CHAPTER SEVEN LET THE SLEEPING DOG LIE

The court was filled to the brim not only because this case was already popular, but because the whole town already heard what happened between SAN Terror and the Kid wonder lawyer and they knew that the hearing will be full of legal theatrics like the one that happened between them not too long ago.

When all things were set it was SAN Terror who opened the floor to lay serious charges against Tolu once she came into the witness box. He stood up in his thearterical manner to scare ever calm Tolu, he looked at her from head to toe, then walked around her like a lion who found a prey in a closed part of a slippery rock and was salivating before he will pounce for the kill!

Coming from the turning he stood before her and looked at her eye balls and said, "Before I say anything to you I want you to say before this court again that you are not guilty as you said the other time"

Calmly Tolu replied, of what used will it be for me to waste the time of this court repeating my words that is in the record? SAN Terror turned to the judge and said, "My Lord you can see how unfeeling she is even though she cannot boldly say she is not guilty.

To this charge the kid lawyer stood up to object and said, " Objection my lord, the prosecutor is trying to lead this court and that is not right. The judge looked at him and said he is not leading the court in any way so your objection is over ruled.

The kid lawyer sat down and the SAN continued, he brought out the letter that Tolu sent to Richie on the wedding day and gave it to her and said, "Please identify this letter and tell me if you know who wrote it" Tolu collected the letter, looked through it patiently to be sure it has not been altered before she finally returned it and said, "I wrote it"

The SAN then asked, "In what state of mind were you when you wrote this letter, were you yourself or under some kind of influence like may be drugs or strong drinks or may be still you were under duress of any kind?"

Again, Tolu calmly answered, I was myself and not under any kind of influence when I wrote this letter. The SAN asked her if she is sure of what she is saying? Tolu nod in affirmation. and the SAN said will you please read the portion of your letter that I underlined for the whole court to hear?

Tolu read, "To make matter was for you, few weeks after I decided to humour you by playing along. " Stop there" SAN Terror stopped her and face the judge and said, "My lord please mark that, she said she decided to humour him and play along, that means she set out to toy with the emotion of a man who loved her so much that he was ready to contend for her love with others, now read on. Tolu continued, "You mistakenly left your evil memoirs in which you wrote all the evils you have done with women on one page, there I found it where you wrote it that all women are gullible and must be used and dumped as a garbage! That sealed your doom, I made up my mind to teach you a lesson that we women are humans that must not be toyed with."

When she read this all the women in the court broke into great murmuring, with many of them hating what they heard that Richie wrote about their sex. Though SAN Terror managed to meander through their disagreement of what Richie wrote but it was glaring to him that he made mistake using that piece to open his case.

However, been a veteran he turned to the judge and said, "My lord it is not new nor news that when it came to men and women's matter no sex is a saint, that is the reason if you get into gatherings of men and you listen to what they say about women you will be tempted to kill all women as if you are killing poisonous snakes!

And if you get into the gathering of women and you hear what they are saying about men, you will park all men into bottomless dungeon if such place exist! What I want to say by this is that since we all agreed non is good among us and that we can only manage each other, I wonder why this my lady here appoint herself as a judge that must dish out death dealing blow to a fellow human! She had no legal ground to purposely do what she did to this gentleman, he did her no wrong in any way and I don't know why she stepped out as a schemer to destroy him emotionally and got him crippled.

With this summation all the men in the court too broke out into murmuring and this lead to big argument between all the women and men in the court, the noise was so much that the judge made a threat to have all the people thrown out if they cannot follow the proceeding quietly.

The people kept quiet and the SAN continued his cross examinations, he drilled Tolu in all manner of ways but to his dismay Tolu remains calm and serene like a lady just waking up from sweet dreams! SAN Terror called in some of Tolu's friends and all the people who stood as her family member during her relationship with Tolu, and he shredded them into pieces before the judge because it was revealed that Tolu hired them with money to play those roles so that Richie could be completely be hooked and knocked down.

After SAN Terror finished the cross examination he left Tolu in the witness box for Kid wonder lawyer to begin his defence and the first thing this rooky lawyer said caused so much uproar in the courtroom, he said, "My lord and all the people here today, I stand before you this afternoon to defend my client and the first thing I want to say or wish for is that we should close this case and do not let it go beyond this minute, I mean we should let the sleeping dog lie.

Hearing this, SAN Terror jumped up with a Shout, " Objection my Lord, I wish you will warn the defence lawyer that this court is a sacred place where nobody can come and be playing game or toying with the rule of law, because I don't understand what he meant by letting sleeping dog lie." The judge said, "You are right with that" And he turned to the lawyer and said will you please explain in a clear term what you mean by letting the sleeping dog lie?

The kid wonder lawyer said my Lord this case I believed is better left alone because if we go beyond this minute many cans of worms will be opened, many people who are smiling now will no longer be able to smile, many people who we looked upon as Saints will be exposed as Sinners and tides will turn in this city and tongue will wag in this city for a long time!

The judge stopped him and said, "I don't know what you have in mind but let me warn you before you begin to wax lyrical in here as if you are in theater classroom learning poem, my courtroom is not a place where you can come and be making empty threat that you cannot substantiate, if I find you wanting I will throw you out and you will jeopardize the case of your client, do you understand me? The kid wonder lawyer bowed and said clearly Sir. Then the judged said you can proceed with your defence.