Page 107 of More Than Chemical
“Ms. Burch.” The prosecutor’s tone sharpened. “Explain to me about a call that you received one week later.”
Melanie sat up straight. “Yes. I received a call from a representative at Achilles Incorporated.”
“And what did this representative say to you?”
Melanie scooted closer to the microphone. “He understood how little funding there is for college cheer teams. He said they would be happy to make a financial pledge to my hockey cheer squad as long as some particular people made the team.”
Suddenly, my ears became hypersensitive. Black spots appeared in my vision.
“Can you please tell us who those people were?”
“Well, I shouldn’t say ‘people’ in the plural. It was really one person.”
“Who?”
“Coach Bianchini’s daughter.”
This was craziness. Lunacy. I had never ever wanted to become a cheerleader, let alone try out for the team.
“Did you receive any of this money from Achilles Incorporated?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I assume because the investigation broke before they could send any money.”
Crap. That sounded terrible. It sounded like all my dad did was direct bribes at people. I eyed Gray, but he was just sitting there, observing.
He needed to fix this.
I grabbed my bag and fished out a pen and a scrap of paper. I wrote on it as quickly as I could.
“Thank you, Ms. Burch. I have nothing more.” The prosecutor returned to her chair.
Gray stood and turned toward us while he buttoned his jacket. I leaned forward and handed him my note.
He narrowed his eyes but took it and read it. He looked back at me once before stepping out from behind the table to move to the podium.
“Ms. Burch, you said that this message came to you in an inquiry. What does that mean?”
“It means that Coach Bianchini was on our cheer home page and filled out a form that gets sent to my inbox.”
“So, this message did not come from, say, his personal or university email?”
“No.”
“How can you verify that Mr. Bianchini submitted the message?”
“Because he signed his name to it.”
“But couldn’t someone else have sent the message and put his name on it?”
“I suppose, but I don’t know why they would.”
Gray paused, looking straight at the jury and letting her words sink in.
“Okay,” he continued. “You also said that you sent Mr. Bianchini a link after you received the message. How did you do that?”
