A Fine Line by Gale Deitch

Author:Gale Deitch [Deitch, Gale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Ally’s hearing was set for three o’clock, so I headed to the courthouse. On the way, I stopped at Ally’s condo and packed her overnight bag with a few necessities--cosmetics, assorted toiletries, and an extra outfit. Hopefully, the judge would release her on bond, and we’d be able to get her home today. At least, that was Alan’s expectation since Mrs. Schwartz was prepared to pay the bail cost, no matter how high it was. Still, I worried that she would be incarcerated until her trial date. Either way, she was going to need my support.

I slipped into the courtroom and sat behind Alan at the defense table. He turned and threw me that same wide smile, which put my anxiety to rest.

Daniel and Will sat behind the prosecutor’s table. Daniel glanced my way, his eyebrows knitted together, as if asking for forgiveness. I knew he was doing his job, following protocol, but I still couldn’t get over the fact that he had arrested Ally. I turned away.

A few minutes later, a guard escorted Ally into the room. The orange jump suit she wore gave her complexion a sallow appearance. Her hands were cuffed in front of her, and she kept her head down. It enraged me that she’d been put through this degradation and humiliation. She didn’t deserve this treatment.

Alan stood and helped seat her beside him. I tried to catch her eye to reassure her, but she kept her head bowed until the judge entered the courtroom and the bailiff announced, “All rise.”

From his bench, the judge surveyed the room, then perused the papers in front of him. “In the case of the People versus Allison Schwartz,” he said, “how do you plead?”

“Not guilty,” Ally said in a voice that was barely a whisper.

“Please repeat that so that the Clerk can hear you.”

Ally lifted her chin. “Not guilty,” she said with conviction in her voice.

The judge turned to the District Attorney’s table. “What say the prosecution?”

The female prosecutor stood tall and slim in a charcoal gray fitted dress, her dark hair pulled into a tight bun. “Your Honor,” she said. “The evidence clearly points to the defendant as the perpetrator of a gruesome murder. Opportunity and motive have been confirmed, and her DNA has been identified on the murder weapon. We deem the defendant a danger to the community and ask that she be incarcerated while awaiting trial.”

“Your Honor,” Alan said. “Ms. Schwartz is an upstanding member of the business community and has no criminal record. At trial, the defense will prove that she in fact did not know the victim and could not have committed this heinous crime.”

The judge peered over his reading glasses at Ally. Swallowed up by the baggy jumpsuit, she appeared tiny standing next to Alan. I noticed a little sparkle in the judge’s eyes, his graying hair and frameless glasses giving him the appearance of a kindly old uncle. To any objective bystander, the thought of this petite young woman being deemed a danger to the community seemed laughable, and I sensed that impression in the judge’s eyes.

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