Trial Junkies

biter.

Hutch had been hopeful the last couple days, especially in light of Frederick Langer's activities, but the creep hadn't yet made an appearance today. If he'd been scared away, if he was in the wind, Hutch doubted they'd ever find him again.

And now, with Danny Tillman's questionable suicide hanging over them, it was clear that whatever force of nature was coming after Ronnie might very well win.

Hutch was drawn from his thoughts as Nadine emerged from the witness room looking considerably better than she had three nights ago. Her eyes were clear, her hair neatly coiffed, and she was dressed in business wear, a tailored pants suit that said power executive.

But as she crossed to the stand, Hutch noted that she was fighting a case of the nerves. He'd seen stage fright before, had even suffered from it a few times himself, and he knew it when he saw it.

Not that he could blame her. Whatever she might be feeling about Ronnie, she was about to betray a woman she had once shared a room with, someone she had called a friend. And that couldn't be easy.

She didn't look at Ronnie as she passed the defense table, and Ronnie continued staring at her hands, her demeanor unchanged. It wasn't until Nadine was sworn in and seated in the witness box that they made brief eye contact-

— and Hutch saw something he hadn't expected to see in Nadine's eyes.

Sympathy.

He saw sympathy.

But before he could process what this might mean, Abernathy was on his feet and moving to the podium.

'Good morning, Ms. Overman, I appreciate you taking the time from your busy schedule to testify today. Can you tell the jury what it is you do for a living?'

Nadine glanced apprehensively at the jurors, then seemed to steel herself, finding her center. 'I'm the CEO of Overman Associates, a real estate development firm here in Chicago.'

'And what was the nature of your relationship with the victim in this case? Jennifer Keating?'

'We were friends,' Nadine said. 'Close friends. But we also had a professional relationship.'

'Can you tell us more about that?'

'I'm in the middle of a project that involves the acquisition and development of a large parcel of land in Evanston. I hired Treacher and Pine to oversee the legal details and Jenny was handling the contracts.'

'So is it to fair to say that you were in regular communication with Ms. Keating?'

'Yes,' Nadine said. 'We spoke by phone several times a week and had dinner or lunch together at least twice a month.'

'And how long did you know Ms. Keating?'

'We went to high school together. Then college. We lived in the same dorm during our freshman year, then moved into a house near campus.'

'This was a house on Miller Street, correct?'

'Yes,' Nadine said.

Hutch thought about the first time he'd seen Jenny and Nadine walk into that house. He had passed up the opportunity to dorm and had lived there during his freshman year with Tom and Monica and several other students whose names were lost to him now.

When those students had decided to find other lodgings, the vacancies were filled by Ronnie, whom Hutch had met in a philosophy class, Andy and Matt, who had previously dormed together on campus, and finally Jenny and Nadine, the last to answer the want ad posted on the student housing website.

Hutch had just stumbled out of bed when he saw them from his second-story window, crossing with the landlady, Mrs. Kastner, toward the front door. He was standing in his boxer shorts, looking down at them, when Jenny suddenly glanced upward and caught his gaze.

This was nearly ten years ago, but Hutch could still remember the moment. The slight catch his throat as they made eye contact.

It was like one of those film noir moments, where the beautiful woman emerges from the haze or the staircase or the alleyway, so perfect in every way that any man watching is suddenly re-evaluating his life, asking himself, how can I have that?

Who do I need to kill to have that?

But Hutch hadn't been forced to kill anyone. Within a month, he and Jenny were madly in love and a game of musical roommates was played until they were sharing a room. There was some resentment at first-from Ronnie and Nadine in particular-but they all managed to grow past it and their time in that house became something special. Magical.

Oh, how things had changed.

'Isn't it true,' Abernathy said to Nadine, 'that you also lived with the defendant at that time?'

'Yes. We shared a room for nearly three years.'

'So I'd imagine you came to know Ms. Baldacci quite well.'

'Sometimes better than I wanted to,' Nadine said and several people laughed.

'What about her relationship with Ms. Keating back then? How would you characterize it?'

'Objection,' Waverly said. 'I don't see how events of nearly a decade ago have any bearing on today's proceedings.'

'I'm merely attempting to provide the jury with some historical background, Your Honor.'

'Or color their judgment,' Waverly said.

'I'm going to allow it,' O'Donnell told them. 'I'm sure the jury is capable of evaluating the testimony and deciding for themselves what is and isn't pertinent to the matter at hand.'

Abernathy thanked the judge and went on. 'You can answer the question, Ms. Overman.'

Nadine hesitated. 'Could you repeat it?'

'Yes, of course. How would you characterize Ms. Baldacci's relationship with Ms. Keating when you were all living together in the house on Miller Street?'

Nadine took a moment, Hutch knowing that she was about to paint Ronnie as a jealous bitch.

But then she surprised him.

'Fairly typical,' she said. 'They were friends.'

Abernathy seemed surprised as well. 'Can you elaborate?'

'Their relationship was the same as everyone else's in the house. They had their close moments, they had their spats, but so did Jenny and I. We were college students-on our own for the first time in our lives-thrown together in a living situation that wasn't always ideal, but was often wonderful.'

Hutch could see by Abernathy's expression that Nadine had just strayed from the script.

'Did Ms. Baldacci ever show any animosity toward Ms. Keating?'

'Of course,' Nadine said. 'She was always a little envious of Jenny's relationship with Hutch.' She paused. 'That's Ethan Hutchinson, one of our roommates. But then I was envious, too. I think we all were, in a way. They had something special that the rest of us were still searching for.'

Hutch didn't look around, but he was certain that several of the people in the gallery were staring at him now. Some of the jurors as well.

Looking a bit concerned by her response, Abernathy pressed on. 'Was there ever a moment during that time that you yourself felt threatened by the defendant?'

Hutch assumed he was talking about the late night incident with the air gun, one that would surely paint Ronnie a little crazy, but Nadine simply said, 'No.'

And that was the moment Hutch knew that something had changed. That Nadine had finally come to her senses. Somehow the message had gotten through to her that her old roommate couldn't possibly have done what she was accused of. That, despite any problems they may have had between them in the past, there was no way Ronnie could be a killer. It was the very same evolution that he and Tom and Monica had gone through.

Hutch didn't know when she had come to this realization. It could very well have been when she and Ronnie made eye contact here in the courtroom, but he suspected that Tom may have called her and told her about Frederick Langer. And that alone may have been enough to get her to reevaluate her feelings.