00:00By then, Claire's eyes were bright with tears, and I finally said what the lawyer in me had been
00:03holding back. It's a powerful story, and strange. Strange, however, is not the same thing as useful
00:08in court. Nothing she had told me yet connected cleanly to the murder file from 2000. I stood,
00:13crossed to the door, and asked an intern to bring me the case materials. When I turned back,
00:17she was already looking at me. Do you think my father was a bad man? I sat down again.
00:22My opinion doesn't help you. I kept my tone even because sympathy can ruin fact,
00:26finding faster than hostility. You're telling me this from inside your grief. Of course,
00:30that makes me lean toward your father. But wanting him to be innocent doesn't make the story plausible.
00:36Her face tightened immediately. What do you mean? I answered the central problem because it was too
00:42obvious to avoid. Why was he there that night? She did not answer, so I kept going. No holiday,
00:49no celebration, no practical way for a poor family to quietly use stolen fireworks.
00:53I folded my hands over the table. You described your father as steady, thoughtful, not reckless. If
00:58he went there to steal, profit makes more sense than sentiment. And if he didn't go there to steal,
01:01the question gets worse. She stared at me for a long moment. Then her voice flattened into
01:06something colder. That's what I used to think, too. The file arrived outside the door.
01:10I reached for it. Then keep going.
