“Which part is inaccurate?”
“I didn’t threaten him.”
Kathleen stared.
“You said you were going to restrain him.”
“That was an instruction about what would happen.”
Elijah folded his hands.
“If I had remained seated, what would you have done?”
Pike looked toward Briggs.
“Gerald.”
Briggs’s voice remained calm.
“What would you have done?”
Pike rubbed his forehead.
“I would have taken his arm and removed him.”
“And if I resisted?”
Elijah asked.
“You would probably have been cuffed.”
Elijah nodded.
“Then preserve that language exactly.”
Briggs looked toward the cameras mounted near the rear corners.
“The courtroom system has continuous video.”
“Audio?”
“Partial coverage around the bench.”
“Preserve everything from 7:20 forward.”
Briggs nodded.
“Done.”
Then Elijah said the sentence Pike did not expect.
“I do not want to decide his discipline.”
Pike looked up.
Kathleen did too.
Briggs studied Elijah.
“You’re the affected party.”
“Exactly.”
Elijah closed the file.
“I can provide a witness statement.”
“I can identify what I experienced.”
“I should not control what employment consequence follows.”
Briggs nodded slowly.
“We can send it through the normal administrative-review process.”
“That is what I want.”
Pike stared at him.
Elijah met his eyes.
“Not because nothing serious happened.”
“Because something serious did.”
He paused.
“And the process should still work even when the person affected has power.”
Pike left with Briggs at 8:14.
Kathleen remained.
Maribel returned to wiping the railing.
Elijah reopened his docket.
Kathleen stared.
“You are seriously going to keep reading?”
“Court starts in forty-six minutes.”
“You almost got dragged out of your own courtroom.”
“Almost.”
“And now you’re reviewing a guardianship petition?”
“I was halfway through it.”
Kathleen shook her head.
“You’re strange.”
“My sister says worse.”
Kathleen gathered her files.
Then stopped.
“You okay?”
Elijah looked toward the door.
He thought about Pike’s hand.
The countdown.
The absolute certainty in his voice.
Then the speed at which certainty vanished when Kathleen said Judge Warren.
“I don’t know yet.”
It was the first honest answer he had given himself all morning.
At 8:48, Elijah went into chambers.
The robe hung from the brass hook beside the door.
He lifted it.
Pike’s question returned.
Why aren’t you wearing your robe?
Elijah stood in front of the mirror.
Black man.
Charcoal sweater.
Gray trousers.
Same face he had carried into courtrooms for twenty years.
Then he put on the robe.
The fabric changed his outline.
Nothing else.
At nine sharp, the courtroom deputy called, “All rise.”
Elijah entered.
Every seat was occupied.