Chapter Text
“In just a moment we will take you live to the entrance of the Palace of Justice of Monaco with our field correspondent Naomi Schiff. Hello Naomi, can you hear us?”
“Thank you, Simon, and welcome to the viewers – I hear you, loud and clear. As you can see, I’m right here in front of the Palace of Justice, where the crowd grew to unprecedented levels. The hearings of the Tribunal normally held in public, and this case is no exception. There is a great interest in the trial, - millions of fans from all around the world came here to express their sympathy and condolences. Right behind me you can see zillions of burning candles on every possible surface and the huge banners.”
The camera switched angles, and instead of the beautiful woman dressed in the grey costume, now showed the crowd.
‘BRING DEATH PENALTY BACK’
'
KILL THE KILLER’
'WE NEVER FORGET YOU’
“I think I don’t have to ask about the public morale.” Rachel said next to Simon, when the broadcast went back to the studio.
“Absolutely not Rachel, people here all agree on how this case should end.”
“Have you seen any current or ex-drivers there?”
“Obviously many members of the current grid came here, and not just because a big amount of them are presented as witnesses by the prosecution, but to show their solidarity. Minutes ago, I saw Lando Norris walking in the court, followed by McLaren team principal Zack Brown and his team mate Daniel Ricciardo, but for obvious reasons the drivers legally couldn’t comment on the case. To mention some ex-drivers, we have Mika Häkkinen here, just like our Nico and DC, who can’t work during the trial.”
“Thank you, Naomi. Yes, as Sky knows both Nico Rosberg and David Coulthard will testify at some point, and it would be against the law if they still did their jobs for us. Not like Jenson Button, who’s currently in the court room, with Natalie Pinkham. Natalie, Jenson, how is it going on there?”
“Well, Simon, there’s hardly any space left in the court room, as you can see. The general seating area is already packed, and even next to the walls there are many people, the standing places are also full. We’re lucky to got here on time, so we could get in there, many other media personnel have to stand outside of the room.”
“Just like Natalie mentioned, the trial room is crowded, and it’s just the audience – the witnesses of the defendant and the plaintiff are kept in a separate room, just like the suspect, so they won’t be affected by external influences.”
“Tell us something about the procedure.” Rachel asked from the studio “We all saw the jurors in American movies, but how different it is in Monaco?”
“On crimes criminal judgements are delivered by the Criminal Court, consisting in part of jurors, drawn by lot from a list of adult Monegasque citizens. It could have easily been our Charles as being citizen of the county, but obviously, that would cause some conflict of interest.”
“How long will the trial take?”
“I had the chance to talk with the plaintiff’s lawyer when he arrived to the court, and while we would all think it will be an easy task to pronounce the defendant guilty, the case is not that easy. It has been going on for ages, since the prosecution needs to rely on circumstantial evidence, since there is no clear sign of the killing. Or to put it bluntly: no body, no crime…” Jenson hesitated for a moment, from the moving of his Adam’s apple it was obvious that the shallowed hard “In the meantime, back to the studio.”
“Thank you, Jenson, Natalie. Back to Naomi who has a very interesting guest with her, Naomi, tell us what’s going on.”
“Right Simon, I have Dr. Helmut Marko right next to me, the current advisor of the Red Bull Formula One team, but he also has a doctorate in law. Doctor Marko, can you tell us more about the fact, that without a body there could be no trial for murder?”
“Bullshit. That’s an outdated view, it was proven many times how wrong people were thinking that, and that psychotic asshole can get what he deserves.” the camera followed his figure until he walked through the front door of the court.
“… Thank you, Doctor Marko, guys, you heard the expert.”
“Thank you, Naomi, in this case hopefully we’ll soon get to the bottom of this protracted and complex case.”
“Well, I certainly hope you’re right. The case of… Pete, are you on it?!”
“Naomi? What’s going on?”
The cameraman turned his aim to the slender figure coming toward the building. He was dressed in all black, making a high contrast with the orange smoke coming from the smoke flares constantly used in the middle of the crowd.
His expression was unreadable behind the black sunglasses, but there was a clearly visible inscription on his shirt.
‘JUSTICE FOR THE INNOCENT’
He walked right past to the cameras, seemingly unaware of the attention, and walked straight into the building.
“Just as you could see, Sir Lewis Hamilton also arrived to the court, stating his opinion just as loudly as he always did. The trial starts in any minute, I’m Naomi Schiff, thank you for your attention, Rachel, Simon, back to you to the studio.”
“Thank you again, Naomi, we will be back to you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, stay with us for updates on this important case, right here on Sky Sport, where we bring you all the details you must know. The trial of the commonwealth of Monaco versus Jos Verstappen on the count of the murder of Max Emilian Verstappen is now on session.”
The final shot on TV had a close up on a singly, orange flag waving in the Monaco wind, with ‘super Max’ written on it.