all rise

[self_composed]

No plea bargain is struck. The jury is picked, and Lucinda asks a few random ones whether they have accepted bribes and sees who looks nervous: no one, as it turns out, so she strikes people who are too young to have children and one fellow who looks like he hates the entire world for her picks. Paul strikes a grandmotherly type and someone who admits when asked that they don't think much of rich people.

"All rise," comes the command as Judge Roberts walks in.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

"My husband had already demonstrated that he was violent and controlling," she says. "I was afraid to do anything that contradicted his wishes."

[I'm not,] says Alice. His mental voice is quite cheerful.

[self_composed]

"Oh," says Paul. He closes his eyes for a moment. "And... no further questions."

[He's probably going to get fired or something unless he's got one hell of a track record,] Bella says as Paul sits down.

[edgeofyourseat]

[Watch me care,] says Alice, not caring.

[self_composed]

Lucinda calls up Bella, and Bella limps to the front of the room.

Swearing in, blah, blah.

"Please tell us about how you came to help Laney with the documentation," Lucinda invites.

Bella says, "I suspected from only a day or two after I first met Laney [sorry, Alice] that at least one of his parents was hitting him - mostly just a hunch, I have pretty good instincts, and there wasn't any other obvious reason for him to have been in the hospital in November. I didn't know for sure if it was one or the other or both until I went over to his house and I met them, and watched how Laney was around them. After that he pretty much admitted it - he was covering for his dad, before. And after Laney met my dad, he was willing to trust that nothing awful would happen if he told - if he stopped covering for the abuse. So he rattled off everything that had ever happened - I didn't even know he had an eidetic memory before that. And I took it down for him while he dictated so he wouldn't have to. And so it'd be organized."

[edgeofyourseat]

['Sokay,] he says fondly.

[self_composed]

"Besides Laney's say-so, what led you to believe that his father was an abuser?"

"Well," Bella says. "His entire demeanor is one of someone who might snap at any minute. He was constantly, relentlessly fault-finding, about everything from the fact that Laney had me over - with his mom's permission - to neglecting to put down the piano key cover."

[edgeofyourseat]

Not gonna bring up the fornication, is she? Probably a good plan.

[self_composed]

[Right. I don't see how that could possibly help.]

Lucinda's done here. Paul wobbles up.

"Why didn't you tell a father - your cop - your father who is a cop - as soon as you were sure?" he asks, waving a finger accusingly.

"I didn't want to put Laney in danger," Bella says. "If Laney didn't want to risk testifying or something like that, and had to go home to his father, he could have ended up worse off than before. I did repeatedly try to convince him to cooperate with telling my dad, though."

[edgeofyourseat]

[If I didn't know better I'd think he was drunk,] Alice marvels. [He's not drunk, is he?]

[self_composed]

[I don't think so. I think he's just terribly sleep deprived. I may have been dwelling too much on that particular avenue of bad luck when I issued the curse,] Bella muses.

"No questions," Paul says. "Further."

[edgeofyourseat]

[I love you,] says Alice.

[self_composed]

Bella doesn't smile, until she gets off the stand and makes it look like an encouraging face.

Other minor witnesses, including a medical expert to explain Alice's medical records and Hilary who didn't see anything but can testify that Mr. Hammond is a jerk and so on, are marched by.

Paul gets to call up Mr. Hammond, and does it.

"Describe in words of your own how you disciplined your kid. And why," Paul instructs.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Appropriately," says Mr. Hammond, flatly. "Junior has been a nuisance since he was born and a menace since he was ten."

[self_composed]

"A menace," says Paul. "How so?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"He breaks things. He gets in fights. He steals. He lies."

[self_composed]

"And he didn't stop any of that when he was sent to her room, or whatever," Paul says. He's making sense at the moment, if not in any polished way.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Of course not."

[self_composed]

"Did the things in the notebooks full of documents - documentation - happen the way they're written?" Paul asks next.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Well, I haven't read it," says Mr. Hammond, "but they came out of Junior's mouth, didn't they? So no."

[self_composed]

Paul nods, more times than makes sense, and then turns him over to Lucinda.

Lucinda's got her notes with her. "So," she says, "you're saying you deny the contents of the documentation - such as the incident of this past November, which put Laney in the hospital. What is your explanation for how his ribs were broken, Mr. Hammond?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"I don't want to know," he says contemptuously. "Wouldn't put it past him to have done it to himself."

[self_composed]

"It is the opinion of the medical expert we've just heard from that some other party would have had to inflict the injuries, Mr. Hammond. Are you yourself an expert in medicine?" Lucinda asks sweetly.

[edgeofyourseat]

"No."

[self_composed]

"So, with that ruled out, can you think of any means other than an assault by you that could have produced that particular injury?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Have you met the boy?" he asks incredulously. "He hasn't gone a month without brawling in God knows how long."