Chapter 10October 7th
“This is incredibly unorthodox,” the judge said after we had all been asked to rise and sit again. My mother was a sturdy presence by my side, but my father was shaking like a leaf. I put my hand over his and squeezed it gently, feeling under my fingers the knobby bones forged from a lifetime of typing up reports.
“I am aware, Your Honor,” said the defense lawyer, tucking her long hair behind her ears and then shuffling some papers on the desk in front of her. “But there are extenuating circumstances that cannot be overlooked in this case.”
“All right, Mrs. Kovač, you have the floor.”
The judge was a broad-shouldered, soft-voiced old man with a short white beard and twinkling blues eyes. His name was Judge Theodore Sheridan, and he wouldn’t have looked out of plac
