Page 100 of Defend Me

“Do you have any reason to believe Mr. Patterson murdered your wife?” Von asks.

Russell straightens his back and looks me dead in the eye. “No, I do not,” he says firmly.

“Thank you,” Von says. “No further questions.”

Russell stalks off the stand as the judge declares a recess.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

VON

We step out of the courtroom and into a small chamber across the hall.

My father follows me and Noah inside as Grayson shuts the door behind us.

“What the hell was that?” he demands.

“That was a prosecutor trying to bait you,” I say.

Russell cracks his knuckles. “I’ll see to it he never gets elected in this county again.”

I have to bite my tongue not to remind my father thathewas the one who didn’t think he needed trial prep. “He may have drawn blood, but I think I staunched it.”

At least, I hope I did. I would feel better if the word “obsession” had never been mentioned at all.

Dad turns to Noah. “I don’t think you are obsessive. And I know you didn’t kill Marion. This whole thing is beyond absurd.” He shakes his head. “What is wrong with these people? I stillcan’t understand how John Briggs would be so quick to arrest you.”

Noah and I glance at each other. I know Noah is gung-ho on believing the sheriff did this, but I still can’t help but wonder: if the sheriff wanted to frame Noah for this murder, why not do a better job of it? Why not “find” the shell casing and have Noah arrested right away? Unless he knew that Noah had an alibi. But how could he know that?

My head spins and I know I need to stay focused on the task at hand: poking as many holes in the prosecution’s case as possible.

“Just keep coming to court, Dad,” I remind him. “The best thing we can do is show a united front. That the family believes in Noah’s innocence.”

Dad nods and stalks out of the room.

“How bad is it?” Noah asks grimly as I slump into a chair.

“Well, it’s not a great look,” Grayson admits. “But I don’t think it’s a lethal blow.”

“No,” I agree. “Hopefully Isla does better. Let’s just make sure the wordobsessivestays out of the general discourse from now on.”

The bailiff comes to get us. We head back to court and Wilbur calls Isla to the stand. She details how she found the shell casing under the bookcase in Mom’s pottery shed. Wilbur also asks her about the argument she overheard between Mom and the man we all now believe was stalking her, on the night of the anniversary party.

“And what did Marion say, exactly?” Wilbur asks.

“Something to the effect of ‘I told you to stop’ and ‘it’s not appropriate’.”

“Did you recognize the voice of the person she was arguing with?”

Isla shakes her head. “No. It was muffled through the door.”

When it’s my turn to question her, I ask, “How long have you been friends with Mr. Patterson?”

“Since elementary school.”

“So it’s safe to say you know his voice.”

“Yes,” Isla says. I know from our prep that Isla can’t say definitively that it wasn’t Noah talking to Mom, so I just leave it at that and move on.

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