Clockwork [final]

Twenty-Two

On the morning of the eighteenth of October, the house seemed unnaturally quiet. The silence seeped in through every crack in the wall, every hole in the floor, every pause in every sentence. It seemed to follow them around like a presence, and under the heavy weight of such a silence, neither of them could manage to be anything other than solemn.

“Are you ready?” Derek murmured as they faced the door, an arm around her waist.

“I don’t know,” she sighed quietly, her head hung, “But I do know that I have to be.”

After closing Lassie in Adette’s room they headed for the car. Convincing Adette to leave Lassie alone again had been difficult, but in the end she had realized that leaving her shut away was better than making her wait in the car. If she waited in the car, there was a chance she could overheat, and when Derek explained this to her she had reluctantly given in.

The air outside was cool and damp, stealing their breath and turning it to steam. The car ride to the court was quiet. Adette didn’t even turn on the radio.

They pulled up outside the court building but Adette didn’t make any move to get out of the car. She just sat there and stared at her steering wheel, her face blank.

“Hey,” Derek whispered, squeezing her hand, “It’s going to be okay.”

“I know, it’s just…”

“You didn’t want it to end up like this?”

She turned her gaze on him, her eyes bright with sadness. “Yes. I hoped maybe he’d just leave me alone… but I guess that’s not the case.”

Derek nodded sympathetically. He understood how she felt. It had to be difficult to face the man who had once been her partner and try to testify against him. Anything could happen from this point. Maybe they’d put him in jail. He really hoped so; he just wanted Kevin to leave and never bother her again. He hated how upset it made her. She deserved happiness.

Together they emerged from the car and headed for the court. They were ten minutes early, and the wait was excruciating. The only sound was the ticking of the clock on the wall. Adette sat perfectly still, her hands folded in her lap and her eyes far away. Derek, on the other hand, fidgeted and wriggled around, restless and unable to find a comfortable position. He tried to read a magazine, but abandoned it after three pages. He tried to talk to one of the other people waiting, but his attempts were rejected. So, he eventually just sat and tapped his foot.

At last they entered the court room. It was as tall and daunting as it seemed on television, to their surprise. Adette had been expecting something different; her experience with television was brief, but she had already learned that whatever you saw on the screen was likely to be pretty distorted from how it was in reality. And, despite the fact she’d just entered, she already felt an intense hatred for the place. They were shown to their seats and she perched on the edge, biting her lip anxiously and winding a stand of hair between her fingers. If she looked uncomfortable, Derek looked even more so. His face had completely drained of colour and his eyes darted around from one place to the other. Once again, even though he was no longer guilty of anything, being around anyone associated with the law still made him uneasy. He supposed it must just be programmed into his brain now.

Adette’s whole face lit up as she suddenly recognized a familiar face. “Melinda?” she said, astonished, “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m a witness, aren’t I?” she giggled, “The police asked me to be here and of course I couldn’t say no. Anything to make sure you two are a little safer.”

Adette looked a mixture of uneasy and shocked, but a flash of gratefulness glimpsed across her face. “Well… thank you, Melinda.”

“Any time,” she beamed, then flounced off with confusing exuberance to sit in the witness’s box. It was unsurprisingly empty. The only other people than Adette, Derek and Melinda that could act as a witness was Lassie, and somehow, Adette got the impression that might not help them much.