The Devil and Brian Kinney

Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies Closer!

Setting: : The Devil's Courtroom where pandemonium reigned. Mel was struggling to keep Brian from tackling De'Ville; Satan was laughing tauntingly at his prey's fury, confident he had already won; the Bailiff was forcibly restraining Justin from rushing to his lover's side; the jury was watching the participants with varied emotions, running the gamut from amusement to enmity, sympathy to apathy. Through it all, Stonewall repeatedly demanded, "Order." Finally, with a bang of the gavel, all puffed away, with the exception of De'Ville, Mel, and the Judge himself. Even Brian was missing, Mel noticed with a sinking feeling.

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"Counsel, to my bench, now!"

Melanie was shaken to her core by Brian's disappearance, but managed not to show it. Rather than antagonize the Judge with a demand that her client be returned, and thereby playing into De'Ville's hands if it were by the Judge's decision that Brian had been removed, she waited. The strategy paid off, and quickly, as Judge Stonewall turned angrily to De'Ville and demanded:

"What have you done with the Defendant?"

De'Ville glanced at Mel before replying; she could see that he was surprised. She waited coolly for his answer and did not interject.

"I assumed that Your Honor would want Mr. Kinney restrained," he began smoothly. He smiled ingratiatingly at the Judge.

"I do not recall asking you to take over my courtroom. Attorney Marcus had her client under control. I removed the Court Attendants and the Jury as was proper. Bring him back immediately or you will be in contempt and this matter is over, do you understand?" Stonewall glared at the handsome Plaintiff.

"Yes, Your Honor, of course."

With that, Brian puffed back into place at the counsel table, face pale. Wherever he had been, it had calmed him down considerably. It took all of Mel's self control not to rush to his side. His handsome face looked haunted, but set, determined. He looked up at Mel and she nodded to him reassuringly. She hoped he knew she would not allow Justin to be put at risk. No matter what hell Brian faced, she knew he would willingly go to it rather than risk Justin's soul to the demon standing beside her. It was her duty to honor her client's wishes.

Stonewall continued.

"Attorney Marcus, there is no need for you to articulate the basis for the objection you just made. Its nature is clear and it is sustained. This is a trial over Mr. Kinney's soul and the propriety of their negotiations as well as the sufficiency of the tender paid by you, Devil, in that transaction." Stonewall made no effort to use De'Ville's preferred pronunciation.

"My courtroom is not a forum for the recruitment of schoolboys and I will not permit you to turn it into one; nor will I permit you to use the witnesses' obvious affection for the defendant as a bargaining tool when he had no choice but to obey this summons. Also, it is clear that Mr. Taylor did not summon you, a key requirement of a binding contract with you that you are forgetting so there is no purpose to your trying to enter into a contract with him, correct?"

De'Ville flushed. Mel made a mental note of this point of law. Damn, she wished she could get a copy of the statute book related to this! But at least Stonewall was apparently going to hold old Scratch to the letter of whatever law applied to these deals.

"I also will not permit you to try to force the defendant to forfeit his right to a trial by apparent threats against his friends or family; have I made myself clear on this point?" Stonewall aimed his beady stare directly at the Devil, who failed to return it, but gazed upward at the ceiling, and then at the floor before responding, "yes, Your Honor."

"Good. Then, unless you have anything further of a proper nature to ask of this last witness, I am excusing him. After which, I shall assume the Plaintiff is resting his case and we can move on to the defense portion of this trial?" De'Ville confirmed that he had no further questions.

Stonewall turned to Mel and asked dryly, "Is it safe to assume that you will not be cross-examining that last young man, after all?"

Melanie smiled. "No cross, Your Honor. Thank you."

Stonewall nodded briskly. "No thanks needed, Attorney Marcus, I am simply fulfilling my duty. Your client may very well end up with the plaintiff in due course, but it is my responsibility to ensure that it only happens as the just result of a fair trial. We shall now take a five minute recess." He pounded his gavel and puffed away.

Mel rushed back to Brian.

"Are you okay?" She started to reach out a hand but he flinched away so she stopped.

"Is Justin safe, where is he?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"He's safe. He's home and he won't be back" Mel was quick to reassure him. She could barely bring herself to look at him. She had never seen Brian look so tormented; the angled planes of his face stood out in stark relief, as though he had lost ten pounds in the past half hour. He resembled one of those Renaissance paintings of Christ on the cross, beautiful even in his suffering. The thought had occurred to her before that Brian could pass for Jewish with his features, the strong nose, high cheekbones and tanned complexion that never left even during the long Pittsburgh winters. It certainly was not a classic Irish face. It was one of the reasons she withdrew her objections to Brian as Gus's birth father, and indeed, people often mistook Mel as his birth mother rather than the blond, blue-eyed Lindsay.

