Tried With Fire - (Ruth Harris Series)

Chapter 31

'Alright, everyone be seated. Let's try this again.' the judge said tiredly, when we were all back in the room. I sent him an apologetic look, but he ignored it and turned his attention towards Bertie.
'Oh dear, this judge has a chip on his shoulder the size of Ohio.' Charity said. 'Never mind, I'm sure justice will prevail nonetheless. ...I hope it will.'
               Mr Jeong cleared his throat and stood up.
'Please state your name for the record, sir.'
'Robert Carter.'
               Bertie looked straight at me when he spoke, along with some other eyes from around the room, but this time my heart didn't freeze up. This time, weirdly, I was okay. My breathing stayed steady and the walls didn't close in.
'It's because you've been reminded of why you're doing all of this: to keep your daughter, to make Hunter happy, and to show off your strength. 'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear'.'
'I may not be a Bible-basher like Charity, but I can get on board with that quote.'
               'Mr Carter,' Jeong started, 'you were tried by the Crown Court and given a twenty year sentence in prison without the possibility of parole sixteen years ago, correct? And your charges were 'rape', 'multiple cases of assault on a child by penetration', 'sexual assault', 'child sexual exploitation' and 'battery'. Correct?'
               I shut my eyes when Bertie answered yes. 'And can you tell the judge whom these crimes were committed against?'
'She's sitting right there.' Bertie said, pointing at me. He always used to point at me like that: right in my face, while he towered over me, yelling... 'Ruth 'arris - or, Brookes now. Congratulations by the way. I guess my invitation got lost in the post?'
'Mr Carter, please do not address the defendants.' the judge said. He finally returned the sympathetic look I had sent him earlier. 'You may continue, Mr Jeong.'
'Thank you. Mr Carter, would you say that you were the leading cause of, or at least a main contributor towards, Mrs Brookes' development of Dissociative Identity Disorder?'
'That is a leading question, sir.' Mr Tyler spoke up. I glanced over at his desk and caught Phil's eye. Katherine never looked our way. She elbowed her husband and his eyes quickly unlocked from mine.
'Sustained. Mr Jeong, please rephrase or ask another question.'
'Of course, sir.' Jeong said to the judge. 'Mr Carter, what do you think the effects of your behaviour towards Mrs Brookes have been?'
               Bertie shrugged. He couldn't even pretend to have an empathetic bone in his body! All of mine were tensed, waiting to hear whatever glib response he would pride himself on next, but soon I wished I'd been able to cover my ears.
'I dunno.' Bertie said. 'I s'pose she weren't too happy with me after.'
               Stunned at his nonchalance, I turned to Hunter with a dropped jaw and saw that his eyes were dark. Really dark. Slowly, his hand moved towards mine and stroked my fingers softly for a second. Then they intertwined and we both held on tightly.
               'I knew he hated Bertie, but I never realised my past hurt him this much. I just...I never knew.'
               'Okay, Mr Carter,' Mr Jeong said, 'I think we can all agree that the way you treated Mrs Ruth Brookes for over a decade of her childhood did a bit more than make her unhappy. Mr Carter, you repeatedly forced her, as a child, to engage in sexual activity with you against her will. Don't you think that has had any long term effects on Mrs Brookes?'
               Bertie's dead-eyed stare continued to rest on me as my solicitor spoke. He may have looked older and colder, but I must have changed more. I was no longer the snivelling sixteen year old who had been too weak to tell on/overpower him, and been too confused to know who I was. I had adapted now. I had embraced my life, conquered death and learnt confidence. Perhaps that's why Bertie watched me so intensely in court that day. Maybe he couldn't believe someone could 'bounce back' from the things he did to me - he had intended his crimes to be inescapable, and perpetually painful. But he overlooked the fact that Hunter Brookes has more goodness in his heart than Bertie Carter ever had wickedness, and that was what ultimately healed me. That, and time.
               'It don't look like I affected Ruth, long term.' Bertie shrugged. 'Look at her. She's fine.'
'That she is.' Mr Jeong agreed. 'Mrs Brookes has made a career for herself, and has a husband and child, both of whom have no complaints about her parenting skills. I wonder if any one of us would have been able to achieve the same, if we had been in her shoes. Mrs Brookes has made the best of a truly, truly awful situation, and deserves to be rewarded in some way other than having her child ripped out of her happy home.'
'Is there a question, Mr Jeong?'
'Yes, sir. Mr Carter, I have two more questions for you.'
'Ask away.'
'If you could estimate, how many times do you reckon you assaulted Mrs Ruth Brookes by penetration?'
'Somewhere over two hundred times.' Bertie answered blankly, and way too fast.
               All I could do to stop myself from screaming was push my chair back and lower my head to my knees. The chair legs made a horrible, shrill screech against the wooden floor, drawing more and more unwanted attention towards me. I took deep, deep breaths and rocked slightly with my free hand pressing against my empty stomach, which was convulsing in an attempt to throw up again. I felt Hunter's hand rubbing up and down my back. I think he was whispering to me. The courtroom was so very quiet, but my head was so very loud. Was my moaning external?
               'Over two hundred times?' Mr Jeong asked Bertie bewilderedly. He glanced back at me as if to wonder how I was alive right now. 'How far over two hundred times, approximately?'
'I raped 'er two hundred and thirty two times - and a half.'
               Now the whole room fell dead silent. Even the judge looked wounded by that answer. Bertie looked around as if he was waiting for a standing ovation. I gagged again but nothing came out.
               Hunter had frozen too, with his hand superglued to the small of my back. I glanced up at him and saw fury. Serious, burning, consuming, vengeful, terrifying fury: fury that the number was so high, fury that Bertie had kept count, and fury that he had never caught him.
               'I'll kill him.' my husband whispered into the silent air. My breath hitched at the back of my throat. 'I'll kill that fu-'
'Mr Brookes, please remain seated.' the judge called out. 'I will not ask you twice!'
               But it was no use. Hunter was seeing red. Jeong tried to talk some sense into him, but to Hunter's ears the whole world may as well have been muted. I may as well have been paralysed. The security guard may as well have been a mile away.
               Hunter charged right up to the witness stand, eyes locked on Bertie's, and spat. The judge seemed outraged by that alone, but what followed was far less proper. Hunter balled his fists, and as Bertie muttered something, he smashed it into his temple. Then he did it again, and again, and again. Then he was arrested.