A Sounding Brass Read Free Page B

Eleanor Keaton—a woman, the D.A. had told him, who was particularly hard on sex
     offenders.
    The D.A.’s assistant stopped by the desk a second time and tapped her watch. “It’s time, Investigator.”
    He was one of the first witnesses on the schedule, so he hustled down the corridor that connected the county offices with
     the courthouse. It sported all of two courtrooms, one for municipal cases and one for superior court, housed in a modest brick
     building facing a green space that formed an old-fashioned town square.
    By nine-thirty he was sworn in and on the stand, with Judge Keaton on his right and a sea of people dressed in black in front
     of him. Tamara had told him the Elect dressed in black to symbolize the charred remains of the burned offering of their human
     nature. Weird. He wondered how many still supported their former leader, and how many were here to see him condemned, if that
     turned out to be the verdict.
    The accused, Philip Leslie, his spine straight and his face calm, sat at the defense table next to John Ortega, the public
     defender. Phinehas was dressed in a beautifully cut black wool suit. Ray suspected that none of the flock knew he would be
     strip-searched each time he changed into and out of it. For a man as fastidious as he’d learned Phinehas was, each time he
     had to submit to the search would be a fine kind of torture.
    Ray smiled inwardly.
    The D.A. ran Ray through his testimony with concise competence. Name, rank, and serial number. How long he’d been with the
     OCTF. The circumstances of the arrest. The contents of his depositions and the lab reports that had proven both Dinah Traynell
     and her younger sister’s child, Tamsen, were both the daughters of Phinehas. The D.A. sat alone at the plaintiff’s table;
     he’d remain alone until Tamara and Dinah were brought out of the private room in which they sat until it was their turn to
     testify. Personally, Ray was just as happy he didn’t have to watch the teenaged Tammy’s face from the stand. He didn’t want
     to give the impression he was emotionally involved.
    Because everyone else in the courtroom certainly seemed to be. Nobody talked, but the intensity of their gazes and their focus
     on every word of testimony was eerie. It was like their survival depended on the verdict.
    For all he knew, maybe it did.
    The defense had a few questions on cross-examination about the chain of evidence, but Ray had made sure that everything having
     to do with the lab and the DNA results was airtight. Then it was time to put Tamara on the stand.
    Ray could have made his way into the gallery to watch, but he decided not to. He had all the gory details in the deposition
     if he wanted them, and watching her say the words was not going to help his peace of mind or the case.
    Tamara’s mother, Elsie, sat directly behind the railing dividing the audience from the active members of the court, and as
     he slipped out the door, Ray saw Tamara reach over it and clutch her mother’s hand for a moment before she took the stand
     to be sworn in.
    Good luck, princess
.
    A fast walk took him back to the D.A.’s office and the desk where his paperwork sat. He folded himself into the chair and
     reached for the phone.
    “Harmon,” his sergeant barked when the call rang through.
    “It’s Harper.”
    “Are you finished dazzling that hack D.A. out there in the sticks?” Harmon and the D.A., George Daniels, had been partners
     back in the Dark Ages, before Daniels had dropped out of the force to go to law school.
    Ray grinned. “He sends his love, too.”
    “So, when can I expect to see you back here doing some real work?”
    “I finished giving my testimony just now. I can head back tomorrow.”
    “What’s wrong with this afternoon? You think my budget has endless nights of hotel rooms built into it for you?”
    It was a good thing Ray knew Harmon’s bark was worse than his bite. “I have a couple of things left to do. And I want to