She read it without rushing.
“You are still trying to prove what Douglas feels.”
“I am trying to prove why he dismissed me.”
“That is not the same question.”
I closed the binder.
“He
knew Aaron was searching my room.”
“You have a recording that may show that.”
“He protected him.”
“That may be your interpretation.”
Ruth tapped the legal pad with her pen.
“Show me what you can prove.”
I looked through the windshield at the strip mall entrance.
“I can prove Aaron searched my room.”
“Good.”
“I can prove Douglas knew about the complaint.”
“Good.”
“I can prove Elaine remembers seeing marks.”
“If she is willing to say that formally.”
I turned toward her.
“Do you think she will?”
Ruth gathered the pages into one stack.
“Ask her when the question is put to her.”
I opened the binder again.
“How do I make sure I do not lose the dates?”
“Write them down now.”
She took the blue three-ring binder from my lap and checked the first page.
“You do not need to explain every reason.”
“I thought I did.”
“That
is how people get pulled into arguments.”
She placed the binder on the passenger seat.
I reached for it.
Ruth kept her hand on the cover.
“Dates, Madison.”
I let go.
She moved the binder farther onto the seat.
“For today, that is enough.”
I looked at the first page through the open passenger door.
There were seven dates.
One of them had Douglas’s name beside it.
Ruth shut the door.
“Fill it with dates, not explanations.”
Ruth tapped the corner of the top photograph until it lined up with the evidence log. The broken lamp was listed first, then the bedroom door, then the phone.
“Your job is not to make this convincing,” she said. “Your job is to keep it accurate.”
I looked at the blue binder on the passenger seat through the office window.
“I can do accurate.”
“Good. Because the recording cannot be improved to make
your story easier to understand.”
She lifted the evidence log and turned one page.
“No cutting. No adding captions. No changing the sound. Keep the original file exactly as it was recorded.”
I rubbed the edge of my phone case with my thumb.
