Chapter 6 - Eight in the Morning.
Judge Margaret Keene entered the courtroom at exactly eight o’clock.
She was a compact woman in her late fifties with steel-gray glasses and a reputation for interrupting attorneys who mistook volume for evidence.
Nora sat beside Dana with a hospital discharge bracelet still around her wrist.
The doctor had ordered rest.
Nora had chosen court.
Marcus arrived three minutes early with Gregory Sloan and two associates carrying matching leather cases.
Vanessa was absent.
A deputy stood near the gallery door.
Judge Keene reviewed the filings without looking up.
“Mr. Sloan, your client requests exclusive possession of the marital home and authority to remove property before an evidentiary hearing.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
“Why?”
Sloan began speaking about privacy, business records, and heightened security concerns caused by Judge Bennett’s relationship to Nora.
Keene raised one hand.
“Judge Bennett is not before me.”
Sloan stopped.
“Your client is.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Dana rose.
“Your Honor, we oppose the request and ask for an immediate preservation order covering household records, electronic devices, security footage, and financial documents.”
Keene looked toward Marcus.
“Is there a reason such preservation would burden you?”
Marcus answered before Sloan could stop him.
“Because my wife takes ordinary business material and invents conspiracies around it.”
Keene’s gaze shifted to him.
“Mr. Hale, your attorney speaks for you unless I ask you a question.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
The judge returned to Dana.
“What evidence supports your concern?”
Dana introduced Marcus’s text telling Nora to check the nursery camera.
Then she presented the cloud-backed recording.
The video played on the courtroom monitor.
Marcus watched himself carry the locked case into the nursery.
His face did not move until Vanessa appeared with the box.
Then his left hand curled into a fist beneath the table.
Dana stopped the video before the indistinct conversation became difficult to hear.
“We are not asking the court to infer wrongdoing from the contents,” she said.
“We are asking that no potentially relevant material be destroyed.”
Keene looked at Sloan.
“Any objection to preservation?”
Sloan paused too long.
“Only to the breadth.”
“Then narrow it by agreement today.”
The judge signed an interim preservation order.
She also denied Marcus exclusive possession of the residence.
Nora exhaled.
Marcus did not look at her.
Keene continued.
“Given yesterday’s incident, neither party nor any third party acting on a party’s behalf may remove property from the residence pending further order.”
Sloan whispered urgently to Marcus.
The hearing ended twenty minutes later.
Outside the courtroom, Dana guided Nora toward the elevator.
A reporter called Marcus’s name from across the marble lobby.
Marcus ignored him.
Then he stepped close to Nora, careful to remain outside Dana’s reach.
“You think a preservation order means anything?” he said softly.
Dana immediately lifted her phone.
Marcus smiled at the camera.
“I was wishing my wife well.”
He walked away.
Nora watched him join Sloan near the stairs.
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a photograph.
It showed the rear loading entrance of Nora’s house at 5:42 that morning.
A black SUV was parked beside the garage.
Two men were carrying cardboard archive boxes toward it.
The preservation order had been signed at 8:19.
But Marcus had already started moving everything before sunrise.
A second message appeared.
I HAVE VIDEO.
Nora typed one question.
WHO IS THIS?
May you like
The reply arrived immediately.
SOMEONE HE FIRED FOR SEEING TOO MUCH.
