Meanwhile, the hallway outside Courtroom 3 told a very different story.
Garrett Sullivan walked fast, his heels hitting the marble in sharp, angry cracks. Bradley Carson was already waiting near the water fountain, arms crossed, face the color of old milk. Sullivan grabbed Carson's elbow and pulled him around the corner—out of sight, out of earshot, or so he thought.
"You told me there were no cameras on that floor."
Carson's mouth opened; nothing came out.
"You sat in my office and told me, 'No cameras, no footage, clean job.' Those were your exact words."
"I thought they were turned off," Carson stammered. "There was a maintenance rotation. The east wing cameras were supposed to be down for updates."
"Supposed to be?" Sullivan's voice was a blade wrapped in silk: quiet, controlled, lethal. "You thought? You supposed? I built this case on your statement, Bradley. Your eyewitness account. If that footage shows anything—anything that contradicts what you told the police—"
"It won't," Carson's voice cracked. "It can't. I checked the schedule. Those cameras were offline."
"Then why does that boy look like he already knows what's on them?"
Carson had no answer for that.
Sullivan straightened his jacket, smoothed his tie, took a breath. "Fix this. I don't care how. When we get back in there, you stick to your story, word for word. Don't add anything. Don't improvise. Just repeat exactly what you told the police."
"And if the footage—"
"If the footage is a problem, I'll get it excluded. That's my job. Your job is to not fall apart on the stand."
Sullivan walked away, back straight, chin up, every step measured: the picture of control. But his hands, shoved deep in his pockets, were balled into fists.
What neither of them knew was that Isaac had stepped out of the courtroom thirty seconds before them. He'd gone to the water fountain on the other side of the hallway. The sound carried around the marble corners the way sound always carries in old buildings, bouncing off stone, finding ears that weren't meant to hear it. Isaac heard everything.