Katie’s throat worked.
“All the time. I told him Caroline had a right to leave if she wanted to. He hated that. He’d get quiet. Mean. Start saying nobody was taking his boy away from him.”
“Did he ever threaten you?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Her eyes flicked toward David, then away.
“He said if I kept pushing him, he’d do to me what he did to her.”
A rustle moved through the gallery.
“And when you asked what he meant?”
Katie’s voice roughened.
“He said, ‘I buried her.’”
Silence settled like dust across the room.
Reid let it hang for a beat, then stepped back half a pace.
“Ms. Martin,” he said, “why are you here today?”
She looked at the jurors, then down at her hands.
“Because I should’ve told someone a long time ago,” she said. “Because if I’d done the right thing back then, maybe… maybe this wouldn’t have gone on so long.”
Her throat worked.
“I can’t change what I didn’t do,” she said quietly. “But I can tell the truth now.”
Reid nodded once.
“No further questions at this time, Your Honor.”
He returned to the State’s table, face composed. His gaze brushed past Eleanor’s side of the room without lingering.
Judge Harlan looked toward the defense table.
“Ms. Harper?”
Eleanor rose, tightening her grip on her pen. Her knees felt looser than they should have. She walked to the lectern, every step measured.
Katie watched her with a wary, almost defiant look.
“Ms. Martin,” Eleanor began, her voice calm, “you and I have never met before today. Is that right?”
“Yes.”
“And you understand that my job is to ask you questions about your testimony.”
Katie nodded once.
“I get it.”
