts through me. This nightmare had barely started, but I was already left with a disgusting taste of shame. I'd inadvertently betrayed Lex, despite it being the last thing I would ever want to do.

I'd thought myself smart enough to handle such a situation, but my natural honesty wasn't mixing well with this enterprise. At least, Lex would be satisfied that I hadn't lied.

"I would like to call Shamus Roberts to the stand," the prosecution then announced.

A man was brought in, then went through the same process I had before sitting in the witness stand. He was in his mid-forties, rather skinny, and sported a huge beard and thick-rimmed glasses. As the prosecution asked him a series of questions, we learned more about him.

He used to work in Washington DC, for Homeland's Cyber Security branch. About three years ago, though, he'd moved to Portland for family reasons and was since working for Portland PD's cyber department.

"Can you tell the court what put you on the right path to finally unveil Nammota's true identity?"

"Well, we received an anonymous tip at the precinct, with detailed information on this man who was accused of being a sexual offender. Since it was about online security, it was passed onto my department."

"Can you tell the court who was that man?"

"Stefano Miceli."

"So, the very same man who was harassing Miss Walker's best friend, Katherine Knox?"

"Unless there are two of them, threatening to post intimate videos on porn websites, I believe it's the same man, yes. We wouldn't have given much thought to the email, but something tipped me off."

"And what was that?"

"It was completely empty, except for the proof the anonymous sender had attached. But the title of the email was 'Must I remind you of my superiority?'"

"Why was that strange to you?"

"When I worked at Homeland, I was very involved in the investigations around Nammota. We'd figured out the Atom Man part, and most of his communications included a quote from Lex Luthor's character. The title of that email happened to be one, so it led me to look further into it."

"What did you find then?"

"The work that had been done to gather information on Mr. Miceli's activity was clearly the one of an excellent hacker. They left next to no clue behind them, nearly untraceable. But the Cloud's advanced security system allowed us to get some material to work with. As well as the intrusion into Mr. Miceli's iPhone."

"What did you prove with the evidence you found?"

"Through comparisons and analysis, we proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the man who'd gathered the information on Stefano Miceli was the same one we know as Nammota. This was the first time we caught him on something as personal as this, and the first time he'd done anything in years. It turned into an opportunity we couldn't miss.

"After we delivered them an extensive analysis of the similarities in the coding and technique, Homeland took the lead on the investigation, allowing me to work alongside them. Mr. Miceli's deposition led us to two main options, his ex-girlfriend, Katherine Knox, and her best friend, Andrea Walker, who was very involved in this according to him.

"A surveillance of both women started, including phone tapping via stingray devices. We checked every potential suspect, without any success for a few weeks. The operation was about to be called off when we were able to link Andrea Walker to Alexander Coleman. His profile fitted the one we were looking for, and his involvement with the young woman explained why he would do something as personal as to hack into a man's life to avenge her best friend."

The depth of my overwhelming guilt became so intense that it paralyzed me. I was the reason why they had caught Lex. Because of his relationship with me, they had finally found the great Nammota; the Atom Man. Because of me, he had disregarded his usual cautiousness and had worked on something personal, intimate. His feelings for me had gotten him to make a mistake, to give the people looking for him the ammunition they needed.

The man on the stand kept talking, and with each assertion he made, my heart sunk lower and lower. He explained how all this evidence had gotten them a warrant to get Lex's medical record. From there, thanks to the tapes of his therapy sessions, they had gotten even further proof of his guilt. Ever since Lex's arrest, they had looked into all the data they'd seized, finding more damning evidence. They'd noticed how his schedule was always lighter in the weeks that came before one of Nammota's attacks. They'd done extensive comparisons between Lex's professional work and Nammota's work, finding too many similarities for it to be a coincidence.

While most of the evidence they claimed to have wasn't disclosed to the court, the judge had transcripts and files compiling everything to corroborate the man's testimony.

All of this was my fault. If he'd never met me, Lex would be living his life entirely free of this mess, not risking to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The rest of his life.

Oh, no...

I'd made him change his mind. I'd made him refuse the deal, refuse the very reasonable ten years in exchange for a speedy trial. This was another load to add to the responsibility I carried in this mess. Not only had I gotten the man arrested, but I'd also sealed his fate.

The rest of the preliminary trial was spent in pure agony, my mind aching with the knowledge that I was responsible for all of this. I'd condemned Lex in so many ways.

Once the prosecution was done pleading their case, it became the defense's turn to give their arguments in favor of Lex's innocence. But as talented as the two New York lawyers might be, nothing they could say was strong enough to damage Mrs. Martin's very compelling assertions.

When their attempt at saving Lex ended, the judge excused himself to go spend twenty minutes in his chambers, in order to reflect on everything that had been said in the past few hours. The indistinguishable low whispers in the courtroom were oppressing, everyone impatient for the judge to return.

Lex would often turn around to gaze at me, and I had to force myself to keep my eyes on him. Remorse was eating me from the inside, my guilt making me feel unworthy of his comprehensive looks. I should have noticed my phone was tapped. I should have understood he was Nammota. I should have refused to go on the stand. I should have let him take the plea.

The judge came back, the room falling utterly silent in a split second. He sat at his chair, looking grave and focused. Needing something to hold on to, I grabbed Michelle's hand, holding it firmly. Her fingers clasped around mine with the same desperate tenacity, and we waited for the judge to announce his decision to the courtroom.

Although it wasn't a surprise, it was heart-breaking to hear him declare the evidence against Lex was compelling enough to bring this to trial. The prosecution had won this battle, and Lex would have to go before a jury to prove his innocence–which seemed impossible given the extent of his guilt.

The last, tiny shred of hope we held was shattered when the judge then announced that bail was denied. Lex posed a flight risk too great to let him be free while waiting for the trial. He argued that not only did Lex have the means to secure himself a trip to any country that refused extraditions, but also that if he was indeed Nammota, he could create himself an entirely new identity and disappear forever.

All of this meant that unless we won the trial and got Lex out of this hell, he would never know freedom ever again. If we lost the trial, the rest of

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