Walking into court, Lindsey was nervous and he couldn't figure out why. Stevie was posing as co-council so she was sitting on the other side of the courtroom and that was stressing her out. They were conversing quietly, not entirely paying attention to the prosecution until the Judge Appeared.

"Council, introduce yourselves." He demands.

"Ugh, Lindsey and Stephanie Buckingham for the defense your honor," Lindsey announces. 

"Assistant District Attorney Michael Fleetwood." Lindsey knew that name, why did he know that name. They went to shake hands and Stevie was stone still.

"Mrs. Buckingham." The judge turns to her. 

"Oh, sorry." She goes to shake Mick's hand. 

***

"Before we handle plea and arraignment, setting a court date. I understand that the Buckingham's are here on loan from California, and they've already stayed here longer than they intended to. So I want this trial to go fast and smoothly. Starting on Wednesday." The judge states.

"But your honor, I am so backed up with court dates that I can't possibly go any earlier than the third week of April." Mick states.

"Um, your honor. I'm sorry to interrupt but Mrs. Buckingham and I have three young kids at home. We already had to have her parent's fly from Scottsdale Arizona to go stay with our kids, and we have cases as well back in California, we can't possibly stay that late." Lindsey shakes his head.

"Exactly, I'm sorry Mr. Fleetwood, but our court times are all dependant on the Defense. This trial will officially commence on Wednesday, April 1st, now we shall proceed with our normal way of doing things." The judge bangs his gavel. 

After the arraignment, Mick walked right up infront of the defense table and in his six-foot-five frame stared down at Lindsey and Stevie.

"Buckingham hey...We were married for a decade and you didn't even bother changing your last name to Fleetwood, and aren't you supposed to be on my side of this?" Mick crosses his arms.

"Mick...Stephanie Fleetwood sounds horrible, and besides my degrees are in my maiden name and when I graduated Law School and started working We weren't married. I moved to California, I started a new life, and I got a new name. Do you have a problem with that?" Stevie growls. 

"Well. I guess I don't have a choice." Mick shrugs.

"Okay, let's just put our differences aside for this case. You guys can go back to hating each other after this." Jackie pipes up from her seat. 

"Alright, truce..." Mick holds his hands up.

"Truce." Stevie nods.

***

April 1st

"Detective Stone, did you find any evidence of Jackie Johnson's presence at Peter Blake's house on the night of the murder?"  Mick asks.

"Yes, sir I did." He nods.

"I'd like to show you people's exhibit 27, this make-up kit and ask if you can identify it." 

"This has my mark. I found this makeup kit in his livingroom. See, that makeup kit looks just like any ordinary makeup kit throughout the city made by the Jackie Johnson Cosmetic Company, but there's one difference. If it's sold at retail it all of the makeup has a pink plastic top painted gold. This one is solid gold and there's only one made that way."

"And who was this made for?"

"Jackie Johnson." 

"Thank you." No further questions. Mick ends. 

"Your witness Mr. Buckingham." 

"Thank You, uh Detective Stone. Ugh, there's no real way of telling when this makeup kit was left at Mr. Blake's house." 

"No, not really." 

"So it could've been left there a week ago, a month ago, or the night before the murder couldn't it." 

"Yes."

"And my client told you that she left this makeup kit at Mr. Blake's house the night before the murder. She brought Mr. Blake a gift, a kind of peace offering right." 

"Yeah, she said something about a crystal elephant but there was nothing of the sort in the house." 

"Your honor, could you tell the witness to answer my questions without any editorials?" Lindsey asks as Stevie starts frantically coughing from her perch at the bench. Coughing to the point where it was disruptive. 

"Um, excuse me just a moment," Lindsey Says seeing the look on Stevie's face and the way she was moving her left hand. 

He grabs his glass of water and hands it to Stevie and she takes it but starts whispering to him.

"Ask for a recess." She whispers, bringing the glass up to her lips. 

"Your honor, I find it completely inappropriate for him to be comforting his wife while he's supposed to be questioning a witness." Mick bellows.

"I know and I'm so sorry, her allergies are acting up and she didn't have a glass of water, but I just thought of something when the witness mentioned a crystal elephant. Would it be okay if we recess so I can gather my thoughts and uh...get Mrs. Buckingham some allergy medicine?" Lindsey questions.

"Very well. We resume in two hours." He bangs the gavel. 