"Are you going to be okay?" she asked, pouring him a glass of water.

"I will be now," he answered, trying to give her his cocky smile, but it came out as a grimace. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing, holding the cup of water tightly in his hands. Justin. Justin was safe. Focus on that. Do not think about where he had been. Brian never thought he would hate being in a dark place with hands reaching out, touching him….

He shuddered. The cup crumpled in his hands and the water spilled.

"Brian?" Mel's voice again, sounding as though it were far away. Mel sounding concerned. He had to pull himself together. Justin was safe and he had just spilled water all over his favorite suit. But he was okay; he could do this.

His next attempt at a smile was better, much better.

"So, who is your first witness going to be, uber lawyer?" Brian looked at her, sucking in his bottom lip.

Mel grinned back at him, relieved to see the old Brian back. The recess was over and plaintiff was resuming his seat.

"You'll see."

Plaintiff rested his case. It was now their turn. But first, Mel made a motion to dismiss the plaintiff's case on the basis that he failed to offer enough evidence to support his claim; it was a standard motion and rarely granted. In this case, Judge Stonewall reserved judgment, which was better than an outright denial, Mel reasoned. She was instructed to proceed.

"The defense calls Christopher Hobbs to the stand."

Brian looked at her, momentarily startled, then quickly regained his composure and resumed his usual impassive expression. De'Ville was not as quick to cover his surprise. He looked at Melanie with eyes narrowed in speculation. Clearly he had not expected this development. The bailiff swore in the witness and Mel got right to the point, seeing no reason to try putting Hobbes at his ease as had been De'Ville's insincere practice.

"Mr. Hobbs, are you familiar with the defendant, Brian Kinney?"

Hobbs looked around the room, flushing a dull red as he saw Brian; he seemed to recognize some of the jurors as well, Mel noted with interest.

"Yeah, I recognize the asshole faggot. What the hell is this, homo court?" He smirked with his usual bravado, looking to see if he had any allies in the courtroom laughing with him. Stonewall bristled.

"This is my Courtroom, young man. You will show the proper respect and you will answer questions posed to you by Counsel respectfully or you will feel my wrath!" he roared. "Do I make myself clear?"

The Judge seemed to grow larger as he spoke until he was looming over the former football player, who was now cowering in the witness box. The bailiff stood threateningly on the other side of Hobbs, tapping his Billy Club in his hand menacingly. Mel simply waited, expressionless. Hobbs looked around the room again. The jurors all looked at him, stony-faced. De'Ville was watching him, arms crossed, a slight smile on his handsome face. Probably figured he was looking at a future resident that wouldn't cost him a bit of effort to recruit, Brian thought, with grim pleasure.

"Look at me when I am addressing you, boy!" Stonewall thundered.

"Yes, sir." Hobbs's voice cracked slightly.

"Do you now understand the procedure to be followed in my Courtroom?"

"Yes."

"What did you say?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Fine, you may proceed, Counselor. Feel free to consider this one an adverse witness," Stonewall harrumphed.

"Thank you, Your Honor. Mr. Hobbs, would you please tell this Court when you first met Mr. Kinney? Please remember that at all times, you are under oath."

"He was with Justin Taylor, a guy I used to go to High School with."

"Isn't it true that you met Mr. Kinney specifically because he was present when you were taunting Mr. Taylor because he was gay and suggesting, well, why don't you tell it in your own words, Mr. Hobbs?"

Hobbs hesitated, but after looking at the bailiff, said grudgingly, "Taylor was dropped off by Kinney and I asked him, Taylor, that is, if he wanted to suck me off."

Mel looked at him witheringly. "You're a lot bigger, stronger person than Justin Taylor, I imagine the same was true in High School, yes?"

"Yeah."

"So when you asked Justin if he wanted to 'suck you off,' were you making a sexual advance to him or did you intend it as a taunt that the smaller, weaker boy could not fight back against?"

"A taunt." Hobbs replied, looking down, red-faced.

"But Justin had a defender that day, the day you met Mr. Kinney, isn't that right?"

"I don't know what you mean." Hobbs mumbled.

"Oh, come on now, Mr. Hobbs, what happened next?"

"Kinney climbed out of his Jeep and yelled back at me."

"Well, what did he say?"

"I don't remember." Hobbs was looking down at the ground. Brian was trying not to smile.

