The Littlest Prosecutor novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Witness

I stood there with my mouth open and nothing coming out.

The room was very big, and I was very small, and the whole long table looked at me.

Faye's eyes stayed on mine.

Somewhere behind me, a chair scraped.

Daddy walked up the length of the table.

He didn't ask anyone.

He didn't look at Grandpa, either.

He came and stood beside me with his arms down at his sides and his hands open, where I could see them.

"Your Honor," said Uncle Desmond. "The witness requests her father."

Grandpa looked at Daddy for a long moment.

"The witness may have him," he said. "He may not speak."

Daddy nodded.

I breathed in.

I looked at his hands, and then I looked across the table at the girl by the window.

She nodded at me, once, slowly.

"My name is Birdie Aldridge," I said.

My voice shook, and it was loud enough.

"I'm six. I remember everything."

"Tell the court," said Uncle Desmond gently, "what happened in the upstairs hallway on Friday at 4:10 in the afternoon."

"Faye took my candy and threw it on the floor."

"What did she say?"

I looked at Faye.

I made myself do it.

Her smile was gone, and what was under it was just a face, with a mouth that was a little too thin.

"She said, 'Who's going to believe a freak who can't even talk?'"

At the other end of the table, Faye's mother went very still.

"What happened then?"

"The bathroom."

"And the nails?"

"Four. The curved side faced my thumb."

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