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“And the results of the drug tests?”
Sharon Lawrence nodded feebly.
“Did Coach Stefan Tate drug and rape you?”
The girl said nothing for several long moments. Her lips trembled, and she looked out at her mother and then at Stefan Tate.
“No,” she whispered as tears poured down her face. “It was all a lie.”
Part Five
Justice
Chapter
94
The courtroom erupted. My cousin put his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking. Judge Varney looked bewildered as he gaveled the court silent. Stefan picked up his head and looked at his mother and then Patty Converse. For the first time in days, I saw hope in Patty’s face.
“Ms. Lawrence,” the judge said. “You understand you have admitted to committing perjury under oath?”
She nodded, sobbed. “Am I going to jail?”
Varney said nothing. A second went by, and then another.
Naomi said, “Not if you tell the court the truth.”
The judge looked annoyed at Naomi, then glanced out into the audience before saying, “Yes, the truth will help.”
Naomi got a Kleenex and handed it to Sharon Lawrence, waited for her to regain her composure.
“Why did you lie?” Naomi asked.
Shoulders hunched forward, she replied, “It was like you said. We, my mom and me, we don’t have much. Finn said he’d make sure we had enough if I accused Coach Tate of raping me.”
“The late Finn Davis?” Naomi asked.
“Yes.”
“Adopted son of your uncle Marvin Bell?”
“Yes.”
“Knew it,” Pinkie whispered behind me.
“How much did Finn Davis offer you and your mother to cry rape?”
Sharon Lawrence glanced at her mother. Ann Lawrence stared at her hands on her lap as if they were deep, dark holes.
“Six thousand dollars a month for the rest of my mom’s life,” Sharon Lawrence choked. “Don’t you see? It saved her. That’s why I did it.”
Ann Lawrence burst into tears and hid her face in her hands.
“Why did Finn Davis want you to accuse Coach Tate of rape?”
Sharon Lawrence said, “I don’t know. He said he wanted to make sure Coach Tate was punished for what he’d done.”
“Did Finn Davis provide the semen that went in your panties?”
