# THOMPSON-HAYES: THE INSIDE OUT
## Chapter Thirty — Patricia Takes the Stand
Patricia's federal grand jury testimony was the week after Washington.
Not public — not in the subcommittee chamber with cameras and senators. A federal building in Austin, a conference room, a court reporter, the federal prosecutor assigned to the Ashby case, and Patricia Cole in a blue blazer sitting across from all of it with the specific composure of a woman who had been preparing for this for four months and had arrived at the point where preparation was complete and what was left was simply the saying of it.
Mia was not there.
She found out how it went from Patricia herself, who called at 6 p.m. on a Thursday and said: "It's done. Do you have time to talk?"
She was in her classroom finishing end-of-da