"Now Mr. Hobbs, this occurred in front of a good number of fellow students. I am sure you remember, and we could bring some of them in here to testify, but since you are under oath, why don't you try to remember? What was it Mr. Kinney yelled at you when you taunted Justin Taylor in front of all your other classmates as you were so fond of doing because he was gay?" Mel had her arms crossed and was staring at Hobbs, her demeanor that of a very strict schoolteacher who wouldn't take no for an answer. Stonewall was glaring at the witness again as well.

"He answered no for Taylor, but said he'd fuck my virgin ass so hard I wouldn't be able to sit down for a week." The jury roared with laughter. Even the bailiff was smiling. Stonewall leaned back in his seat and took a sip of water. He kept the glass in front of his mouth an inordinately long while. De'Ville and Hobbs were the only ones not amused.

Melanie moved on with her questioning.

"You ran into Brian Kinney with Justin Taylor other times, didn't you."

"Yeah."

"You used to go to Liberty Avenue, the 'gay' area of town, even though you are not gay yourself, isn't that right?"

"Yeah, sometimes I saw them there." No reason to belabor this, Mel knew the jurors would realize there was usually only one reason people like Hobbs went to Liberty Avenue, and it was to harass gays.

"Then came the Prom. You saw them together at the St. James Academy Prom, didn't you?"

"It was fucking perverted. He danced with Taylor like he was some Fred Astaire or something; swinging him, kissing him in front of everyone, wearing this fancy tuxedo that made the rest of us look like jerks. In the middle of our Prom they were practically making out, all the girls were talking about how romantic it was, it was sickening…" Hobbes was going crazy at this point, rambling, and practically crying. He looked like a crazy man. The jurors were torn between staring at him, and the ugliness of what he was revealing, and looking at Brian, and the unprecedented openness on his features. This was not the Brian Kinney they thought they knew, a man who would go to a High School Prom and dance with his blond twink, and kiss him in front of a room full of teenagers. Brian's face was a revelation of pain and love.

"So, what did you do?"

"I followed them to the parking garage. They were all laughing and happy, kissing each other still. It was disgusting. They ruined my night. I was going to ruin theirs."

"Tell everyone what you did."

"I waited until Kinney got into his Jeep and Taylor was headed back to his fag hag. She was waiting upstairs, I guess. I had my baseball bat with me. I swung; Kinney must have seen me in the mirror because he shouted a warning and Taylor turned so that I only caught a glancing blow to his head. It was enough to crush his head in, even if I didn't have time to hit Taylor again like I wanted to because I could hear Kinney coming. Next thing I knew, Kinney was on me; he grabbed my bat and kneecapped me, the bastard, he was like a maniac.

I only got away from him because he flung the bat away after taking me down. He was more concerned with getting back to Taylor. I could hear him screaming and crying as I crawled away, Kinney, that is, Taylor wasn't making a sound. I thought he might be dead. I heard Kinney calling 911. I didn't get away from the building before the cops got there because of what he did to my knees; I lost my football scholarship and everything. They even took Taylor away in the ambulance first ahead of me; I saw the two of them, Kinney went with him, he was covered in Taylor's blood."

The room was silent when Hobbs finally stopped telling his tale. There had not been a bit of remorse in his voice. Brian had his head down on his hands, his eyes shut tight as he tried to shut out the memory of that bat hitting Justin's head, his body hitting the cold concrete floor.

De'Ville watched the witness idly and found himself wondering if there were any soul there to take.

The jurors, all of them gay men, had their own varying degrees of homophobia in their pasts. Many of them had heard some version of the story before; some of them had lived a version of this story. One of them was even a murderer, who had found himself unable to live with the knowledge of his crime. Still, there was something gut wrenching to each of them to come face to face such hatred as lived in someone as supposedly "normal" as Chris Hobbs and to see first hand the effect it had had on Brian Kinney, a man each of them had previously viewed as beyond simple human emotions.

Mel asked, "Mr. Hobbs, if you had the chance, would you have struck Brian with your bat as well?"

"In a heartbeat. I must have drunk more than I realized at the prom that I couldn't beat a skinny fag like that! I lettered in three sports! Taking down two queers should have been as easy as bowling pins. I would have split his head open like Taylor's if I had just had a few more seconds, but he came at me so fast. Who would have thought he could move so fast at his age?"

"No more questions. Your witness."

De'Ville stood up.

"Now Mr. Hobbs, if it weren't for Mr. Kinney coming to your prom and dancing in that provocative way, you never would have attacked Mr. Taylor that night, would you?" De'Ville smiled warmly at Hobbs in a way that clearly said, "work with me kid."

