The Littlest Prosecutor novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Guilty

Daddy did not sit down.

He stood beside me in the middle of the room, and he looked at the old judge at the end of the table.

"I'm ready, Dad," he said.

"The charge is not listening," said Grandpa. "Seven counts. How do you plead?"

Daddy turned.

He didn't face the judge.

He faced me, and he faced the long table, and Faye's mother, and the girl in the green coat.

"Guilty," he said.

His voice cracked.

He swallowed and said it again, louder.

"Guilty on all seven."

"Counsel for the defense," said Grandpa. "Do you wish to say anything in mitigation?"

"I have no counsel," said Daddy. "I don't want any."

He took a breath.

"Seven times she came to me, and seven times I told her to be nice to the woman who was hurting her."

"I said it because it was easier than looking."

"She was four when her mother died."

"She has been shouting in the only way she could for months, with stickers and crayons, and I was in the next room."

He stopped.

The room was so quiet I heard the radiator knock.

"I'm not asking to be forgiven," he said. "I know it isn't mine to ask for."

"I'd like to say what I've done, and what I'm going to do, and then I'd like the court to tell me what else."

"Go on," said Grandpa.

"I gave up the Denver trial yesterday," said Daddy. "Two years of work. It's gone."

"I've told the firm I'm moving to the Hartford office, and I'll be home by six every night. If that costs me the partnership, it costs me."

He turned his head.

"Desmond. Do you have the papers?"

Uncle Desmond blinked.

"What papers?"

"The ones you've had in your briefcase since Thursday," said Daddy. "I saw the corner of the envelope."

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