Chapter 18: On the Record

I spent three days in the Sequoyah County jail, and Levi did not visit once.

I told myself he had good reasons.

I told myself he was in Nevada with his sister.

A man who has just found the girl he spent twenty years looking for does not need to drive to Oklahoma.

Not for the one who lost her.

He had needed me to get to her.

Now he had her.

That was the whole truth, and I had known it from the first day, so I did not cry about it.

On the fourth morning they walked me into the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit, with my hands in front of me.

The benches were full.

I saw Lorna in the second row, in her good blue coat, and next to her a woman with strawberry-blonde hair cut at the chin.

Cassidy had flown in.

Behind them sat reporters, and in the last row, the church ladies from the bake sale, with their purses on their knees.

The prosecutor held up the ledger.

"Your Honor, the state asks that the defendant be held without bond," he said.

"Six pages with her initials on them, and a bank slip with her signature."

"That signature is forged," said my public defender weakly. He was twenty-eight and had met me twice.

"Your Honor," the prosecutor said. "She has no ties here."

The judge, a gray woman in half glasses, looked at me for a long time.

She was about to speak when the back doors opened.

Levi walked down the center aisle in a gray suit I had never seen, with a cardboard box under one arm.

He had not shaved.

He went straight to the rail and stopped, and the bailiff stepped toward him.

"Your Honor, I'm a witness," Levi said. "I'd like to be heard."

"Mr. Devaney." The judge peered at him. "I understand you've been suspended from your department."

"Yes, ma'am. My chief ordered me to stay away from this case. I'm saying that out loud so nobody can say later that anyone covered it up."

A murmur ran through the benches.

"Take the stand," the judge said.

He set the box on the rail and took the oath.

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