Hobbs laughed. "Why do you think I had the bat with me? Taylor had been asking for it all year! My lawyer came up with that 'provocative dance' argument at the hearing and the judge sure bought it, my lawyer even claimed I had the bat because I had practice that day or something. Yeah, like we have practice that late in the year. I planned to do something as soon as I heard from someone that Taylor was taking his hag to the Prom. The only difference was, if Kinney hadn't been there, Taylor would be dead."

Brian was shocked. Melanie started to hold him down, but quickly realized that what he needed was help not collapsing. She poured him some water and held it while he drank. "It wasn't my fault," he whispered, looking at her. Tears were falling down his cheeks. My God, she realized, what a burden of guilt he had been carrying all these years. She, not just Jennifer Taylor, was one of the people who had added to it, believing in her heart that if Brian had not gone to the Prom, perhaps Hobbs would not have attacked Justin. Yet, all along, Brian really had saved Justin's life. He actually was a hero. And all along he had suffered in silence, believing that he had been the cause of Justin's attack. Melanie felt so guilty as she remembered how many times she had wronged Brian.

Damn it, she could not start crying now too, she was the lawyer. One of them had to keep it together. This trial was far from over. As he had done so many time before in this case, Brian seemed to sense what she needed, because he reached over for the legal pad and wrote a short note:

"Remember the Bris."

That asshole. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

De'Ville still had not given up.

"Well, surely the dance made you angrier and made you want to do something more violent?" he asked desperately.

"Yeah, it made me want to kill Kinney, too, but as I said, he wasn't worried about that, he came right at me even though I had the bat and he didn't have anything but his fag tux. But, somehow he managed to pull the bat from my hands and get in a good shot at my knees. I told you, he was like a maniac, and he's a lot stronger than he looks."

"No further questions."

Mel looked up.

"Nothing further for this witness. The defense calls Jim Stockwell to the stand."

Hobbs puffed out of sight and the former mayoral candidate, and present criminal defendant appeared, with a large puff of dark smoke and a stronger than normal odor of brimstone. Juror Number Eleven looked shocked to see his former partner, who had aged quite a bit in appearance since Rikert's death. His formerly dark hair was now mostly white, and his lean build appeared gaunt. Mel knew this witness was a risky one, but it was her best chance at winning over the juror in the last chair. At worst, he wouldn't cost them any votes since Rikert was already dead set against Brian and the other jurors hated Stockwell for the most part.

Stockwell was sworn in quickly. Of all of the witnesses, he seemed the most comfortable with the setting. Mel would swear he seemed to recognize De'Ville as well. She decided to act with her instincts as a trial lawyer. He was, after all, required to tell the truth, and this courtroom seemed to compel witnesses to answer truthfully.

"Mr. Stockwell, do you know the defendant, Brian Kinney?"

"Yes."

"And in what capacity did you first come to know him?"

"He was my campaign manager during my bid for the office of mayor of Pittsburgh a few years ago while he was employed at Vanguard Advertising Agency."

"And do you know the plaintiff, Lucifer De'Ville?" Stockwell looked uneasy, and looked to De'Ville for guidance. De'Ville stood up.

"Objection, Your Honor!" De'Ville stated. Mel waited, with a smile.

"What is the basis of your objection, Counselor?" Stonewall asked, dryly.

"The relationship of this witness, with me, if any, is irrelevant and, uh, potentially prejudicial." De'Ville looked embarrassed even making the weak argument.

"Is that the best you can do?" Stonewall asked, raising his eyebrows.

"At the moment, but perhaps you could give me a brief recess, Your Honor, and," De'Ville began, only to be interrupted by the Judge.

"I don't think so. Attorney Marcus, do you wish to be heard on this?"

"Your Honor, I do not think there is any need to remind you that the standard is not to bar prejudicial evidence, obviously it is our job as attorneys to offer evidence that is prejudicial to the other side, why else would we offer it?" Mel grinned and a few jurors joined with her, as did the court attendants. "The standard is that one may not seek to get into evidence that which is unfairly prejudicial; asking whether the witness has had dealings with the plaintiff such as would create a bias in his favor is just as relevant as information about any relationship he may have had with the defendant, as the plaintiff clearly realizes." Mel paused.

"I am glad you do not think there is any need to remind me of this, Counselor, may I assume then that you are now finished not reminding me of the law and I may proceed with denying Attorney De'Ville's objection?" Stonewall peered at Mel over his thick glasses. Brian could have sworn there was a twinkle in the old bastard's eyes, but it may simply have been the light reflecting off of those coke bottle lenses.

