Chapter 8: The Last Thing Richard Said
The bail hearing was on a Thursday.
I sat in the gallery with Patricia beside me and watched Richard's legal team argue that he was a man of standing, a businessman of considerable community contribution, a person with no prior convictions and every reason to comply with bail conditions.
Richard sat at the defense table in a dark suit.
He had lost weight.
His hair was different — shorter, less deliberate.
He looked like a man who had spent two weeks realizing that the systems he had always relied on to protect him were no longer pointed in his direction.
He didn't look at me once during the hearing.
His lead barrister was polished and precise.
He challenged the chain of custody on the security footage.
He characterized the financial transfers as legitimate restructuring decisions made by a husband acting in good faith on behalf of a terminally ill wife.
He described the photographs of my injuries as consistent with falls sustained during a serious illness.
Patricia had submitted Sienna's statement that morning.
The witness tampering allegation.
The threat about the child.
The judge read it twice.
When Richard's barrister finished, the judge set down the papers and looked at Richard directly.
"Mr.
Calloway," he said.
"The court has reviewed the supplementary statement submitted this morning.
Are you aware of its contents?"
Richard's barrister leaned in and murmured something.
Richard straightened.
"I am, Your Honor."
"Do you have anything to say in response to the allegation that you contacted a witness from custody and made explicit threats regarding her child?"
A pause.
"My client denies—" the barrister began.
"I'm asking your client," the judge said.
Richard looked at the judge.
Then, for the first time, he looked at me.
His expression was not what I had expected.
Not rage.
Not calculation.
Something that might have been, in another man, in another life, the beginning of shame.
"I was frightened," he said.
"I made a mistake."
"Bail is denied," the judge said.
"The defendant will remain in custody pending trial.
We're adjourned."
The room moved around me.
Patricia gathered her papers.
Richard's barrister spoke urgently into his ear.
Richard stood slowly, and the officer beside him stepped forward.
And then Richard did something I had not planned for.
He turned toward the gallery.
Toward me.
"Catherine," he said.
The officer paused.
"I need you to know," Richard said, "that I did love you.
In the beginning.
I need you to know that."
I looked at him for a long moment.
"I know," I said.
"That's the saddest part."
The officer touched his arm and he turned away, and I watched him walk through the door at the side of the courtroom, and then he was gone.
Patricia put her hand briefly on my arm.
"It's done," she said.
May you like
"Not yet," I said.
"But close."
