'Nope. She's making it real clear that it's nothing new and she knows
the only thing that's going to happen to her is mandatory counseling
that she'll never attend and assignment to a foster home that she'll
immediately run away from.'
'I don't see a lot we can do then, Tommy.'
'Agreed. I only called you because she brought up your name. As tough
as she's playing, I think she'd like to get out of it if she could do
it without any work on her part. She told me Kendra said the female DA
on her case was alright, and that if we had told her that day in
February that you were a friend of Kendra, she might not have been such
a bitch.'
'Did she say when she talked to Kendra?' I asked.
'Not exactly, but it sounded recent.' I knew I shouldn't have believed
Kendra when she said she hadn't been staying in touch with Haley.
'Anyway, since she brought up your name and is apparently hanging with
your vie again, I thought I should call you. You want me to cut her
loose?'
I thought about it. It would do Kendra some good to see the
consequences of the life she'd left behind. 'Screw her. Unless she's
willing to give us something useful for vice, put the case through.'
'I figured as much but thought it was your call. I'll give her my card
and tell her to call me if she wants to share any info?'
'Go ahead, but I don't see it happening.'
I had a hard time falling back asleep.
Nine.
The next day of trial continued uneventfully. Things move along
surprisingly smoothly when the defense never objects or cross-examines
your witnesses. Lisa's silence initially made me nervous, because I
suspected she was reserving the hardball for Kendra. I was wrong,
though.
After Jack Walker's testimony, Kendra took the stand and walked the
jury through her life story. Two female jurors wiped away tears when
Kendra talked about what Derringer had done to her.
To my surprise, Lisa took the high road on cross. She didn't roll
over, but she didn't rip Kendra apart, either.
The entirety of Lisa's cross focused on Kendra's heroin use; she did
not discuss prostitution activity at all. And even her questions about
the drugs did not seem like a character attack. Instead, she zeroed in
on the effects that heroin may have had upon Kendra's perceptions that
night. Even I had to admit that her questions were fair.
After Kendra testified, I called Andrea Martin to the stand, primarily
to humanize Kendra by showing the jury that she had a mother. Her
testimony, which was limited to Kendra's recovery, was uncontroversial,
and Lisa didn't cross-examine her. Andrea had to leave for work once
she left the stand, but Kendra stayed for the rest of the day.
Pleased that Kendra had testified with relatively minor trauma, Chuck,
Grace, and I took her to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner right after
court got out. Nothing tops a hard day's work like a big plate of
carbs followed by spumoni ice cream.
Most of the dinner conversation focused on the trial. Kendra wanted to
know how I thought it was going and what it meant that Lopez hadn't
been tougher on her. I tried not to get her hopes up, explaining that
the defense attorney appeared to be going through the motions so that
Derringer got a fair trial. I didn't voice my growing anxiety that
Lopez was hiding something up her sleeve.
'Well, I don't think there's anything fair about it. He gets to sit
there and glare at me while I have to talk to a bunch of old people I
don't know about what he did. It was really embarrassing for me, and
then he doesn't have to get up there at all. He just gets his fair
trial? What about mine?'
I wasn't going to try to defend the system on this one. 'You're right,
kiddo. The rules aren't always fair. But you're playing by them, and
I think things are going well. You did a great job today. I think
those old people who don't know you did know that you were telling the
truth.'
Kendra held my eye for a moment, but then turned her attention to
playing with her water glass. I was grateful when the waiter broke the
awkward silence to top off our coffees.
When he left, the silence returned, and Grace invited Kendra out to the
dock behind the Spaghetti Factory to look at boats. I considered
proposing that I take Kendra instead; I'd been wavering about whether
to broach the subject of her renewed contact with Haley Jameson,
despite my warning.
I thought better of it, remembering the summer that our fathers forbade
Grace and me from hanging around the school who recake Left to our own
devices, we would have tired of her in a couple of weeks. But parental
pressure backed us into a corner and we were stuck with helium heels
for months. Plus, right now Kendra saw me as part of a system that was
