Chapter 15: The Hearing

The hearing was on Wednesday morning, in a courtroom with no windows and a clock that ran four minutes slow.

The white-haired director's office had called mine on Friday about the trust accounts.

Lorna had told the board they would come after the hearing, and my lawyer had the photocopies in her folder anyway.

Alasdair sat in the second row of the gallery, behind my table.

Behind Lorna's table, in the front row, sat Iris in a gray coat, with her hands folded in her lap.

She didn't look at me.

Lorna's lawyer was a tall woman in a charcoal suit, not the man from the harbor view.

She stood up and spoke for twenty minutes without once raising her voice.

"Your Honor, Mr. VanBuren signed the petition on the night of his brother's funeral. He had buried a sibling that day."

"His mother struck a woman in the church, and he took the second blow himself," the judge said. "Go on."

"He was in shock, Your Honor. Dr. Wrenfield told him the papers were house forms."

Lorna's lawyer turned a page.

"She chose that night because he was grieving, and she hid the petition on page six."

"And the relief you want?"

"That the decree be vacated for fraud, and for her adultery with Dr. Seidel."

My lawyer stood.

"Adultery is a ground for divorce, Your Honor. It isn't a ground for undoing one."

"I was going to say that," said the judge.

She wore reading glasses low on her nose and had not smiled once.

"Call your witness."

"The petitioner calls Colin VanBuren."

He walked to the stand in a dark suit.

He did not look at his mother, and he did not look at me.

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