“Let’s say grace,” she said. “We don’t have to wait.”
When we were done thanking God for the meal, Nana Mama lifted the lid on the skillet. The smells that wafted up made me close my eyes and smile.
My grandmother said, “Tiger shrimp in fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, and it’s-a-secret.”
“Mmm, Nana,” Jannie said after taking her first bite. “What is that?”
“That’s the secret,” she said, smiling. “Good, isn’t it, Alex?”
“Amazing,” I said, but my mind was elsewhere.
“You don’t sound very amazed,” Nana Mama said.
I set my fork down. “It
’s delicious, Nana, really, but I think we all need to talk about what life will look like if I’m sent to prison.”
Nana Mama’s face fell. Bree grew distant. Jannie’s eyes welled with tears, and she said, “I don’t want to think about that, Dad. I—”
Ali came running into the kitchen. “Dad, you won’t believe it!”
My grandmother said, “Now is not a good time, Ali.”
My son stopped short. “But I—”
“Not now, Ali!” Jannie shouted, and she broke down in tears.
My father came in behind Ali and said to me, “You better listen to him, son.”
CHAPTER
77
LOOKING WEAK BUT determined, Judge Larch rapped her gavel and called the court to order at nine the next morning. Bree and my dad sat behind me. I’d been up until three a.m., had slept fitfully, and was feeling fuzzy and on edge from two cups of high-test Brazilian coffee.
Larch stared down through her thick lenses and said in a restrained voice, “Ms. Marley, have your analysts examined the videos?”
Looking chagrined, Anita said, “They agreed that they have not been tampered with digitally. The defense has no further objection to the videos.”
The judge seemed disappointed. Assistant U.S. attorney Nathan Wills was stone-faced but nodding his head and jiggling his knee, probably already working on his closing arguments in his mind.
“Mr. Wills?” Larch said.
“A moment, Your Honor,” the prosecutor said, then he leaned over to his assistant, Athena Carlisle, and whispered something in her ear.
Carlisle drew back with a startled expression and shook her head emphatically. Their conversation got heated, and then Wills stood up.
He glanced at his scowling assistant and threw back his shoulders, which thrust his belly forward against his starched white shirt.
“The People rest, Your Honor.”
That surprised me and it didn’t. According to the witness list Wills and Carlisle had provided, there were six or seven more people slated to appear, mostly to testify about ballistics and other basic crime scene evidence. But why bother when the videos were legitimate?
“Ms. Marley,” the judge said. “You’re up.”
Anita had evidently been half expecting the prosecution to rest as well, because without hesitation, she said, “Defense calls Kimiko Binx for cross.”
Binx came forward wearing black slacks, black pumps, a black blouse with a high collar, and costume pearls. I got the distinct feeling she was more concerned about her appearance than about facing the formidable Anita Marley.