After Everything You Did by Stephanie Sowden

Author:Stephanie Sowden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Six

Carol had stopped taking notes. She knew what Peter Crawley was going to say, even before he’d taken his spotlight. Closing arguments were not for new revelations; they were for posturing and summing up. Instead, her pen had scratched deep, shiny, black crevices into her notepad, an unconscious habit as he orated the case against her friend. It was a strong case, unbreakably so, and Carol had known that from the start. She’d never expected to be torn in two for the girl at the centre of it all, never thought her sympathies could take over her cold, professional reason.

She thought of Ben. They’d spoken only twice since their dinner a couple of months ago, after he’d taken the stand. He’d called to check in on her the day after the letters were first presented, and he’d called again last night.

‘Whatever happens, Carol,’ he’d told her gently, ‘don’t let it break you.’

She wondered what he’d think of her now, blocking out the attorney’s closing statement with harsh doodles, like a child not wanting to listen to its bedtime. Had she broken already?

With Ben’s words rattling her back to life, back to the present, she put down her pen and looked up at Crawley. He was gazing toward Reeta like a serpent about to strike. The letters were nothing new by this point, but this was Crawley’s chance to weave the story around them. To build his tale of what they meant.

‘We need to take it back,’ Crawley said, and Carol forced herself to concentrate. ‘For you have all seen the letters.’ He gestured casually to the jury. ‘You have copies of them in the jury packs, which you will take into deliberation with you today. We’ve heard from FBI Agents Benjamin Willow and Edward Stephens about the circumstances in which they came across these letters. But we need to know about their origin. What do they mean? You need that vital context to help you understand exactly their significance for justice to be done.’ His fist clapped into an open palm. ‘Who here is familiar with the story of Pine Ranch?’

There was a soft murmur from the jury as they half-heartedly answered, unsure if the question was rhetorical or not.

‘The agents have briefly touched on the context of the religious sect started by Lieutenant Roger Fry, or Brother Jeb as he renamed himself. Of course, this religious sect, or the man who started it, is not on trial here. But one of his followers is.’ He paced up in front of the jury again. ‘We have no way of truly knowing what life was like for Reeta Doe inside that compound. We do know that her days were built on prayer and labouring the land, which sounds like harmless prairie life.’ He smiled again, a soft laugh almost on his words. ‘But if that life turned us all into killers, well, our ancestors would never have made it west past Texas. This life must have been more than simple, modest existence.

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