He didn’t even look at her.
He walked to the front, breathing hard, and held out his hand. In it lay my old silver thimble.
My heart lurched.
“Sir,” he said, voice shaking, “Clara never touched Vanessa’s jewelry.”
Ethan turned toward her then.
The judge asked, “What is that?”
“It’s Clara’s thimble. From her sewing basket.” He swallowed. “I found it in Vanessa’s locked drawer. With a memory card.”
The whole room changed.
Vanessa said, too quickly, “That proves nothing.”
Ethan turned toward her then, and for the first time I saw something in him harder than fear.
“A few nights before the necklace was found, I woke up and saw you in the hall with the jewelry box.”
The judge held up a hand for silence.
Vanessa went still.
“I followed you,” he said. “You went into Clara’s room. You stood by the closet and put something in her sewing basket.”
Adam stood up. “Ethan-“
“You told me not to tell anyone,” Ethan said, still staring at Vanessa. “You said Clara was ruining everything.”
The judge held up a hand for silence.
Ethan’s voice wobbled, but he kept going. “I didn’t understand what I saw then. I only understood after Clara was taken away.”
“Do you know what is on that card?”
My defender asked gently, “And the card?”
Ethan nodded. “Later, Vanessa made me help her look for something in her dressing room. She left me there alone for a minute. I opened the top drawer because I saw Clara’s thimble. The memory card was underneath it.”
The judge said, “Do you know what is on that card?”
Ethan took a breath. “A video. She had a small motion camera hidden on the bookcase in the bedroom hall. It pointed toward Clara’s door. I think she kept it to watch who went in and out.”
The court clerk took the card.
Vanessa said sharply, “That’s a lie.”
Ethan flinched, then kept going. “I put the card in my schoolbag. I asked the IT teacher at lunch to help me open it because I said I’d found it. He played the file. It shows Vanessa going into Clara’s room carrying the jewelry box. When she comes out, she’s holding the thimble.”
The court clerk took the card. My defender looked like he’d been handed oxygen.
That was the clean break. Not drama. Proof.
That tin held letters from Adam’s mother.
I asked Ethan, before anyone led him away, “Did she touch anything else in my room?”
He looked at me, confused, then nodded. “Your photo tin.”
Cold went through me.
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