Free I See You by Patricia MacDonald Page B

this psychologist to agree to how normal Lisa’s behavior really was.
    ‘How are
you
feeling?’ asked Dr Fleischer. ‘This is obviously taking a toll.’
    ‘I just want to help her get through this,’ said Hannah. ‘Once this horrible trial is over, we can get our lives back.’
    ‘You seem pretty confident that it will turn out well.’
    Hannah shook her head. ‘Oh, don’t kid yourself. I’m sick with worry. I mean, it’s a trial. With a jury, anything can happen. We just have to rely on Lisa’s attorney to get at the truth.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Well, either it was an accident, or somebody else is responsible for Troy Petty’s death. I don’t expect the attorney to produce the guilty person. That’s not her job. Although she certainly charges enough. But I do expect her to show the jury that Lisa had nothing to do with it.’
    ‘Do you and your husband talk to Lisa about the case? Is she able to shed any light on why she got blamed for this? Besides that thing with the paycheck, of course …’
    Hannah blushed and shook her head. She shouldn’t have been surprised. Every detail had been in the papers. ‘She meets with the attorney all the time. She doesn’t really want to dwell on it. We get our information from the internet or the paper, just like everybody else.’
    ‘But she must tell you what the attorney said.’
    ‘Honestly,’ said Hannah, ‘she doesn’t really talk about it.’
    Dr Fleischer shook her head. ‘I’d have to insist on knowing if I were you.’
    ‘I want to. But I try not to lean on her too much.’ Hannah frowned, thinking of their arguments from the night before. ‘I mean, sometimes I forget because she has such a demanding profession, and a child, and she’s still just a young girl.’
    ‘You seem to have the weight of the world on you,’ Dr Fleischer observed.
    ‘Well, she’s my daughter. I can’t even bear the thought that somehow, by some judicial error, she might be …’ Hannah couldn’t even bring herself to say the word ‘convicted’.
    ‘No, of course not.’ Dr Fleischer tapped her chin with her slender fingers. ‘It’s got to be weighing Lisa down too.’
    Of course, Hannah started to say. And then, for a split second Hannah thought of the photo on the iPad. Lisa’s unbuttoned shirt, and that wink as she slugged the Jack Daniel’s. Hannah’s stomach seemed to shrivel inside of her, and she felt the coffee sloshing acidly in her gut. Then she shook her head, as if to shake the image out of her mind and shake off its effects. ‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Of course it is. She’s only human.’
    The phone rang in Hannah’s pocket and she fished it out. She looked at the name on the caller ID, and then she looked at the psychologist.
    ‘I have to take this,’ she said, setting down her coffee cup. ‘Will you excuse me?’
    The psychologist nodded, and Hannah gathered up her things and answered the phone at the same time, stepping out into the hallway.
    ‘Yes?’ Hannah expected to hear a voice telling her to wait for Ms Fox, but instead it was the defense attorney herself.
    Marjorie Fox skipped the pleasantries. ‘You need to get down here to the courthouse right now. Lisa’s already here with me.’
    ‘Why?’ Hannah asked, with a sickening feeling in her stomach.
    ‘There’s a problem. A photograph on the internet. Meet us there in twenty minutes.’
    Oh God, no, Hannah thought. ‘I will,’ she said.

NINE
    H annah was able to reach Adam on the phone when his plane landed. He grabbed a cab and slid into the seat beside her in the courtroom as Judge Endicott, seated on the bench, came straight to the point. ‘Young lady, you were told at the time that bail was granted that there were conditions to your remaining free on bond, were you not?’
    Lisa, who stood beside her attorney, looked almost like a child playing doctor. She was still wearing her white lab coat that she wore on rounds. Never much of a clothes horse, that coat seemed