The Trial Before the Trial
Chapter 11 - The Trial Before the Trial
Caleb’s attorney attacked Mason’s character immediately.
They released old prison disciplinary reports.
Mason had fought other inmates.
He had spent time in isolation.
He had once threatened a guard.
The reports were real.
Mason did not deny them.
“I was twenty-three and believed I would die in prison for killing my brother,” he told Ethan. “I became someone built for surviving that place.”
Ethan struggled with the answer.
He wanted innocence to mean purity.
But prison had marked Mason in visible and invisible ways.
One evening, they worked together in the empty garage.
Mason showed Ethan how to rebuild an old carburetor.
“You learned from Luke?” Ethan asked.
“Luke could hear an engine problem before the bike entered the driveway.”
Mason smiled.
“He would have liked you.”
“How do you know?”
“You ask questions before touching tools.”
Ethan laughed.
“Grant taught me that.”
Mason’s hands stopped.
The tension returned.
Then Mason nodded.
“Good lesson.”
Ethan looked at him.
“You really mean that?”
“I don’t have to deny everything Grant gave you to tell the truth about what he took.”
That answer loosened something inside Ethan.
The next day, Caleb’s attorney offered Mason a settlement.
The state would pay compensation.
Caleb would plead to evidence misconduct but not conspiracy in Luke’s death.
Mason refused.
Laura worried.
“You could finally be free of courtrooms.”
Mason looked at Luke’s photograph.
“I need the record to say he did not die because of me.”
Ethan stood beside him.
“Then we go to trial.”
May you like
Mason looked at him.
It was the first time Ethan had said we.
