The United States Constitution prohibits a defendant from being tried in absentia, but my physical presence is almost a technicality. I’m ignored by the participants and powerless to interject. I might as well be a wax figure. But that’s going to be my life every time I set foot in a courtroom from here on out. Victims’ families sometimes made the same complaint to me, and I always told them not to worry because I was their voice. That makes LeMarcus Burrows my champion, but it doesn’t mean that I like what I just heard in there.

I know better than to have a discussion with my lawyer within anyone’s line of sight or hearing, especially with so many members of the press about. So I hold my tongue until we’re in the back seat of a taxi leaving the courthouse. We shouldn’t talk here either, because if the taxi driver were later subpoenaed, he could testify about what we discussed. Attorney-client privilege is broken by the presence of a third party, even one who is simply driving us from court to LeMarcus’s office. Still, good luck to Ella Broden or Gabriel ever finding Mr. Ram Furpah to get him on the witness stand.

“What happened with Ella Broden? You told me that you were going to move to disqualify her,” I say, not attempting to hide my displeasure.

“The early trial date wouldn’t have held if we switched prosecutors,” LeMarcus says calmly. “I know you’d prefer that the prosecutor not have a personal interest in the matter, but let me tell you something: every prosecutor will have a personal interest in this matter. Maybe he or she won’t be as close to Lauren as Ella was, but they’re going to want to string you up just as much, believe me on that. Now, I would have been more than happy to knock Ella off the case if there was no price to pay for it, but pushing back the trial date is the absolute worst thing that could happen to you, and that’s the only thing we’d get by disqualifying her. So it was a no-brainer to let that go.”

“December is too soon.”

LeMarcus looks up at the driver, who hasn’t moved his head. I’m sure he doesn’t have the slightest interest in our confidential communications.

“For the prosecution, it’s too soon,” LeMarcus says. “They’re not ready. For us, it’s a godsend.”

“It’s not all about trial strategy, LeMarcus. Trial on the fourteenth could mean I’m convicted and rotting in jail by Christmas. I want to spend Christmas with my son.”