Colleen sat up stiff on her bench, her lips pressed into a paper-thin line.

“Is Mrs.

Colleen Sutton in the courtroom?” Judge Vance asked, her pen poised over her yellow notepad.

“She’s seated behind the respondent, Your Honor,” Douglas said.

“And what about the child herself?” Judge Vance asked.

“We’ve submitted the sworn, notarized affidavit of Mrs.

Mary Bennett, a retired teacher who lives across the street,” Douglas said.

“Her statement records that on Tuesday night, with the temperature at twenty-two degrees, nine-year-old Sadie Sutton was locked out of the house for close to forty minutes.”