Tried With Fire - (Ruth Harris Series)

Chapter 25

'How often do you leave your wife and daughter alone, Mr Brookes?'
'I'm sorry?'
'How often do you leave Mrs Ruth Brookes and Miss Olivia Brookes alone?' Mr Tyler repeated. Hunter squirmed in the witness box and glanced back at me.
'I-I, I...all the time.' he said. 'She's Olivia's mother! She gets her ready for school every morning and drives her there, and then she picks her up after school and spends the evening with her until I get home. They play together, and draw and cook and dress up and Ruth teaches her things. You remember all the things Mrs Tapping said about Olivia's academic knowledge. She speaks two languages, she can read already -'
'Impressive.' Mr Tyler said, more to cut Hunter off than to compliment us. Hunter narrowed his eyes. 'So you have no problem leaving the pair of them alone for extended periods of time?'
'Of course not! Ruth has never done anything to put Olivia at risk. I trust her completely.'
'You seem to trust her alternate personalities a lot too.' Tyler said provocatively. 'Mr Brookes, are you not also married to Mrs Ruth Brookes' alternative personalities?'
'No. I married Ruth. Her name is on the marriage certificate. The alters are different people entirely.'
'Alright. Do any of Mrs Ruth Brookes' 'alters' have the capability to put Miss Olivia Brookes at risk of harm?'
'Er,' Hunter hesitated, 'that's a matter of opinion.'
'Wrong answer.' I cringed.
'Well my opinion is that they do have that capability.' Mr Tyler said sternly. 'At least, some of them seem to.'
'I didn't realise you'd met any of them.' Hunter replied, just as sardonically. Mr Tyler smirked.
'Mr Brookes, members of the court, I have been reading Mrs Ruth Brookes' books. She is a published author, whose first novel won multiple awards and became a best seller. She deserves the recognition, I admit. She is an excellent writer.'
'Aw, this guy's kind of cute.'
'Don't even go there, Julie.' I demanded. 'I don't need a third bachelor cluttering up my brain.'
               'Is there a question for Mr Brookes here?' the judge asked, unenthused. Mr Tyler cleared his throat.
'Yes, sir. Mr Brookes, have you read your wife's book entitled 'Repressed, Depressed and Possessed'?'
'Yes I have.' Hunter said proudly.
'Do you recall these paragraphs from chapter twenty five? 'I wept. I couldn't do this anymore. I couldn't live. Blaze was back and destroying my life, and for all my mama's love for me, I couldn't rely on her to deal with him. He was a cantankerous, criminal gangster and definitely not my mother's type. He was evil. If Charity was the angel of Ruth Harris, he was Satan. I remembered Julie's previous words: 'He's more of an arson, drugs and sharp cutting objects type of guy. Classic prison movie stuff', and I looked down at my left arm. There were two circular burns on my wrist beside fresh slashes. I wept again.'
'Yeah, I think that sounds familiar.' Hunter said. He couldn't see where Mr Tyler was going with this until it was too late: he got caught in his cruel little trap.
'Alright.' Tyler said. 'By your wife's own admission, one of her alters, named 'Blaze', is 'a cantankerous, criminal gangster'. She also calls him 'Satan', and describes how he used her body for self harm. Mr Brookes, I will ask you my former question once more. Do any of Mrs Ruth Brookes' alternate personalities have the capability to put Miss Olivia Brookes at risk of harm?'
                Hunter opened and closed his mouth like a guppy. I was staring down at the table in front of me when I felt him look to me for help. What could I have done? I was just a foolish, hopeless woman with the label 'UNWORTHY OF ANY ATTEMPT AT A NORMAL LIFE' scrawled across my forehead.
               'My wife wrote that book ten years ago.' Hunter finally managed to say. 'Things have changed since then.'
'Oh, would you like me to give a more recent quote from your wife, Mr Brookes? Why don't we look at her second novel in the series, 'Just Me, Him and Ten Others'? Mrs Brookes writes: 'X is a sex addict. She will throw herself at anyone I'm not related to, regardless of their age, gender or personal hygiene. She has humiliated me many times.''
'You're kidding, right?' Hunter asked, half-laughing with the incredulousness of what Mr Tyler was suggesting. 'X may be a sex addict but she would never expose a child to anything inappropriate. She's improved too, in the last five or six years since that book was written. She would never harm Olivia.'
'I'm sure you understand if I disagree with you on that statement, Mr Brookes.' Mr Tyler said coldly. He looked at the judge as if to say, 'this man is oblivious to the hazards right in front of his eyes.' The judge exhaled.
               'Now,' Mr Tyler continued, 'Mr Brookes, I wonder if you could tell us all here today who Emilia is, and her age, if you please.'
'Er, okay.' Hunter said. 'Emilia is one of Ruth's alters. She's three years old, and she's very sweet.'
'Thank you, Mr Brookes. So, to clarify, you have admitted in a courtroom, under oath, that you regularly leave your child alone for extended periods of time with a woman who can involuntarily and instantaneously switch into alternate personalities who may be sex addicts, criminals, or younger than Miss Olivia Brookes herself. Is this correct?'
'No!' Hunter cried. 'You're twisting my words -'
'But the facts remain the same, Mr Brookes. You have frequently neglected your duty of care to your daughter by leaving her in the care of someone who is not able to look after her.'
'My wife is more than capable of looking af-'
'But Blaze, X, and Emilia are not, are they?' Mr Tyler asked arrogantly. I could have launched myself at him in that moment. 'Mr Brookes, you have left your child in the care of someone whom you know has the capability to harm, neglect and malnourish Miss Olivia Brookes! Can you disagree?'
'Of course! What you're saying is completely twisted -'
'Can you disagree, Mr Brookes?' Mr Tyler boomed authoritatively. 'Have you neglected your duty of care towards your daughter?'
'I, I, I-I, this isn't, no! I, I wouldn't -'
'That will be all. Thank you for your time, Mr Brookes.' Tyler finished, turning his back to my husband and sitting down.
'That went even worse than my turn did. Hunter looks like he just got hit by a truck.'