Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Author:Jodi Picoult
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3, pdf
Tags: Literary, Psychological fiction, Bullying, Small town life, Trials, Sibling rivalry, High school students, Legal stories, High school students - Crimes against, General, Psychological, American, New Hampshire, Legal, School shootings, Fiction - General, American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +, Lawyers, Fiction, Women judges, Seventeen-year-old boys
ISBN: 9780743496735
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2008-02-05T18:07:15.398000+00:00

“But then you’d still have Joey,” Peter said. “And none of this would have happened.”

She thought of Janet Isinghoff, the woman who had not wanted her as a midwife. Part of growing up was learning not to be quite that honest-learning when it was better to lie, rather than hurt someone with the truth. It was why Lacy came to these visits with a smile stretched like a Halloween mask over her face, when in reality, she wanted to break down sobbing every time she saw Peter being led into the visitation room by a correctional officer. It was why she was talking about camp and stuffed animals-the hallmarks of the son she remembered-instead of discovering who he had become. But Peter had never learned how to say one thing when he meant another. It was one of the reasons he’d been hurt so many times.

“It would be a happy ending,” Peter said.

Lacy drew in a breath. “Not if you weren’t here.”

Peter looked at her for a long moment. “You’re lying,” he said-not angry, not accusing. Just as if he was stating the facts, in a way that she wasn’t.

“I am not-”

“You can say it a million times, but that doesn’t make it any more true.” Peter smiled then, so guileless that Lacy felt it smart like a stripe from a whip. “You might be able to fool Dad, and the cops, and anyone else who’ll listen,” he said. “You just can’t fool another liar.”

By the time Diana reached the docket board to check which judge was sitting on the Houghton arraignment, Jordan McAfee was already standing there. Diana hated him on principle, because he hadn’t ripped two pairs of stockings trying to get them on, because he wasn’t having a bad hair day, because he didn’t seem to be the least bit ruffled about the fact that half the town of Sterling was on the front steps of the courthouse, demanding blood. “Morning,” he said, not even glancing at her.

Diana didn’t answer. Instead, her mouth dropped open as she read the name of the judge sitting on the case. “I think there’s a mistake,” she said to the clerk.

The clerk glanced over her shoulder at the docket board. “Judge Cormier’s sitting this morning.”

“On the Houghton case? Are you kidding me?”

The clerk shook her head. “Nope.”

“But her daughter-” Diana snapped her mouth shut, her thoughts reeling. “We need to have a chambers conference with the judge before the arraignment.”

The moment the clerk was gone, Diana faced Jordan. “What the hell is Cormier thinking?”

It wasn’t often that Jordan got to see Diana Leven sweat, and frankly, it was entertaining. To be honest, Jordan had been just as shocked to see Cormier’s name on the docket board as the prosecutor had been, but he wasn’t about to tell Diana. Not tipping his hand was the only advantage he had right now, because frankly, his case wasn’t worth anything.

Diana frowned. “Didn’t you expect her to-”

The clerk reappeared. Jordan got a kick out of

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