***

As the court cleared, Lindsey grabs Stevie and pulls her aside.

"Why did I do that...I have never once done that in my twenty-year career." 

"Because I asked you too and you're so sweet and I love you." She grins.

"Are you going to tell me why I did that?" Lindsey asks.

"I can't tell you right now, I'll tell you when we get to the car."  She says eyeing Mick's leary eyes. 

Lindsey just nods and it's then that Mick comes up to Stevie and grabs her arm roughly.

"You don't have allergies what the hell is going on?" Mick growls.

"Would you let go of me," Stevie says struggling against him.

"Steph I'm serious if you guys are withholding information I won't hesitate to tell the judge." Mick spits. 

"We do not have to divulge information that could be used to hurt or harm our client. Now kindly get your hands off my wife." Lindsey spits right back.

"Fine. But watch it." Mick states roughly letting go of Stevie slightly tossing her against the wall.

"I swear Steph...I"m going to kill him." Lindsey grits.

"Stop it, Lindsey." She warns pulling him out of the courtroom. 

***

"Alright, Mrs. Buckingham are you okay, do you have your own glass of water?" The judge questions.

"Yes, your honor I'm fine now." Stevie nods.

"Good, Defense, would you like to continue questioning the detective?" The judge asks.

"No your honor. Defense calls Wilson Johnson to the stand please." Lindsey watched as Jackie gave a panicked look at Stevie, who just placed her hand on her shoulder and gave her a sincere look. 

"On the night Peter Blake was killed you had some friends over for a barbecue. But around six you left your barbecue for an hour." Lindsey starts.

"Yes, As I told you the night you got here, I ran out of propane gas and I went and had it filled." 

"That's right, I have the receipt now you have a standard ten-pound tank," 

"Yes."

"Well look here, when they filled it they could only give you two pounds, which means you still had eight pounds. That's enough to cook hamburgers for this whole courtroom maybe more." 

"Maybe the tank wasn't hooked up right, I wasn't getting anything,"

"Oh it was hooked up right, you just needed an excuse to go to Peter's house, kill him and come back without arousing suspicion."

"What are you...crazy?" 

"You know I'm not crazy. Now besides, that nearly full propane tank, this is people's exhibit 27. The makeup kit that was found at the crime. As you can see it has six items in it." 

"Yeah, that's interesting."

"Jackie told me that the case she left at Peter's had seven items in it." 

"Well, I mean she should know she created the kit."

"Yeah, where is the seventh item. The concealer."

"Your guess is as good as mine." 

"You know what concealer is." 

"Yes, it's used..."

"It's used to cover something, to conceal it. A blemish, a mark, a black eye. That's the one thing my wife always claims to run out of rather quickly. Our four-year-old daughter tends to get into it and use it on her and her dolls all the time. That's how I know what it is anyway."

"I guess." 

"I'm sure all killers hope for an easy kill, a quick death and I'm also sure that sometimes the gun, or the poker, or the knife misses. That crucial spot, giving the victim an instance to strike out." He does a punching motion. "Maybe that's what happened to you when you stabbed him. And a result was a black eye. You couldn't go home with a black eye. Not to all of your friends. But there it was right infront of you...her concealer."

"Objection...speculation."

"Sustained." 

"That's what happened isn't it." 

"Mr. Buckingham,"

"I went to my house to Phil's truck rentals, and back to my house."

"You know. I've already said the only thing I knew about makeup was what I just mentioned until I got involved in this case. Did you know that a lot of people are allergic to certain makeups."

"Yes, I was the one that told you that." 

"Now, would you tell me, Mr. Johnson, who Dr. Seymour Winston is." 

"He's my dermatologist." 

"When did you see him last, do you remember?" 

"I don't remember."

"You saw him two days after Peter Blake was killed. Do you know why you saw him.:

"I do know why...I had a rash." 

"A rash or an allergic reaction?"

"A rash." 

"So you put more makeup on this rash probably a different kind because no one noticed it...not even your wife." 

"Objection...Mr. Buckingham is using rampant speculation and then offering hearsay to support his allegations. Why don't we give Mrs. Buckingham a chance to speak." Mick yells.

"Sustained, Mrs. Buckingham, take over, and if your line of questioning is just like Mr. Buckingham's I will hold you both in contempt." The judge demands.

