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“No”
“I couldn’t keep this from her”
“I didn’t ask you to”
She didn’t see how she could say no It was so little to ask, and once she had an answer for hio God knew that would be best for Vivi Ann, for Noah And besides, she knew for a fact that Dallas wouldn’t go along with it “Fine I’ll read the article and look through the record But no promises”
He shtly she had to turn away Howto hurt the people who cared about him?
More firmly she said, “No promises”
A week later, as autumn leaves fell in a flurry outside her , Winona closed her office door, told Lisa to hold all her calls, and settled down to read the transcript she’d ordered Drawing the seventeen-hundred-page doculasses she’d recently begun to need and began the slow, arduous task of reading the testiiven at his trial
It was like opening a door on the past The words brought the whole experience back to her, the sensation of sitting there, hearing one da Vivi Ann try so hard to be strong, and listening to the prosecutor, so certain she had truth on her side of the courtroom
Winona didn’t need to take notes It was all exactly as she remembered—the foundation of Cat and Dallas’s friendship, the naïveté Vivi Ann showed in letting that relationship continue, the convenience of Dallas’s so-called fever hitting on the exact night Cat was murdered And then there was the forensic evidence apart from the DNA: the hairs found in Cat’s bed, erprints on the gun There had been no doubt left after all of that, reasonable or otherwise
Noah didn’t understand Dallas hadn’t been railroaded or subjected to prosecutorial misconduct or iuilty based on the totality of the evidence presented It wasn’t soe of justice It was a verdict rooted in fact, and of the evidence, certainly Myrtle’s eyewitness testi
Winona reread that section of the transcript, although she remembered it pretty clearly
HAMM: And where is the ice-creaan’s home?
MICHAELIAN: Down the alley You go right past us to get to her place
HAMM: Please speak up, Ms Michaelian
MICHAELIAN: Oh Yes Sorry