Page 45 of Shattered

“Raymond Quincy and Marjorie Burke-Pendergrass,” Mackenzie answered.

The defense attorney paused. “Would you call yourself unlucky?”

“Objection, Your Honor! What does past transgression committed against a witness for the state have to do with this case? He’s reaching, Your Honor,” Charles said, exasperation laced his tone.

“Sustained,” the judge said. “You’re going off on a tangent, Mr. Walker.”

“I promise, Your Honor, I’m not,” the defense attorney said. “I have a point to these questions.”

“Then you’d better make it.”

“I will, Your Honor.” The defense attorney straightened his tie. “Indulge me, Mr. Raferty—”

“I’d rather not,” Mackenzie grumbled. “But, get on with it. Lay your cards out for all to see.”

The man frowned. “All right. You were shot in the head, were you not?”

“I was. Went in near the temple came out at the base of my skull,” he answered.

“Did you sustain brain damage?”

“Some, yes. I was also beaten.” He would never admit to how close he came to almost losing his life. Had it not been for Rapier and his family finding Mackenzie in the middle of the desert in his wolf form... Shit. He wouldn’t have everything he did. The idea of not having his children or grandchildren tugged at his heart. They were his family. He’d also do everything in his power to protect them as well.

“Well, then, how do we trust your memory of the events that took place almost twelve years ago?”

Mackenzie tilted his head. “My short-term memory is fine as is my long-term memory. If I couldn’t remember who I was or how I got here, do you think I’d be here? Yes, it took quite a while to heal and get back to myself. Nevertheless, I didn’t forget a thing.”

“Have you ever forgotten to pick up your children, whom you say you’re trying to protect?”

A sly smile tugged across Holly’s lips, and Mackenzie knew where the asshole was going with that question. There’d been a few times he’d left for work, knowing damn well Holly would be picking up Hayden from school or later, Liam and Riley only to be called from the schoolhouse telling him, he’d forgotten. “Nope, sure haven’t.”

“You haven’t?”

“Objection, Your Honor. Relevance?” Charles stated.

“Counsel?” The judge glanced at the defense attorney.

“We have proof,” he said holding up a piece of paper. “We are using this to show that his memory isn’t reliable or infallible.”

“Your Honor?” Mackenzie glanced up to the balding middle-aged man. “I know what he’s holding.”

“Go on, Mr. Raferty,” the judge said.

“It’s a call log from the high school and he probably has one from the elementary school as well,” Mackenzie said. “It shows on three different occasions they had to call me to pick up my children. However, Your Honor, it was Holly’s day to pick them up. On two of the dates, I’d been working an hour away from home at the time at a new build site. There was no way for me to get them on time.”

“The third?” the defense attorney asked.

“The third, I was at Valley Community Hospital with Jacob, one of our young human drywallers,” Mackenzie said. “He got hurt on the job—put a nail through his thumb. Since he doesn’t have any family, I accompanied him, and since I was also the crew leader for the day, I remained with him until the doctor could treat the wound. From start to finish, we were there until three-thirty which coincided with when the school called me. If you’d like the formal Worker’s Comp report from my boss and the hospital, I can get them to you.”

“Mr. Raferty, do you know anything about door locks?” The defense attorney jumped topics quicker than a flea jumping on a dog’s back.

“Sure. I suppose I do,” Mackenzie answered.

“Could you explain why they would be on doors inside your home?” the lawyer prodded.

It wasn’t his place to tell others Holly’s business. The reasons for them, at the time, were practical. Hayden had a bad habit of walking in on people. If she knew the truth, well, it would have devastated her. Now, he wished they could have been open and honest from the beginning, because it looked like everything, they’d done to protect his niece, was blowing up in his face.

“Two bedroom doors had locks on them,” he answered. “Holly’s room and mine. We did it for a reason. Hayden, at the time, had no compunctions about barging into rooms without permission. In order for everything to work out properly, Holly and I decided to put locks on them just in case.”

---