Chương 4
Mara’s paralegal, Denise, labeled each device.
“Do you have passwords?” she asked.
Olivia nodded toward a notebook in the junk drawer. “Most of them.”
“Most?”
“There’s an old email account I can’t get into.”
“Write that down.”
“I don’t remember it.”
“Write down that you don’t remember it.”
Olivia gave her a tired look.
Denise shrugged. “That’s still information.”
Mason asked whether he could change out of his blazer.
Mara said, “Please.”
He disappeared into the bedroom. Ethan followed, but Olivia called his name.
He stopped in the hall.
She stood by the kitchen table while Denise sealed the cracked tablet.
“Did you use one of these?”
Mara looked up.
Olivia corrected herself. “Never mind.”
Ethan touched the knot of his tie.
“I used Dad’s computer.”
The room went still.
Mara set down her pen.
“I told you not to discuss the contents.”
“That’s not the contents.”
“It is related.”
“I don’t want you thinking Mom helped.”
Olivia’s eyes filled, but she blinked the tears away.
Mara pulled out a chair. “Sit down, Ethan.”
He sat.
“I’m going to ask only about how you created the copy, because opposing counsel will claim your mother did it. Do not tell me what the files say unless I ask. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“When did you access your father’s computer?”
“Last Saturday.”
“Where was it?”
“In his office.”
“Were you allowed in the office?”
“No.”
“Was the computer locked?”
“It was sleeping.”
“Did you know the password?”
Ethan hesitated.
“Tell the truth,” Olivia said.
Mara glanced at her, but did not object.
“I saw him type it before.”
“What was it?”
“His old building address and an exclamation point.”
Mara rubbed her forehead.
“Did you search through files?”
“I opened the recorder folder.”
“How did you know there was a recorder folder?”
“He made us use it.”
“For what?”
Ethan looked at her.
Mara sighed. “You can answer that.”
“To practice.”
“Practice what?”
“What to tell the evaluator.”
Olivia gripped the back of a chair.
Mara’s voice remained steady. “Did your father record those practices?”
“Yes. He said he needed to hear if we sounded natural.”
Denise stopped labeling.
“Did you copy the entire folder?” Mara asked.
“I tried. It said some files were too big, so I copied the ones with our names and the dates.”
“Did you listen to them first?”
“Some.”
“Did you change any files?”
“No.”
“Rename them?”
“No.”
“Open them in an editing program?”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Did you email them to anyone?”
“No.”
“Upload them?”
“No.”
“Did you create the USB yourself?”
“I got it from school.”
Olivia stared at him. “From whom?”
“Our library has a box of old ones for projects. Mrs. Patel said I could take one if I wiped it first.”
“Did you tell Mrs. Patel why you wanted it?”
“I said I needed to move a presentation.”
Mara wrote quickly.
“Did you wipe it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“The library computer had a format button. Mrs. Patel showed me last month.”
“Did she help you put these recordings on it?”
“No.”
“Did anyone?”
“No.”
“How did you get into your father’s office without being seen?”
Ethan glanced toward the bedroom.
Mason stood in the hallway wearing a dinosaur T-shirt and one sock.
“He was fighting with Savannah,” Ethan said. “Dad, I mean. Grandma took Mason downstairs because he was crying. Nobody was looking for me.”
Mason’s face flushed.
Olivia went to him. “You don’t have to listen.”
“I was crying because they were loud.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
He turned and went back into the bedroom.
Olivia remained in the hall.
Mara asked Ethan, “How long were you in the office?”
“Maybe four minutes.”
“Did you take anything else?”
“No.”
“Did you leave anything?”
“No.”
“Did you delete anything?”
“No.”
“Did you close the folder afterward?”
“I closed everything.”
“What did you do with the USB?”
“I put it in my sock.”
Denise looked down at the evidence bags. “That’s a first.”
Mara gave her a warning glance.
Ethan said, “I didn’t have pockets. I was wearing pajamas.”
“Did anyone see it after that?”
“Mason saw me move it into my backpack.”
“Did you tell him what it was?”
“I said it was for court.”
“Anything else?”
“No.”
Mara stopped writing.
“What made you decide to bring it into the courtroom instead of giving it to your mother or me?”
Ethan rubbed his thumbnail against the tablecloth.
“Dad said lawyers can make anything disappear.”
Olivia sat across from him.
“When did he say that?”
“Not to me. To Grandma.”
“Where?”
“In the kitchen.”
“What were they talking about?”
Mara held up a hand. “We’re moving into content again.”
Ethan looked at the sealed devices.
“He said if Mom tried to use our words, his lawyers would make them disappear. So I thought if everybody saw the drive before he knew about it, he couldn’t.”
Olivia bowed her head.
Ethan watched her hair fall forward. “I wasn’t trying to hide it from you forever.”
“How long were you planning to hide it?”
“Until today.”
“That is forever when you’re your mother.”
“I thought you’d tell Mara.”
“I would have.”
“And Mara would tell the court.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad’s lawyers would find out before the judge saw it.”
Mara leaned back.
The boy’s logic was incomplete. It was also difficult to dismiss.
Olivia wiped beneath one eye with her thumb.
“Your father should never have made you think like that.”
Ethan said nothing.
She looked at Mara. “Neither should I.”
Mara closed the legal pad. “We need to stop. The guardian ad litem will conduct the proper interview.”
“What happens now?” Olivia asked.
“Now we document the acquisition. We notify the forensic analyst. We request temporary sole physical custody pending the report. And we prepare for Jonathan’s attorneys to attack every part of this.”
“He recorded children rehearsing lies.”
“We have Ethan’s description. We don’t yet have an authenticated recording.”
“You believe him.”
“Yes.”
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“But?”
“But court is built around what can be established, not what I feel.”
