Emily fiddled with the beaded bracelet on her wrist Miss Jelly had given her for her birthday, as Valerie prepped her for the day. She’d found it in her bedside drawer, and even though it was childish, it felt lucky. After yesterday’s witness questioning with Topper, Chuck, and Hannah, today seemed like it’d be somewhat of an emotional break.
“First thing we have this morning is a review of the security cameras that have finally come in.” Valerie stood in front of Emily with her arms crossed, clenching her jaw so tightly, Emily wondered if she’d crack a tooth. She blinked hard and waited for her to continue.
“After that, we have our two character witnesses: Steph and Miss Jelly. I think they’ll be great on the stand, since they both spoke so highly of you to me when I met with them.”
Emily turned her head and stared down at the table, not knowing what to do with this information. She wasn’t used to hearing good things about herself, especially in the past couple of months. “Okay, sounds good,” she said, wondering why Valerie was still hovering over her.
“Is there . . . something you want to tell me about the cameras? Something I might have been surprised to find on them?”
Emily swallowed hard. How much had the cameras recorded? She thought she’d done a pretty decent job staying out of their view. She watched as Valerie reached over and grabbed her coffee, which reeked of burnt hazelnut. Emily swallowed the bile building up in her throat from the smell and reached down in her purse for a Valium, not caring that she was blatantly taking it in front of her lawyer. She slipped the pill into her mouth before cracking open the small can of ginger ale in front of her. Bouncing her knees rapidly she replied, “Did they see me sneaking out or something? What did it record? Why don’t you just tell me?”
Valerie’s nostrils flared and Emily gripped the sides of her chair tightly, not prepared for what was coming.
“What the actual fuck, Emily?” Valerie shouted as she paced back and forth in front of her. Emily glanced down at her hands and started to pick at the cuticle on her thumb until it began to bleed. “Why didn’t you tell me you slept over at the Thomases’ house alone?”
Emily’s eyes widened. She’d forgotten the footage was going back that far. She was so sure they’d only show the night of the incident. She should have told Valerie everything.
“I didn’t realize the footage would go back that far,” Emily explained, defensively. “We were at a party, and Hannah left me there and I didn’t have a ride home. Hannah texted Mr. Thomas and asked him to drive me home, but he took me there instead. I don’t know why. I didn’t wanna go there.” Emily looked down shamefully before taking a sip of the ginger ale. “Look, I’ll explain everything to you, but not today. If you want to know what happened with everything, put me on the stand tomorrow. Forget about Steph and Miss Jelly. They can say the kindest things in the whole entire world and that won’t make a difference. I need to tell the jury my side of the story. I’m certain if they just hear what I have to say, they’ll understand that it’s not my fault that family died. You just have to give me a chance. Please, Valerie. Let me testify tomorrow.” Emily didn’t know exactly what she was going to say to the jury. All she knew was that she never intended for that family to die.
Emily imagined herself sitting in front of everyone in the courtroom to testify. She imagined herself barfing all over Judge Wilson. She imagined herself blurting out, “It’s all my fault!” She imagined herself fainting, cracking her skull open and dying right then and there. Maybe all of those things would happen or maybe none of them would. Maybe she’d be able to defend herself. Maybe she’d be able to explain to the jury that none of this was intentional. That she was not a murderer. That she was a good person. A good person who made one bad decision.
“Hell, no,” Valerie said abruptly. “That’s going to throw the whole trial away. I told you before, no one does that, Emily.”
Emily took another sip of her ginger ale and stared at her lawyer intently. “But I want to. I think I could do a decent job defending myself and explain why I did what I did. I’m tired of listening to what people tell me to do. The last time I did that, when Hannah told me to sneak out of the house, look what happened. I have to go with my gut. And my gut is telling me to testify.”
“Bad idea, Emily. No,” Valerie demanded. Just then, Emily heard a knock on the door and an officer entered.
“Five minutes, ladies,” he announced, quietly shutting the door behind him.
“I’ll see you in there.” Valerie quickly packed up her things and marched out the door without saying another word.