The direct examination proceeded to establish that Stockwell had made his own deal with the Devil to carry a majority of certain districts in the City; however, it turned out that a loophole had been left in the agreement, one which permitted his defeat if a certain district that had never been known to have more than a marginal turn-out managed to vote for his opponent in unprecedented numbers. Stockwell had failed to read the fine print in his contract, which had promised him victories, district by district, until it was too late. The margins in those districts was not big enough to make up for the large margin by which he lost in the Liberty Avenue District, thanks to the Concerned Citizens for the Truth. He did not realize that losing in one District could make such a big difference.

"And Mr. Stockwell, do you know who started the group known as the Concerned Citizens for the Truth?"

"Yes, I had it investigated by my own private eye." The man looked daggers at Brian.

"Who was it?"

"Brian Kinney. I had already had him fired and he was without a job, but apparently he took every last cent he had, and every bit of credit he could get to boot, to buy air time to run one of his damn ads to bring me down."

"There were things you told Brian Kinney when he was working for you that could have proved embarrassing if he had revealed them, weren't there?"

"I don't know what you mean." The man muttered, looking away.

"Do you recall a day the two of you spent naked in the hot tub together?" There, Mel thought, smirking, he would either have to talk or risk the jury thinking something completely different happened.

"It wasn't what you are implying!" Stockwell said, flushing.

"I am just trying to refresh your recollection, sir, and I am not implying anything. Were there not times that you confided in Mr. Kinney?"

"Yes," he answered begrudgingly. "I told him that I was afraid of being elected, afraid that I could not handle the job."

"But Mr. Kinney never used that against you, did he?"

"No, not to my knowledge."

"He never acted in a manner that breached his professional obligations of confidentiality to you, did he?"

"No, not to my knowledge."

"And Mr. Kinney never revealed the fact that you offered to hire him back prior to election day and set him up with your campaign contributors if he would drop his investigation into the death of a young gay boy, did he?"

"What!" Rikert bellowed.

"It was just business, buddy, you realize that," Stockwell looked pleadingly at his former partner. The bailiff had to quickly move to the jury box to hold the stocky former cop down as he struggled to get to the witness stand.

"You told me to trust you!" Rikert screamed at his former partner.

"Your Honor, may we approach the bench?" Mel called out over the screaming Juror.

The judge nodded and the jury was puffed out of sight, along with the witness.

"Your Honor, in light of this development, Defendant moves for the removal of Juror Number Eleven from the jury, and asks that this matter proceed with just eleven Jurors," stated Melanie.

"Plaintiff agrees, Your Honor." De'Ville did not look happy, but he knew he had no choice.

"Fine, the Jury will be recalled, without Juror Number Eleven. Please resume your direct examination, Attorney Marcus, after I give a few instructions to the jury regarding the absence of juror number Eleven."

"Yes, Your Honor."

The jury returned, looking nervous as they noted the empty seat.

"Gentlemen of the Jury, due to the conflict that has come to light between one of your number and one of the witnesses, Juror Number Eleven has been excused from duty. With the agreement of counsel, it has been decided that this matter will proceed with the remaining eleven of you, no alternates having been selected. You are hereby directed to pay no attention to the outburst from Juror Number Eleven, it is not part of evidence and it should play no part in your deliberations. Attorney Marcus, are you ready to proceed?"

"Yes, Your Honor."

The rest of Stockwell's direct examination went smoothly. Mel established that Brian never lied to him and that while his ad campaign had been handled well, Brian himself had never indicated a preference for him as a candidate so his support of the other candidate was not really unethical. Even the posters he saw in Brian's loft, he confessed, could have been solely the possession of Brian's lover, Justin Taylor. He conceded that Brian had always given him what turned out to be effective strategy to use against the poster campaign, contrary to his subsequent campaign manager. His treatment of Brian had been rash and unfair; he even acknowledged that his later offer to give him his job back had only been part of the murder cover-up. Mel's goal had been obtained and as much as the jury had been directed to ignore Rikert's outburst, she knew that they would continue to think about it and speculate about it. The instruction to ignore evidence had to be the most useless instruction ever given in any court of law.

De'Ville did not even try to cross-examine him; no doubt afraid of what Stockwell would say about his own deal with the devil, which had gone sour.

Mel had not warned Brian of her intention to call the next witness. She hoped he could handle this one as well as he had the last two. She only planned to call one final witness after this one.

"The defense calls to the stand, Joan Kinney."

As the elegant, white haired woman puffed into view, Mel saw her client scribble yet another note: "When you said you were calling my enemies, you really weren't fucking around, were you? This one is the president of the club."

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