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.He spoke only to Daniel, who looked very solemn as heanswered monosyllabically."Well?" I asked, as he hung up."One of them came in," he said."But he won t testify unless he gets a chance to talk to me first."I bit my lip to keep from asking if I could be there, too.At this point, I felt like I ought to, but Ididn t want to push him."You should come," he said.I didn t realize it was that obvious that I wanted to, but I wasn t going to say no.When we got down to the station, I realized I was horribly nervous and I didn t know why.Ireached down and clasped Daniel s hand as we walked through the halls, and very briefly, I felt hisfingers squeeze mine.The man who was waiting for us in the interview room had sandy blond hair and tired eyes.Hedidn t look up, not even when Daniel s chair scraped loudly against the floor as he pulled it out to sit."Well," he said, after a moment of silence."They said you wanted to talk to me.Here I am."The man swallowed, audibly.He finally looked up."I m sorry," he said."I went over it in my head, a million times, but now I don t know what to sayanymore."Daniel s mouth twisted."Well, I m glad I came all the way down here."The man sighed, his head resting in his hands."I don t know.I don t know where to start, exactly.I got a phone call yesterday telling me I could be facing up to five years in federal prison, and then Idrove all night to get here.My head s not exactly& ""It s fine," said Daniel, flatly."It s going to be fine, all you have to do is tell them what youknow.""They re sending over a public defender," he said."After that, I ll figure out what I m going todo."Daniel drummed his fingers lightly on the table."It wasn t right, how we treated you," said the man, finally."I ve& I wish I could say I realized itright away, but it s been gradual.I think about it a lot.Especially lately.It s hard to even walk downthe street without seeing your name on some headline.""I m aware," said Daniel."I just thought you should know." He looked at the wall for a few moments."You know, if I dthought Jim was serious about this, I would have told him to leave you alone.But I had no idea.Ithought he was just& venting." He took a deep breath."But apparently, he was serious about it.Ididn t realize until he started asking me for money to help out with  the cause. That was what hecalled it.I explained to him that I was still paying off my student loans, and barely making my rentevery month, but I guess I should have told him what I was really thinking.A million times I rantedabout it to my wife, I told her how he needed to just let go, and leave you alone, but I never said it tohim.Maybe if I had& but that s not the point, I guess.I can do something about it now.I just wish ithadn t gone this far.""Well, you couldn t have known," I put in, since Daniel didn t seem like he was going to respondanytime soon.Silence reigned, for a few more minutes."Is that all?" Daniel said, finally."I just wanted you to know I m sorry," said the man."And I don t hold it against you."Daniel straightened, suddenly."Don t hold what against me?"The man looked up, blankly."I m sorry," he said."I shouldn t have brought it up."I looked over at Daniel; he waited for another moment, and then stood up abruptly and wenttowards the door.I followed him, glancing back at the other man as we left.But he didn t look up aswe left.He just kept staring at the table, his head in his hands."He feels bad," I said, when we were out in the car."Yes, well," said Daniel."Try as I might, I can t drum up too much sympathy."I knew he had a right to feel that way, but there was still something unsettled in the pit of mystomach.We came home to a notice on the door.They d tried to deliver a certified letter, somethingovernighted.Daniel hurried to the post office, and I stayed behind, updating Lindsey on everythingthat had happened.Daniel came back in a little while, with an expression on his face that looked like it might almostbecome a smile."They granted the petition," he said."I ve got a new judge."CHAPTER SIXTEEN"Congratulations, Danny.Have I said that enough times yet?" Lindsey was so excited she could hardlycontain herself."You know this means we have to start over completely, don't you?" said Daniel, but he wassmiling."I'm going to be up all night tomorrow working with my lawyer, we have to completely re-build the entire case and present the whole thing over again.This essentially resets the timetable.""But this time you have a judge who's not determined to crucify you," I said."And that makes allthe difference." So he d be working all night.The night of my showing.I had no idea why a feeling ofsick disappointment blossomed in my chest; I d already decided he wasn t invited."Do you really have to work all night? Can't it wait?" Lindsey wanted to know."The new judge is fitting me in starting next week," he said."And my lawyer's got cases bookedduring the day until then, so we have to work after-hours.Otherwise I'd have to wait for months andmonths to even get started.This whole thing has thrown the trial schedule for a loop.""Well, that's ridiculous," said Lindsey."Can you at least relax and celebrate tonight?""Maybe," he said."As long as 'celebrating' means takeout and beer in the kitchen.There'sabsolutely no way I'm subjecting myself to being in the public eye.""Okay, fair enough." Lindsey opened one of the kitchen drawers."I'll start digging for menus.""I can't believe you still have all those," I said, eyeing the massive stack of wrinkled paper thatLindsey pulled out of the drawer."You know it's all online now, right?""You say that," Daniel replied [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]