Emily glanced around at the empty room and felt her head start to weigh down with the Valium she’d swallowed. She’d also taken two that morning with a sip of her mom’s coffee laced with Bailey’s, but it hadn’t done much. Am I becoming dependent on them like my mom is? she wondered before shaking the idea from her head. I just need to get through this trial and then I won’t take one ever again. She grabbed a mint from her purse and popped it into her mouth to help with her nausea before heading into the courtroom.
As she walked to her seat, she tried not to sway as she felt all eyes on her. Lifting her head, she noticed a TV screen in front of the jury. That must be where they’ll show the footage of the security cameras. She felt a wave of panic begin to wash over her, knowing what they’d find on the cameras. She leaned over and whispered, “I really want to testify.” Valerie didn’t acknowledge her at first, but then gave the slightest shake of her head as she directed her attention to Judge Wilson.
Emily peered at Nate, her mom, Steph, Miss Jelly, and Charlie whispering to one another behind her. She wished she could talk to Nate about testifying. She needed someone to advocate for her and didn’t want Valerie to be the one making decisions.
As the jury was being called into the room and sworn in, she reached over and grabbed Valerie’s pen from the table in front of her. She scribbled on the notepad, “I want to testify.”
Valerie picked up the pen and wrote next to it, “NO.” Then she put the pen in her blazer pocket, not giving Emily the chance to write back. Emily gave her a glare and crossed her arms in front of her.
“The people call Tyler Pratt, Your Honor.”
A burly man wearing a navy blue uniform with the label Homes 4 U Safe Security on the chest was sworn in as Emily turned her head back toward Nate again. He tilted his head and furrowed his brow, seemingly curious as to why she kept glancing at him. Her palms were sweating badly so she wiped them on her legs and lowered her head to the floor.
“Hello, Mr. Pratt. Can you tell me where you work?” Mindy began as she rubbed her hands together and approached the stand. Emily noticed that Mindy had a slight smirk on her face. Probably because she already knows what’s on the tapes. She knows, and I know, and soon everyone else in this room will know. Emily felt bile rising in her throat.
“Home 4 U Safe Security, ma’am.”
“And it’s my understanding that your company provided the security cameras for Mr. and Mrs. Thomas at 1428 Oak Hill Road. Is that correct?”
“That’s correct.” Emily watched as he leaned back in his seat, practically taking up the entire witness stand with his body.
“And you have the footage here from the evening of November 9, 2018, is that correct?”
“That’s correct, ma’am. We have the twenty-four-hour footage recorded and I’ve submitted it to the court.”
Mindy took a remote out of her pocket and clicked on the TV. It was already paused on a screen split in two: one from the doorbell camera and one from the garage motion camera.
“Can you tell me what views we’re seeing here before we review the tapes?” Mindy asked as she pointed toward the screen.
“Yes, ma’am. The screen on the left is the doorbell camera. This camera is installed to the right of the front door of the house, and it records anytime anyone rings the doorbell or if it detects motion up to thirty feet away. The screen on the right is the garage motion camera. This detects and records any motion up to thirty feet away as well.”
“Thank you, Mr. Pratt. I’m going to hand over the remote to you now so you can navigate the footage for us since I’m a novice at this.” Mindy grinned and walked over to Tyler, handing him the remote. Tyler grabbed it from her and leaned over so he could see the TV. “Can you play for us what footage the camera got at 3:58 p.m. on the evening of November 9, 2018?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tyler directed the remote toward the TV and pressed a button on it. Emily observed the fuzzy black-and-white screens as they showed her mom’s car pulling up to the house and Emily getting out of the car. She could feel herself blush as she scrutinized herself on the screen, a close-up of her face on the doorbell camera as she approached the front door and pressed the doorbell. The screen showed the tops of two little platinum heads open the door.
“Emawee!” a little voice echoed into the camera.
“Emawee!” another voice mimed right after. The screen displayed Emily shuffle past the camera before closing the door. Then it was silent. It was an out-of-body experience, sitting right there, in plain sight, while everyone in the courtroom watched her on the screen.
“Emawee,” Sophie whispered in her ear. Emily could feel the girls nuzzling up to her legs. Could feel their soft cheeks resting against her arms. Sophie, Katie, Sophie, Katie. Emily bit her lip to cut the panic short. The bile was rising. Her palms were sweating. She wanted to leave the courtroom right then. Leave and run home and never come back.
