Chapter 34
Nicole
Brian and Dylan sat next to me in the public seating area. My broken leg lay stretched out in front of me, the cast cold and heavy.
Sean Holt sat by himself at the defense table, right in front of us.
He seemed to be in his mid-forties, thin, with gray hair at his temples. He had his papers lined up neatly in front of him.
Zach’s family sat across the courtroom. His parents and his sister.
They dressed as if they were attending a president’s funeral.
His mother and father sat perfectly still with their hands folded, while his sister stared straight ahead at Deputy Attorney General Kara Belmont at the prosecution table.
Belmont looked flawless in her cream-colored suit. Not a wrinkle in sight. Her red hair was pulled into a tight bun. Two male assistants sat next to her, both young and with cocky little smiles.
The courtroom was packed. Every seat was taken. Everybody was tense. Someone sneezed, followed by someone saying, “Excuse me.”
Today was a big day. Sean had filed an emergency motion to reconsider bail based on new evidence. Officer Ellison’s bodycam footage and the old gas station video of Myers were already all over social media, and public opinion was starting to support Lacey.
But that didn’t mean she was going free. Not yet.
My head was pounding. The stress of all this made me physically sick.
Suddenly, the side doors of the courtroom opened.
Everyone stood when the judge entered.
Judge Harold McKenna looked to be in his late sixties. He had big, round eyes and short silver hair.
He sat, adjusted his glasses, and looked out over the courtroom.
“Be seated.”
A moment later, the side door opened again, and two deputies brought Lacey in.
The orange jail uniform swallowed her. Her wrists were cuffed, and her eyes were empty like always. She looked terrible. Like a corpse with wild hair like an animal. And I had the horrible feeling that they made her look like this on purpose.
Sean rose. “Good morning, Your Honor. Sean Holt on behalf of the defendant.”
Belmont remained seated, smiling faintly. Like she held an Uno reverse card and was just waiting to play it.
“Your Honor,” Sean continued, “we are here because of an emergency motion to modify bail based on new evidence. Since Ms. Alderwyn’s detention, Nicole Alderwyn was violently attacked in her home by the individual the defense has long identified as the real murder suspect of Zach Nabb.
This attack was to silence her when she found out the name of the murder suspect, John Myers. ”
He let that sit.
“This attack supports evidence previously ignored by the State. We are asking the court to reconsider Lacey Alderwyn’s detention in light of all this.”
Simple. Direct. Almost modest.
Belmont finally rose. Her movement was elegant and deadly.
“Your Honor,” she said, “the State has newly obtained evidence relevant to this motion as well.”
Sean went still. “Your Honor, this is a discovery violation. We didn’t receive any notice of this new evidence.”
“Your Honor, the defense is arguing the identity of the murder suspect. We have newly obtained evidence that directly contradicts that claim. This is a proper rebuttal.”
“I’ll allow it,” Judge McKenna said. “Let’s hear what the State has, Mrs. Belmont.”
Her grin widened. “Thank you,” she said. “The footage came into our possession last week.”
“Footage?” Sean repeated.
He turned to look at us, as if we knew what was coming. I shook my head.
Belmont nodded to one of her assistants. He picked up a remote and pressed a few buttons. The screen at the front of the courtroom turned on.
A grainy parking lot video came into view. It showed the Happy Rama Bowling Alley on Route 1. My heart almost stopped. There was no sound, but I knew exactly what I was looking at.
It was Lila’s eighth birthday.
Lacey was wearing that bright yellow silk blouse. She’d bought it for $300 because she wanted to look pretty for Brian. But he was already pulling away, acting cold and withholding affection because he was bored with marriage again.
I remembered thinking that day how beautiful she looked.
And now that same sad memory was up on a courtroom screen, being shown to strangers as evidence.
“The woman in the yellow blouse is the defendant, Lacey Alderwyn,” Belmont said. “The male with her is the victim, Zach Nabb.”
Nobody challenged it, so the video kept playing.
The whole courtroom watched Lacey and Zach standing next to his Mercedes.
He was vaping. She was talking. At first, it looked casual.
Like two friends talking about nothing important.
But suddenly Lacey’s hands started moving faster, and Zach’s face tightened.
Even without sound, you could tell they were fighting.
Then Lacey shoved Zach. And he shoved her back.
I also couldn’t watch. This was bad. No. This was catastrophic.
On the screen, Lacey and Zach kept going at each other. Hands flying. Screaming back and forth. Lacey grabbed Zach by his shirt. Zach shook her.
