The judge took his seat as Cartwright v. The State of New York came to session. The case involved a mutant who had allegedly used his power to murder a family. There were no eyewitnesses to the murders, but there was a mountain of circumstantial physical evidence. Much of the case would boil down to expert testimonies and the experience of the MRC officers who were involved in the case.

In opening arguments the prosecution led in expecting a slam dunk case. The standard fare of how they would show that Mr. Cartwright had acted with malice aforethought to murder the Watson family in retaliation for Mr. Watson having passed him up for a promotion because he was a mutant..

When Ion addressed the jury he knew all he need do was seed one doubt. Anything that left the possibility that Mr. Cartwright may not have committed the crime. The opening statement is where sixty-five to ninety percent of cases are won or lost. ”May it please the court…” Ion began.

The next several minutes were filled by Ion stating why his client would win, what the big picture of the case was from his perspective, who all the players involved were, filling in the gaps in the story the prosecution left and tied them back to his previous statements, and finally called the jury to find Mr. Cartwright not guilty.

Oration was one of Ion’s most practiced skills and from the faces on the jury he had already won over several. This was a case that depended on his ability to be convincing, discredit experts, and obfuscate the facts. Ion knew his client was guilty, Mr. Cartwright had bragged about it to him in his office.

Opening arguments concluded evidence was presented and the parade of experts was begun. Everything from professors at NYU to MRC officers were called to take the stand. They all were telling the story of how Mr. Cartwright clearly killed the Watsons. They spoke to the physical evidence and the chain of custody of the evidence. Each one who took the stand Ion was able to create the question of if the expert was unbiased or negligent in their findings.

Eventually the prosecution called MRC Detective Quincy Archer. To the stand. They began with the standard questions; name, how long have you been with MRC, and what was her involvement with the case. There was then the big questions, “In your opinion, did Mr. Cartwright kill the Watsons?... In your opinion, did Mr. Cartwright use his mutation as the weapon?... In your opinion, did Mr. Cartwright act with premeditation?”

Those questions answered, Detective Quin was then Ion’s witness.

If there was one thing that Quin had learned in her years on the force, it was that there was no such thing as a slam dunk case.

It would have been nice if the DA had managed to learn the same lesson. The prosecuting attorney, part of the DA's office, was competent but green and as far as Quin's inexpert opinion, he'd already managed to make a few mistakes. Hadn't the guy ever seen Twelve Angry Men? All it took was a shadow of a doubt. A jury's decision had to be unanimous. It should have been a slam dunk case, and it probably would have been, if Cartright hadn't managed to procure a particularly adept defense attorney.

Usually, Quin prided herself on keeping a level head where defense attorneys were concerned. Many of her NYPD brethren rarely used a word nice than 'scum' to describe them, but Quin had seen too many cases where innocent people ended up on the wrong side of the law to pass such blanket judgement on the entire profession. The problem here was, Cartwright had committed the murders. Both of them. He'd committed both the murders with what could have only been described as relish. Quin had been lead detective, she'd followed all the protocols, done everything by the book. So had everyone else. It didn't matter though, one by one the members of the team took the stand, and one by one the defense attorney picked them apart.

Yeah. This lawyer was scum, out to game the system and make the NYPD look bad. It was even worse that he was defending a mutant. The police already got a bad rap when it came to the way they handled Mutant Related Crime, and this definitely wasn't going to help.

When Quin took the stand,the questions posed by the prosecution were as expected. Quin answered them as truthfully as she could. The scene didn't look like someone had simply snapped and committed a crime of passion. The whole place had reeked of premeditation and in her gut, Quin had known they were dealing with someone who needed to be locked away from people for the rest of his life. Gut feelings weren't enough for the judicial system though, and so Quin explained to the judge and jury the burden of proof that she'd managed to gather to back up those gut feelings. She'd done a damn good job.

The prosecution ended their questioning and Quin frowned slightly. Surely there could have been more questions to help establish exactly who they were dealing with here and what crime had been committed? Damn newbies. Someone needed to give the DA a swift kick in the arse...

Now it was defenses turn. Quin mentally prepared herself, this was probably going to be rough.

Detective Archer had a good record, she also played fairly well with juries. Pretty face and qualified. It was time for Ion to discredit.

There was a moment before Ion began that tension built in the courtroom. Ion had taken a metaphorical hatchet to everything the prosecution had brought forth. Detective Archer was to be the last hope the there was of a conviction. It should have been a slam dunk case, but a combination of quality defense and a green prosecutor had left it up in the air.

”Detective Archer,” Ion began. ”You were the lead detective in the investigation, correct?”

He waited for her answer before continuing, ”So it would be fair to say that you were involved with most aspects of the case?”

”The report from the medical examiner shows that the death of both of the Watson's to be asphyxiation. Is it possible that something else, other than a mutation, could have lead to them dying in such a manner?”

The last question was more open ended than Ion would have liked, but it was necessary and he could work with any answer she gave. He needed to seed information to work back around to later. Detective Archer was good at her job, making her look less than that would take time.

And so it began.

The first question was simply enough, and Quin leaned forward slightly in her seat, looking the defense attorney right in his face. "Yes, I was lead on this case, and yes, I was involved in most aspects. I processed the crime scene, oversaw handling of evidence, identified, and eventually interviewed suspects." she said simply, then worked her way into the second, more open-ended part of the question. Now was when the tight-rope walk began. The question was a difficult one to answer in a way that would support the case. "Could" was one of those words that had implications. For example, could a random piece of space trash that's gotten caught in Earth's atmosphere fall at this very moment, crash through the ceiling and several floors of the courthouse above and land right on the Defense Attorney's head? Sure. But it was unlikely.

"The physical evidence found at the scene points directly to the use of a mutation to commit the crime in question." Quin said. It was 100% true. Had the couple been found in an open field, then the case would have been much further from open and shut. They hadn't been though, they'd been found surrounded by mountains of physical and circumstantial evidence.

Detective Archer answered his first question well enough. He only needed to lead with her having been involved heavily with the investigation. The answer to his question about the possible cause of death was not how he hoped. She had not strictly answered his question, but he would not object. It would not do well to be seen griping with the witness. He could work with it, likely even use it to undermine her entire testimony later with the defense’s own medical experts.

”You were the detective who interviewed Mr. Cartwright, were you not?”

Start up slow. Lead her where he wanted without allowing her to give more than a couple words in reply.

Well, at least the first question had gone smooth enough. Sometimes, Quin mused, you got up onto the stand and it seemed like the defense was ready to contradict every single thing you said. It was obnoxious, but in the long run it usually worked to the prosecutions benefit. If it seemed like the defense was trying too hard to be contradictory, the jury tended to catch on. This guy was too good for that though, he would have known better.

Now that the simple stuff had been established, it was time to get into the nitty gritty.

Had she been the one to interview Mr. Cartwright?

"Yes." she said simply. If mister fancy defense attorney wanted more than that, he was going to have to ask...in great detail.