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“Is your relationship consensual, Mr. Truelove?”
“Yes.”
“We obtained a warrant for the security footage from Oswald House,” Harrison went on, looking him in the eye. “There is some footage missing from not long after you took over as security chief.”
Jesse swallowed. “Missing…?”
“Part of the footage was looped to cover a gap. Our technical analysts have tried to retrieve it but, alas, they are not as competent as you.” Harrison tilted his head. “Why did you wipe that footage, Mr. Truelove?”
He looked imploringly at Kelly, who tapped his long fingernail on the tabletop. “Have you got evidence that it was Mr. Truelove that wiped this footage?”
“None beyond what our analysts have termed a ‘digital signature’, which they attribute to Mr. Truelove, though it is far from proof.”
“Then perhaps you would like to get to the point,” Kelly said levelly.
“My point is to raise the question as to whether Mr. Truelove is wary, ashamed even, of his relationship, if he felt the need to erase evidence of it?”
“You don’t know that it was what was erased,” Kelly said, his face blank.
“The time and date of the missing footage are telling,” Harrison returned. “But that is not what we’re here to prove. I’m merely trying to ascertain whether this is an abusive situation or not.”
“It isn’t,” Jesse insisted.
“He’s your employer,” Harrison said levelly. “Controls your pay. Your living circumstances. You can see why we would be wary.”
“He’s good to me,” Jesse said firmly. “Too bloody good.”
“How so?”
Jesse swore under his breath. He dropped his gaze to the table. “I haven’t had anyone treat me like this before. He makes me feel… I dunno.” He shifted in his seat.
“Please be frank,” Harrison insisted. “It is important the judge gets a clear picture of the situation.”
Jesse clenched his teeth. “He makes me feel special, all right?” he said, his face heating. “Makes me feel like I actually matter—that what I want matters and that I’m not a freak for wanting it.”
Harrison referred to his notes. “So now we come to it.” He twiddled his thumbs. “How wouldyoudescribe Baron Von Magnusson’s relationship with Dimity Hawthorn?”
“He’s crazy about her,” Jesse said vehemently. “Loves her to pieces. She is literally everything to him.”
“So you would say the baron puts Dimity first?” Harrison continued, still looking at Jesse. “In everything?”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “And before you try to trick me into saying that pisses me off, it doesn’t. That’s as it should be.”
“Could you expand, Mr. Truelove?”
“The kid comes first,” he said, “before everything else—before anything you want…need. Before you deal with your shit, you deal with theirs. That’s the goddamn rules.”
Harrison regarded him steadily. “And the baron does this?”
“Every time.”
“And how would you say kidnapping her from her aunt’s house in the middle of the night was putting Dimity’s needs before his own?”
“Mr. Truelove will not be answering any questions about December twenty-fourth,” Kelly said.
“Oh?” Ivor said, wrinkling his high forehead as he raised bushy eyebrows. “That’s very interesting.”
“How Miss Hawthorn came to be restored to her adopted guardian has already been reviewed by the judge and ruled on,” Kelly said, his voice never wavering. “It is not the subject of this deposition.”