Then Dylan appeared at the edge of the frame, walking toward the Mercedes.
Lacey noticed him first and let go of Zach right away. She stepped back as if a switch had flipped. Just like that, she looked composed again. Sweet. Friendly. Smiling wide.
A second later, Zach noticed Dylan too. He froze. But, unlike Lacey, he didn’t bother pretending. He turned and headed back into the bowling alley, knocking his shoulder into Dylan as he passed.
The video ended with Lacey placing her arm around Dylan and guiding him back inside.
Silence fell over the room as reality settled in.
The State now had something it didn’t have before: a motive.
The missing piece besides the missing murder weapon.
I could already see what Belmont was going to do with this video.
She would pull it apart. Twist it six different ways until Lacey stopped being a struggling victim and turned into an unstable woman full of rage.
Belmont would reintroduce the old jealous-mistress theory.
The State had floated the idea before but dropped it when it couldn’t find any evidence.
But what Kara Belmont did next was worse than anything I could have imagined.
“The State calls Dylan Alderwyn to the stand,” she said. “To testify about what he overheard in the parking lot that day.”
Sean was up before the last word had even left her mouth. “Objection, Your Honor.”
Dylan faced me with horrified eyes. “I didn’t hear anything,” he whispered.
“I didn’t. Please. I didn’t hear anything.
” His voice was shaking now. “Everybody fought with Zach. He was a prick. He shoved a kid in a restaurant once because the boy was laughing too loudly. Did everybody just forget that?”
“Silence,” the judge demanded.
“Your Honor,” Sean said, stepping forward, “this is a bail hearing, not a trial. The State is trying to introduce testimony from a minor without notice. Calling witnesses here today serves no purpose other than prejudice and intimidation.”
Belmont headed for the judge's bench.
“Your Honor, the State must insist. The safety of the Alderwyn children is at risk if a murderer is released back into their home.”
“She’s lying!” Dylan shot to his feet. “My mom would never hurt us!"
“Don’t.” I pulled Dylan back down.
Brian just looked stupid, like a man waiting for somebody to tell him he could leave.
“My client’s son will not be testifying today,” Sean insisted. “He is a minor. He has a choice.”
One of Belmont’s bulldogs rose immediately. Tall, slick hair. The kind of man who looked like he enjoyed being cruel in shiny shoes.
“No, he doesn’t have a choice,” he said. “That decision belongs to the judge.”
“I’m not doing it,” Dylan snapped.
The whole courtroom broke into restless chatter. Sean and Belmont’s people were arguing back and forth in clipped legal language, talking over each other.
Then Zach’s mother stood up.
She was crying, pointing across the aisle at Lacey with a trembling hand. “That monster killed my son! You people are insane if you let her go!”
The judge slammed his gavel.
“Order!”
For half a moment, things settled. But then Zach’s sister shouted from her seat: “Thank God for cancer. I hope that bitch dies soon!”
Dylan was up again before I could stop him. “Thank God for hell too,” he shouted at her, fists clenched at his sides. “Because that’s where your narcissistic piece-of-shit brother is now!”
People gasped. Voices exploded all around us. Court officers rushed in trying to calm the chaos.
One of them stepped between our side and the Nabb family—a huge guy with dark hair. Hands up. “Enough,” he barked. “Sit down. All of you. Now.”
“Stop it!” I grabbed Dylan by his wrist, pulling him back as hard as I could, but the room was already spiraling.
Officers tried desperately to keep Zach’s dad and Dylan apart as they were close to a fistfight. Brian just sat there staring, then he rose and left. People were yelling this and that. Lacey, on the other hand, sat frozen at the defense table. Her face blank, eyes fixed on nothing.
“Order,” Judge McKenna shouted, hammering his gavel over and over again.
This time it worked. The courtroom calmed down.
But all of this was bad. Bail had become impossible at this point. And Kara Belmont’s mocking grin confirmed it.
Judge McKenna looked down at the papers in front of him. He read. Paused. Read again. Then he shook his head.
My heart burst. Shattered into a million pieces as I watched the denial form on his tongue.
I grabbed Dylan’s hand, holding it tightly. Both of us were shaking. Grief pressed in from every direction. Sadness. Anger. Hopelessness. Rage.
At the world.
At myself.
This had been Lacey’s last chance. And she wasn’t going to get it. She would die in jail.
“Under the current circumstances,” Judge McKenna said in a firm voice, “I can’t grant—”