Chapter 15: Public Seats

They let me wear my own coat into the county courtroom.

It was the same room as before, the same gray judge, and it was twice as full.

Terrence's people had come early.

Men from his roofing crews filled the back rows in clean shirts.

The women from the baseball booster club sat together near the aisle with their purses on their knees.

Three councilmen sat in a line with their arms folded.

Terrence stood at the front table with a white bandage across his nose and two black eyes coming up.

He looked like a man who had been wronged all week.

The deputy stood beside him.

I sat down at the defense table with my knuckles taped.

The lawyer from over the hardware store sat on my right, in the same brown suit, and leaned over to murmur.

"Don't talk unless she asks you something."

"Understood."

"Don't look at him."

"Understood."

Behind me, the benches creaked.

I did not need to turn around.

The men in leather had taken the left side again, with June at the end and Wick in the middle with his phone in a plastic bag on his knee.

Dane sat in the front row.

He had not slept.

I could tell by the back of his neck.

The judge put on her glasses.

"Mr. Kingswood," she said. "I granted an order against you six days ago. This morning I have a complaint that your wife struck you in a parking lot."

"She broke my nose, Your Honor."

"And the deputy's report says she approached you."

"That's right," the deputy said. "She walked up to him unprovoked, ma'am."

"At a motel," the judge said. "Two miles from the compound, where she was staying."

"Yes, ma'am."

"And your husband was there why, Mr. Kingswood?"

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