As Stevie was standing up very nervously giving a look to Lindsey, he just nods and starts walking back to his seat, as Stevie smoothes down her black pencil dress and straightens the red belt around her waist. Her red high heels were clicking on the wood in very eerie was as the Witness spoke up.

"I never went to Peter Blake's house." 

"Um...Mr. Johnson, you know me well right."

"Yes, you're best friends with my brother-in-law's wife."

"And do you remember when I came to your office a few days ago?"

"Yes."

"And while we were talking do you remember tearing up some photos? The ones of Ms. Johnson that Peter was going to use to blackmail her.

"Of course I tore them up. She's my wife, it's my job to protect her I'm sure Mr. Buckingham would do the same thing for you,"

"It's a yes or no question...just tell me yes or no." Stevie paces the courtroom. 

"Yes. I remember tearing the pictures up." 

"The other day I found a set of pictures at your house when I was visiting to discuss something with my client, but that confused me because I saw you tear the pictures up two days prior. Then I got to thinking,  and I remembered that while I was visiting your office I saw a crystal elephant sitting on your bookshelf.  And Our last witness stated that Jackie had supposedly given that to Peter Blake, so where did you get them." 

"Peter Blake I suppose."

"Well, he only made up four sets of pictures He gave one to Kim Anderson, Kept one for himself, Gave one to Ronald Blake, and the last one to you, which you tore up. So I'll ask you again, where did you find them?" 

"I...I don't know, Maybe Jackie made another copy. Or you took that from Kim Anderson." He shakes his head.

"If my ex-husband was blackmailing me I wouldn't make a copy of the already copied pictures. Kim shredded those pictures right after he got them. So I'll repeat myself a third time...where did you get them?"

"I don't know."

"I think you found them at Peter Blake's house after you killed them. You couldn't leave them there what if someone saw them. You couldn't have that. She's your wife and you wanted to protect her."

"Objection." 

"For what it's worth, I don't think you meant to frame your wife."

"Objection! Speculation!" Mick screams. 

"No...she's right. I love my wife with all of my heart and I had a lot of rebuilding to do after Peter Blake abused her. That was the only reason she created the makeup line, to find a product that actually covered her bruises. After the divorce, he kept trying to make money off her and he kept pushing for us to put things in our makeup that was causing rash after rash after rash. I didn't plan on killing him, I simply planned on just paying him off for the pictures so he wouldn't release them. He resisted and I got angry. I got so angry that I stabbed him with his letter opener. I was angry that he took pictures of his bruised wive's body, I was angry that he hit her in the first place. No husband should lay a hand on their wife." Wilson Johnson looked down at his lap tears slowly falling down his face. 

Once he's convicted hugs and celebration go around and Mick just sulks at them. "One day. You did that in one day." 

"Well Mr. Fleetwood, I had good help." Lindsey smiles wrapping his arms around Stevie.

"Are you thinking about going to defense?" Mick asks.

"No. This was a special case. I have too much fun watching my husband fight against me but when we get the chance to work together it's nice." Stevie looks at him.

"Stephanie, I'm sorry. I never meant for any of that to happen." Mick shakes his head.

"Oh, so you never meant to sleep with your law clerk Lynn, my best friend Sarah, or the soprano in the church choir...what was her name. Jenny." Stevie pulls away from Lindsey and he has to stifle a laugh and his wife's five-foot-one frame, amplified by six-inch high heels, to make her five-seven compared to his six-five.

"I wasn't in my right state of mind...I've been sober since you left." Mick shrugs.

"All it took was me leaving huh. I was that horrible?" Stevie asks.

"No. I was just...selfish, I took the pain of our baby out on you and alcoholic beverages and as much as I would love a second chance I see you've moved on and I can respect that." Mick nods.

"Good." Stevie states.

"Congratulations." Mick smiles walking away. 

"Alright...now then, what do we say I take everyone out for dinner. I know it's a sad day for Jackie, as her husband is going to jail for murder, but we won the case. My treat." Lindsey clears his throat.

"Oh lovely, where?" Robin asks.

"I don't know...it's your city." Lindsey looks at the three women gathered around him. 

"Rohbers it is." Jackie winks. Robin and Jackie make their way out of the courtroom first and he pulls Stevie into him.

"We're going to write this off as a business lunch...I still have three days to file my taxes." Lindsey smirks as Stevie slaps his stomach.