“And five. I know for a fact Kelly had a stalker by the name of Jesse Hook who frequented her place of work just to get a glimpse of her.”

Sarah brings her hand back down and walks toward me. She gives me a look that I haven’t seen before. A look that says, You owe me for this because you don’t deserve it. She isn’t wrong. To tell the truth, I don’t know why she is helping me. But I do know without her, I might as well walk right to the electric chair.

“The prosecution believes Adam Morgan killed Kelly Summers. And beliefs are just that, beliefs. What we are looking for, what we need in a court of law, are facts. And I have just presented you with five things that I know to be facts, and I will happily add one more. Six. Adam Morgan did not kill Kelly Summers. Thank you.”

61. Sarah Morgan

61

Sarah Morgan

I was just packing to leave and go back to D.C. The trial ended yesterday as jury deliberations began. In cases like this, they can take weeks, especially with the death penalty on the line. I hear frantic pounding on my hotel room door. I open it without even checking the peephole and find Anne standing before me, panting and flushed red. I’m about to ask what she is doing here, why she is in the condition she is in, but she speaks first with sharp abruptness.

“The verdict is in,” she says out of breath.

“What? Already?”

She nods. “That’s not good, right?”

“No, not usually.” I grab my jacket and purse and bolt out the door, blowing past Anne. She follows me all the way down to my car and hops in the passenger seat as soon as I unlock the doors. Anne is back in my good graces. It took me a while to forgive her, for her to earn my trust back. But she did. She’s stuck with me through this whole trial, all the way up until the very end, which seems like it might be today.

“Are you okay?” Anne asks.

I look at her from the corner of my eye. My hands are grasping the steering wheel so tightly, my fingers are white. “I will be.”

“Regardless of how this turns out, you did everything you could.”

“Thank you for saying that, Anne.” I give her a small smile. She returns it and nods.

* * *

I don’t get ten feet into the courthouse before I run right into D.A. Josh Peters. It’s almost as if he was anticipating my arrival.