Room 14's Secret novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Two Spoons

For a moment nobody in the courtroom made a sound.

Then everybody did.

The gallery broke into voices, and the judge's gavel came down three times before they stopped.

"Ms. Hendry," the judge said. "You will remain where you are."

Giselle had not moved from the front table.

She rose now with one hand on the back of her chair, and her face came apart in front of all of us.

I watched it happen and could not find the seam.

"Your Honor, I have to say something," she said. "I'm sorry it's so late."

"Say it."

"Quinton told me Leanne was dead." Her voice cracked. "I held him up at her memorial. I thought he was grieving."

She pressed a tissue to her mouth.

"For three months he asked me to make Melinda's tea when I visited. He said it was chamomile for her nerves."

"And you made it?"

"I put the cup in her hands." She was shaking now. "Oh, God. I put it in her hands."

The gallery murmured, and some of it was pity.

Leanne's rasp cut through it.

"You sat on my bed," she said. "You told me Quinton thought it was his idea."

Giselle turned to her, and her eyes were full of tenderness.

"Leanne, honey, you've been sedated for five years. You can't know what was a dream."

I saw the judge's pen stop.

Leanne saw it too, and her mouth closed.

That was the whole trick, and I had just watched it work.

"Bailiff," the judge said. "Bring Mr. Teel back in."

Quinton came through the side door without Posy.

He saw Leanne in front of the bench, and the courtroom watching him, and Giselle with her tissue.

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