Booktree.ng_Forgotten-Witness

to her hand. Her fingers were cold and shaking.
“You need some rest. You need to put this in perspective,”
Josie offered.
“We’re both daughters. I don’t know that there’s much more
to say than that.”
Josie took a deep breath and withdrew her hand. Amelia still
clutched the envelope and Josie let her eyes rest on it. Twentyfive
people. Twenty-one of them were dead. What was she
supposed to do with that? Her plate was full: Hannah, Archer,
her practice, and now Emily miraculously in the mix. Amelia
was pushing it all aside and demanding space for her and her
father. That this girl may be part and parcel of his insanity
made it all the sadder.
“Go away from here, Amelia,” Josie said as she stood up.
Stephen gave Amelia a kiss atop her head and then they
both walked away leaving the girl to ponder her future at a
rusted table in the middle of a patch of dirt surrounded by
paradise. When they were almost at the car, Stephen asked:
“And what are you going to do, my girl?”
Josie took a few more steps, yanked open the car door and
just before she got in and slammed it shut she said:
“I’m going to court. Want to come?”
***
“This is unacceptable, Eugene. This is really unacceptable.”
Ambrose paced in front of Eugene Weller who, for the first
time in his career, did not allow his gaze to follow the
senator’s every move. He sat on the couch like a dunce,
mortified by his teacher’s ridicule. He was sick to his stomach
but the senator didn’t let up. “This is nothing, Eugene, and you
know that. You panicked because of a list of documents
released to the archives.”