“Thank you, Mr. Pratt. I’d like to point out to the jury we have the footage here that Emily Keller arrived at the Thomases’ house at approximately 3:58 p.m. and entered the house. We can see here that both girls were present and alive.” Mindy turned toward Tyler. “Can you please play for me the footage at 4:15 p.m.?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tyler clicked on a button as the screen fast-forwarded slightly and then he pressed another button, and it began to play. Emily viewed the TV as the front door opened, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas headed down the front steps toward their car. As they approached the yellow Mustang, Mr. Thomas slapped and then grabbed Mrs. Thomas’s butt before pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and lighting one up. Emily heard a few snickers from behind her in the courtroom. Seeing Mr. Thomas for the first time since she’d babysat made Emily feel like she was spinning. She shook her head so hard, her hair fell into her eyes. She felt Valerie’s hand rest on her back, stilling her. She hadn’t realized she’d been rocking.
“Thank you, Mr. Pratt.” Mindy faced the jury again. “And as you can see, the Thomases left their house at approximately 4:15 and were very much alive and well.” Mindy turned back toward Tyler. “Now, Mr. Pratt, can you please play the footage from 9:07 p.m.?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tyler fast-forwarded and clicked play. Emily stared at the blank, dark screens and saw and heard nothing but crickets. The courtroom was dead silent as everyone’s eyes stared at the screens. Then about a minute in, the screen on the right showed a slight movement in the left-hand corner.
“Stop!” Mindy yelled. Tyler scrambled with the remote in his hand and pressed “stop” quickly.
Mindy walked up and put her finger up to the image on the garage motion camera. It was a blurry image that could have easily been an animal or a person. “Mr. Pratt, can you tell me what you see here?”
Tyler cleared his throat. “It looks like the camera detected a motion at about 9:09. It must be right at thirty feet away and seems to be in the neighbor’s yard next to the Thomases’ house.”
“Thank you, Mr. Pratt. Can you now play the footage of 12:27 a.m.?” Tyler picked up the remote and fast-forwarded before pressing play. Emily stared as the same image in the same spot appeared and then disappeared from the screen quickly. “Stop!” Mindy yelled. “Can you rewind a little and pause it back on that image for me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The screen froze on the same blurry image that was there earlier.
“As you can see,” Mindy turned toward the jury, “it appears that at 9:09 and then 12:27 the same image was captured in the neighbor’s yard, indicating that Emily may have snuck out of the back of the house like she had done previously with Hannah and then came back that way. This indicates that she was out of the house for three hours and twenty minutes, leaving the children completely alone during that time. The house could have burned down, been robbed, or worse, been filled up with carbon monoxide during that time and Emily would have never known since she was out at a bonfire during those three precious hours.”
Emily tried to compose herself. She didn’t know how much longer she could sit through any more images of the Thomas family. Any images of the past. She wanted to crawl under the table. Run out of the room. Be anywhere but where she was.
“Now we could go back and look at all the footage of Emily and her friend Hannah sneaking out while they were babysitting, but we already know that Hannah Patterson has admitted guilt to that. What I’d like to play now is another piece of interesting footage that the security cameras caught in the early morning hours of October 20, 2018. Mr. Pratt, can you please play the footage from 1:15 a.m. on October 20, 2018?”
Emily balled her fists and sat on both of her hands. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” Mr. Thomas whispered in her ear. She bit down harder on her lip, tasting metallic saliva as she watched Tyler press play. The screen showed Mr. Thomas’s car pulling up to the house and he and Emily got out of his Mustang. Emily could see herself sway on the screen as she hobbled toward the front door and Mr. Thomas’s hand was on her back leading her there. The screen darkened as the door began to close and then Mr. Thomas’s voice came through: “You want a beer?”
Emily heard buzzing behind her and felt bile begin to rise in her throat. Before she could grab a mint from her purse to subside the nausea, she turned her head and threw up the ginger ale and Valium all over the floor.
“No further questions, Your Honor,” Mindy concluded, oblivious to the spectacle behind her.
Valerie let out a yelp and leapt up as she exclaimed to the judge, “Your Honor, the defense would like a recess!”